Dean White talks in such detail about storage and access fields in cellular phones, product launches, hush-hush developments, millions in funding , the whole high-tech industry buzz , you’d think he was a tekkie himself.
Not so. An account executive with Mostre Design Inc. in Carlsbad, White does sales in the exhibit design business. His high-tech know-how comes from working with what’s become a major force in trade shows and exhibitions.
A $460 million market and growing, the high-tech industry presents a slew of opportunities for the trade show business and exhibit design companies.
According to Michael Hughes, director of research services at Los Angeles-based industry magazine Tradeshow Week, information technology is the fastest-growing segment of the exhibition business.
– High-Tech A Large
Slice Of Trade Shows
The entire trade show business generates $12 billion annually, and high-tech is considered a significant part of it, Hughes said.
“Frankly, there’s been an explosion in information technology conferences and trade shows over the last 15 years, and particularly the last few years,” he said.
“Essentially, event marketing mediums mirror the market sectors or even niches that they cover,” Hughes said. “Because there’s been an explosion on the Internet and software and applications, there’s also been a significant number of new conferences, and magazines and trade shows that cover those new fields.”
Douglas L. Ducate, president and CEO of the Chicago-based Center for Exhibition Industry Research, agrees.
“It’s the hottest market right now,” Ducate said. “The growth and the expansion of the ‘chip’ business, so to speak, and computer technology is driving most of the expansion of our industry.”
– More Exhibits For
A Growing Industry
He’s not surprised by it.
“That’s fairly typical, that a hot industry, a growing industry, would be the industry that’s going to have the greatest expansion in the exhibition field,” Ducate said.
According to Hughes, high-tech companies tend to stay in their region when it comes to choosing an exhibit design firm.
For local exhibit design companies, San Diego is a good market, and a challenging one.
Brian Takagi, who operates Pro Displays San Diego as a part of his main company, Takagi Communication, said that more than others, high-tech clients tend to make the visuals very important.
“I think they all are very interested in their image, what kind of image that they portray, and that’s reflected in the type of display they buy and the kind of graphics they do,” said Takagi, who has more than 50 high-tech clients.
– Companies Have
Image Concerns
Suiting the fast-paced industry, high-tech companies tend to change their image often, Takagi said.
“They don’t want to look like they’re stale,” he said.
Along with that, the companies often use a lot of up-to-date accessories, Takagi said.
One new item is the multi-use plasma screen, which looks like a flat computer screen, and has the more-wide-than-tall dimensions of high-definition screens, he said.
They can be expensive , $10,000 to $20,000 each , but the technology companies find it worthwhile, Takagi said. They want to appear cutting-edge, and certainly not behind the times, he said.
The constant changes also make high-tech companies a profitable market for exhibit designers, he said.
– Some Clients Are
Detail Oriented
Some high-tech clients have already been through the start-up phase with other companies. Because they have more experience with entering trade shows, they can also be more exacting about what they want, Takagi said.
For that reason, the clients are sometimes perceived as more difficult to work with, he said.
“They are more educated as to what can be done and what they want to do and what they want to achieve, and if they don’t feel they’re getting that, then they’re not as happy,” he said. In those instances, communication and being on the same wavelength is vital, he said.
For Betty Amos, marketing and communications manager with Exhibit Innovations, Inc., the customers, especially those inexperienced with the trade show environment, tend to need some education.
Amos tells them about the nature of a trade show, particularly the timing. Depending on the size of the exhibit, the company will have seconds to make an impression and draw in potential customers, she said.
High-tech companies are 80 percent of Exhibit Innovations’ work, and their needs are often different from her company’s other clients, Amos said.
– Visuals Dominate
Exhibit Displays
“You have to be able to communicate visually,” she explained. Technical detail and data are not the very first thing that exhibitors need to communicate, she said.
“Because a lot of high-tech companies are driven by engineers, they seem to want to put that technical data right up front as a major thing or they want to put their company name, the mere fact that they exist,” she said. “They think those two things are enough. And that’s really a wrong approach.”
Companies need to focus on the benefits, Amos said.
“It’s not that you have five gigs of something, it’s what can those five gigs do for you,” she said.
Preparing for a show can be particularly complex. White, of Mostre Design, said some shows have waiting lists, and a new company hoping to make it in at the last minute will need a display that’s attractive and dynamic but also flexible, as small as 10-feet-by-10-feet or as large as 50-feet-by-50-feet.
If the client is unfamiliar with trade shows, White also gives the company information on costs, particularly the less obvious ones, such as moving the exhibit in and out of the venue.
– Shows Become
More Sophisticated
Look for the high-tech exhibition market to continue to grow, said Ducate of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.
The tekkie shows are already starting to branch off and specialize, and become even more sophisticated, he said.
“You have to set a standard, and companies as they’re branding themselves, set their standards for how they present themselves,” he said. “The exhibition, of course, is the only marketing technique where they can use all the senses in order to do that.”
Trade shows are one of the best techniques for companies to get their product out into the marketplace, the exhibit companies unabashedly agree.
“There’s no greater way to present yourself in front of as many customers in a single point in time,” White said.
Padres Offer Online Views of Ballpark
The San Diego Padres are offering live views of activity at the Downtown ballpark construction site.
By logging onto the ball club’s Internet site, (www.padres.com), computer-users can see several views of the construction project, including the infield, the Western Metal Supply Co. building and the Park at the Park.
The Padres added the views to their Web site late last month; officials said the camera will operate throughout the construction and redevelopment project.
