 Green seems to be everyone’s favorite color these days, and exhibit house Triad Creative Group wanted to make sure attendees at the 2007 TS² show knew that it offered Green exhibiting alternatives. That’s why it erected a 16-foot-tall tree in the middle of its booth. But this was no ordinary tree. Rather, the trunk was lightweight recyclable aluminum, while different branches were fashioned from eco-friendly materials such as Plyboo, a plywood made of bamboo; Kirei, made from sorghum stalks after the edible parts are harvested; and wheat board, a particle board made of wheat straw. Positioned atop reclaimed carpet, the base of the tree was constructed of certified sustainable lumber and Marmoleum, an all-natural linoleum. The company also displayed a variety of other natural and recycled exhibiting materials to show off its Green gene. Triad’s eye-catching take on Mother Nature served as a conversation starter that educated attendees on a variety of eco-friendly exhibit materials that Triad hopes will take root in their next exhibits.
The press room at a trade show is an endless sea of press kits typically housed in oh-so-boring folders. But outdoor-furniture company Design Kollection tried — and tied — something different at the 2007 Hospitality Design Expo. It loaded its media information onto a pair of CDs, wrapped each pair in brown paper, and tied each package with twine. Featuring the company name and booth number on the front, the tidy little package was inexpensive, yet elegant — making it a couldn’t miss press kit amid a sea of sameness.
 Real-estate investment fi rm Behringer Harvard Inc. made attendees an integral part of its in-booth activity, starting with its pre-show mailer. Sent to attendees at 11 shows on its 2007 calendar, the mailer’s small, white cardboard box came with a postcard that read: “Building a strong portfolio happens one piece at a time,” echoing Behringer Harvard’s “Building Possibilities” marketing theme. Inside the box, attendees discovered a clear plastic cube that contained a single Lego brick nestled in silver-and-white confetti. The enclosed card invited recipients to bring their Lego to the booth, where Lego artist Nathan Sawaya would use the Legos to construct a replica of a local Behringer Harvard building. As recipients brought their bricks to the booth, Sawaya added the plastic blocks to the build. Not only did the unique Lego-inspired strategy drive eager-to-participate attendees to the Behringer Harvard booth, it brought them back again and again to check the building’s progress throughout each of the 11 shows.
In December 2006, Health Care Logistics Inc. briefed attendees on its products by bringing some fowl humor into its booth at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Meeting. Playing off the John Grisham legal thriller, “The Pelican Brief,” the Circleville, OH-based medical-supply manufacturer turned its exhibit into “Pelican Briefs Island,” decking it out in a “Gilligan’s Island” motif complete with tropical-themed product areas such as the Crash Cart Cove and Infectious Isle. However, it traded the movie’s legal briefs for white briefs, stringing up a 15-foot-tall pair of white, cotton underwear above its booth and perching a 4-foot-tall pelican clothed in a pair of white briefs atop a pillar in its exhibit’s entryway. Booth staff dressed the part, including the CEO as the Skipper, and handed out a sweet treat to attendees: a 2-by-1.5-inch white chocolate candy shaped like underwear and branded with HCL’s logo. Amid a show floor of serious medical-supply products, attendees appreciated — and no doubt remembered — the light-hearted theme.
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 At the 2007 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Show, most exhibitors play it safe with simple, static product displays. But bumper-car and -fl oor manufacturer Ride Development Co. decided to shake — or make that crash — things up a bit. Rather than displaying its stationary bumper cars in its 20-by-50-foot booth, the company transformed a 14-by-20-foot area into a miniature bumpercar ride. Two glittering cars with neoprene-covered bumper tubes allowed attendees to battle it out for bumper superiority, while the spinning, twirling fun drew gobs of attendees to watch the action and to give it a whirl of their own.
 Talk of food safety can be a turnoff, but in the food trade, it’s a fact of life. So is the indigestion that follows gobbling up gobs of samples at the Fancy Food Show. So Microbac Industries Inc. devised an attention grabber that eased the pain of over-indulgence and gave staffers a natural opener to discuss food safety. Staffers filled a glass candy jar with antacid tablets and attached a sign that read: “Need an antacid?” As attendees stopped for relief, staffers launched into their sales
pitch about proper food handling. By show’s end, Microbac had administered 600 tablets and a healthy dose of product information.
 Instead of simply displaying its photographic products at Photokina 2006 in Cologne, Germany, Eastman Kodak Co. took a page from another photo-heavy industry — fashion. Kodak created a runway show featuring models outfitted in unusual garments made of Kodak products, such as a skirt made of photo CDs, and photo slides used as
a tuxedo stripe on a pair of pants. Kodak planned to plant a few paparazzi to enhance the attendee experience, but they weren’t needed, as attendees did plenty of snapping with their own cameras and cell phones. Originally, Kodak scheduled four showings a day during the six-day show, but demand was so high, the 10 models ended up strutting their stuff eight times a day.
What's The Big Idea?
Do you have a clever exhibit-related tip? Did your last exhibit have an über-cool traffic builder?
Contact Janet Van Vleet [email protected].
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