Marshall Yard:

Moving onto and into the depths of exhibit display & design, we find that after the Elements of the display and design are set - we like to move onto Priority:

Whether you are planning on one trade show or several for the upcoming year, begin by focusing on the first trade show you are planning on exhibiting at.

Which products/messages are more important at this show?

Which messages are more and less important?

Which element is more or less important?

What is the “order” in which the story should be told? (It is important to see this before they see all of that.)

Flow

Priority is very, very important.  Without this, we are just guessing.

Each and every step in the begining process of trade show marketing is a vital one.  Without concentration on your products or messages, your exhibit booth is just a booth.  Companies begin trade show marketing because:

They want,  a ROI from the Trade Show.

They want,  best exhibit booth.

They want, different and exciting ways to set up a new product launch.

They want, to visually enhance current product lines.

Whether you are exhibiting at trade shows worldwide or locally, starting with the basics seems to be the best approach - Elements, Priority… next up is “Grammar”

Yesterday I took you through Marketing/Communications Strategy & Exhibit Display &  Design - touching on four key terms that are a great breakdown, I am going to break down the first section today, which is Elements, gathering the trade show event goals from a client starts the process of determining Elements.

Is the exhibit display for telling a complicated story to many people at once? (Element=Theatre)

Is the exhibit display for showcasing actual products? (Element=case goods/integrated display cases/walls)

Is media an important part of the exhibit display experience? (Element = integrate A/V and begin media concepts)

Is the exhibit display for promoting a product or brand identification/name? (Element = ID panels/kisoks, monoliths, banners)

Is the exhibit displayfor having meetings, closing deals, signing contracts, etc? (Element = Meeting Rooms/Double Deck/Etc. 

Starting with this breakdown can give the client as well as the exhibit designers & engineers a better foundation to start the exhibit display process. 

Next we will touch on the Priority…..

Wow..this is right up old Kevin’s alley, by accident we stumbled upon the Underwater Intervention 2008 website and the amazement in this technology really intriqued our little mississippi map.  Taking place in New Orleans, January 29-31st, at the Morial Convention Center. 

I honestly have to say, I never even realized there was such a convention.  Kevin got a bit of an education in welding when he investigated the FABTech trade show coming to McCormick Place later this year.  Can you imagine welding structures underwater?   This is the job of what they call a commercial diver, getting paid to work underwater.  (No Kevin - we are not increasing your exhibit house salary)

ROV’s = Remotely Operated Vehicles, are used for various tasks for diving contractors as well as some various programs that have gone on in the past.  EPA funded project for the environmental education, what a great opportunity for those wishing to be in this field. 

The conference will cover many topics, concrete rehabilitation, marine construction, workshops and discussions.  Commercial divers have to work in a variety of conditions, not only in water that is drinkable, but wastewater as well. 

There was a time when exhibits were designed to “look cool” and any product or message would be pasted on it.  The process started with “style.” Customers picked a style they liked and then made it work somehow.  We believe that good exhibit design ought to begin with some sort of strategy. 

What is it that your clients want to do or say? An exhibit design should strat with a very solid understnading of the event-specific mission.  Take the steps further, break it down into elements, priority, “grammar” and style..in that order.

In the simplest terms, the process goes like this.  Look at the space, for every particular show.  What is the space? In-Line or Island? How big is it? Where is it? Determine Approach Type - Do you want the exhibit to be:

Marketing Type-being all about the product or brand ID?

Architectural Type-all about the structure?

Experience Type - all about what happens in the structure?

After making these educated decisions, then you can go onto the design phase.

By: Susie Kleiner 

I must share a “customer service” at its best with all of you readers, but first you will need a little background on what lead up to it.  Over a year back, I purchased a piece of software to help us with our imports and database management, to work hand in hand with ACT 2007.  Upon my transfer from one position to another and a different computer -  I needed to un-register this software.  Understandable, really, truly it is – as my position grew, I needed to un-register this software once again and re-install it on another’s machine.  Understandable, really it is! Then yet again, another’s position grew and moved on, and I need to un-register it, guess what? Now the sellers of the software want a fee for this, it wouldn’t re-register, I ran out of re-registers? What the heck is that? What is this all about, I do not understand this concept, we bought the software, we bought a license, clearly they have control and know when it is trying to be registered, not an issue. 

We needed it, and are willing to comply, with the one machine rule.  Willing to comply with we have you over a barrel now, pay us more. Not a chance, its principal.

Well, this is where true customer service comes in, after the conversation I had with this company, I decided to look elsewhere.  I found a company called ACTMate Corporation and decided to download the trial version.  It seemed to do what I needed but I couldn’t clearly see the end results being a trial version and it seemed to be missing something.  

With emails back and forth to the owner of the company, Mitch Stephens, he told me he would check into this.   He did, Mitch took the time to contact me and said it would be much easier to delve into the issue I had live.  Mitch spent quite a bit of time on the phone with me on the initial conversation and had to do some tweak’s to the program to help me out.  He did just that!   

When Mitch called me back after he “tweaked” the program, ON FAITH, he gave me an access code to get the full results of this program.  I say ON FAITH, because, this man knew me not from Adam or Eve, and was willing to put himself and his program to the test for someone who found him online.   Thank you Mitch, customer service at its best!

Have you seen my blog? What are you blogging about? Should I blog? Who else is blogging?  This is a venture that I am truly a novice at, in reality, the blog-umbilical is still attached.  I am in the infancy stages of this social media craze.

I have found that blogging is fun for sure,  I am not a copywriter, nor claim to be one.  This is truly a novice perspective, but welcome to the neighborhood! In researching different social media sites, you truly can learn alot, forums are a great place to pick up tips as well.  RSS-could stand for really stupid stuff, but it means Really Simple Syndication.  I ran across a great site that lists several places you can submit RSS feeds into.  

Okay, so the original question, Blogging? What is it all about?  I feel it is about “relationships”, its an added source to anything you are presently doing in your life.  Whether your blog is personal or business related. 

I recently ran across one of our clients blog, Indium Corporation-Rick Short, and sent off an email since I did not know Rick Short and wanted to introduce myself.  In my position, I do not have communication with our clients so this was really a great thing for me.  Even though its a business blog, its great to form relationships of a more personal nature. 

Getting to know the “true” personalities of people, and the lighter side of folks is actually fun and puts a bit of the old “human” touch back in things.  How funny is that statement, well at least you don’t have to press “1″ for english or “0″ for the operator, you can just read away!

P.S - September 19th, 2008 - We recently had a discussion about two weeks ago regarding the new computers that were coming into our facility all having Office 2007 on them.  Well, low and behold if you are using outdated versions of Office you can not open the files unless someone saves them in a different format.  When our IT contacted Dell to inquire on purchasing these, it is about 300.00 a machine.  Well, this in the back of my mind - I was reading Rick Short’s blog and bouncing from link to link.  I found a conversion program patch for this particular situation, that is available through Microsoft. 

The power of the blog!

By: Sue Kleiner

Satisfied customers as well as a quality product - is the bottom line to any business, when you are researching exhibiting at trade shows, you should be partnering with an exhibit house that handles every aspect of the production of your exhibit- from conception, to the return of the exhibit properties for storage until your next trade show. Product market strategy is an essential part of the entire exhibiting experience.

You do not get a second chance to make a first impression. It only takes that few seconds get the attention of a potential client as they walk past the parade of exhibits on the trade show floor. You want your exhibit to be a visual display of what your company is all about and bring attention to your services and products.

Trade Shows have become a highly competitive market place and the exhibit experience is all about the “wow factor”. Giving an exhibit curb appeal is one of the ways to get your company noticed. With striking graphics, you increase the chance of drawing in visitors to your booth. This is where the “wow factor” comes in. These trade show attendees will saunter by many, many exhibits; you want them to walk past those and enter your exhibit.

Designing exhibits can be thought of as a partnership of objects – combining the key elements within your exhibit space, making sure the striking graphics are properly lit and in a position where they will draw the most attention. It’s about making sure that the lighting is positioned so as to enhance products or services and making sure that the podium or counter of choice is aligned for the best possible traffic flow.

The fluidity of your trade show exhibit space should make it easy for attendees to browse through the new product launches or the improved products display. Whether you are using podiums or counters in your exhibit, they should form a marriage with all the other furniture within your booth space. Do not plan on giving them too much to focus on - this is actually ocular chaos for most people and it can the end of the conversation, but if the exhibit has a pleasant visual display the potential client will feel more comfortable’ entering and staying longer.

Keep conversation simple and informative once you have a potential client in front of you give them reasons why it would best serve them to do business with you. Explain to them about any new product launch and make sure you have a success story to back this up.

Kevin - The Mississippi Map Turtle Mascot, was not real happy I shared his post about being depressed yesterday, so I got him online and we wanted to share some information the  MDM - Medical Design & Manufacturing Trade Show.  Coming to Aneheim California on January 29th-31st, 2008 at the Aneheim Convention Center.  Whether your business is designing of equipment for cardiac care, respitory, or surgery, this is the place that new product previews and launches are anticipated. 

Two great conferences will be taking place for any VP or Director level medical manufacturing executive.  If you are attending the MDM Expo, you are also invited to the industry related trade shows: Electronics West, Pacific Design & Manufacturing, WestPack, Plastec West and Automation Technology Expo.  With an increasingly competative healthcare market place these trade shows are informative and continue on with great advancements in our medical needs. 

While you are  thinking of your exhibit strategy for MDM West Trade Show, keep in mind the comfort of your exhibit for your prospective clients that will be reviewing the product launches all around you.  Promotional pre-show strategy can also give you an added advantage over your competition. 

So many medical advances have taken place over the years, it is quite amazing, while reading about some of the technology that is present at these shows, I thought of a process called plasmapheresis - a word that I had never heard of until my mother was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. It is the removal, treatment and the return of blood plasma from the circulatory system.  The medical device that is used for this is called a cell seperator, it is quite amazing, it’s a process that literally washes the blood of the impurities that your system can not eliminate on its own. 

I was astounded at all the new medical devices and instruments that will be present at the MDM Expo, from Sterilization Equipment to computer aided devices.