INTO Annual Congress Display

Many issues were discussed at the 2009 INTO Annual Congress last Tuesday in Letterkenny, including the issue of renting pre-fabs for school buildings and the possibility of a day of action in the next few months. There was no love lost between delegates and the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, and an estimated 30 delegates walked out of the congress to show their distaste for recent cuts in the education sector. Above is an image of the stand we produced for this 'eventful' event.

12 Pain-Free Ways To Cut Exhibiting Costs...

... without sacrificing your success at the event.

1) Take a smaller space at the exhibition and maximise your impact with extra lighting, which has been shown to increase awareness of your display by 30 to 50 percent. Lighting can be hired from just €50 per event.

2) Another way to maximise your presence even in a small display space is to use some movement. Exhibitor Online claims that people are naturally drawn to moving objects such as product demonstrations, gobos and spinning signs.

3) Save shipping costs by choosing the lightest possible stand material - Aluminium weighs just 25% what timber or laminate weighs.

4) For a multi-panel stand, include one complimentary-colour panel at the design stage which can be replaced in future without worrying about colour-matching with the rest of the panels. You may not plan to change a panel now but a many exhibitors will have new product or event to promote over the years, and will save by replacing just one panel rather than reprinting the entire set.

5) If you want to impress your competitors and potential clients with a new stand at each event, hiring will greatly reduce your costs. You can have an L-shaped stand at one event, an S-shaped stand at the next, a plasma display at another, and if you and your designers are clever you might not need to purchase new graphics each time. This will also rule out any storage problems or costs.

6) Remember that theft can be a problem at trade shows and protect your valuables accordingly. Investing in some lockable equipment and security cables for larger items with save money in the long run. Keeping expensive products and samples on display inside your space will keep them secure and entice clients to enter your booth.

7) Look after your display equipment. Avoid dropping any hardware as this can loosen screws and springs, and cause chips or cracks which age the stand. Graphic elements are the most vulnerable part of your display so follow guidelines for maintaining graphic panels to keep them looking fresh and professional. You will get years and years of use from your display with proper care.

8) If you use a set up service, plan ahead to allow the fitters plenty of time to set up, at a time that suits them. If access is only available after hours, or you organise this service at the last minute, you may have to pay overtime fees increasing your overall cost. The same applies to graphic design & production charges.

9) Buy a display system or stand with a decent warranty, and one that can be mended in your home country to save time and shipping costs.

10) Buy a stand that is made of connecting parts or components - you can learn to set these up yourself, saving on set up fees, and each can be replaced separately if needs be, saving you a fortune compared to replacing an entire single-piece display.

11) If you are looking for a bigger or newer display, use your existing elements as a base. With a skillful exhibit company, you can reuse, revamp, upgrade or disguise your existing equipment in a whole new display, at a fraction of the cost of starting from scratch. (Especially true if you have invested in quality items to begin with).

12) Re-use what you have in terms of graphics also. When getting new design work done, check your existing files and artwork for high resolution images, logos and backgrounds that can be reused, tweaked and incorporated into your new design. In the hands of an experienced designer, these can be transformed into something totally new, and providing these elements will save you on stock photography and redrawing fees. If you are unsure about what can be used, send everything you have to your designer to sort through.

A Retrospective - The CEO Forum Through The Years

As we have done for 14 years now, we recently had the pleasure of supplying the backdrop for the Enterprise Ireland & Deloitte CEO Forum in Dublin Castle.

The return of the event got me thinking of the various designs and venues through the years, and I thought it would be fun to post up some of the photos we have of the backdrops we have produced and built over the years. There are some gaps in our photo records which I will try to fill in if possible. Which is your favourite?

1994
1995
2000
2004

2005

2006

2007

Free Tradeshow Toolkit - Prepare and Assess

Two of the areas integral to exhibiting are often over looked - the 'before' and the 'after'. Companies are often quite gung-ho about exhibiting, and when they are at the show, they often do a very good job and fulfill their targets regarding prospects, leads, sales etc. However, there may be a lack of planning - sometimes the decision to exhibit is taken at a late stage, so time for planning was sacrificed. Sometimes there isn't sufficient time to order the display stand you want, so you sacrifice the look or your space. Sometimes we are just so eager to get going and meet the right people that we don't set out clear, quantifiable goals and targets. And oftentimes we are so shattered and relieved when the show is over, or busy fielding sales enquiries and gearing up for the next one, the last thing we are about to do is analyse in depth our experience at that tradeshow.

The Center for Exhibition Industry Research realises this, and they have a provided a free, onlinhe resource to help exhibtors with both planning and analysis before and after shows. Their website provides what they call the 'ROI Toolkit'. The name is important - this tool is going to help you ascertain the Return On Investment you get from exhibiting, and this the crux of your experience at the show. Was it worth the time and money invested? What worked and what didn't? What will we do differently next time? How will we go about implementing these changes? Essential questions to ask. Check out the ROI Toolkit to explore this tool.

Conference Backdrop for Concern Fighting Hunger Conference

This week we have designed and produced a backdrop Pop Up Display for Concern's Fighting Hunger Conference which takes place on Thursday. This event will feature contributions from Mary Robinson, Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University in New York, as well as Kofi Annan in his capcity as Chairperson if the The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Further details are available here...

New Design & Rental Libraries to Help You Choose the Perfect Stand

We have just launched two great new tools to take the pain out of choosing an exhibition stand design, whether you will be buying, renting or augmenting your existing equipment! With the new Nomadic Design Library and the new Nomadic Rental Library, both available online, clients can search by a variety of categories to focus their search and easily explore different options at the click of a button.

Search Filters include:
- Size: From 3m to 12m Plus
- Shape: Inline Stands, Island Stands, Peninsula Stands, as well as Counters, Kiosks and Others
- Minimum & Maximum Price
- Add-ons/Features Including: Height up to 4.87m., Backlighting, Lockable Conference, Storage or Meeting Area, Computer Workstation & Product Display

If you have any questions at all about using these facilities, don't hestitate to contact us on 01 8712300 or info@appliedsigns.ie.

Nomadic Display's 24 Hour Lifeline for Customers in a Jam!

After seeing the recent post on Nomadic Display's blog about a Belgian Company whose C34 Pop Up Display Stand was lost by their freight company on the morning of an important show, I was reminded of the huge value of the 24 Hour Customer Lifeline available to Nomadic Display's customers.

This service is not simply a telephone answer line which will be answered any time of day or night - it actually allows customers to receive new or replacement products, repairs, graphics etc. anywhere around the world and without worrying about time differences. So if you have travelled to the US to take part in a large scale expo and half of your equipment goes astray, or an accident befalls your shiny new laminate panels as they are being unpacked, you can have your products replaced, repaired etc. in record time. This is possible due to the extent of Nomadic Display's dealer network. Unlike display companies claiming worldwide coverage with a presence in 18 countries, Nomadic Display have authorised distributors in a staggering 30 countries, all with the in depth product knowledge and high production criterea to meet Nomadic Display's standards.

This is yet another advantage that Nomadic Display have over other producers, and one that is unfortunately often over-looked. With international trade growing in importance each year, it is a service which will become increasingly important to customers and will continue to single out Nomadic Display as the premium provider of display and exhibition solutions.

Click here to read this client's first-hand account of the 24 Hour Helpline in action...

Graphic Backdrop for DAA 'Airport City' Announcement

The weekend before last we got to flex our conference muscles yet again when we produced and set up the graphic backdrop for the Dublin Airport Authority's announcement of plans to create a high-rise Airport City at Dublin Airport in Cloghran. The proposal includes 600000 square metres of office space and would be expected to lead to the creation of 30000 jobs, 10000 of which would be new jobs. To complement this announcement the DAA used an extensive backdrop, a projection screen, podium graphics and other displays, along with lighting and an impressive scaled model of the planned development. For more information on creating an impressive display like this contact sean@appliedsigns. Footage of the event and branding can be seen by clicking on the movie camera symbol below the header, here.

Irish Business Women Conference

The Irish Business Women website is a resource which I regularly make use of, and I have made contact with quite a few interesting and knowledgeable business people through this busy forum (both male and female, surprisingly enough). The IBW are also customers of ours, having purchased a Nomadic Pop Up Display stand and accessories in the last few years. For this reason I thought it was worth mentioning that their annual conference is taking place this year on the Thursday 29th May in the Mullingar Park Hotel. The theme this year is 'Inspiring Women' and the line up includes Susan Stockdale, author of "Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs”, Maria Waters of Monogram.ie, Senator Mary White, Noemi Beres of Reservacar, Jenni Woolfson of Poshfizz and Celebrity Cook and successful business woman Jenny Bristow. Discounted tickets are available if you book before the end of April, more info is available here...

GAA Congress Backdrop

Conference Backdrops and Stage Branding are some of our favourite projects here at Applied Signs & Display, so we were thrilled to be asked to provide the graphic backdrop for such a prestigious and high-profile event as the 2008 GAA Congress, which took place last weekend in Rosse's Point, Sligo. The stand we provided was a 14m wide flat Nomadic pop up stand, with full graphic wrap which allowed for a striking large-scale graphic, and was complemented by branding for the table front and podium, uplighting and ceremonial flags and flagpoles. The beauty of this equipment is its reusability - the GAA will be reusing this hardware in a similar shape or in different guises for years to come. They also availed of set up and training in the correct use of this equipment so that they will be able to maintain and reuse the stands with a great deal of convenience. This was an especially exciting event as the GAA had recently anounced a new focus where marketing and branding is concerned.