Marshall Yard:

TGIF … With NPE approaching, a mammoth trade show that occurs at McCormick Place in Chicago once every three years, things got a bit hectic this past week at our facility. Thankfully, we have a great group of exhibitors going to the show, who understand our process, and how critical deadlines are to the effort. It makes for a well orchestrated build-up, and not a chaotic one!

I had a pleasant conversation with a prospective client who is considering our 20×20 standard rental exhibit, which is renting for $10,000. After going through most of the details of what the rental includes he asked a very pointed question:

Tim: Ok, I know from experience that sometimes I’ll see a rendering, and it looks really bold and slick, and then the thing gets to the show, and the booth is just - the beams look like 6×6 inch on the renderings, and you get to the expo and they’re 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 - and it looks flimsy and just awful. What are these made out of? How big are they?

Me: Hmm. Great question. I’m glad you asked it, because they happen to be 6×6 extruded aluminum. You said you’re located in Lisle, do you want to stop by our facility sometime in the next week or so? We’d be happy to show you around, give you a flavor of exactly what we do here. And we’re almost always building an exhibit for an upcoming show, so you’ll see one of these puppys in a real application. Sound like a plan?

Tim: Definitely. Good to know that. I’ll find a time to head out there.

What baffles me, with this exhibitor’s very astute query, is how exhibiting companies can ever put up with anything less than what a design implies. If a company promises one thing and then delivers something wholly different - why wouldn’t you throw them out with the trash and find a new exhibitor?

And I’m seriously asking, this isn’t a rhetorical question: Does anyone work for a company who has been working with a company for more than a single show that has “delivery” problems between design and fabrication? Why does your company tolerate those results? Is it just a price thing? Is it because finding a new exhibitor is such a nuisance? Drop us a comment on why you deal with that, show in and show out?

Tags: booth fabrication, exhibit construction, exhibit design, exhibit sense, exhibit structure, schedule of activities, trade show blog, trade show exhibit coordinator

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 10:34 am and is filed under exhibit design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.