Marshall Yard:

RSNA wrapped up this week - Surely you know, since we referenced it here, here and here. The horse is dead, I know.

Siemens‘ booth, sized 110′x220′, was located in the south hall. At McCormick Place, the South Hall is the absolute least-trafficked and smallest hall. Even though we were all excited about the design, you never know how a show will go until it’s all said and done. The verdict is in!

For the first three days of the show, leads were well above 2007 numbers! Spend less, get more. I like the sound of that. They did, too. Happy clients are good clients.

Ok - Enough of this rubbish. It feels very “propogandish.” I forwarded the professional photos to a friend of mine who is in the medical field. I had gushed to her about the Siemens booth over the past few months.

Her reply:

>>WOW! that IS huge!!!
>>
>>
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>>p.s. That’s what she said.

This week, the buzz around the office is all about the RSNA show (the Radialogical Society of North America’s annual meeting & expo). We have a multitude of outstanding clients at the RSNA’s. They range from Imaging on Call, who has a 20 ft. x 20 ft. custom rental booth, to the other extreme, Siemens, with a whopping 110 ft. x 220 ft. exhibit. Building a miniature “village” of different structures in a matter of a few days is fun to watch.

Word on the street (perception) is that trade shows will have fewer exhibitors in 2009, taking up less convention hall space, and with smaller exhibits, as the broader economy heads into recession. I think that’s true, by and large, but there are individual companies that are exceptions to this rule. Which side of the coin is your company on?

Tails:

Revenue is declining, profits are tighter (or in the red), and the marketing budget has a large “blip” that is “Trade Shows/Events.” In order to survive, your company decides to cut back everything, and the exposure and opportunity that a well executed trade show can offer gets thrown out with the “bathwater.” Hopefully these companies do not own their trade show exhibits - else they are wasting big marketing dollars that were invested when the economy was more favorable. In addition, there is a continuing expense of storing their exhibit property. This is a reality many companies are facing. Either scale down, or kill the program entirely.

Heads:

Your company has continued gobbling up market share, or may even be consuming competitors’ businesses via acquisition or attrition. I have a number of clients who are in this position: They are GROWING their tradeshow presence in order to undertake some major corporate agendie- Rebranding, launching new products (perhaps integrating their new acquisitions’ product line), or merely establishing their role as industry leaders. Sometimes they’re doing preventive work on potential misconceptions of who is struggling, and who is surviving, in the new economy. An effective trade show exhibit can allow a company to accomplish all of these goals in one space. A custom rental booth can be designed for each individual trade show, to ensure that the message that is conveyed is timely and precise for todays trade show audience, not last year’s.

Heads or tails, it seems like the company that rents their exhibit is better off. If you can’t afford to exhibit, you can cross off that expense for FY09. If you can afford to exhibit, you can do exactly what you want for 2009’s exhibition (e.g. - Siemens and Imaging On Call can build totally different designs for every show). It depends on what the reality is for your company, but at least you get to decide on how you’ll be perceived.

NAB 2008 will be taking place on April 14th, 2008, think early, think smart! Trade Show Display Rentals can help you give a voice to your trade show experience.  Innovative Booth Design can draw attention to your service and products, you need your trade show rental exhibit to do its own job, so to speak. 

Catalyst Exhibits, Inc. had three clients that had great success at NAB 2007, this is an audience that spans the globe. The NAB Show focuses on, content, creation, management, commerce, distribution & delivery.  There are 161 days left to get into the game and start planning your trade show rental exhibit.  Having a client at NAB 2007 that was wanting to introduce their product to the US market, the idea was to come up with something memorable.

Working on the lines that this was a European Company, the trade show exhibit display had to have flare, and be very synonymous with high design.  The outcome of intertwining various elements from high design color and precision created an outstanding exhibit rental.

NAB 2008 will be offering over 500 educational events, and super sessions from keynote speakers that are leaders in broadcasting industry offer a phenomal platform for boosting your level of knowledge and will allow you access to a network of leaders.

With over 111,000 attendee’s, 1600 exhibitorsand 1100 members of the press ,now is the time to start planning for an interesting booth design &  exhibit rental planning.  Giving you a six month time-line to get your pre-marketing strategy in place, and being able to follow up with your prospects before the event can ensure true success.

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…..

The SEMA Trade Show is hitting Las Vegas October 30th, 2007 - November 2nd, 2007! The event will be taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the showcase of exhibitors spans over two million square feet.    Las Vegas alone has over 9.5 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space city wide.

SEMA 2006 drew in over 50,000 Domestic and International buyers. 

The demand for performance automotive products has taken on an entire new attitude since the Fast & Furious craze began.  Performance products will not be alone on the trade show floor, among exhibitors are automotive accessories, restoration products and motorsports.  The exhibitors this year will fall into eleven different categories.

Finding educational programs to further enhance your automotive needs will also be part of the SEMA Show, with demonstrations and seminars for any enthusiast, as well as many other opportunities for networking with automotive industrial leaders.

“How to Win & Keep Customers” is among one of the events that will be taking place at the beginning of the show.   Learning to communicate with your potential customers is part of exhibit etiquette and boothmanship.  When you decide exhibiting is the market strategy that is best suited for you;  an exhibit house that helps you portray your company and helps the launch of new products in a dazzling and creative way, will allow you to focus more on the potential client.

Catalyst Exhibits, Inc. - Our core business is divided into two interrelated segments - custom rental solutions and what we refer to as a “program.”  This distinction however is purely internal to our exhibit house, we work with all clients in the same way. 

We aren’t simply looking for more clients; we are looking for clients with whom we can build relationships that foster mutual trade show success.  If you are simply shopping for the cheapest frieght options, we may not be the best choice.  If you are looking for a partner to help you grow your business, we are a better fit.

Our mission is to conceive, create, deliver and manage experiences on and around the exhibit space and the trade show floor, not just within it. 

What does this mean? Depending upon your needs, you might call it an exhibit, an exhibit program, a custom installation in a consumer environment or a VIP experience.  You might need to reach an audience outside of the traditional exhibit venue.  You might want to create an experience elsewhere that drives traffic into the trade show environment.  You might want to get your team fired up. Or you might want to launch a product.

We live where design meets message to most effectively foster success. 

We certainly consider our deliverables solutions to our clients’ challenges-why else would we be in business? Our solutions, though, extend far beyond exhibit design, exhibit engineering, craftmanship and logistics-to experiential trade show marketing, unconventional financial solutions and innovative environments, including custom rentals.  We’d love to learn about your challenges.  By giving us some idea of your marketing strategies and your upcoming trade shows, we can help you develop a plan for success!

This past year was very full of interesting booth designs at the KBIS Trade Show - it was quite amazing to see the entire bathroom exhibit go up in the back of Catalyst.

 Smiley World attends the International Licensing Show at Javits Center - New York City, this intersting booth design was a collaboration of several individuals with in the halls of Catalyst Exhibits.

 The Licensing Show is an annual trade show with over 23,000 industry professionals in attendance.  It is very impressive to see the size and extensive licensing businesses in the confines of the Javits Convention Center.

Javits Convention center is located at 655 West 34th Street, New York, NY.  10001 and houses many trade show’s throughout the year.