Recent Posts

Jul 08, 2019 by Michelle Bruno
When characterizing future business-to-business meetings, conferences and trade shows, a number of frameworks come to mind, including experiential, engagement-focused and personalized. While all three strategies are important, personalization is one that resonates most with attendees. Acknowledging customers and meeting their needs (sometimes unexpectedly) is a central tenet for business success. The following emerging technologies that empowers these key moments of personalization will shap...  

Jun 19, 2019 by Michelle Bruno
Using basic booth design elements can lead you to a very clean and functional design—something two dimensional. But if you want to add another dimension, one offering light, movement and interactivity, SmartSource and ABCOM Technology Group have come together to offer a suite of the industry’s most innovative technology solutions. Made You Look The 27” Giant iTab kiosk (it comes in a 42” size also) looks like an oversized smartphone. It acts like one too. Featuring a native var...  

May 22, 2019 by Lillian Taylor
For players and particularly for coders, writers, designers, and developers, gaming is serious business. Today’s gamers increasingly expect sophisticated, immersive experiences, making a developer’s hardware and software requirement quite robust. Some of the latest advances that are revolutionizing the gaming industry include face and voice recognition, gesture control, virtual reality with photorealistic graphics, and the ability to participate in real-time, multiplayer games regardless of ...  

May 07, 2019 by Michelle Bruno
One could argue that the sole purpose of a trade show exhibit is to attract attention. To do that, booth designers rely on basics, such as furniture, walls, carpeting and graphics. Some also turn to mood-enhancing components, such as lighting, color and sound, to draw in, even motivate attendee prospects. One category of booth fittings straddles the line between booth infrastructure and aesthetics. The growing selection of light-emitting-diode or LED solutions can make a booth stand out from...  

Apr 10, 2019 by Lillian Taylor
By their nature, industry events and trade shows offer a prime setting to engage audiences. You have a captive audience that’s already interested in what you have to offer. In fact, the Center for Exhibit Industry Research (CEIR) states that 99% of marketers believe trade shows offer unique value that other marketing mediums do not. But let’s face it, we’re all competing for attention on the trade show floor. So how do you make your exhibit stand out among a sea of other marketers who ...  

Mar 27, 2019 by DeDe Mulligan
This shouldn’t be surprising; most professionals feel meetings are a waste of time. In fact, of the 2,250 senior business professionals that were surveyed by Barco, 93% feel stress because time is wasted, and deadlines are missed due to business meetings. In fact, 12% think these discussions contribute to lost promotions and sales opportunities. All because information isn’t available or captured effectively. However, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to show real promise in th...  

Mar 03, 2019 by Michelle Bruno
The theme for this year’s ExhibitorLive, “Connect with Your Species,” took engagement to another level. The annual event, which includes an exhibition of the top technology suppliers in the trade show and corporate event marketing space, wrapped up on February 27 in Las Vegas. While augmented reality, virtual reality and holograms were the stars of the show, there were plenty of other technologies on display to capture the imagination and business sensibilities of event marketers. E...  

Jan 30, 2019 by Michelle Bruno
Meeting planners have lots of choices to make when placing their events in hotels. Some of the demands that hotels make are non-negotiable. Using an in-house audio-visual service provider is not one of them. In most cases, planners are entitled to utilize the services and expertise of a preferred, third-party AV contractor. They have certain “rights” which they can express during the contract negotiation process. PLANNERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO: Ask the hotel whether or not the use of a...  

Jan 24, 2019 by DeDe Mulligan
A milestone in our lives, Graduation season is right around the corner. With roughly 7,000 higher learning institutions planning these ceremonies twice a year along with department receptions, campus festivities, career fairs, and seasonal galas, it can be challenging to create a memorable experience for the graduates, families and faculty. Want to make this event even more special? Make it shorter? Less stressful? Follow these ideas over the next several months to meet these objectives....  

Jan 11, 2019 by Cynthia Corona
Film festivals big and small have proven to be an economic boon for the localities that host them. Take for example the Sundance Film Festival, which over an 11-day period in 2017 generated $151.5 million for the Utah economy. Even lesser known festivals can draw tens of thousands of attendees, like the International Palm Springs Film Festival, which attracts over 160,000 attendees to the small city of Palm Springs, whose resident population is less than 50,000. While few festivals have t...