Articles

RBC is a major sponsor of the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay Tour that has been crossing Canada since October 2009 in the lead up to The 2010 Olympic Winter Games Opening Ceremony which will take place at Vancouver's BC Place on Friday, February 12, 2010.  GMR Marketing, an industry leader in mobile marketing, selected kubik to execute the centrepiece of RBC's travelling event, the Eco-Home which was built in a truly sustainable way.

The Olympic Torch Relay Tour will visit over 1000 communities, travelling more than 45,000 kilometres before reaching the Vancouver BC Place.  The Eco-home will participate in 200 community celebrations across Canada giving the public an opportunity to gather and participate in the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay Tour community celebrations.  As the centrepiece of these celebrations, the interactive mobile Eco-Home was housed in a hybrid truck that runs on solar and wind energy and is heated by solar radiant heating.  Tents outside the truck feature and Olympic medal display area, a snowboard simulator, a hockey ring and a green-screen opportunity where visitors can have their picture taken with the Olympic flame.

Inside, kubik constructed an environment with interactive displays that outline how various practices can dramatically reduce our energy usage.  Based on the Olympic medal format of Bronze, Silver, and Gold, the displays use real products, lighting, sound and a new software program called "Augmented Reality" to show how we can use less energy for everyday living.   The interactive elements themselves were created using recycled materials, LED lighting and FSC approved wood products.  The result is a sustainable mobile experience perfectly suited to travelling the road alongside the RBC Olympic Torch Tour.

Has your company incorporated sustainable materials in your special event productions?

Salt Lake City, July 27, 2009 – The CamelBak Products exhibit won the SNEWS Top BOB Award for the best overall booth at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2009. Atmosphere was also recognized for the award-winning Keen and GoLite exhibits at this summer’s show. The best environment was designed and produced by Atmosphere Studios and driven byCamelBak’s vision. This success was the result of a collaborative effort, from the CamelBak CEO to the field services coordinator, where their internal team guided the award-winning design/build process and Atmosphere listened and delivered. “The new exhibit creates a look & feel with brand purpose and product presentation continuity that reinforces CamelBak’s premier market position,” said Kurt Damschroder, Atmosphere Studios’ Design Director.

The exhibit elements and components flow seamlessly in an extremely functional configuration, while presenting a clear market message: “push beyond your limits with hydration” from CamelBak products. The challenge was to express CamelBak’s mission through the exhibit architecture and the central WaterWall feature did just that. Water percolates through a curving 16 foot high x 36 foot long chain maille wall in a demonstration of how water diffuses through the human body. The Hydration Station, hand-crafted bent-wood product displays, flexible one-off merchandising and tactile materials all added to the winning solution, the SNEWS article cited “drama, functionality, personality and cool ideas” in describing the CamelBak exhibit.

Keen won the Déjà Vu award for their continued focus on the environment, by recycling and repurposing components in their exhibit. Atmosphere manages the existing exhibit properties and along with Keen’s great creative resources, produces new sustainable elements that are warm and inviting; SNEWS remarked, “The exhibit was comforting.” GoLite earned an honorable mention, as they reconfigured their exhibit with fresh visual merchandising, introduced their on-line product presentation and utilized soy-based mannequins, just another example of their company’s eco-initiative. Atmosphere is proud to assist in the integration of GoLite’s existing properties with the design/build of new elements based on the priorities in their event marketing efforts.

Who is Atmosphere Studios? 

Atmosphere Studios specializes in creating innovative environments for events, trade shows, corporate spaces and InStore programs. With a diverse client list that includes industry leaders like Bombardier, Patagonia, T-Mobile and Ciena, Atmosphere Studios has been impressing clients with their unique approach to creating remarkable environments since 1997. Recent installations from Paris to Bangkok and New Delhi have expanded the global reach of Atmosphere’s work. Partners Tom Jennings (Founder), Kurt Damschroder (Design Director), Eric Krepela (Production Director) and Katie Riggs Hansen (Client Relations Director) have quietly celebrated Atmosphere’s twelfth anniversary and the growth built over the past several years. These latest awards underscore the ongoing transformation of Atmosphere into a leading design and production firm with a worldwide reputation for excellence.

Any questions about Atmosphere please contact:

Tom Jennings -(801) 573.3302

tom@AtmosphereIgnites.com

www.AtmosphereIgnites.com

Hello again and welcome back to The Green Zone.

As mentioned in our last article we are going to continue on with green materials that exhibit companies are using today.

This week we will touch on Embodied Energy.

What is Embodied Energy and how can we say that using this we are going green?

Well Embodied Energy is a way that we can determine how much energy is used to create a traditional trade show booth from raw material right up to transportation of the booth. So by using a low amount of Embodied Energy, obviously we are saving energy and helping with the green factor.

What is one way we can do this?

Take an example.

A client requests that you build them a new 20x20 custom booth. They would like it to be as green as possible but don't have a great budget to do this. How can you as their supplier/partner help?

As mentioned Embodied Energy tracks everything from raw materials to transportation. So you might not be able to use say Certified wood on their exhibit but you can control how the materials arrive to your warehouse and how the booth arrives to show. So instead of using a dedicated truck to deliver your materials or booth why not try to hire a truck that makes multiple pick ups so that the truck is full therefore being more economical.

Or if you have this option (which I'm sure you do) how about getting your materials delivered by train? Not only is this the most economical way to get your materials it is also the greenest way as most of them run on coal.

By doing these little tasks you can tell your client that yes this booth was in some ways built green.

This is just one example of how you can help create a low Embodied Energy, can you think of any others? Please respond to this article and let exhibitslist.com know.

Next we will talk about Formaldehyde. What is that?

Mount Laurel, NJ:  June 3, 2009 - kubik inc.  is very pleased to announce the appointment of John Van Pelt as Senior Sales Executive.  In this role, Mr. Van Pelt will be working with Elliot Kohn on new business development initiatives for kubik's North American exhibit business.

"At kubik, whether it's a trade show, experiential marketing event or museum environment - our focus is on providing our clients with outstanding services and creating the most extraordinary experiences in the world", said Elliot Kohn, Coo/Principal, kubik.  "We know that there is an ever increasing demand for our services in the marketplace and we are excited that John will help us to extend our exceptional, timely and hands-on experience to our clients."

A seasoned sales executive with over 30 years of industry experience, John will play a key role in identifying and developing new business opportunities within organizations that are not current kubik customers.

Before joining kubik, John held Senior Account  Executive roles as EWI Worldwide and H.B. Stubbs Co.  Clients recognize his keen business insight as well as his expertise in translating concepts into action to maximize results in top-tier exhibits, mobile tours, museums and themed attractions.

"I am very delighted to have the opportunity to join a great company like kubik", said Van Pelt.  "To be part of the team that's working hard to expand our presence in the marketplace is a terrific challenge and goal."

kubik is leading the transformation of conventional services associated with an event marketing company by providing clients with imaginative thinking, unique exhibit and event results and integrated marketing solutions.

About kubik

kubik builds experiences in the form of exhibits, environments and events for Fortune 1000 companies and leading cultural institutions throughout North America and Europe.  With offices in Toronto, Amsterdam and New Jersey, kubik can be contacted toll-free in North America at 1.877.252.2818 or at www.thinkubik.com

Eventscape is a unique and inventive exhibit company.  A recent win for Eventscape was a beautiful 20' x 20' exhibit for Trojan UV Technologies, a water treatment technology company specializing in water treatment systems used by corporations and governments.  Trojan was looking for an innovative design that would showcase their products and be a unique design that would draw attendees into the exhibit using their corporate colors.  Eventscape provided a unique design that did just that!

The "splash concept" design of this exhibit displayed an abstract representation of the client's product in use.  Silver lighting spheres suspended from the ceiling represents water droplets and the central element of three ribbons of framed fabric conveys the water splashing.  The ribbons are covered with a cleanable shiny vinyl on the outside and a stretch fabric in the client's corporate red on the inside.  Supporting the splash form, the surrounding counters display the varioius UV technology products used to treat water.  The 16 foot tall freestanding framed fabric tower creates a glowing beacon and denotes corporate strength.

The client logo and corporate colors (red and white) were used throughout the exhibit, reinforcing the brand and distinguishing it in a very meaningful way from the sea of traditional "blue" water technology exhibits.  The curved metal-framed fabric splash form had to match the angled millwork counters that supported the structure.  The whole exhibit was branded on three levels from the suspended ceiling elements, to the eye-level splash form to the carpeted flooring which also incorporated the brand's red "bubbles" with the inlayed acrylic circles.

The exhibit was designed not only to fit to a 20' x 20', but also to be able to easily adapt to fill a 20' x 30' or 20' x 40' exhibit space, providing flexibility and extending the life of the exhibit.  The clients feedback?  "We asked for an innovative design unlike anything else we've seen on an exhibit floor, and that was exactly what we got.  Our exhibit was edgy and attractive, and represented exactly where we wanted to be as a company in our industry"

Established in 1993, Eventscape has manufactured superior quality structures clad in material for every type of design specialty including retail, hospitality, commercial, institutional and custom Exhibit applications.

www.eventscape.net

Does your company use fabric in your designs?  What are the advantages?  Are there any reasons not to use fabric?

Exhibitslist scoured the trade show floor and managed to capture a picture of an exemplary installer: well prepared, brought all his equipment. But let's just imagine he didn't.  Well, just as the panic starts setting in and he begins brainstorming various workarounds involving stacking buckets, rolls of duct tape, and one perfectly timed jump-- part 2 of the 'Installers Code' kicks in.

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This is the first in a series of "Installers Life" articles on the unwritten code and set of rules of trade show exhibit installation.

I've been working in the trade show/exhibit installation world for the last twenty years and I've found that there's a strict code that exists on show floors. Break the code and you tend to have more difficulty and you will quickly gain a bad reputation, especially if you're always working in the same venue. Large installation houses like Czaranowski and Nth Degree are always the most likely to stick to the code. Sometimes new installers take a while to get up to speed.

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Many of us know the phrase, "Form Follows Function."  It is a part of the industrial design terminology to describe how a product was inspired - usually from the function of the product itself.  Form follows the function, once an innovative and curious phrase, now seems to be overused as much as box frame laminate and fabric construction is used in the exhibit business.  It is so 1990's!

Consumer product design begins with an underlying function that is engineered to meet a specific need, or solve a problems that consumers experience daily.  To make a long story short, product design has value and can truly make someone else's life easier.  It can be measured and as a result can be appreciated.

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I have always worked for one company. It fits my lifestyle, but I have always wondered if it would be better to work freelance. There are a number of issues involved, but I think it comes down to your personality and your willingness to take risks.

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Exhibitslist was recently at a large medical exhibition in Europe and were surprised to see the differences in exhibit building methods.  At the end of the show many of the exhibits were built and all that was left was a few skids, a crate and some job boxes.  What is the difference?  In Europe nearly all the exhibits are rentals!

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