Moving images have become a staple of trade show exhibits. Flat screen and projections give exhibitors and designers more options for dynamic displays.  But there is still one challenge when it comes to presenting animation, films, and presentation:  screens still must be, more or less, flat.  Technologies like the flexible LED screen, available from Tallen, are potentials game changers, however,  by allowing for designs to incorporate screen around rounded surfaces.

It makes us think of all the flexible shapes that have become popular in designs. Tension fabric, for example, allows for long, swooping designs that appear more organic than solid.  A flexible LED screen could be used to meld into a design and show images that could flow into a design rather than just be displayed on it.

As trade show audiences become more accustomed to technologies (think large screen televisions, high definition screens, and hand held devices in just about every home) the ‘wow’ factor target is constantly moving.    This type of technology is a next step to achieving greater interactivity and designs that draw the eye.

Of course, the very nature of this video shows that great technology with no design is a little flat.  Just showing a movie clip on a flexible screen  turns this great piece of technology into a one-off gimmick.  But incorporating flexible LED screens into a studied design could create a truly amazing display.

What do you think?  Any great design ideas for flexible LEDs?

View more flexible screen technology here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OUXLghysIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXdbmonlKng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr02l28a8Ro

For over 66 years The Rogers Company has been an award winning designer and manufacturer of branded environments for trade show exhibits, corporate events, lobbies, showrooms and retail environments – essentially any place where communicating your brand is vital.

Companies started to truly invest in this as well.  Microsoft and IBM both had a store and seminar space as did thousands of other corporations large and small.    So if you could walk through this virtual world, look at objects, and talk to people, why not have a trade show.

Susan Friedman cites the 6 advantage of Virtual Trade Shows, and Forbes recently ran an article on How to Tackle a Virtual Trade Show and Nine Steps for Tackling A Virtual Trade Show, but we’re not convinced.   Why?  Facebook and LInkedIn.  These are powerful ways of connecting people and interacting in a way that’s much more comfortable and intuitive.  Much of the hype around Second Life calmed down as other social media sites that were far more accessible came to the fore.  And it wasn’t that it was just easier to use.  It’s that these sites allowed us to be ourselves more easily rather than who we’d like to be.  Fantasies are great and Second Life certainly let’s people indulge them, but the Internet has always grown organically around the mundane aspects of every day life.

Social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook are also easy to use and intuitive.  You can interact when and if you like.  Asking folks to control an avatar in real-time is kind of like going to a costume party:  it’s fun at first and then really awkward.

And here’s a news flash: the virtual trade show is already here:  it’s called Google.  You can search for just about every type of equipment and technology, research what others have to say about it and get just about all the information that you need to make a buying decision.  In fact, a real honest to goodness trade show might be the apex of this buying process where buying decisions are merely verified.  Smart companies are focusing on their social media strategy so that they can tap into all the searches happening on Google.  Using these types of sites they can connect with customers, analyze needs, and begin a relationship before a booth is even designed.

There is some room in cyberspace for the development of virtual trade shows.  But rather than avatar representatives manning booths in the digital realm, it will probably look more like a hybrid of Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Throw Twitter in there for good measure.

These types of sites make linking information with people easy and that’s the reason we go to trade shows in the first place.  So before you suit up your avatar, look at Google, LinkedIn and Facebook and make sure you’re using these tools to their full extent.

In addition to designing and custom building branded trade show environments, The Rogers Company is a full service trade show and event implementation partner providing turnkey services and support for corporate clients throughout the country.

At DRUPA 2000, Razor Scooters were all the rage.  Companies gave them away and people zipped past you as your aching feet groaned between Hall 3 and 7.  The Segway has made a few appearances at trade shows as well.  It seems like every few years new technology comes out that bridges the gap between walking great distances and getting into a vehical.

The Honda prototype here seems to do that in the most viable way yet.  The unit is small enough to carry on a plane (although security might be an issue) and seems manueverable enough to blend in with pedestrians actually using their feet.

But is it a viable form of tranportation?  Probably not, at least not in this form.  Is it a great toy?  Heck yeah.  And that may be all that matters.

Don’t discount the carnival effect of trade shows.  Although serious business is conducted on show floors, they are also places to discover new things and interact with people.  A high end toy like this may just be a great way to break the ice with a prospect, but icebreakers are important.

Here’s one idea for using this type of device as a trade show marketing tool:  Loan a few out to attendees with branded versions.  Four or five of these gliding through trade show floors could be enough to attract attention to your brand and drive traffic to even a small booth.  One universal topic at trade shows is aching feet.  And sympathy can go a long way toward earning trust and business.

Got any other ideas?  Let’s hear them!

Does anyone remember the infrared beaming on Palm Pilots?  Does anyone remember Palm Pilots?  It was actually pretty cool.  You could beam your info to a fellow Palm user avoiding  the exchange of business cards which you would then have to enter into your Palm Pilot.  It was fast an efficient and then totally disappeared when mobile devices became integrated to the internet.

The problem is that it’s still really hard to keep track of the people that you meet at trade shows.  Whether you’re an attendee or an exhibitor.  Yes, you can technically look up everyone you meet on LinkedIn and then connect with them, but that’s time consuming at big events and not practical approach to buying or selling.    The irony is that we’re all more linked together than ever with social media applications like LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.  BusyEvent may have an answer: they’ve brought together a simple, easy to use device called the BeLinker (it’s smaller than it looks in the photos) with a social network that lets people track events, sessions, products, and people.  So your attendees can not only note that they met you but they can associate the products and services that they liked with you as well.  From BusyEvent:

The BeLinker is a small, wearable device that ties social networking, audience response, session and document management and expo lead management together. By integrating face-to-face encounters with virtual and web-based capabilities, the BeLinker Platform provides an ongoing, updated repository of event-related information and content for each participant and real-time monetizable data for event producers.

You can read the full article at Planner Wire here.

Everything you could want to know about Event Bookmarking is available at www.BusyEvent.com and www.EventBookmarking.com There are videos, demos and downloadable information.

The world seems scratching its head about the iPad.  Is it a giant iPhone with no real application, or is it so incredibly ahead of its time that we just haven’t figured out where it fits into our lives?  We’ve talked quite a bit about touch screen applications at trade shows here on TSF, but they’re very expensive applications.  While the iPad isn’t cheap for consumers, they are relatively cheap for most trade show budgets.  The large screen and intuitive input (you touch stuff) seem natural for  demonstrations, events, meeting, etc.

Interactive Meeting Technology has a terrific post outlining what some of those possibilities are:

• Larger Screen = bigger fonts = easier readability for all types of attendees (like baby boomers). This means that you could create e-versions of your Show Daily, conference guide and exhibitor guides. This would make it very easy to make an event paperless AND preserve your sponsorship revenue.
• Incorporating Multimedia. There will be a clear opportunity to include multiple photos and video clips from the show floor in the e-versions of the Show Daily. Electronic Exhibitor guides could contain video demonstrations of products. Electronic Conference binders could contain speaker videos. The kicker? If you are recording sessions these sessions could be setup online and available for viewing/downloading on the iPad right away.
• Interactive Demos. Today – interactive demos can be a challenge to run on the show floor. I think that we will see more and more interactive marketing companies creating demos, games, quizes, etc that get attendees engaged on the show floor (or in the streeet). These apps will help companies capture new leads, qualify them, and feed them into the CRM system right on the show floor. In my opinion, the iPad – as a hybrid of the iphone and the laptop – will be perfect for this type of application.
• Agendas, One-to-One Appointments, and Personalized Agendas. Did you see the new calendar function? I think that someone will come up with an application for the iPad that creates personalized agendas for attendees, schedules appointments, etc. While the iPad frontend needs to be easy to use – the database, scheduling engine and reporting will be a powerful part of this solution.
• Corporate Backchannel. With the powerful user interface and portability, I could see someone creating a corporate backchannel application that runs on the iPad. While any device could be used to enter comments into the backchannel – the iPad advantage will be in viewing all of the other comments on the backchannel and privacy. Corporates don’t want their internal discussions tweeted to everyone.
• Speaker Q&A. I can see iPads sprinkled across the roundtables in a large conference room. Attendees can use them to enter questions for speakers, see what others asked, and maybe even rate/rank them. How cool would it be to rate questions for the CEO? Awesome!
• Way-Finding. I can see people using the iPad GPS to figure out the best route to their next appointment on the show room floor or to another part of the center or to the off-site event this evening. (Note: GPS may not be accurate enough to find most 3X3 meter booths inside of a hall.)
• Sponsorship. There was a lot of screen real-estate for including innovative sponsorships – beyond banners. I am sure we will see some innovative digital sponsorship applications emerge.

Read the full article here: iPad: It Just Works…But Will It Work For Events?

The post also cautions against event WiFi which is always bad (why is that?) and events that require everyone to have the device.  But what do you think?  What are some good applications for the iPad at trade shows and conventions.  What’s going to be successful and what’s going to fail?  You’re sure to see this thing being given away at trade shows, but what about actually being used in a booth.  Is anyone thinking about it?  Or planning to use it?  Or hate the idea altogether?  Let us know!

When it comes to technology, yesterday’s new toy is tomorrow’s indispensable business tool.  We’ve seen this happen with everything from desktop computers to cell phones to GPS systems.  Keeping this in mind when approaching technology for tradeshows is a good idea.  A fancy booth toy could just be a waste of money, but the right investment in technology could help attract attention, achieve business goals at a show, or help create an unforgettable branded environment.

Looking at some overall trends in event marketing can reveal where new technologies can be most effective.  We examined some of the prevailing trends in event marketing and compared them to new evolutions in technology to help you choose which might help build business at your company’s next tradeshow or event.

Different industries will have embraced this kind of technology more than others, but don’t undersell your colleagues.  They may be more sophisticated than you think.

Here are five applications that run on an array of different phones:

WhosHere

Who’s there?  This iPhone app lets you see who’s in your proximity.  Tradeshows are really about personal interaction that are sometimes random.  It’s a big part of the reason people still attend in an age of electronic connectivity.

Twinkle

If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s basically a mini-blog that anyone can have.  You’re limited in the amount of text you can write, but this leads to some pretty concise information.  Twinkle is an application that allows you to see the mini-blogs of people in your geographic vicinity.  Since tradeshows tend to concentrate people in a limited geographic space, it’s a great chance to see what people in your industry are doing during and after the tradeshow.

Twitter

Well, if you’re going to use Twinkle, you may as well have your own miniblog at the show.  Let people know what you’re seeing, where you’re going, who you’re seeing.  This feed can go right on your website and serve as easy, live content from the show.

WikiMe

This app displays information about local points of interest directly from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.  If you’re in a strange city and don’t know anything about it (or in your own city, for that matter) it’s good to know a thing or two about the area.

Fire Eagle

This program updates lots of other programs as to your location.  You can specify if you want it to tell people precisely where you are or give just the neighborhood or city.  For many people who travel, this is a great way of staying in touch with the office or even with clients.  During busy tradeshow seasons, like the fall, it’s possible to lose track of even where you are.  This will help

About 5 years ago a colleague sent me an invitation to join LinkedIn.  It seemed like an OK idea kind of based on the 6 Degrees of Seperation concept.  My account kind of sat there for a long time based on the idea that only a few people I knew were actually on the site.  Over time, however, it’s grown into something very big.  It can be a good way to stay in touch with colleagues past and present but it can also be a very good way to build business.

1.) Recognize It’s Not Just About You

Many people describe LinkedIn as a kind of professional version of Facebook.  In other words, it’s focused on the individual and career development and not on what you did over the weekend.  That’s true to a certain extent, but the site offers some important tools that can help create the connections that help build your business.  If you can coordinate with other colleagues to form a cohesive strategy focused on your products and services it will further help make those connections in a broader way.

2.) Join Group or Form Groups

Groups create associations between people that otherwise do not know each other.  There may already be a group formed around your industry and its best to check this out before you form your own group.  If you don’t see a group that you think should be there, create one and invite people you know to join.  Just keep in mind that you have to find the right balance in creating a group.  If you focus on too narrow of a topic, no one will find it (People In My House).  If you create a group that’s too broad (People Who Drive Cars) you won’t get useful information.  Creating a group for a tradeshow can be a good way to meet other exhibitors and attendees and exchange information or ideas, for example.

3.) Answer Questions

There is a function that allows you to search questions posed by other LinkedIn members based on key words.  You can answer these questions and even get selected as ‘the best’ answer by the person who posed it in the first place.  This is a great way to meet new connections and also to market your expertise.

4.) Ask Questions

Asking a question can supply you with information and also create a discussion.  It can also be a good way to create a buzz around a topic that you think isn’t being discussed.  Also, it’s a good way to genuinely get free advice from experts.

5.) Create a Discussion

Within groups, it’s possible to create a discussion or become involved in a discussion.  This is a good way to link to external articles, meet new connections, and demonstrate your expertise in a certain field.

6.) Create a Poll

Like creating a discussion, polling your LinkedIn connections can help create awareness for you and your company and can also give you important data that can be used on your website or within LinkedIn.  Also, you can broaden the scope of polling by paying LinkedIn a feed.

7.)  Get Social (For Real)

While LinkedIn is a great online tool, use it to create or firm up offline connections.  Tradeshows are a great way of doing this since people you know are likely to attend the same professional events that you do.  Use LinkedIn to send messages and schedule meetings with folks on the show floor.

Connect with The Rogers Company. Visit our LinkedIn page here

And you can visit Jeff Blackwell’s page here

Or Sukki Jahnke’s page here

Your next trade show booth staff addition may save you on hotel and airfare and never have to take a lunch break.  She may also be a flat, electronic representation of a human being…but no one’s perfect, right?  Avatars are being used to greet booth visitors, give presentations, and recite detailed information specific products and even about the person they are talking to.

We interviewed an avatar, Sarah, created by a company called LogicJunction on what she does at tradeshows, the benefits of avatars, and what the future holds for her and LogicJunction.  From their website:

LogicJunction supplies products on a variety of platforms ranging from individual kiosks to complete online deployments. Our patented software engine incorporates digital characters, artificial intelligence, media players, advanced logic control and a flexible plug-in system to interface with third party software and hardware.

Virtual Employees (or vPloyees), the name given to our digital characters, use emotion, animation, speech, and intelligence to help personalize and direct the experience for each client, and provide a high impact interface to many of our implementations. For customers wishing to extend our products or create their own, LogicJunction offers an SDK.

Clients use LogicJunction software to assist with sales, conduct surveys, drive booth attendance, reduce personnel costs, and help users navigate complex processes. Please look around and see what LogicJunction might do for you.

We’ve all heard about Twitter and there’s been a lot of head scratching as to how it will be used in business.  At searchenginewatch.com they are covering The Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York 2009 Conference and Expo. They’re top story is about Twitter and it gives some clues as to how this will be useful at live events like tradeshows:

The opening keynote was by Guy Kawasaki, a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, who spoke about “Twitter as a Tool for Social Media.”

You can read the full post here: Link

They describe this opening day as starting a “Tweet Storm”.  We checked Twitter (TSF Twitter) and, indeed, there are many, many, many entries on Guy Kawasaki and his keynote on Twitter. (Search Results Here)

So you have someone speaking at a tradeshow about Twitter and then that talk is defined on Twitter itself.  You have to look past a few layers of weirdness here to get to an essential truth which is: Twitter (or something like it) will define almost every live, public interaction we have in business in the near future.  In some businesses, this is already happening.

Guy Kawasaki is essentially being defined by these individual perspectives on his talk.  Yes, he’s a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures, but that public profile has been further enhanced by all of these tweets.  For the folks tweeting, their public profile has been enhanced or at least clarified by the fact that they were at this talk and have told their readers about it.

Confused?  Think about it this way: a few years ago, just adding tradeshow dates and booth numbers to a companies website was a big deal.  Now you have the means to update information from you and your entire tradeshow team and what they’re doing at a show in real time.  Who cares, right?  Well, you should when you consider how all of this adds to your overall online profile.

Case in point: Search for  Guy Kawasaki on Google and you’ll get a pretty good idea of who the guy (ha-ha) is.  But  search Twitter, particularly during a tradeshow, and you get an idea of what he is doing at this moment and who is watching him and what they think — and you can join the conversation.  That’s very powerful.

This all goes to show that Twitter can be a very valuable tool in enhancing live, one-to-one contact that you get at a tradeshow.  Of course, this tradeshow is a self-selecting group.  It’s going to be a while before we see this kind of interaction at more industrial shows — but it won’t be long.

Connect with The Rogers Company on our Twitter page.