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FireKing Simplifies Product Demonstration
Photo Exhibit Highlights Homelessnes
Cleaning Your Trade Show Closet
D&M Exhibit Designer Makes Beautiful Music
Trade Show Coach: Handling Time Wasters
Packing Tips For the Frequent Traveller
The trade show floor attracts a wide variety of individuals, from paper and keepsake junkies to job seekers and peddlers of all sorts. These people make a habit of stopping for freebees, or wanting to sell you something. Often getting rid of them isn't so easy. Next time you're faced with this dilemma, look at your watch, use the person's name, and say, "Oh my, I didn't realize how long I've been keeping you. Thanks so much for stopping." If you feel so inclined, hand them a giveaway item or just shake hands and send them on their way.
Combining his love for music and talents for design and sculpture, Richard Thurman, a 20-year D&M veteran exhibit designer, creates hand-carved electric guitars. Using hand tools, he shapes solid blocks of wood into fluid, organic shapes that are as functional as they are beautiful. Each guitar begins with raw lumber and electrical components, and over six months, he gradually transforms the materials into a finished product.
Richard's exposure to music began at an early age. At six, he was performing at nursing homes in a family band with his father, a guitar player in a country string band, his mother, a classically trained pianist, and his siblings. He has played guitar for 35 years, and began making them after working in a music store repairing guitars.
He is not currently selling his guitars or playing professionally, but he does entertain requests for "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" from his daughter.
There are several stories that link mistletoe to the ritual of kissing under it. One is the myth of Frigga, the Viking goddess of love. Frigga’s son was killed by his blind brother (who was actually tricked into shooting a dart of poison from the mistletoe into his brother.) Frigga was so stricken with grief that she cried and when her tears fell on a mistletoe plant the berries were turned from red to white (there are both red and white mistletoe berries) and this brought her son back from the dead. From then on Frigga kissed everyone who walked beneath the mistletoe because she was so grateful to have her son back.
FireKing Security Group, makers of safes, fireproof file cabinets and surveillance products, features two brands in their 20' inline booth: NKL cash handling safes and Image Vault digital surveillance. To demonstrate the superior quality of Image Vault's digital system, FireKing needed a hands-on display where visitors could experience their product. To be interactive and effective, such a demonstration requires multiple electronic components and complicated wiring.
Two modules for the surveillance demonstration, each housing four cameras, a plasma screen, CPU, down-lighting, backlit identity and numerous wires and cords. To wire all of these components on the show floor at each show would be time-consuming and costly. FireKing asked for a design where setup included only two steps: 1. Roll out of crate, 2. Plug in.
With careful planning and design by D&M, each of the custom modules run off a single power cord. They ship entirely assembled to eliminate setup and tear-down time. Visually, they integrate with FireKing's 20' inline exhibit, but can operate independently. The wheeled mods are so easy to use that in addition to trade shows, FireKing uses the mods for technical meetings, educational seminars, presentations and hospitality suites.
Like that hall closet in your home, your "tradeshow closet" accumulates junk over the years. Old exhibits, outdated graphics, and the odds and ends accumulated over time create clutter that diminishes the efficiency of your program and incurs unnecessary storage costs.
Every year, "Get Organized" ranks among the top ten New Year's resolutions made; the start of 2006 presents an excellent opportunity for you to streamline your tradeshow program. Ask us to assist with a review of your inventory of hardware and graphics and assess the following:
• Are graphics in good condition and consistent with current branding and marketing messages?
• Are exhibits outdated or in need of repair?
• Will existing exhibits meet the upcoming schedule of shows?
Our staff is eager to help you assess your tradeshow program tools to help you get the most from your exhibit assets, call us at 1-888-501-7469.
Close to Home, the exhibit created for The Coalition for the Homeless, is a powerful tool for raising awareness of the issue of homelessness in Louisville, generating publicity for the Coalition member shelters, and as a call to action for the public. It features the larger-than-life faces and true stories of individuals experiencing homelessness alongside compelling statistics.
The exhibit seeks to make an emotional connection with the viewer and breakdown stereotypes as well as educate about the systemic issues surrounding homelessness: low wages, unaffordable health care, and the lack of affordable housing.
The exhibit debuted in October at the Kentucky Center, receiving media coverage from four television stations, print and radio outlets. Over a half million people were exposed to the story of the exhibit estimates Maria Price, Public Relations/Development Coordinator at The Coalition for the Homeless.
Photos for the exhibit were taken at local area shelters by Bill Sheets and Ross Gordon. D&M Graphic Designer Kara Heath created the panel designs and accompanying brochure for Close to Home.
The presentation will show in a variety of venues with variable space sizes including the Home and Garden Show and UofL's Elkstrom library; call (502) 589-0190 or visit www.homelesscoal.org for a schedule. The Octanorm system is ideally suited for maximum portability and reconfigurablity.
If you're required to travel for your work, you might want to remember this: the root word of "luggage" is "lug." So, it's a good idea to buy the right size suitcase and pack lightly. People usually overestimate the amount of clothing and products they will need on a trip. Cut back on what you take; doing so will cut back on the chaos and discomfort of traveling.
When you actually put your clothes into your suitcase here's a good regimen to follow. Put your underclothes in first. Lay flat items on the bottom and line the edges of the suitcase with items like rolled socks. Layer your daily wear on top of these items, and last pack in your finery like ties and scarves, etc.
- Garrison Keillor US humorist & radio broadcaster (1942 - )