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Capitol Exhibit Services prides itself on building playfulness into its booths. So at the TS² show in Philadelphia, the company designed its exhibit to convey a sense of fun and energy in a single glance. The booth boasted an “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” theme, with those words emblazoned in pink and acid green across staffers’ black T-shirts. Each staffer also wore a different colored rocker-style wig — red, blue, or green — as they invited attendees to step up and let out their inner rockers in a game of Guitar Hero. But the fun didn’t stop in the Capitol Exhibit Services’ booth. Staffers wore the wigs throughout most of the show, garnering double takes and generating on-the-fly conversations about their company everywhere they went. Printed collateral literature is so yesterday’s news. But with an increasing number of exhibitors handing out informational CDs and DVDs at trade shows, it’s tough to make your digital disk stand out. WhiteWave Foods Inc., a sustainable-food company, looked to its labels for the answer. Instead of the same-old circular, silver CDs, WhiteWave Foods created a blossom-shaped CD for its Rachel’s Yogurt brand, which features various flowers on the labels. Featuring the text, “Rachel’s Wickedly Deli- cious,” the yellow 3-inch-wide flower not only looked fresh as the morning dew, it was small enough to slip into a pocket. The CDs, which WhiteWave distributed at the 2008 Natural Products Expo, contained a fact sheet, press release, nutritional information, product images, and an Adobe flash presentation, all in one tiny, compact, blooming brilliant piece. Personal-care products manufacturer Burt’s Bees Inc. takes pride in its Bohemian beginnings in the Maine home of its founder, Burt Shavitz. The company wanted an exhibit that paid homage to its origin while also highlighting the fact that its beeswax-based products are all natural and earth friendly. So it created a fully sustainable structure with the help of Raleigh, NC-based design firm Exhibit Resources Inc. The booth debuted at the 2008 Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, CA, and comprised a barn-like structure made from a converted turkey coop, meant to resemble Shavitz’s own Maine home. The exhibit structure also incorporated renewable and recyclable materials, including bamboo surfaces, LED lighting, PureBond formaldehyde-free plywood, recyclable laminates, and carpet made out of recycled nylon. The booth boasted reclaimed timber beams, and featured Burt’s Bees’ products displayed in reclaimed wooden barrels. Recurring honeycomb-like hexagon shapes and empty bee boxes further reinforced the brand identity and reminded attendees what all the buzz was about. With airlines charging as much as $75 for overweight baggage, “a portable luggage scale is fast becoming my new travel essential,” says Steve Deckel, design director at Deckel & Moneypenny Exhibits. He travels with a portable luggage scale, which fits into a side pocket on his suitcase, and uses it to weigh his and his staff’s bags post show, after they’ve picked up extra swag, competitive literature, and other items they are taking home with them. The scale quickly and simply identifies which bags are overweight and underweight, allowing Deckel and his staff to trash unnecessary items from overweight bags or repack them inside underweight luggage to avoid the commercial airlines’ exorbitant overweight-baggage fees.		What do you do if you want to create a realistic kitchen vignette in your space but you don’t want the expense of purchasing and shipping a bulky refrigerator to your booth? At the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, Belkin International Inc. created a cool kitchen scene by simply drawing a refrigerator on a wall behind a kitchen counter, posting some photos on the illustrated refrigerator door, and calling it a day. The imaginary appliance set the scene and saved the company a lot of money in the process. The company also penciled in faux objects in other rooms, including one-dimensional books on a shelf in an office vignette and a light fixture in a living-room area. That’s a smart, cost-effective idea that didn’t fall flat. Many brick and stone manufacturers build patios, walls, and even desks in their exhibits, which adequately display their products but do nothing to make them stand out in the crowd. But the Heartland Brick Council hoped to differentiate itself with something a little more aesthetically pleasing at the 2008 American Institute of Architects Minnesota show in Minneapolis. Instead of brick structures, the Heartland Brick Council booth featured slick wood and LED spotlights. On one wall, 12 sleek black shelves each held a single brick lighted like a piece of fine art in a gallery. Directly across from that wall stood a cabinet with wide, shallow drawers. When the company’s staffers opened any of its 10 drawers, booth visitors saw slabs of different bricks with various grout choices nestled inside. The unusual display method not only kept the company’s booth uncluttered, but it helped differentiate Heartland’s products from its competitors’, suggesting to attendees that these beautiful bricks were worthy of the art-gallery treatment. At Semicon 2008 in Anaheim, CA, DRI Cos. wanted to show off its roof-integrated solar products. So instead of putting a traditional table in its 20-by-30-foot booth, the energy company integrated its solar panels into the top of a custom table. The roughly 10-by-10-foot tabletop not only allowed attendees a hands-on inspection of the solar panels, but with nary a scratch after days of attendees leaning on and writing atop the panels, it also spoke to the product’s durability. What's The Big Idea? Do you have a clever exhibit-related tip? Did your last exhibit have an über-cool traffic builder? Contact Travis Stanton at [email protected].