Protecting Your Investment
A custom exhibit is often a significant investment of your business’ marketing dollars. To provide maximum ROI, your exhibit may need to be successfully deployed at a certain number of tradeshows or conferences. Though there isn’t a magic formula dictating the lifespan of your booth, there are a number of factors that age your exhibit and potential strategies, in partnership with your exhibit house, to offset them.
Five Factors that Age Your Exhibit
1. Wear and Tear
Damage can occur in shipment, during installation/dismantle, as show-site drayage, and through use at the event. And damage can range from surface-level, cosmetic blemishes to large-scale structure failure.
Paint and finish are often the first to wear in transit or through handling and use.
2. Rebranding
Updates to your organization’s logo, color palette, and more can impact the lifecycle of your booth. Specific promotions, product launches, or audience-targeting methodologies may date your exhibit properties.
Rebrands don’t just impact digital and print collateral – they can affect your exhibit assets, too!
3. Tech and Tools
Technology components require regular maintenance and can also become obsolete faster than other exhibit elements. Though Smart TVs and LED panels are now considered in-booth technologies staples, new innovations are constantly emerging!
Smart TVs are now the norm for in-booth displays.
4. Design Trends
Keeping an exhibit looking modern and visually current can be difficult in the face of changing aesthetic styles. These are often influenced by the international fashion and furniture industries.
Interior decorating and design trends cycle seasonally.
5. Cheap Materials
Though the use of budget materials and low-quality parts may save in the short term, these items often cannot withstand regular use. Frequent installation and dismantle can also be tough on substandard frames and connecting mechanisms.
Even small components can impact the structural integrity of your exhibit build.
How to Extend the Life of Your Tradeshow Exhibit
1. Regular Repairs
Condit’s custom exhibit crates are meant to prevent considerable damage as your booth properties travel, whether across the country or just across the convention center. And refurbishing your exhibit properties, including the repair of small blemishes and slight imperfections, is a standard part of our warehouse’s maintenance and inspection process prior to carefully storing your exhibit. We can help you understand what to expect beyond this, too – for example, advising when damage would be covered by shipping insurance or that your flooring will likely be the first item to “wear out” in your space.
Condit’s warehousing process ensures accurate inventory, timely repair, and safe storage.
2. Graphic Refresh
Consistency across channels, including your event marketing properties, is crucial to the integrity of your brand. Themed graphics for specific events or otherwise dating any materials can cause waste, and they should be used with care and consideration. Calling out specific products and services or appealing to regional audiences at local events through graphics may require more frequent reprints, but they can keep the overall design and build of your exhibit relevant, fresh, and in use for a longer period of time.
Sustainable graphic materials and printing techniques are available for more frequent visual refreshes.
3. Tech Rental
Renting tradeshow technology and activations for your exhibit is often a suitable workaround to create flexibility from show to show and to save on costs related to purchase and maintenance. This also provides the opportunity to upgrade more easily, as we have seen, for example, with monitors that continue to become thinner and the rise of more compatible smart displays.
Condit’s expansive rental inventory and rental vendor network are available to find the tools and tech to fit your exhibit needs.
4. Timeless Appeal
Our designers are well-versed in timeless design principles while also striving to stay up to date on the latest and greatest trends by attending international design events like Salone del Mobile. An exhibit with a solid design and strong anchoring components, such as a counter or hanging sign, can be more easily reconfigured for different floorplans and future sizes.
-
- Salone del Mobile exhibit, 2019
-
- Salone del Mobile exhibit, 2019
5. Quality Craftsmanship
The experience of our manufacturing shop is critical to a well-built exhibit, and they’re a part of every single custom project. Their construction expertise, in tandem with sturdy core materials and final finishes, will help your exhibit remain durable and stand the test of time.
Expert metalworkers, woodworkers, and team members from many construction disciplines contribute to your custom booth build at Condit.
Let’s Create a Lifelong Partnership By Creating an Exhibit That Lasts
With proper care and strategic choices, your tradeshow exhibit can last for several years, remaining effective and relevant for many events. To learn more about lengthening the life of your tradeshow exhibit and preserving your investment, contact us. For examples of exhibits that have stood the test of time, we invite you to review our portfolio and case studies.