Whether you're a seasoned exhibitor, or new to trade shows, you certainly want to put your best foot forward when you're in front of your customers, and a well-designed booth is key to giving the right impression. Unfortunately, even with the best of intentions, many exhibitors make critical mistakes which can easily derail their efforts....or at least add unnecessary frustration to the process.

Here's my top picks for pitfalls to be avoided:

1. Don't feel like you have to "know" design... just be sure you "know" yourself.
This sounds like an easy one, but it's a conversation that I have with clients daily. All too often exhibitors have a preconceived idea of how they want their booth to look... when they don't even have a clear idea of what they're trying to accomplish at the show. If you want a great exhibit design and a successful exhibit program, clear and solid communication of your company's criteria and goals is essential (FYI..."look good and get more leads" is not a specific goal). Good design is always based on solid information, and it's the designer's job to develop the aesthetics and layout. Without that information, you may still end up with a design that you're satisfied with, but you will have missed an opportunity to take your exhibit program to the next level.

2. Be sure your exhibit and messaging is clear, coherent, and scalable.
Yes, you probably need a big logo that's visible from a couple aisles away, but once your prospect gets up to your booth....will they just see more logos? You're asking attendees to give you some of their time, so be sure that your exhibit rewards their investment. Your booth needs to be able to quickly inform attendees about your company/services/products, and pique their interest to learn more. Your booth staff certainly needs to be engaging and informative, but you're handicapping yourself if you expect your staff to carry the full load. In terms of scalability, your exhibit (structure, messaging, and overall experience) needs to engage the prospect both from a distance, as well as up close. Your exhibit program is a significant expense, make sure it's working for you.

3. Be sure your exhibit and messaging is clear, coherent, and scalable.
Okay, that's the same one again... but it is that important.

On clarity: even if your marketing department has the most powerful, evocative, and well-thought out campaign ever, you can still sabotage your booth by cluttering your booth with TOO MUCH of it. Or too much of anything for that matter. Less is more. Yes, I know, that idea may seem to run contrary to tradeshows as we know them...but I believe that there's value there. To draw an analogy from retail....your booth can either be well-thought-out boutique with everything in it's proper place, or a discount store with banners and signage everywhere. The choice is yours.

Have a great show!

Mike Dare
Director of Design Services

It goes almost without saying that when one mentions Nomadic Display in normal business-to-business conversation that our name and products go hand-in-hand with trade shows. Our pop-up displays and hybrid backwalls are often seen at various shows and conventions – both local and international, with industries ranging from consumer retail to medical supplies. However, what many people might not know is that our products are also used outside the realm of these traditional events and retail solutions.

Let’s take the case of American Idol - TV’s most popular, top-rated reality show, which almost every person in the U.S. has seen. Did you know that the audition backdrop behind all those hopeful contestants was made by Nomadic? That’s right - our famous Instand product line has been a star on national television for the past six years. However, that was not Instand’s first national TV appearance. Back in 1999, our Instand C34 frames made their TV debut as the backdrop on Star Trek Voyager’s Holodeck. Aside from the showbiz possibilities of Nomadic’s products, there are other creative and unconventional uses for them as well. For instance, my father who has spent many years as a freelance photographer uses our RollEase case to transport his equipment. Given its sturdy, ready-for-travel design, it has proven to be a great tool for transporting his tripods and delicate lenses. Not to mention, our case is surprisingly priced at a level that's cheaper than most professional camera transport cases - who would have guessed?

While Nomadic’s brand will naturally remain a tradeshow and retail staple for years to come, it's always a pleasant surprise to discover new uses for our products.

Have you discovered a new creative or unconventional use for your Nomadic display or other Nomadic products you own? If so, we’d love to hear about it!

Vlad McNeally
Web Designer

I’m sure you’ve heard about the old adage, “ different strokes for different folks.” In trade show and event exhibiting, it also works that way. A number of exhibitors find display ownership beneficial for them while others are the noncommittal type—they opt to rent exhibits rather than purchase them.

Given the expected life span of a trade show display is three to five years and that a lot can happen or change during this time, perhaps it does make sense to rent.

In fact, industry observers are saying that exhibit rental is fast becoming an alternative to owning and maintaining a display. Why? Flexibility and Price.

Today, exhibit rental provides any exhibitor the flexibility of having a customized presentation without having to commit to, or invest in, a specific format too soon. This flexibility accommodates testing displays and trying out shows without incurring steep costs.

Another advantage of renting a display is the convenience of not worrying about long term storage, maintenance, or inventory management costs. The exhibit rental company shoulders all these costs.

With all these positive points about exhibit rental, I wouldn’t be surprised if more exhibitors will seriously consider it. But then again, it’s still hard to discount exhibit ownership since it definitely has its own merits. Now, that would be an entirely different topic for a future blog.

Matt LaBruzza
VP of Exhibition Services

TS2 held its annual conference in Washington DC this year. This meant that it would be in my back yard as Nomadic Display Capitol is located in Springfield, Virginia about twelve miles south of Washington, DC. I decided in 2006 that my company would attend as an exhibitor.

We decided on a island space located about 100 ft from the entrance. It was a unique shape for a 10x20 booth; we used pipe and drape on the back side to make it look more like a traditional 10x20' inline space. We used a hybrid exhibit to showcase the various product lines we represent. We included our 10' pop-up Instand Classic and integrated our Platinum (Laminate Panel System) with some DesignLine (Extrusion) to create a small conference/meeting area.

The graphic elements were themed with our current marketing efforts of “Get More” with Nomadic Display. We showcased Lambda print graphics on the pop-up Instand Classic and Fabric print graphics on the DesignLine elements.

We wanted to add some fun interaction with the attendees. So, we added a “Vegas Style” spinning wheel that had some exciting giveaways and “Nomadic Money” as the prize for stopping by and visiting. With a swipe of their badge, attendees cheered themselves on as they were given a free spin of the Nomadic wheel, winning prizes like a Free Literature Stand, Free Art Design Hours, Free Graphic Mural Panel, and (of course) money they could use to buy our products.

We captured over 120 leads at the two day event. Of course, my goal was much higher, but we met some prospective clients with a variety of needs and as long as we practice what we preach – follow up with a call- we will be able to say it was a successful show.

Doug Turpin
Executive Director

We wanted to ensure we stood out from the crowd at this year’s Exhibiting Show, that took place at Earls Court in London in June 2007. Now that’s not easy at an Industry show, when you’re up against your best competition! We knew the biggest threat would come from the custom build suppliers, who tend to really ‘up the ante’ for this show and we didn’t want them stealing the lime-light.

We had four key show objectives: we wanted our stand to be memorable, to really engage with visitors, to generate some good PR/media coverage and to collect at least 400 leads.

To help us achieve the ‘wow’ factor and since Nomadic Display is synonymous with the colour red, we decided the theme of our stand would be ‘Red is the Colour’. Our stand was completely red, from top to bottom! The layout was very simple, we used four 3 metre high Instand pop up frames in a symmetrical design and really enhanced the graphics with bright lighting. To add a final touch we placed two ‘Mae West’ lip sofas on the stand. In contrast, the Nomadic stand team was dressed from head to toe in black business suits, with red name badges that matched the stand graphics.

We took the theme of colour one step further. The distinct red colour of our stand prompted visitors to stop and engage in conversation with the Nomadic team and to participate in our ‘Colour Survey’. Since 98% of our senses are geared towards visual imagery, when you are designing your exhibition stand you need to think very carefully about the colours you choose. Most companies invariably feature corporate colours on their stand, so a high percentage of any show floor will be covered in the most popular colour. We wanted to find out what that was.

We asked visitors to tell us what their corporate colours were and what was their favourite colour. On completion of the survey, every visitor was given a trendy sticker in the shape of a pair of red lips to put on their lapel (it was great to see hundreds of visitors walking around the show promoting Nomadic wearing red lips stickers!).

16 colours appeared in the Corporate poll. Orange, purple, green, red and blue are the most popular corporate colours, whilst violet and pink are the least. However blue was the clear winner with 37% of the poll.

11 colours featured as personal favourites. Green and red feature heavily, receiving 14% and 19% of votes respectively, but again blue was the clear winner with 35%. Silver, brown and white were at the bottom end of the scale, receiving one vote each.

So the results give a clear message, in order to ensure your stand is memorable and sticks out from the crowd you need to use bright, striking, vibrant colours but most important is, steer clear of blue! Conducting the Colour Survey and compiling the results served several purposes. Firstly, we gained a useful insight into our potential customers i.e. the visitors we took the leads from. Then we used the survey results as part of our ‘follow up’ process and sent an email to all visitors giving them the survey data and design advise based on the results.

Plus the results from the Survey together with our strong show theme ‘Red is the Colour’, have enabled us to gain great PR and media coverage.

So, did we achieve our final objective of collecting 400 leads? I am delighted to say we surpassed our lead goal this year, achieving a total of 508 leads. Better still, at time of writing, we have already gained 42 appointments and are working hard to convert the opportunities!

Laura Moody
Managing Director
Nomadic Display UK