Skyline Metro Chicago Presents Trade Show Event Exhibiting Tips

Upon returning from the RSNA show at McCormick Place this week, I was not surprised by the sizes of the exhibits, which if you have not seen them are pretty impressive. Instead, I was enthused by the new design concepts that have hit the show floor. The use of fabric structures in combination with hard walls helped to create some dynamic designs, while the use of all of the space on the floor, as well as the space above the exhibits, helped to guide attendees, or better yet identify the companies exhibiting. The use of the overhead space is important in larger exhibit spaces as it gives your exhibit a real punch and impact from across the show floor. The visit also validated Skyline Metro Chicago’s system for designing these larger exhibits.

Let me explain.

in these larger exhibits, Skyline tries to use a 3-tiered branding strategy. This is done by working from the ceiling down to eye level with consistent messaging. It’s geared toward drawing attendees to the exhibit and slowly introducing them to taglines and then to products and targeted messages.

Level 3 would be the overhead signage. The overhead signage would be large simple branding, logo and color scheme to match the other tiers. Again, this works to identify your company from across the show floor, as well as have you stand out. In large shows it can even help fit into the landscape around you as other large exhibits follow this formula as well.

Level 2 would be medium overhead signage or signage originating from structures based on the floor. This tier allows you to start to brand different aspects of your company, taglines, lifestyle images, services offered and possibly large product images. This allows the attendee to qualify themselves as they approach your exhibit, and gives them an understanding of who you are and what you do.

Level 1 would be targeted signage. This would include detailed information about the products or services that you offer to that particular market or audience. It also allows the exhibit staffers to guide a prospect to certain areas that they would be interested in, surrounded by support graphics and messaging for that particular product or service.

The best part about Skyline Metro’s design strategy is that when it comes time to change out the products, or the services, or even target the message to a particular audience, the replacement of graphics is only on one of the 3 tiers! This saves money, as well as keeps the exhibit consistent in the different markets on the upper 2 tiers.

Employment of this strategy has often been successful for companies looking to make a splash while not spending a ton of money to update their graphics, year to year or even show to show. Make sure you investigate this process as you start your new designs.

Remember, it’s all about the details!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Better Exhibiting, Trade Show Exhibit Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.