How the Pros Prep for Trade Shows

Chances are, you’ve been to many trade shows. As a printer, installer or spectator, you know that trade show displays can range from the very simple to the extremely elaborate. The key to pulling off a trade show display without a hitch is good communication with customers upfront.

For help, we turned to two industry pros, Kaine Guidry, a former OEI employee and current print technician in LexJet’s Experience Center, and Bernie Raymond, production manager at Morley, which designs, engineers, fabricates and installs trade show exhibits.

Storytelling on a Grand Scale at Group Delphi

Trade show exhibit design, manufacturing and printing
Photo by Jamie Padgett

With roots in theatrical stage scenery, Group Delphi, based in Alameda, Calif., understands the importance of storytelling. As Group Delphi has grown and expanded its reach, the company’s storytelling approach continues to be the foundation of its work.

“Over the years we’ve transformed the company into what is now our core business: the design, manufacture and management of large-scale trade show programs, corporate events, museum exhibits and, most recently,  retail operations,” says Group Delphi CEO Justin Hersh. “The commonality across these different areas is storytelling. Our interest is in trying to understand what our customers want to tell their audiences and then in finding the environment and experience that most effectively tells that story. We’re more agnostic about the solution and much more interested in delving into the story and finding the most effective way to tell it. Sometimes that may be a permanent installation in a company’s lobby, graphics, multi-media and three-dimensional work. For us, it’s being able to bring a wide variety of tools to the table, working with the client to find the right solutions and delivering those solutions.”

CEO of Group Delphi
Group Delphi CEO Justin Hersh

As Hersh notes, Group Delphi has many tools at its disposal, from wide format and grand format inkjet printing to the use of dynamic digital signage. In other words, at Group Delphi the medium is not the message; the message is the message, and the medium follows.

Hersh sees digital content that arrives on-screen, whether at an event or as part of a display, as a complementary technology to digital printing. “There’s a tendency by the proponents of a new technology to present it as a category displacer,” he says. “However, we see new technology as different media that become complementary to existing media. One of the things that’s exciting to us is that as prices have come down and quality has gone up with wide format printing, the ability to use graphics to change an environment  and then to overlay digital content, providing a level of interactivity, creates an opportunity for a much more dynamic experience.”

Graphics and booth design for Pixar StudiosWhile storytelling is its foundation, Group Delphi has built diversification, integration of media and processes, and a focus on customer service into its corporate culture. Diversification, for instance, helped Group Delphi weather the recent economic storms as the trade show industry suffered. Fortunately, it appears that the trade show business is coming back, but being able to operate in a broad spectrum of markets with a diverse product mix picked up the slack.

“It’s hard to be in a single vertical market and not be concerned about economic volatility,” says Hersh.

“There are few fundamental things that have never changed: we’ve always put creative first, whether it’s our own design or one from an outside agency. We’re always stretching to make sure, no matter how tight budgets are, that we’re delivering on the creative side. We’ve also had a relentless pursuit of quality. Coupled with that is a real focus on customer service. Those are things that never go out of fashion. Other things come and go, but if you do those three things, then you stay on track,” Hersh adds. “With customer service you have to have a lot of visibility at the management level where you’re talking about it all the time. Each employee needs to be deeply ingrained in the culture of the company so that anyone in the organization knows that they have permission to do the right thing for the customer and that the company will back them up. You have to give a lot of power throughout the entire organization, and you have to be comfortable giving people that power. They won’t always make the right decision, but in general they will. The only way to support them is to help them get better at it, but you don’t take that decision-making power away from them.”

The woodshop at Group DelphiUsing this formula, Group Delphi has grown both organically and through the recent merger with General Graphics Exhibits (GGE), a full service trade show and exhibit company, with photo and fine art printing services as well. “GGE offered some of the same services with a stronger presence in the graphics business, enhancing our graphics offering,” explains Hersh.

The merger fit perfectly into the diversification component of Group Delphi’s business model, expanding and enhancing the company’s core capabilities.

“The acceleration of integration is only going to become more important in the future. Customers don’t want to have to go to ten different providers; they want to find companies that can bring design, digital content, graphics and fabrication all in one package. We’ll continue to look for ways to enhance the variety of our services and offerings as well as the way we integrate those services,” adds Hersh. 

The Latest Lifetime Warranty for Trade Show Graphics

LexJet recently added LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film with LexJet 10 Mil PreLume ExhibitGuard to its tradeshow solutions that come with a lifetime warranty against tunneling and de-lamination. The lifetime warranty provides LexJet customers with both peace of mind and an additional sales tool to help differentiate their graphics in the competitive tradeshow market.

The other tradeshow product combinations that come with a lifetime warranty include LexJet’s flagship tradeshow product combination – LexJet Clear PreLume HD backed with one of LexJet’s PreLume Opaque White Backers – and LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film with LexJet 10 Mil PreLume DisplayFlex.

Each product combination has been tested and developed to ensure a solid bond between the two materials – either backer or laminate with the base printable material – so that the graphics will not split, tear or de-laminate, regardless of how many times the graphics are shipped, unpacked, installed, packed and shipped again.

LexJet 10 Mil Opaque Display Film is a bright-white, high gloss polyester film with an instant-dry coating and light blocking layer designed for quick and simple production. It is compatible with dye and pigmented inks on printers that use thermal or piezo printheads. LexJet 10 Mil PreLume ExhibitGuard is a polycarbonate film that enhances both the look and durability of the finished graphics. The laminate incorporates PreLume, an optical reflection technology that ensures brighter and cleaner white areas, producing graphics that stand out and grab the attention of passersby in a variety of indoor applications.