Remember the good ol’ days of grammar school when filmstrips introduced you to the wonders of personal hygiene? Fortunately, today’s A/V (or audio/visual) choices loom a lot larger. Your trade show booth can pull in the crowds and educate the masses with support such as television monitors (plasmas rock!), radios, or surround sound systems pumping recorded music.

What’s the main point of your exhibit? Creating a mood, of course. Happy mood, excited mood, “I’m in the mood for love-of-your-product/service” mood. You get the gist. Next to a kickin’ A/V set-up, there’s probably no better way to set a mood in your trade show display than accent lighting. Simply put, it’s directional lighting used to highlight a particular area or object and draw attention to specific areas of interest.

Um… we’ll go out on a limb here and assume this one needs little ‘splaining. An attendee is one who attends an exposition. These are the people you want in your tradeshow booth and the reason you’re investing in this whole thing and building a kick-ass tradeshow display. Attendees may also be a delegates or visitors. But, under penalty of death, you should never call an exhibitor an attendee.

We’ve defined what an attendee is. But who are they really? Nameless faces in a sea of faces? Of course not, they are people. Real people with real feelings. And real budgets. Better check out their badge, which of course is an identification tag worn by participants at an event. Badges usually are color-coded to identify exhibitors and indicate attendees¹ job function. They also include bar codes for scanning and collecting leads.

Where would your display be without banners, which are suspended panels of a temporary fabric or paper? We’ll tell you … they’d be awash in a sea of cheesy poster board. Whether for decoration or communication, banners add drama and focus to any booth.

The booth, the booth, the booth is on fire! OK, that means absolutely nothing. But, booths do mean everything to the tradeshow floor. Tradeshow booths are defined as one or more standard units of exhibit space. A standard unit is generally known to be a 10¹ by 10¹ space. However, if an exhibitor purchases multiple booths side-by -side or back-to-back, the combined space is still referred to as a “booth.”

We’d all like to think that our trade show exhibit designs are the result of some Wonka-like factory, where magic flows from every corner. But, in all reality, our awesome designs are brought to life with CAD/CAM of computer-aided design/manufacturing. Ok, we do throw in a bit of magic here and there. Perhaps a little fairy dust …

There are many stops along the way to that fan-freaking-tastic trade show display Catalyst Exhibits design to steal the show. One stop along the way is a call-out, which is a specialized rendering showing dimensions and materials.

Look – it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a giant shower curtain ring. Hey, it could happen! Project any image—or images—you wish onto a tradeshow booth canopy. A canopy is an overhead cover or scrim for projected images.

We have lots of people in house to build your dream booth. Or lots of people to listen to your dreams and interpret them … maybe not. Anyway, despite a large staff, we still need to bring in contractors—an individual or company that provides services or materials to an exhibiting organization.

Despite the fact that we at Catalyst Exhibits never cater to convention, we do design trade show displays for them. A convention is an assembly of delegates, representatives, and members of an organization convened for a common purpose.

Catalyst Exhibits designs tradeshow booths to help you corner your market. You can give your company a good head start with a corner booth, which is an exhibit space with exposure on at least two aisles. Some shows charge premium prices for these booths.

Exhibit materials don’t just materialize. They start somewhere and arrive somewhere. Which means we need to know their weight in order to ship the stuff. CWT is hundred weight—a measurement used to determine the cost of drayage (e.g. drayage rate is $78.56 CWT, so…1,500 pounds of display property=$1,178.40)

Some say genes are responsible for good-looking things. We say it’s Catalyst Exhibits and our trade show display designs. We define design as the graphic and pictorial representation of an idea.

Ahh, there’s nothing more touching than the day you bring your new booth home. It’s very moving when the little guy, or medium or big guy, is introduced to the world. But, before your display can take its first leads, the drayage process has to take place. Drayage is the delivery of exhibit materials from the dock to assigned space, removing empty crates, returning crates at end of show for re-crating, and delivering materials back to dock for carrier loading. NOW KNOWN AS MATERIAL HANDLING.

Catalyst Exhibits’ trade show exhibits definitely create a buzz. But, buzz alone does not run the lights. Booths still need electricity to be hooked up by an electrical contractor—a company contracted by show management to provide electrical services to exhibitors.

You’ve always sought out higher elevations in your career, haven’t you (through legal means, we trust)? But, what about in your booth? Elevations are scaled drawings depicting front and side views of an exhibit.

Exhibit Hall is sort of like Annie Hall. Only without Woody and Diane. OK, dumb comparison, Good designs; not-so-good jokes, welcome to Catalyst Exhibits. An exhibit hall is the area within an exposition center where trade show exhibits are located.

Sounds kinda like the place in a zoo where you go to see monkey’s fling poo, doesn’t it. Well, that certainly doesn’t describe Catalyst Exhibits, which is an exhibit house in the exhibit world sense. An exhibit house is a company that fabricates trade show displays.

If you’re reading this and are looking to Catalyst Exhibits to build you a one-of-a-kind custom rental solution that will help trounce the competition, then you, my friend, are an exhibitor. You are one who displays in an exposition.

You’d like to build an exhibit with a giant replication of Mount Vesuvius, complete with on-the-hour eruptions? Might want to check your exhibitor kit first. It’s a package of information that contains all rules, regulations and forms relating to an exhibition. Exhibitors receive it from show management. It is occasionally available on the show's Website. And, just so we’re on record, Catalyst Exhibits probably would never recommend a giant volcano, unless it was key to your brand message. Though, it might be kinda cool …

When your trade show booth is a smash success, you’ll want to thank all the little people. Don’t forget the EAC’s. Ok, they are not “little people” they are very important people. EAC are service organizations appointed by the exhibitor, i.e., any company other than the designated "official" contractor providing a service to an exhibitor. EAC can refer to an I&D house, transportation company, A/V company, furniture company, photographer, florist, or any other type of contractor. Also called SPECIALTY CONTRACTOR.

We love the fabrication part of the trade show display experience just as much as the planning and design parts. During this stage we get to play with really cool tools because fabrication is the building or construction of an exhibit display.

The coolest exhibit in the world would look pretty cruddy with wires running all over the floor. Not to mention it’s generally a bad idea to trip up your booth visitors. That’s why you’ll be needing plenty of floor ports, they are utility boxes that are recessed in the floor and they contain electrical, telephone or plumbing connections.

These are the people that will ultimately bring your dream custom rental exhibit to life; just be wary of the plumber’s butt thing. The general contractor is a show management-appointed company that provides on-site display service to exhibitors.

Some call them pretty pictures or decorations. And some would be shortsighted and wrong. Catalyst Exhibits terms graphics as communicative elements—color, copy, art, photographs, translites, etc.—used to illustrate a booth theme and to enhance the overall brand experience.

When you hit the trade show floor, you’ll be excited to see your booth erected. When you hit the end of your time at the show, you’ll be even more excited to get the darn thing down so you can finally get some sleep. This emotional rollercoaster is known as I&D, or the installation and dismantle of an exhibit (set-up/teardown).

Is your world too big for just one display? Then you’re in line for an inline booth. This is an exhibit space with exhibit booths on either side and/or back.

If you were stranded on an island, what three songs would you choose? ABBA, The Flintstones’ theme? Polka for the ages? What’s this have to do with island exhibits? Not much; you could never be stranded on an island exhibit because they are a three-dimensional display exposed to aisles on all four sides

One of the most important reasons for investing in a tradeshow is to develop leads. Some of the other reasons include travel to spectacular places, such as Newark, NJ and airline miles. Back to lead retrieval, it’s a system for capturing and follow-up of leads generated at a tradeshow.

Need to give your reserved, suit-clad superior a larger than life, dare we say cool look during a presentation? Hit him or her with a Leko. And then run … kidding, (Catalyst Exhibits abhors violence). A Leko is an adjustable spotlight used to light lecterns, signs and areas that need a tightly focused pool of light.

Beauty is all about your inner glow. Yeah, right … but in the trade show world, this is true. With the right light box, which is an enclosure that contains lighting beneath a translucent material (usually a graphic), you can really be beautiful.

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Well, a marshalling yard is not a place that should fill you with fear; it’s a place that should fill you with confidence. It’s simply a lot where trucks gather for orderly dispatch to a trade show site.

Like the Great Lake State of Michigan, a peninsula is an exhibit or area with aisles on three sides. OK, so Michigan is surrounded by water on three sides. We’re into trade show design, not geography.

For trade show organizers and exhibitors, it’s all about the digits – that is the traffic numbers created by registration (not fingers, that’s gross). Registration is the process of recording data about an attendee or exhibitor, sending a confirmation and creating a badge used on-site.

Hey, this is what Catalyst Exhibits delivers! Completebooth rental packages offered to exhibitors on a rental basis. Only, ours are so much cooler than anyone else’s.

Why go to a show if you don’t generate leads? Certainly not for the food. Sales leads are the names and contact information of potential customers. Attendee lists are often provided as sales leads to exhibitors as an incentive to participate in an exhibition.

The word just makes you giggle, doesn’t it? Or are we just goofy? Scrim is a theatrical term for fabric that is opaque when lighted from front and transparent when illuminated from the rear. And, it’s pretty darn cool.

Packet for tradeshow exhibitor containing information and forms relating to the exhibition. SEE EXHIBITOR KIT. And, then see Catalyst Exhibits.

It’s the who’s who of the trade show floor. A show directory is a soft-cover book containing a listing, with booth numbers, of all the exhibitors in a show, a map showing booth locations and (often) advertising. They are also good for placing around the booth as coasters.

A lamp providing controlled circle of light. Not to be confused with your heart light. Now, good luck getting Neil Diamond out of your head …

AKA D-Day, drop-dead, etc. The target date is a date set by event management and/or general service contractor for the arrival of freight at a trade event. Usually shipments received before or after this date are assessed a penalty charge. They can also be taken outside for a talkin’ to.

This would be another word for an attendee at an exposition. It’s also a potential customer. And, a potential friend. How happy!