Trade Show TalesBlog

Word on the Street — April 12th thru April 16th

April 18th, 2010 Mel White COMMENTS

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

“On the Road Again”!

I hope last week was a great one for you! It certainly was for me. I was on the road visiting customers and partners. I also met with several “future” partners.

Here are some of the things I learned that continue to give me hope for the state of the trade show industry.

#1 — Sales are increasing everywhere.

Mostly inline displays but A LOT OF THEM. I received many positive comments about the Classic Hybrid lines such as Perfect 10, Magellan, and Sacagawea. Distributors appreciate the design differences they see in our lines.

#2 — The outlook, while still tenuous, is looking brighter.

Our crystal ball shows that sales are increasing, which is what we all want. There’s more chatter about ordering new displays and attending shows.

#3 — Smaller island designs are coming back. This fall looks good in that regard.

Mainly 20 x 20 and 20 x 30 hybrids, but with good budgets. Yippee!

#4 — New product development at Classic is in full swing.

Expect some unique product designs from Classic in Q3. We’re keeping it under wraps for now, but I promise you they will be truly different.

#5 —  Our partnerships are stronger than ever.

I am anticipating a big announcement as it relates to ClassicMODUL sometime in the next six months. But again, I’ll just tease you with that for now.

Everyone during my trip seemed to agree that May, June and July are “wait and see” months. There’s a great deal of optimism right now, and from the look of things, we expect the normal summer doldrums to be healthier this year.

So . . . to those I visited, had nice meals with, had productive meetings with, played games with at Dave and Busters, and planned the future with . . . thanks so very much for making my week enjoyable and productive.

Be well and have a safe and restful weekend. Let me know what you are hearing and seeing in your market.

–Kevin Carty

http://twitter.com/kevin_carty
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-carty/3/800/32a

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Polarized Artwork on an Inline Hybrid Display

April 12th, 2010 Mel White COMMENTS

One of the luxuries of working in the trade show business, particularly as a manufacturer, is seeing so many creative displays and graphics. Not a day goes by that we don’t witness something impressive. But there are those days when we see something truly spectacular.

The images shown in these photos and video were designed by Austine Studios for Maui Jim Sunglasses. The Classic Exhibits distributor was Chris Chase at Everything Tradeshows. When you first glance at this Visionary Designs exhibit, the backlit graphics are dull and obscured, but put on a pair of polarized glasses, in this case Maui Jim sunglasses, and the images are instantly transformed into a vibrant, tropical mosaic. It’s AMAZING! See for yourself . . .

Without Polarized Glasses

With Polar

With Polarized Glasses

–Mel White
http://www.linkedin.com/in/melmwhite mel@classicexhibits.com Classic Exhibits Network (LinkedIn)

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Word on the Street — April 5th thru April 9th

April 11th, 2010 Mel White 1 COMMENT

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

Got Any Secret Travel Tips?

Busy week. On Monday and Tuesday, we hosted a small group of distributors for an extensive training session. On Wednesday, I was putting the final touches on a business trip for this coming week. I’ll be traveling to three separate destinations, and each destination has a distinctly different agenda. This is a complicated trip, and it made me realize that although I travel frequently, I don’t consider myself either a road warrior or an travel expert.

However, experience has taught me a few things about business trips, so I’d like to share some of my tips. There are many readers of this blog who travel far more than me, and I know everyone would enjoy hearing your tips, tricks, and insights for a successful business trip too.

Appointments

When I start planning my trip, I focus on “anchor appointments.” These appointments should be scheduled at least three weeks in advance if possible. This is especially critical. It helps you plan your flights, hotels, rentals, and other appointments. Setting appointments well in advance of the trip means that you respect your client’s time and by extension that they respect your time and the effort and expense you’ve made to visit them.

Next, I try to have the rest of my schedule set two weeks before the trip. Then, if someone has to cancel or to move an appointment, I have time to shuffle my other appointments . . . although it can be difficult to make schedule changes at this point.

Now, what are my goals for each appointment? It depends. Some appointments are as simple as saying “Hello,” making sure we’re doing a good job, and taking the distributor to lunch or dinner. Those appointments rarely happen anymore. As Classic and ClassicMODUL have added product lines and online features, I’ve found that distributors are hungry for product and website training, industry news, and sales and marketing feedback.

Some appointments can be 3-4 hours long where I am conducting a complete product overview, including a “dog and pony” show of multiple products and services. Those usually are accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation created and tailored for that specific client.

Lastly, there are the 30 minute appointments. They are few and far between but are often the first step in building a relationship with a prospective distributor. I usually have two or three of these on any given trip. They offer me an opportunity to put a face to a name/voice . . . sort of a quick speed date to get formally introduced, answer some questions, and drop off some samples.

Flights

Now the flights. Personally, I like Sunday flights. Red-eyes if I am traveling to the East Coast so I can just hop of the plane and start my day. Plus, it means I can spend all day Sunday with my family. Many think I am nuts for doing this, but I will let you in on a little secret that Dave Brown from Optima, Reid Sherwood, and I know all too well.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Word on the Street — March 29th thru April 2nd

April 3rd, 2010 Mel White COMMENTS

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

It’s Evolution Baby!

Not only is it a great song 🙂 . . . but it’s a living philosophy at Classic. As a company, if you fail to evolve or fail to take chances then you stop giving people a reason to turn to you for solutions.

For example, we have reinvented our very first hybrid exhibits — the VK-1001, VK-1002, etc. You can see the first wave in Design Monday this week. We’ve made three significant changes. Two are construction related and one is graphics. And, for those of you who are wondering, the price includes ALL the graphics: dye-sub and direct print alike. As well as all the monitor mounts.

But back to the changes:

Segue Hybrid Trade Show Displays

Segue Hybrid Trade Show Displays

Change #1: We have re-engineered the uprights. Gone is the Q 914, a larger square profile, and in is the S 44, a smaller but still structurally solid upright. The smaller profile means less weight and a kit that can (and should) be packed in portable roto-molded cases with wheels.

Change #2: Like the Perfect 10, Magellan, and Sacagawea, the new kits are primarily “knob assembly.” That means less assembly time and much happier customers and much sadder show contractors. I want to cry for them but the tears just won’t come.

Change #3: Silicone Edge Graphics (SEG). To our knowledge, these are the VERY FIRST SEG hybrid exhibit kits in the exhibit industry. Going forward, any hybrid kit, lightbox, or island primarily using SEG technology will go by the name Visionary Designs “Segue.”  I’m sure I don’t have to explain the name, but I can’t help myself. Seg for SEG and Segue for the seamless transition we’re seeing in trade show graphics. Anyone who attended EXHIBITOR saw the proliferation of SEG profiles and applications. Change is coming and it’s coming quickly. Fortunately for Classic and ClassicMODUL, we have over 10 SEG profiles and can bend many of them (unlike our competitors). However, if you want to use Velcro on these kits, just let us know. It’s an easy switch.

Oh yes, one more minor but aesthetically interesting change. We have modified several of the previous “flat” designs to a gentle curve. Looks nice! Adds a really dimension to the standard units.

Lastly . . . take a look at the new, sleeker designed base plates. Pretty nice huh?

To download a PDF showing many of the new SEG profiles, click on this link:  TSP Sheet.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the new look Segue VK kits. Send me an email or leave a comment.

Be well and Happy Easter

–Kevin Carty

http://twitter.com/kevin_carty
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-carty/3/800/32a

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Manufacturing is a Funny and Fickle Business

March 31st, 2010 Mel White 2 COMMENTS

classic_qualityManufacturing is a funny and fickle business. Products are designed, engineered, built, tested . . . then re-engineered, re-tested, and finally launched (hopefully to eager and admiring customers). Most companies do their best to get it right. They care about quality, especially on new products.

I’ve been in the trade show exhibit business long enough to have seen some oddities regarding product launches. I once worked for a company that introduced a new pop up that was an engineering masterpiece. I’m still in awe of the engineer who developed the self-locking hub. At the time, everyone, and I mean everyone, thought there were no new wrinkles in pop up displays. They were wrong. Everything about this pop up frame was remarkable . . . except for one thing:  the plastic. The engineer spec’d the wrong plastic and the brittle plastic broke within two or three months. The company bit the bullet however, despite having $50,000 in plastic parts, and modified the molds and re-ordered the parts with the correct plastic.

But what about existing products? For years there was a pop up manufacturer that sold a frame with plastic connectors. The connectors would break if you didn’t baby them. And rather than re-design the connectors, the manufacturer solved the problem by basically ignoring the real problem. Instead, whenever you bought a new pop up, they would include a repair kit which included additional connectors. I believe the term was “field repairable,” which meant that it was “field breakable.” Many companies expend all their energy on new product development and ignore existing products. After all, when it comes to existing products, it’s easy to blame the customer for not installing it correctly or not reading the instructions or simply not being satisfied with “good enough.”

You’re probably wondering if I have a point. Classic is not a “field repairable” or “good enough” company, at least I don’t think we are. But, we’re also not infallible. We sometimes make mistakes, but those mistakes are quickly rectified and then the solution is re-designed into future products.

For example, the Sacagawea Portable Hybrid Display has undergone several enhancements since its introduction about 10 months ago. We modified the base plates to make them lighter. In addition, we replaced hex key connections on the backwall with knobs to make the displays easier to set-up. Recently, we modified the horizontal spline connector, which makes the connection tighter and eliminates a small gap in the horizontal crossbar. I don’t know that anyone ever complained about it, but it bothered us and our Production Engineer came up with a slick and simple solution. We now use this solution for the Magellan Displays as well. I can’t show it to you (since I don’t want to give our competitors any ideas), but I will show you the result. See the photos below.

Modified Horizontal Crossbar on Sacagawea Hybrid Display

Modified Horizontal Crossbar on Sacagawea Hybrid Display

Now I’m generally not someone who likes to tell tales, but I do love a good story. Do you have any examples of products or solutions where you were told by the manufacturer that they were “good enough”? Or you were given a solution that wasn’t really a solution, but just a band-aid. How do you respond to that logic?

–Mel White

http://www.linkedin.com/in/melmwhite
mel@classicexhibits.com
Classic Exhibits Network (LinkedIn)

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