Over the last two or three years, technology, multimedia, green initiatives, tension fabrics and interactive audience engagement have been the driving trends in tradeshow exhibit design.  These trends are still in the forefront today, but morphing as exhibitors and exhibit design firms adapt to doing more with less.

Exhibit City News asked three industry creative professionals to provide insight to what they see as the sustaining and/or emerging trends in Exhibit Design for 2009. Keith Goldberg, senior vice president of Client Strategy EWI Worldwide; Mark Pearlman, design director at Delphi Productions and Miles TeSelle, design director at DisplayWorks,
provided their expertise. Q: What are the hot trends in Exhibit Design today? Goldberg: Two of the key trends are “green” design and technology. In fact, I would say they have evolved from trends to cost-of-entry offerings.

With companies committed to sustainability (sometimes more for public relations reasons than for strongly heldconvictions) the need to deliver green solutions has become imperative. With green materials and solutions now costing close to the same dollars as traditional materials, there are fewer reasons not to go green.

Next is technology, where the real revolution is taking place. On the show floor, everything from highly person-Engagement, green technology still driving design Randy Smith Memorial Golf Classic Page B16 alized journeys (thanks to the more ambitious applications of tools such as Radio Frequency Identification or RFID) to engagements that offer experiences such as three-dimensional and augmented reality, the ability to engage the audience has never been greater. The key will be to ensure it is done strategically and with relevance.

For example, when individuals exit an exhibit space at an auto show, how cool is it to be able to know what vehicle they spent the most time ogling, and then offer a video game featuring the vehicle that they can download right on their mobile phone?

And, how much more receptive do you think they'll be when they receive a follow up contact from their local dealer offering to deliver that same vehicle to their doorstep for a test drive? But technology is also making its biggest strides away from the show floor.

Leveraging online tools such as Twitter, Facebook and other micro sites to engage potential attendees well in advance of live events, turns them into hand raisers, and begins lead incubation weeks before the curtain goes up. By beginning this dialogue in advance of the show, you can ensure that key opinion leaders, VIPs, and other high potential attendees will enjoy a more  rewarding experience come show day. Technology tools have also made the incubation of customer leads an amazing, rewarding science unto itself.

The ability to collect large amounts of data and break them down into the most granular forms has made the pursuit of targeting and converting leads not only more fascinating, but much more successful. Pearlman: One of the biggest trends is what I like to call Tensioned Fabric 2.0. Pillowcased tensioned fabric has been all the rage for years, but recently a few new approaches have come on the market that will change how we think about fabric structures.

The first is already growing in popularity and that is the use of an aluminum frame that accepts fabric with a welt or bead detail on four sides that tucks into a channel in the aluminum frame. This can create all sorts of large graphics, projection surfaces and hanging elements with just four beams and a flat piece of fabric. Since the sewing and engineering is simplified, we'll see all sorts of graphic houses that will be able to provide this type of printing service. I think that we are also on the cusp of the return of the video wall. NEC and Samsung have both introduced large LCD screens for the retail (store display) market that have very thin bezels.

Gang these together and add low cost software and you can create your own video wall. Also, several rental vendors have introduced off-the-shelf multi-touch sensors for video displays so I expect to see the multi-touch/multi-user experience popping up more often on the show floor. TeSelle: I'm seeing a lot more interest in sustainable materials. It's nice to see new options from materials suppliers. Also, clients have hired us to create interactive presentations.Not just fly-throughs, but true interactives where you can do a self-guided exploration.Q: Do you see any emerging trends that have yet to be broadly applied across the industry?

Will they take hold? If so, how and when? Goldberg: The industry is fighting one trend that is not going away: clients want to spend less on walls, and more on engagements that are customer facing.  The industry must evolve from a tactical vendor into a strategic marketing partner. The companies that are doing this will survive and thrive. Those who don't will become commodities, and that is already happening. When you are bought and sold on price, because clients believe that the guy down the block can basically do the same thing, then you're dead. For that reason, smart shops are stocking up on the kind of strategic and creative talent once the provenance of advertising agencies, digital shops and marketing consultancies.

Pearlman: While there are many exciting trends in our industry-interactive technologies (virtual exhibits), RFID applications and sophisticated uses of digital media-it's easy to be seduced by the sizzle at the expense of the steak. Our roots are in the theater - a place where storytelling is key. We tell customers that if they want to connect with their audiences, they need to think of their event or exhibit as a story that requires setting, character development, mood and tone.

Storytelling is at the heart of good conversation. Media integration (the multi-touch video wall mentioned above) is just one example. Event environments are also an important trend and one we've supported with in-house capabilities for over eight years. We are starting to see these capabilities be more highly utilized by our clients. Our core belief is that content is key to all successful events. Recently at the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) 2009 show in Boston, we helped a client incorporate a multi-touch experience into their booth to reaffirm their market positioning as the undisputed science and technology leader. Together we accomplished this by focusing on their new and exclusive offerings, using a high-energy, interactive booth to educate attendees.

The multi-touch experience - consisting of a large vertical touch screen measuring 16 feet 10 inches by 5 feet, and individual interactive touch table displays - helped our client reach their goal by drawing attendees into the booth using its wow factor and then providing the vehicle needed to teach them about the company's new and exclusive offerings. While the large multi-touch wall was a dramatic, impressive way to create a big attraction, the smaller interactive tables have use for a range of smaller, more intimate applications well beyond HRS. So, reuse of those components will help stretch the experience and the dollars associated with these unique, media-driven display units beyond a single show use. TeSelle: I would say that, although there's interest in sustainable materials, there is also a premium price. I don't see those materials outpacing the others until the price becomes more competitive. Engagement, green technology still driving design.

Q: What are your customers asking for?

Goldberg: Measurement! Measurement! Measurement!

Pearlman: Our customers are asking us to readdress their programs. "How do we do more with less?" is on everyone's lips. Part of our answer is to get back to the basics while helping customers set clear priorities and then allocating resources accordingly; putting budget dollars where they will have the greatest impact.  To provide this kind of service you need many different arrows in your quiver.

This philosophy was the driving force behind our merger with ICON Exhibits earlier this year. Today, our total offering is more robust and our geographic reach is broader and both of these allow us to extend greater economies to all of our customers. Together with ICON, we are responding to clients' requests to "do more with less" by creating solutions that are scalable, reusable, multi-platform and can be repurposed. By providing this strategic thinking we can provide smart solutions without sacrificing creativity, which is something we, and our clients, greatly value. TeSelle: Our clients are more interested than ever in rental properties, re-purposing existing elements, and saving weight. We enjoy that kind of challenge.

Q. How has the downturn in the economy affected exhibit design?

Goldberg: In the past year or two, we have been supporting clients who represent a mix of being a bit scared, a little unsure, less flush with marketing dollars, and either afraid to take risks or very much believers that this is the time to make bold moves. As a result, we have had clients who have moved courageously to use this period as an opportunity to grab market share and their strategy is paying off. On the other hand, some clients have gone a bit quieter. This crazy stew is not roiling around as much anymore. It's more of a simmer as I think peoples' gut feelings are that the worst of the storm may be passing, but the road signs say ‘proceed with caution.' Pearlman: I think the downturn has given a lot of exhibit companies a chance to address how their business and the industry operate. We have seen several exhibit companies and vendors close facilities, but on the flip side, it gives everyone the chance to reflect and say "how can we better provide great solutions to our client in good times and bad"? Just like our clients, we have to do more with less. TeSelle: Budgets are obviously tighter. But by employing hybrid custom/ rental solutions, as well as the points above, we can design to fit the budget.

Q. Do you still do proposals on spec?

Goldberg: We don't do a lot of free spec designing because we believe
that the answer is not a design, it comes from the strategy behind the design. On high-potential RFPs [Request for Proposal] or new business opportunities, we will make a case-by-case determination about including a design. When deciding on speculative work we take these into consideration:

• Does the opportunity represent enough long-term upside?
• Does the request or competition seem fair?
• Will we have the opportunity to get immersed in the project with the client so that the design does not become just another player in a creative beauty contest, but addresses a strategic challenge with a solution that adds value.
Pearlman: We've begun to look at the RFP process a little differently. We still do RFP responses on spec, but we try and answer the RFP well without expending the resources we would have in the past. It is possible to give the client an incredible solution without three concepts that are all fully computer rendered and animated. For many years, players in the industry have tried to one-up each other when responding to RFPs and it has become a keeping-up-with-the-Jones' affair. In turn, those issuing RFPs have automatically started to expect an extensive
design deliverable without any sort of commitment.