Things You Can Use

An interactive name badge now enables exhibitors to capture and offer more information electronically. nTAG looks like a traditional conference badge. However, nTAGs can exchange data with one another by way of infrared sensors. When attendees register for an event, information can be gathered on their interests, buying authority, budgets, etc. and downloaded into the nTAG.

Same thing with exhibitor information. As attendees approach the exhibitor's booth on the tradeshow floor, information is automatically transferred from tag to tag, requiring no action on the part of the wearers. At the same time, the tags' screens illuminate and display information on shared interests.

Show information, such as schedule and conference room changes, can also be transmitted by show management to attendees' and exhibitors' nTAGs, and nTAGs can also be used for on-site polling and surveying.

Contact George Eberstadt, (212) 721-4979.

The Listening Lounge is an online audio service of Interpretive Exhibits. It offers information and advice to exhibitors from a variety of tradeshow professionals and consultants. Online audio is not necessarily new; more and more radio stations have offered it as an alternative to listeners for years.

Now there's something for the tradeshow exhibitor. Tim Patterson, Interpretive Exhibits' director of sales and marketing, and a longtime radio industry veteran, has conducted telephone interviews with exhibitor consultants and the industry's most respected exhibitor advisors. These one-on-one conversations are posted online at www.interpexhibits.com as streaming audio using the common Real Audio format, as well as downloadable MP3s.

New interviews are posted every two to three weeks, and subscribers to Interpretive's newsletter, the 60-Second Tradeshow Tip Sheet, are the first to know about the new interviews, including information exhibitors may not normally hear about on the tradeshow floor.

Contact Tim Patterson, (503) 371-9411.

Convention Retrieval Services is offering lead retrieval units that are cordless and include added capabilities.

The cordless scanners (priced from $175 per show, with volume discounts available) can supply detailed reports on every attendee that visits the booth. CRS also offers a handheld scanner with note-taking and survey-completing capabilities.

The manufacturer has tried to design an intuitive system that helps exhibitors organize and follow up on important leads. Lead retrieval reports are available in a variety of formats – word processing, spreadsheets or databases – and provide hard copies of reports or disks.

Contact Karen Erkelens, (480) 598-0020.

AmStand Displays is offering what it claims is the industry's first 10-foot, curved pop-up display. The self-contained exhibit requires no assembly and opens up from a carrying case into a simple booth whose main element is a backwall, usually featuring a graphic with the exhibitor's message. The product was recently enhanced with the addition of a curved backwall look with a seamless dyed graphic printed on a wrinkle-free polyester fabric called PolyFLEX.

Pop-ups are nothing new, said AmStand Vice President of Sales Don Johnson, but with PolyFLEX there are "no clumsy magnetic bars and bulky carpet panels or delicate graphics. That means there's no heavy case to fight getting in and out of your car." The frame has a nylon Velcro "hook" permanently mounted on all four sides. The one-piece graphic panel has a similar nylon "loop" tape sewn on its four sides, and the graphic is mounted on the frame, where it stays between shows.

Contact Don Johnson, (941) 359-8779.

Want to help ensure that your prospects keep and read your product literature, instead of dumping it because they have too much to carry home? According to its makers, the AD-CASE goes a long way toward solving that problem.

It's easy to carry, can be checked as luggage on a plane, shipped via United Parcel Service or FedEx from the show or hotel, slid under a plane seat or into an overhead compartment, or sent via U.S. mail. The AD-CASE also works as a billboard and a sponsorship opportunity. It stands out prominently on crowded tradeshow floors, providing maximum exposure for your product or service.

It's great for storage, becoming a "silent salesman" and ensuring your message has lasting impact. The custom-imprinted corrugated briefcase (about $1.50 each in large quantity) comes with a self-closing mail slot that allows for the easy collection of literature, and a sentry seal is available for shows with security concerns.

Contact Kristy Kasper, (760) 603-9600.

Ron Ligrano, owner of Marketech, has exhibited at 75 tradeshows and attended another 60 over the last 35 years. So when he says he knows what every tradeshow attendee wants – not to have to carry anything – he knows what he's talking about. And anything that makes it easier for attendees to walk away from exhibitors' booths with all the product literature and giveaways is a plus.

So Ligrano developed Show-Cart, the promotional tradeshow briefcase and cart. He claims that with Show-Cart (which only weighs two pounds), fatigue is less of a problem for attendees, so they can spend more time walking the show. The carts are equipped with removable, shippable container boxes. In fact, different boxes with different graphic images can be given out every day of the show; twice a day if that's what exhibitors want. Thus attendees can take more literature.

Show-Cart's collapsible handle makes for easy out-of-the-way storage. It holds 15 pounds per box, fits in all airline overheads, and the box and cart can be used with or without each other.

Contact Ron Ligrano, (323) 646-2359.