Trade Shows Display That Production is on a Tight Budget

Trade shows have always been a very cost-effective means of getting in front of decision makers. They provide a means of seeing a lot of customers in a short period of time while putting your best foot forward. Using banner stands, pop up trade show displays and fabric faced exhibits are not just a lightweight and portable choice but may be the best bang for your trade show buck.

So how do you address producing effective trade show display or exhibit on the less than generous budget? Banner stands are one answer. A large, usually 3 ft. wide by 7 ft. tall, display system that can be purchased for around 3-4 hundred dollars and produced in less than a week. A good graphic can really make this portable system worth its weight in gold. It is not the structure, but the message that matters in the trade show environment. Another exhibit choice is the fabric faced pop up display. This is a lightweight, easy to use display frame with a pre-attached large graphic that allows for display set up virtually instantly. The pop up display frame expands up and locks, automatically stretching out the graphic fabric face when completed. The cost is usually less than $1500 and this display only weighs about 20 lbs. Imagine moving in to your booth area and setting up a 10' wide graphic display flanked by two large banner stands in about 5 minutes. The cost? About $1900!

We recommend that you deal with a display distributor that has been in this business for a few years as there is no substitute for experience when you need help solving your display exhibit dilemmas.

Solving the Problem of Trade Show Exhibits and Freight Charges

Everyone that has ever managed the company trade show marketing effort knows that controlling costs is a very complicated problem. You can budget for the show space, exhibit cost, graphics' cost and show help but figuring the freight on all your exhibit materials over the course of the year is very difficult.

Many times the problem is a matter of timing. Getting the trade show display exhibit materials to the pre-show site within the window of acceptance can result in expedited shipping costs. Trying to schedule for last-minute shows can result in expedited shipping costs. Delays in graphics production or changes in booth hardware can cause expedited shipping costs. A 500 pound exhibit shipped truck freight, having to arrive at a specific time, may have to go out the door for an overnight arrival. This could mean thousands of dollars in freight costs that do nothing for their companies marketing effort.

Most trade show displays managers are aware that weight and size are the two killers when it comes to freight budgeting. Therefore it is no surprise over the last two decades that displays and exhibit materials, like automobiles, are made of lighter and lighter components. Further, structure has changed so that large exhibits can be made up of the strategic use of smaller components. The pop-up display is an excellent example of this. A full 10' wide, 8' tall exhibit shipping in one case that is 40x20x18" and weighs 80 lbs.

An entire exhibit category (pop-ups) arose simply because of freight costs. Today there are a host of these lightweight, compact trade show booth types. Midland Display Products, one of the largest distributors of trade show displays in the United States, carries over a dozen lines of these lightweight exhibits. They can now offer a full 20 foot wide 8 foot tall exhibit, complete with lights and full, large format graphics panels that weighs less than 100 pounds and can be shipped UPS ground. When you compare the weight of this display with the folding flat-panel exhibits of just 10 years ago you can see that the reduction in weight is nearly 400%. Even now 10 foot pop-up exhibits that replaced the panel exhibits of the 90's are themselves being replaced with lighter, more effective components. The standard 10 foot popup photo mural exhibit weighs about 90 pounds. The fabric graphic pop-up that is now becoming more popular only weighs about 23 pounds. This relates to freight costs for company exhibit efforts dropping by nearly 75%. What this means for the owners is the opportunity to afford more trade shows with the budget savings made in freight.

Show services now cost less, also. With smaller, lighter, less complex exhibit systems show labor costs drop significantly to boot. A 20 foot modular display of the past would require two laborers four man-hours to set up. Trade show truss displays can cost even more. That could cost in the neighborhood of $400-$800. Now a 20 foot fabric graphic display system can be set up in 15 minutes by show attendees needing no show labor. Midland Display reports some other clients have saved nearly 40% of show costs by reducing freight and show labor, yet still attending the same amount of shows. Solving the freight weight problem has become more and more attainable by utilizing these newer, lightweight exhibit systems. Despite the "display in a can" moniker some of these trade show display systems have received, it is undeniable that these new systems save time, weight and expense. Add to this a decrease in back problems for those involved and even an indirect benefit is achieved

Trade Show Graphics - How Do You Know If You Need Help?

Having helped our customers with their trade show displays graphic designs for the last 30 years I've become familiar with a wide range of skill levels associated with trade show graphics design. There are two primary areas where knowledge is beneficial. Area 1: What type of content is necessary for your trade show graphic usage? Area 2: What basic technical understanding must the designer have to achieve their goal?

Area 1 - What type of content is necessary for your trade show graphic?

Initially this seems like a single answer type question. That answer is reduce your verbage as much as possible and use eye catching images to get your points across. Tell the customer who you are and what you do in as few words as possible. For many tradeshow environments that is good advice. But that may not always be the best advice. Lets say you're at a show where there is nothing but engineers attending to see the latest in engineering design software. You may want to go a little further with your details than who you are and what you do in terse language or appropriate visuals. The engineers maybe looking for a particular detail that should be in print on a graphic that normal visitors would have no knowledge of its importance. Or if your show specifically narrows the audience then the general who are you and what do you do will not be sufficient to attract and hold prospects looking for more specific.

Area 2 - What basic technical computer understanding must the designer.

The design of the computer files needed to produce the graphics for your trade show displays in large format for trade show displays requires previous knowledge or understanding of large format graphic layout. Because you or your designer create the images for the web and most often especially if then you probably need help designing the large format graphic artwork. The web requires the smallest possible file be create and then saved with the minimal amount of storage so that it will transverse the web at the fastest possible speed. This is not close to type of file needed for trade show graphics. Most trade show display companies use RIP (Raster Image Proccessing) software to produce the large format graphics and most of those RIPs need graphic designed at 100% size and 100 pixels per inch. Most of these files are fairly large in size (50 - 600 Meg). It is imperetive that the designer examine his files at full scale on his monitor for quality because that is how they will appear in print.

What type of truss might work best for you.

There are a multitude of truss display options for building an exhibit for your tradeshow effort. Truss has become very popular because of its versatility, ease of use, re-configurability, load bearing and look. The real question is, what type do you choose?

To make it simple you have two shapes to choose from: Square or Triangular. Square truss has a box shape (when looking end on) with four cords while triangular truss has a triangular shape (when looking end on). Both have high degrees of load-bearing, but square truss is simpler to work with because of its shape. Triangular truss gets a bit complicated when attaching piece by piece, especially at the connections and when making a bend. Square truss simply bolts on to the next pieces, without much concern when making a turn.

Most truss displays are powder coated steel, although aluminum truss exists also. We prefer steel truss over aluminum because it affords more color choices, has greater load bearing and is usually less expensive to purchase. Also steel truss has no electrical restrictions, as you simply manage wires with nylon ties.

The most important consideration after choosing the truss shape that you desire, is the size of box or triangle. Truss is sized based on the dimensions of the sides. For instance box truss can be 3,6,10 or 12 inches wide on each side, as can triangular. Larger truss sides result in a larger look and thus are generally used for larger displays. The most common is 6" and 12" (triangular also). We find that display larger than 10x20' usually afford themselves to larger 12" truss over 6".

Once you have chosen the shape (box or triangular) size (3,6,10,12 inch) then you need to determine the type of truss connection that will work best for you. This is critical! Standard trade show truss displays must be put together at each cord with a connector of some type. For instance box truss must be connected piece by piece at each of four cords by using an allen wrench or some other tool to tighten the connection at each piece. This can be very time consuming, but this type of truss is less expensive than the systems that offer a quick connect device. The more expensive truss utilizes a bracket that allows each piece to be attached with a hand tightened wing nut, making set up take one fourth the time conventional truss takes. The increase in price is usually very worth the money when the cost of show labor is concerned. Also, this type allows for your own marketing team to set the booth up without using show labor at all. Another consideration is that you don't have to worry about tools which are frequently forgotten or lost. We have found that the easiest most user-friendly box truss that exists today are the EZ six and EZ 12 systems offered by Midland Display Products.

Truss shape, truss size, truss material and truss connection system are the considerations most important to your trade show truss system. We have found that (by far) the easiest and most flexible choice proves to be six or twelve-inch steel box truss using the no tools connection system. There are no other trade show displays on the market that are more straightforward.