Trade Show Booths

[Eraser Nubbin]

Hey everyone.
Does anyone out there have a strong grasp on the world of tradeshow booths? I'm finding it overwhelming, there are just way to many choices and options and price ranges. I know it would help to either have a firm budget or a strong idea of what we want to get out of the booth but unfortunately I don't have much of either.

I've been poking around locally and it looks like you can easily spend anywhere from $5,000 to $60,000. I'm quite sure that my boss will be leaning towards the $5,000 end of the spectrum. I found some place on the internet called smartexhibits.com which appears to be pretty reasonable, even after the exchange rate gets factored in. Anyone ever dealt with these guys? We are a little leary of dealing with a internet company in the states. The cost of graphics is on top of the actual display unit but we were thinking that we could just have the graphics printed locally.

As far as the graphics go, is it worthwhile to have them printed at the tradeshow places? They are super expensive but appear to be high quality, scratch resistant yadayadayada. We were thinking of just purchasing the booth and then having the graphics done at a local digital printer to save cost, keeping in mind that this thing will only be used a couple of times a year.

Ya I guess if anyone has any insites or advice to avoid possible pitfalls it would be much appreciated.
Thanks.





Match in the gas tank, boom boom.

[dziner2]

I have used Taylor Displays in Arkansas a couple of times. They do custom builds and have an excellent staff of designers to help you really make the booth worth the money. The last booth I had them build ran about $24K and was a 10'X20' booth with motorized pillars and lots of cool lighting. The company I worked for used the booth for a few years and sold it for $14K then had another built.

Sorry but I dont have thier contact information anymore but I am sure a web search will find them easily.

[Silence04]

D-Frag should chime in on this one... i believe he has some good experience in trade show booths...

<SUP>www.jdcgraphics.net (http://www.jdcgraphics.net/)<SUP>- currentlyunder construction
http://www.jdcgraphics.net/banner.gif

[D-Frag]

Hiya, we should definetly chat. As far as your vendor telling you that your panels are scratch resistent, I can tell you right now do not trust them, that is a flat out lie. Panels are made of polyurethane, and they do scratch.

Now on to your situation. This is the company I contract with, and yes im sure we could help you out. www.exhibitexpertsaz.com (http://www.exhibitexpertsaz.com) but as per my opinion, your best bet is to buy the frame etc. wherever you can. For your graphics, find a local large format digital print house, most should be reasonable, and we are not that bad either.

There are several different kinds of displays too, you have tabletop graphics, POP-UP (which is like wireframing that constricts and expands, perfect for travel), then you have the panel systems which you actually have to put together. Those can take you up to 2 hours, and run alot of money. Be careful on the POP-UPS, because people tend to sell really horrible material, and you won't get more then a year or two out of them. Just be smart at what you buy, and try and buy from a reliable source.

As for quality of work, we offer Lambda prints, which are the best you can get in the industry. PM me if you wish to discuss further.

http://img15.exs.cx/img15/7863/nufrag2nk6zq.jpg

digitalcamwhore (http://digitalcamwhore.deviantart.com/gallery/)

Thanks to vend3r (http://www.graphicdesignforum.com/profile.aspx?f=35&m=97279&p=4762) for the sig

[Eraser Nubbin]

This is the idea that we are toying with. It's pretty plain and simple but we are trying not to take the attention away from the product and are hoping to get people to engage us in conversation over it as opposed to reading info on the panels.
The internet company we checked out will do it for about $5000 without the posters and without custom colours. The local manufacturer is looking for $17500 to do it with custom colours and without the posters.


Match in the gas tank, boom boom.