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The ICC Sydney has been open to the public for nearly a year now and it has already seen great success. This leading exhibition, convention and entertainment venue is delivering some very positive business outcomes and is fast becoming one of the world’s most desirable event destinations. The 50th anniversary of the Sydney International Boat Show was recently hosted over five days and took over the facilities offered by the ICC. It fully activated all 32,600sqm of exhibition space, along with the 5,000sqm event deck and Cockle Bay wharf, which housed 900 boats.

Keeping up with technology can be hard – whether it’s the latest phone, a new app or our new interactive screens. But one thing is for sure we all need to keep informed of what is happening to stay on top of our game! 

Of course Displays 2 Go is well placed to see what’s happening at a local level, but what about trends in other countries?

ITR Events has spent the past two years collecting a sizeable amount of data. They visited more than 136 exhibitions, analysed more than 12,376 stands in the UK, and have come up with some interesting facts.

So you need to buy a new screen for your business, but is there really that much difference between a consumer screen and a commercial one – apart from the price?

Maybe it’s something that we take for granted or maybe we just don’t notice them, but acrylic display cubes are everywhere! The next time you’re out shopping take a look in shop windows, keep your eyes open at exhibition stands or in museums, all places where you can find these cubes, and notice how they are used to great effect to showcase products at their very best.

In our industry we know the importance of standing out from the crowd. But it’s all too easy to blend in when it comes to large exhibition halls like the ICC Sydney. So how do you stand out amongst hundreds of different exhibitors, and how do you cut through all the traffic?

We all expect to have information at our fingertips these days, whether it’s on our mobile phones, our tablets or computers. Touch screens are all around us and they are becoming extremely commonplace. It’s amazing how quickly touchscreens have come from a technological fantasy to something so widespread that it’s now considered standard. We only have to look at how much the mobile phone has advanced over the past decade to see how fast technology is advancing.

Sampling is still a massive component in the marketing mix, and there is often no better way to get a new product to market than by giving away samples. But how do you get noticed? How do you make some noise in an already crowded marketplace?

The exhibition industry is changing, and so are the products we use. There’s no need to organise a truck to collect your stand and then have three people ready to erect it – today’s products are much more portable and lightweight. 

When thinking of free samples we inevitably think about food and drink, because the food and beverage industries have made sampling an integral part of their marketing strategy for years. Despite how quickly our world is changing, and the technology that goes with it, the tradition of sampling still lives on albeit in a more non-traditional way.

With Aldi and Lidl opening stores across Australia and giving the traditional grocery stores a run for their money, is there really any room for a third grocery discounter?

German retail company, Schwarz Group, has plans to bring the hypermart chain Kaufland to Australia.

Kaufland has seen success in Eastern Europe with more than 1,230 stores and has a strategy similar to Lidl and Aldi but sells branded products as well as its’ own discount merchandise.