Chad Leiffert is the National Sales Manager for Midland Displays. They have been in the trade show displays business for over 28 years. Chad comments on changes he's seen in the industry in the last twenty years.
"This month marks the 20th year of my work in the exhibit industry. Over the course of the last two decades I have noticed dramatic changes in the size, style and technologies used in producing the modern tradeshow display booth. 30 years ago the most common type of tradeshow display was some sort of custom exhibit usually weighing a great deal, with difficult to apply graphics and even more difficult setup instructions. Usually the average exhibit was some sort of homemade monstrosity requiring several people at least half a day to try to put together. It usually was a series of panels bolted together (many times made of heavy plywood) that made the exhibit a danger to be around."
When Leiffert was asked about changes he's seen in graphics as well as displays he responded, "The graphics might be as complex as translucent photography or as archaic as handmade signs. Lighting was incandescent if it was used at all. These display booths traveled in large wooden crates weighing as much as several tons. They were expensive to produce an even more expensive to ship. Business people who were responsible for their companies' trade show exhibit effort usually approached the task with dread. Many shows were poorly organized, undermanned and offered few of the streamlined services you will see in today's modern exhibit halls. Lightweight materials, digital graphics, halogen lighting, looped digital presentations, plasma monitors and purpose driven structure were still in the future. This was simply a period of the primarily cumbersome, do-it-yourself exhibit booth. "
The days of the large, bulky, difficult to assemble display are gone. Today the norm for exhibit systems is: easy-to-use and easy to carry and large format graphics are now far less expensive to produce with the advent of digital printers.
All of that was soon to change as companies recognized the need to attend more and more "customer concentrated" exhibit events. They recognized that having so many potential customers in one place was a far more cost-effective means of not only telling their story but demonstrating their product via their exhibit. The tradeshow industry then entered a period of massive exponential growth. As companies sought more and more tradeshows to attend they required more and more complex and purpose driven exhibits. The old custom or homemade style display was to become a thing of the past.
"The first change was the modular folding panel booth exhibit," Leiffert said. "This consisted of a series of connected panels, usually covered in a Velcro receptive material that could fold up and fit inside a molded plastic case far more easily than anything that was bolted together. As these flat panels were of lightweight material that allowed companies to cut shipping costs, this helped their budget allowing attendance at even more shows. Graphics were now being printed and applied with Velcro as opposed to being custom cut and displayed as part of an (also custom) light box, etc. As these flat panel, folding systems became more prevalent more companies sprouted up as display manufacturers (of portable exhibit systems). The folding panel system was the precursor of all the portable displays now on the market today."
As tradeshow attendees look for lighter and easier to assemble exhibit systems the "pop-up" style exhibit entered the marketplace in the late 80's. Instead of bulky folding panels the pop up trade show displays were lightweight aluminum exhibit systems that could be assembled quite quickly from two small, easily shippable cases. A lightweight frame, with vertical bars attached to hold magnetically applied panels. It weighed half of what the portable flat-panel systems weighed, while still allowing a large, fabric, Velcro acceptable graphics area. The explosive growth of what is now known as the pop-up display continued through the 90s. Many unique features of custom exhibits became possible on these newer lightweight pop-up displays. Backlit headers, literature racks, large format graphics, portable podiums and audiovisual presentation all became more lightweight and portable. The cases they traveled in became podiums and the fabric faces that used to be utilized for Velcro applied graphics became "photo murals."
Pop-up displays soon were being made in different shapes, getting away from the formerly "curved frame " shape of the standard 10' x 10' booth. As we moved into the late 90s, the pop-up display changed again as the fabric surface( with Velcro applied graphics) became a full, preprinted graphic face with no assembly. All you had to do now was expand up and lock the frame and the trade show graphics were already on it. The 150 pound 10 x 10 flat-panel exhibit had moved to the 90 pound pop-up exhibit which then moved to the 20 pound pre-attached fabric graphic exhibit. You could now walk into the show hall with two gym bag sized cases and pop-up 20 feet of display with a full photo mural face in five minutes. No more large crates, no more large cases. Just 40 pounds of aluminum and fabric made up your 20 foot wide 8 foot tall exhibit.
In the early 2000's the banner stands started appearing everywhere. This amounted to a canister approximately three feet wide sitting on the floor with a retractable graphic inside that could be pulled up and locked at a seven foot height, much like the old style projector screens for 8/16mm films. These large, attention-getting graphic trade show booths weighed less than ten pounds and could be set up in ten seconds. A large, central, complex exhibit system could be flanked by a number of the small banner stands allowing for instant marketing facing any direction of the tradeshow traffic pattern. Banner stands were inexpensive to produce combined with low shipping costs. Now a 10' x 10' booth could have a full, 10' wide, 8' high photomural exhibit spanning the rear of the booth space, with (two) three foot wide seven foot tall banner stands flanking the rear exhibit to graphically dominate the entire exhibit area. The entire weight of all these trade show displays does not exceed 50 pounds, and could be set up by one person in about ten minutes.
Today the pop-up display has "morphed" into newer and more modern and complex shapes. The Alumalite, Linear, N-Line and Entasi are all examples of lightweight aluminum displays that originated with the expandable pop-up.
Another large change in the portable trade show displays industry involves truss displays. While truss has always been a great product to use in building exhibits, the complexity and labor involved in using it made it cost prohibitive. As with the custom exhibits that used to be the norm changed, truss evolved, too. New products like Trussworks EZ6 and Orbital Express have become lightweight, no tools solutions to making truss exhibits. As truss is reconfigurable, load-bearing, simple and has no electrical restrictions, its use is skyrocketing among tradeshow attendees.
"The days of the large, bulky, difficult to assemble display are gone" Leiffert said, "Today the norm for exhibit systems is: easy-to-use and easy to carry. Large format graphics are now far less expensive to produce with the advent of digital technology than the old exhibit systems that incorporated massively enlarged photography. It is now possible for two individuals to walk into an exhibit hall and put up a 30 foot wide photomural exhibit system in 15 minutes. What is even more impressive is the exhibit systems of today are not only easier to use and lighter in weight but the cost has also been driven down. As an example Midland Display Products, one of the largest exhibit producers in the United States marketing over the Internet, can produce the 30 foot wide exhibit system described earlier for less than $5000."
Banner stands, fabric faced pop-ups, no tools trade show truss displays, collapsible literature racks and a large variety of other lightweight, portable high-tech exhibit systems have made the old "bolt together" tradeshow display a dinosaur of the past.
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