One of the best ways to get a sense of what is going on in our industry (and that of our clients’) is to walk a show floor.

I will be at the HeliExpo on Sunday, February 21, at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. The show opens tomorrow and runs through Tuesday. Read More...

It is interesting how trade shows are still not dead, despite the increased use of social and/or new media. Take the recent NBAA show from last fall in Orlando.

Emily Feliz of Avionics Magazine reported in a recent Editor’s Note that while the show itself, from a traditional perspective, was down, the emergence of a spirit of connectivity prevailed.  As she notes that while space went empty and numbers of attendees and exhibitors had declined from previous years, there was a spirit of connectivity in the hall. Read More...

Our colleague, Kimberly Williamson of Aviall, just returned from the Dubai Air show in the United Arab Emirates. She brought back these photos of the show.

The stand was crafted by Two Heads, an exhibit provider in The UAE and London.  It relies on the backwall graphics and a few display cabinets to tell the story.  Like most international shows, it had substantial meeting space and a notable reception area. Read More...

Our colleague, Kimberly Williamson of Aviall, was at the recent NBAA show in Orlando. She filed this report for us with her observations of the 2009 edition of the show:

“The National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA) 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention took place 20-22 October 2009 in Orlando, Florida.  According to Aviation Week, this year’s convention showed signs of the industry’s distress, with attendance dropping to the second lowest level in 15 years and some key exhibitors missing from the convention floor.  Approximately 23,000 attendees were at this year’s show as opposed to 31,000 at last year’s convention.” Read More...

A client just shared with me her internal trade show program plan. Great stuff and shows vision.

While it has the requisite charts and graphs showing costs and shows and timelines, it also includes direction, how vendors are managed and a long-term expectation of where the program is headed. Read More...

Our colleague just returned from the Paris Air Show with a story that, in this day and age, is a bit unbelievable. But given our source, undeniably true.

Having hired a limo service for cars (for execs) and a bus (for staffers), it seemed that all was going well. the execs had drivers who were on time, knew their routes and spoke when appropriate. The bus, however, was quite a different story. Read More...

One of the difficult things to do in exhibit management is change course when it comes to presentation. Most times, strategy drives these changes. Lately, cost and a realization of what a real ROI is has helped make the decision.

Our colleagues at Aviall made changes based upon both.

At the Paris Air Show, Aviall showed less hardware and product than they have in previous years. They are using more graphics and using storytelling by staff to portray the products as opposed to actually displaying things. This accomplishes several things:

• Sharpens the focus of Aviall’s mission from the product to the process
• Reduces expenses by lowering freight and drayage costs as well as saving time in filing paperwork to import and export displays and products.

This evolution has helped reduce clutter and cost and help tell more of the Aviall story, since it is now not focused just on product, reports Kim Williamson of Aviall. Read More...

Our colleague, Kimberly Williamson of Aviall, recently returned from the Paris Air Show at LeBourget Field. She filed this report for us.

“The show went well for us,” Kim said. “while the rain was a disadvantage for those with outdoor displays, it drove traffic indoors to our stand,” she said. Read More...

Watch this space. The Paris Air Show opens today at Le Bourget.

This show should be quiet. With airlines asking for their orders from Boeing and Airbus to be delayed, the crash of the Air France jetliner in the Atlantic and the Boeing Dreamliner’s maiden flight not taking place until after the show, look for news from other areas. Read More...

One of the more interesting and original ideas to come out of the MRO Show this year was this product display.

At first glance, this looks like a skid arrived at the booth and was overlooked and not unpacked. In reality, it did several things, according to Kim Williamson, trade show manager for Aviall.

Kim explained that it shows the range of product types as well as the uniformity of product packaging. As always, Aviall is the “box the parts come in.” Read More...