Events

As a business exhibiting at trade shows or exhibitions, one of your key objectives is invariably to stand out and capture the attention of potential customers. However, this is becoming harder and harder to do, particularly within highly competitive industries.

A trend is a general direction in which something is developing or changing. It is something that people are attracted to, they resonate with and are drawn to because they find it attractive or useful.

Marketers have been throwing around the words return on investment (ROI) for centuries as a yardstick of effectiveness for every post-event report. It’s been a common term for so long that it’s often an assumed goal for almost any business project or activity.

The events and exhibition industry is a rapidly growing and competitive market. Every year we see new technology being developed and new display solutions being created, all designed to appeal to attendees.

Events offer a great opportunity to promote products or brands to a large crowd. There’s a tremendous amount of effort that goes along with organising an exhibition or event but, with its temporary nature, some may ask the question: what happens after the event is completed?

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.

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.

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.