When the coronavirus shut down the trade show and events industry, Nick Simonette, vice president of sales for Czarnowski Display Services Inc., didn't sit around waiting for the crisis to blow over. Instead, he started looking for ways Czarnowski and others in the industry could get involved in the relief effort. He knows this industry is well prepared to address some of the pressing issues – especially that of makeshift hospitals and testing facilities. "There is no other industry better suited to respond to this type of need than the trade show and events industry," said Simonette. "We work in nontraditional environments all the time; we understand the scalability of construction; we understand the scalability of transportation; and we understand the ease of set up and teardown."

Simonette and his team set about designing portable, modular facilities that could be utilized on a moment's notice. Knowing that the walls need to be nonporous and easily cleanable to ensure the virus cannot hide out, Czarnowski turned to relatively old-school plywood and Sintra for materials. In short order, it had a prototype built in its Atlanta warehouse. But there was another problem. Based on reports there are 10,000 people needing hospital rooms in New York alone, Simonette and his team concluded there's a need for 40,000 portable and modular walls – considering each room requires four walls. He knew that Czarnowski couldn't come close to filling that capacity in any short-term range. So he reached out to industry competitors-turned-collaborators – including Derse Inc. and Exploring Inc. – to see if they were interested in joining the effort. They were. The coalition is working on a website to share the CAD designs so other fabricators can chip in as well. And as long as everyone is using the same design, more facilities can contribute to the overall fabrication ensuring that materials from several different distribution points can seamlessly marry together. "What it takes is critical and design thinking, and that's what we do all the time," Simonette said. "We just have to switch our line of thinking from promoting a brand to protecting an industry and protecting our country." The collaborators are currently coordinating with hospitals and governments to see where there's a need, and when they're called on to deliver, they're ready.