Face-to-Face Strategies You Can Start Now for the Return of Business - Part 3

Part 3: Strategies for Permanent Demo Rooms

There’s always something new and exciting happening with our clients, and the exhibit world in general. While we’re certainly dealing with a lot of unforeseen events these days, this is really just another opportunity to try new things; maybe go out on a limb a lot further than you would have, even two months ago. The ideas here will provide you with some action items to work on now, so you can hit the ground running when the time is right.

Solution 3: Permanent On-Site Demo/Training Rooms

We’re talking about permanent installations like demo rooms or training centers. Obviously, the location is important here. You’ll need to consider the location of your customers and your prospects and the ease of getting those people to visit​ you.

These kinds of projects are often a collection of actual demo equipment itself, but also an opportunity for branded elements like a glowing 3D sign, wall graphics and other design elements that allow you to create this flexible space within an entire branded environment.

(Note: The visuals presented here are all things that BlueHive as a company have produced.)

Our exhibit definition for the word vignette is to take the product and try to place it in an environment that helps to sell it. With Corindus, as illustrated above, we’re loosely mimicking a cath lab, so that when the doctor sits down at that controller, they feel like they are sitting in their own cath lab and can see themselves using the product.

To design a space like this, think about the product(s) that you’ll be demoing and think about the setting for it. Should you create a vignette to visually place the product in its natural setting? Should you place the product on a pedestal and make it a star? No matter what, always consider messaging, signage, and graphics to support your efforts. Consider branding and identity, but without being overbearing. ​This is a branded marketing piece, but obviously your goal is to recreate a comfortable environment in which to show everything.

The process a lot of the time has to do with your available space and budget. You can build things out in real life, but we like to think of them more like theatrical sets. If something in the background environment is too large to actually incorporate, you can use wall graphics or integrate AV to still bring that visual into the room. (We once took a monitor and made it look like a window with a pre-canned video playing to make it look like other things were happening outside the environment!)

When it comes to getting value from this investment, you should design with flexibility so that you can not only demo for prospects and clients but also educate and train customers as well as employees.

Let’s look at some larger scale examples:

(Note: The visuals presented here are all things that BlueHive as a company have produced.)

Top Left Image:

This is a normal demo room, just on a much larger scale with accent lighting up above that can be controlled, touchscreens all up and down the hallway, and a big computer center at the end.

Top Right Image:

This is a permanent installation where the products are laid out on the wall. There are demo areas built-in so sales reps can sit down right there with a prospect and pull out the drawers and show all the accessories that go along with those products.

Bottom Left Image:

This NOC—Network Operations Center—incorporates augmented reality tools to be able to cover a breadth of information; particularly data that’s hard to display easily or more information than can be contained in the environment. The visitor would be handed a tablet to create an overlay effect and get much more detailed information without walking into an overwhelmingly full room.

Bottom Right Image:

This idea is about playing with the brand. This was a playful brand to begin with, and so we were inspired to be more playful and fun, incorporating stand-off graphics and little vignettes in the walls to hold the product, in this case strollers and baby seats.

A note on touchscreens, and the need to go touchscreen-less: We’re seeing touch-free interfaces like sensors built into the tabletops and backdrops which can control the existing assets, so you don’t have to necessarily build everything from the ground up if you need to go touch-free.

Conclusion

We’re all tired of feeling like we’re stuck in this hurry-up-and-wait game. These ideas offer several ways to get busy now with the leg work to implement a strategy as soon as you are allowed, helping you further increase exposure and drive sales.​

As groups are allowed to congregate, we should see some live events take place and speed up a return to normalcy. Why not start smaller with live trainings and product demos in your own  permanent center? No investment is wasted; nothing that you do now is wasted. So, let’s get out there and start brainstorming!

Check out Solution 4 from the BlueHive Engagement Playbook, here.

Part 2: Strategies for Traveling Sales Events

There’s always something new and exciting happening with our clients, and the exhibit world in general. While we’re certainly dealing with a lot of unforeseen events these days, this is really just another opportunity to try new things; maybe go out on a limb a lot further than you would have, even two months ago. The ideas here will provide you with some action items to work on now, so you can hit the ground running when the time is right.

Solution 2: The Traveling Sales Event

This is about creating small group, regionalized traveling sales events of any kind. As travel will likely be reduced by both company and government policies, this is an opportunity for your sales reps who might be centralized or perhaps scattered all over the country to be able to focus on their own local and regional opportunities.

Your own research will help you locate a geographical area of interest, and then you can pick a suitable location. Hotels can work as well as dedicated event spaces. We’ve seen co-working and event spaces popping up in many cities, both large and small. Maybe this would be a one-day deal or maybe it’s several days, depending on your audience needs. The traveling event strategy will help you leverage your time as your having prospects come to you, at your chosen location, versus going to them. And you’re controlling the environment, the branded message, and the experience.

In addition to rented event spaces, some engagements might happen at a client’s own location. With one of our clients, Virgin Pulse, they needed to engage their clients they had just signed on and expose those new employee clients to the Virgin Pulse platform. They basically created what we would call a ‘booth in a box,’ which is a kind of kit with exhibit materials that was sent around from location to location.

(Note: The visuals presented here are all things that BlueHive as a company have produced.)

The idea of the booth in a box concept is to have an inventory of these simple standalone pieces that can be organized anywhere based on the actual location. A setup like the one above works in a cafeteria, a lobby, a conference room; you can really lay it out however the space dictates. In this particular configuration, an indoor scenario where the lighting can be controlled, the greenscreen camera worked well, and it was a typical photo-op activity. We filled out the space by flanking the greenscreen area with typical pop-ups; some pulled from their old exhibit and those used in smaller linear exhibits that were especially fitting to be repurposed for this interior event.

Filling out the space could be achieved with additional pop-up screens, portables, and even small furnishings, but really, these booths in a box can be compressed for ease of travel. The reality is, you can ship whatever you want these days, so some of those portable backdrops could be shipped in UPS or FedEx mailers. And you typically don’t have to worry about setup crews for such an event, since these are things you can ship and move easily. What’s more, some of these smaller crate and booth in a box packages can fit in your own car, so you can just bring them in your vehicle and transport them that way.

As always, the big key here is scalability. We wanted to take these same ideas and highlight some visuals of how these could be (later) translated into ‘standard events’:

(Note: The visuals presented here are all things that BlueHive as a company have produced.)

You’ve got these large or very small ballrooms, and you’ve got these simple reusable assets, so having those open spaces to work with are ideal when you’re creating low-contact traffic flows (something we’re all wary about right now).

In a trade show environment, a lot of times you can move into a booth from all angles, so it’s harder to control how people interact with that space, especially in keeping people six feet apart as they progress from one demo to another in an orderly fashion. Conversely, with your own event at such a larger scale, you can control that a lot more. You’ve got wide travel lanes to control that movement; you can incorporate floor graphics to help move people in the right direction with the right spacing. We see a lot of those in supermarkets and retail stores already.

When you start to scale these up, you can bring in things like video walls, light boxes, backdrops, and accent lighting. You control this environment more so than you would control your environment at the trade show. And then you can scale it up even further and start bringing in additional kiosks or demo stations or slide in shield guards between demo stations if you can’t space them out.

Conclusion

We’re all tired of feeling like we’re stuck in this hurry-up-and-wait game. This concept offers several ways to get busy now with the leg work to implement a strategy as soon as you are allowed, helping you further increase exposure and drive sales through these events. In the exhibit world, after all, you don’t need to know your final booth space or hanging sign regulations before you begin the design process. ​So, the idea here is to get the ball rolling now and work towards whatever challenges as they come up. When the information is available, you tailor the design to that need.

Again, expect to see smaller, regional trade shows and events to be the first ones back. ​So, why not start smaller with your own traveling sales event and grow from there? No investment is wasted; nothing that you do now is wasted. Everything you do now can be used on any scale, later.

So, let’s get out there and start brainstorming!

Check out Solution 3 from the BlueHive Engagement Playbook, here.

Part 1: Strategies for Improving Your One-on-Ones

There’s always something new and exciting happening with our clients, and the exhibit world in general. While we’re certainly dealing with a lot of unforeseen events these days, this is really just another opportunity to try new things; maybe go out on a limb a lot further than you would have, even two months ago. The ideas here will provide you with some action items to work on now, so you can hit the ground running when the time is right.

Solution 1: Improving Your One-on-Ones

One-on-one engagements, sales calls, presentations—whatever you may call them. In the past, these meetings were perhaps driven by marketing and sales joining together. But, consider the benefits that your own event experience can add to this mix. They might look a little different than they did a few months ago, considering people wearing masks and sitting six feet away, but, either way, we believe that the key thing is: don’t be boring. Don’t send your reps back out there with the same old stale sales decks. It’s time to up your game. Now, that might mean some improved digital tools, but also consider creating cool displays for them to use in the sales process.

We know that we can’t meet face-to-face yet, but we can warm up our prospects with a unique and exciting mailer right now. This can be something thoughtful and poignant to catch their attention, or it might be part of a face-to-face strategy that is for a meeting that is still yet to come.

A quick analogy: We all get advertisements, promotional pieces and things like this in the mail all the time, and a lot of the mailers will include a little description from the sales rep. Have you ever checked the bottom to see if there’s an actual signature with that description instead of a rubber stamp copy?

The idea here is that you want to be the real signature. You don’t want to be the rubber stamp.

To achieve this, you need to first think about yourself (as the company/brand) and how you visually want to represent yourself and the company so when the piece arrives, your audience instinctively knows what it’s about. Being able to deliver something that’s personalized and custom as well as informative is a great way to ease back into these one-on-one meetings.

Looking at the following examples, the goal is to use these ideas and springboard them forward for your own industry needs:

When you do start to get those one-on-one sales meetings going again, you can bring small amounts of these selling tools together and create an entire display without a lot of exhibit materials.

Conclusion

We’re all tired of feeling like we’re stuck in this hurry-up-and-wait game. This concept offers several ways to get busy now with the leg work to implement a strategy as soon as you are allowed, helping you further increase exposure and drive sales. So, why not start smaller with mailers and portables and grow from there? No investment is wasted; nothing that you do now is wasted. Everything you do now can be used on any scale, later.

Check out Solution 2 from the BlueHive Engagement Playbook, here.

Introduction: Planning Your Own Successful Event

There’s always something new and exciting happening with our clients, and the exhibit world in general. While we’re certainly dealing with a lot of unforeseen events these days, this is really just another opportunity to try new things; maybe go out on a limb a lot further than you would have, even two months ago. The ideas here will provide you with some action items to work on now, so you can hit the ground running when the time is right.

Many of us depend on trade shows and events to create quality selling opportunities for our organizations. With your shows and events currently paused, let’s go back and look at why we do those events in the first place. Your list might be a little bit more elaborate than this one or it might be simpler:

Within your own organization, you may even have many different reasons for doing your different events. You might be looking to create those quality interactions and move the sales needle; you may be in it to expand your thought leadership, or you might look for networking opportunities to create synergies and the passing of ideas between like-minded people.

With this blog series, we’re going to help you create a playbook of options to take the place of trade shows because for now, as you know, we’re not sure when they’re coming back. It’s probably worth noting that things will likely open up slowly, allowing smaller groups to gather first, before green-lighting the larger crowds and the bigger events. So, as you create your plan, keep those smaller group numbers in mind.

Strategy & Planning Considerations

Start by reviewing your objectives and needs. Mapping out your answers to these types of questions will help you gain insight on how to create your own successful event:

Next, identify the audience that you’re looking to attract. Who are your key prospects? And, where is your key audience located?

Then, identify your event technology needs:

Will you need additional tech support from outside your own team? Can you keep things simple, like using a PowerPoint, or will you need something more complex like setting up a global livestream? Do you need remote presenters in different time zones, or even different parts of the world? And lastly, where will this face-to-face take place?

In the following articles to this blog series, we’re going to highlight four ideas for face-to-face engagements that you’ll be able to put to work now so you can hit the ground running when businesses are set to reopen.

Check out Solution 1 from the BlueHive Engagement Playbook, here.

If you’re from Worcester, you’ve probably driven by this building on Stafford St. a thousand times. Maybe you’ve even wondered what goes on in that building whose garage doors are adorned with those blue beehives. Well today, after reading this blog, you’ll know exactly what goes on in the building at 243 Stafford Street.

As those in the exhibit industry know, we (BlueHive) create jaw-dropping environments that immerse trade show attendees in awesome at exhibitions across the globe.

But the work doesn’t stop once the exhibit has been constructed, it’s only just begun.

Before a trade show booth is shipped to a show’s respective location, it’s inspected within the warehouse to ensure that all components utilized in that booth are included. This means that all crates (within which trade show booth components are stored) being shipped are properly and thoroughly inventoried and that all components of the booth are inspected to ensure each singular piece (of which there can be thousands) of the booth is at top-notch quality

After the show, if the booth is a custom-built, client owned structure, the exhibit must be stored until it is needed once again at the next trade show outing. But before the exhibit components are put away into storage, the components are inspected by our warehouse team for damage caused either at the show or during shipping back to our warehouse. Damages are accounted for and repaired and missing booth components are replaced.

After working their mending magic, warehouse workers give the crate in question a blue sticker, signifying that the crate (and the components stored within it) are ready to ship when the trade show halls call once more.
All this happens within the building at 243 Stafford St., Worcester, behind the garage doors adorned with those blue beehives.
The mystery of 243 Stafford St., Worcester, MA, is solved. ? ? ?

Trade show booths are like a giant set of Legos, and like the iconic building blocks, when assembled these 3D creations can be awe-inspiring and thought-provoking brand statements. But what happens behind the scenes to bring these ideas to life? Eric Troy pulls back the curtain to reveal how it all comes together.

1. How is a booth design decided?

Coordination and conversation between the exhibit house and the client must take place before a design can be decided. The client describes aspects of the booth they would like to a project manager, who then relays those ideas to the 3D design team.

The 3D designers then create a computer rendered image of the booth and discuss the concept with the engineering department. This is where the imagination of the booth designer meets the practicality of the engineering department. The engineering department helps narrow down design features that are impractical or that simply cannot be created.

Following this, the design can be brought to the client for review. If they are satisfied, then the booth can be brought to life!

2. What makes up the structure of a booth?

The structure of a booth is largely made up of hollow wood panels. While some booths are exceedingly large, they are nothing more than many smaller parts brought together. These panels range in size to accommodate any booth design and can be made of flexible substrates to allow curved panels, and thus, curved walls.

3. If booths are made of wooden panels, why isn’t there always wood seen?

Plastic laminate is what is seen on the surface of the booth (unless it has had vinyl graphics or other objects adhered or affixed to its surface). Plastic laminate can be textured or smooth and comes in a nearly unlimited selection of patterns and colors. After a panel has been built, both it and the back of the plastic laminate are sprayed with contact cement and joined together.

4. How are panels held together?

Although there are exceptions, two essential parts for the joining of panels are rotolocks and a combination of wingnuts and carriage bolts.

Rotolocks are a two-part fastening system installed on the thick side of a panel. Adjacent panels will have different rotolock components. One will have a male rotolock and the other a female. When the male rotolock is turned it extends and interlocks with the female, thus binding the two panels together.

Carriage bolts are set in predetermined locations where holes have been drilled at equal measurements. Once the carriage bolt has passed through both panels, a wingnut is threaded onto it, bringing the two panels together.

5. How are arches put in elevated locations?

Some booth configurations boast large arches. Raising these arches into position with manpower alone is simply not possible, so how do assemblers get that archway in proper position?

Fork trucks are used to raise the arch into position until fasteners that join the arch and supporting walls are put into place. If the arch is very large, two fork trucks may have to raise the arch into position by lifting the arch at an even rate.

6. How do booths acquire color?

Though there are many ways a booth can achieve its colorful appearance, vinyl graphics are a vital element in achieving this task. Vinyl graphics can be categorized into two general types. Cut graphics and printed graphics.

Cut graphics come on rolls in nearly any color and size.

Printed graphics are custom creations that can be adorned with company names, logos, and catchphrases, but the possibilities of images printed on the vinyl are nearly endless.

7. How are vinyl graphics applied?

Once the booth’s structural components have been built and assembled, the graphics can be applied.

Vinyl graphics are made up of two sides. One with the image or color that shows on the booth, and the other with a thin layer of adhesive. Transfer paper is attached to the adhesive side of the vinyl graphic.

Vinyl graphic applicators start by marking the location the vinyl will be applied. After this has been determined, they tape the vinyl as close to where it will be applied as possible. Next, they peel back the transfer paper, exposing the adhesive.  Graphic applicators work from the center of their desired vinyl location outward, adhering the vinyl to the surface. This allows them to remove air that may have come between the graphic and the surface by pushing it toward – and eventually out of – the edges of the graphic.

8. How is a trade show booth transported?

Crates are storage containers for the pieces that comprise an exhibit and serve as storage containers for the booth when the exhibit is not on the road. Typically, crates are moved with a fork truck into the trailer of an eighteen wheeler which delivers the booth to its destination.

9. How are items in crates kept from moving during transportation?

Crates are fabricated to accommodate each component of a booth. To do this, jig sticks are installed in specific locations inside the crate. Jig sticks are pieces of plywood wrapped in a thick foam that prevent movement of booth components held inside. If improperly installed, the contents of the crates can move, hitting other items and damaging the contents of the crate.

Properly jigged crates are essential for the longevity of a booth’s life.

10. How are exhibit components accounted for after a show?

When a newly made booth is ready to be disassembled and the crates have been properly jigged, workers create a content list for each crate. These lists are very involved and account for every piece of the booth down to the nuts and bolts.

When the booth has been returned to its resting location, workers inspect the content of each crate and cross-reference them with the list to see if any parts are missing or damaged.

Custom designs are always the most popular option, but how can you still make a significant impact on the exhibit floor without busting the bank? The answer is a rental booth, and these five benefits highlight just how effective rental solutions can be.

1) Ease of entry into the world of trade shows

A  trade show booth can be an expensive endeavor. The initial investment can be intimidating especially to those who have yet to experience the benefits of trade shows.

Rental booths come in at a fraction of the cost of their custom counterparts, allowing your company to invest those precious marketing dollars in other avenues.

2) Increased flexibility of booth

For companies considering investing in a custom booth, but are on the fence regarding design, rental booths offer an exciting opportunity to mix and match.

Rental booths allow companies to experiment with their graphic and structural design to see which version performs best on the road.

3) Quicker and easier process

Rental booths are partially comprised of prefabricated components which simplify booth construction and allow a faster production rate than that of a booth made from scratch.

This expedited process could make the difference of being an attraction or an attendant at the tradeshow just around the bend.

4) Capture all show related costs

When the show is over do you want to continue paying for your booth? An owner of a custom booth has to pay storage,  repair, refurbish and eventually, disposal fees when their booth comes back to its resting location.

A rental booth comes with none of those pesky month-to-month costs, once the show is over, so too is your financial commitment to it.

5) Solve overlapping show problems

Trade shows at different locations can often occur simultaneously.  For companies who have an existing custom booth and an active trade show presence, this is a predicament that arises far too often.

It begs the question, “Which show should our brand be represented at?” A rental booth could be the perfect remedy for conflicting trade show schedules, allowing your brand to attend two trade shows at once AND keep you within budget.

By Eric Troy

Product theaters are certainly not new to the mix when considering marketing opportunities available at most tradeshows, including those tradeshows in the healthcare segment of the exhibits industry, as Jackie Beaulieu explains.

If you aren’t familiar, product theaters are dedicated engagement areas that provide a learning opportunity to reach a targeted audience, such as clinicians or HCPs. Quality time and meaningful discussions are the hopeful outcomes of producing a product theater. And while many organizations have sponsored a product theater, success is not a given. Some product theaters are successful and some, not so much.

As someone that has seen both first-hand, I can tell you that in my experience, the first step to success is to read up and ask questions on the association’s rules and regulations related to its product theater offering. Each association structures its rules differently, so it is not always a “one size fits all” product. Ask questions and make the exhibits manager your best friend. Word of warning, not having a comprehensive understanding the rules can make for a costly and unsuccessful venture.

The most obvious difference is that some associations market, register, promote and provide all the operational logistics, while other associations do not. Many associations essentially offer the meeting space and leave the rest for the sponsoring organization to coordinate and arrange. So be sure to find out well in advance what is required to be successful so there is ample time to prepare and promote the product theater to the desired target audience. While a product theater can be an extension of your exhibiting efforts, it will typically require similar efforts to those of a successful exhibit booth. Set goals, pre-market, create educational content, scan badges, and complete follow-up. Again, a bit simplified, but it demonstrates and highlights many of the very same tasks necessary to produce a successful exhibit booth program.

Product theaters are an ideal environment for education in a variety of formats. Depending on the needs of the sponsoring company, product theaters allow for company representatives, researchers or designees to discuss patient educational issues, research, products or to conduct demonstrations. All must have prior approval and availability is usually a first-come, first serve basis, typically available during the day during unopposed hours. Limited availability can make planning and applying for space in a timely fashion, an important part of securing a product theater.

Another important facet to consider are the marketing and promotional materials, both of which must follow the association’s rules as well. Most associations clearly state in the prospectus that all marketing and promotional materials produced by the sponsoring organization include a statement related to continuing education, as well as language that states the association does not endorse the product theater or anything that is related to it in an official capacity. Be sure all of these types of materials are approved prior to printing, and distributed through approved marketing opportunities designated by the association. In other words, read the prospectus and when in doubt, be sure to ask. What a costly and embarrassing mistake to find out at the last minute that a rule has been broken and materials can’t be used.

As alluded to earlier, a product theater is similar to the production of a successful exhibit booth. So it would make sense that additional items to consider related to a product theater are pre-show promotion, signage, speakers, audio visual, meals and lead retrieval. Each of these categories may need different requirements based on the association. Be sure to incorporate each into your overall plan for success. And, if you are giving away a meal, be sure to scan the badges so that CMS Open Payments requirements can be met.

The most important piece of advice is to determine if a product theater will provide the best forum to assist your company in reaching its predetermined goals. When that has been established, read the prospectus and ask questions. Don’t make assumptions. A product theater is an investment and usually includes very specific criteria set forth by the association. So while it is important to work with vendor partners that understand the unique needs of healthcare exhibitors, it is also vital to remember that when there are doubts…ASK! Be sure, either you or your vendor partner develop a strong relationship with the exhibits manager and make them your new best friend…that is a true investment that will pay dividends!