OPINION MAKER: Exhibitions essential in the overall solution

As event architects, we craft our exhibition solutions in conjunction with our partners to ensure we always find the best combination of solutions to meet the client’s business objectives first and then work on a creative solution and fit the right collection of tools to complete the solution says

As the lines in the marketing mix continue to blur, exhibitions have increasingly been integrated into the overall solution. We often find ourselves working on behalf of a corporate brand on exploiting a sponsorship around an event that has multiple touch points from destination management, guest hospitality, content creation and brand activation that includes the need for an exhibition solution as part of the package.

The secret for us is our partnership model – to build the best possible solution we will work with world class stand designers and builders, sophisticated technical solution providers and content creators who bring the material to life.

What we do on the exhibition stand needs to be integrated into and have relevance to the other touch points for the campaign and thus the exhibition stand forms part of our tool kit as event architects.

An excellent example included a recent solution built for Standard Bank’s Corporate and Investment Banking Division’s sponsorship of the IMN Conference hosted in Cape Town in late 2011. To achieve the multi layered objectives for the client, the exhibition solution combined the stand design and building skills of Scan Display, a sophisticated multi-screen digital wall supplied and managed by Gearhouse, and a custom developed blend of content from the client’s advertising agencies. Collectively the solution allowed for the stand to be very dynamic, changing themes and focus to suite the day’s agenda and suited to Standard Bank’s achievements as they related to the content of the conference while content was focused directly on the audience attending the event. By combining the exhibition solution with social media tools driven from customised iPads, the stand became an interactive and engaging space for the event visitors allowing them to ‘grab’ select images and content while interacting with the Standard Bank team and brand.

iPads, internet access, social media tools, touch screen technology and sophisticated multi-screen digital walls all combine to make exhibition solutions far more dynamic from a content delivery perspective and much more interactive allowing visitors to control the content they wish to view and ‘pull’ it down for their own use – as a result exhibitions are increasingly focused on the visitor’s needs rather than the host’s desire to push certain content.

Another key trend in the industry is bring green. Having designed and installed an exhibition solution at the recent COP17 event hosted in Durban late last year we had the chance to see just how green the industry has become. Building a stand almost exclusively ‘green’ did have some challenges but it is possible. Electricity credits can be acquired from ‘off-grid’ suppliers, structures can be crafted from sustainable materials, paints and adhesives with minimal chemical content are available, lighting can be supplied via energy efficient LED products while newer screens have low power settings to significantly reduce their energy consumption not to mention using products like glass allows for re-cycling after the event.

Find out more about exhibitions in the June issue of AdVanatage