Green car show to hit Excel in May

The green cars show 'EcoVelocity' is set to hold its second annual event at the Excel Centre in London this year.

The event is due to take place in May and will showcase cars that rely on electricity as their energy source instead of traditional fuels such as petrol or diesel.

This is only the second event held by the organisers, but visitor and exhibitor numbers are expected to increase on last year.

If you are taking part in an exhibition that is based around green and eco-friendly products, then ensuring your space is also as eco friendly as possible is a good idea.

Eco friendly banner stands are available from suppliers these days, using wood for the stand construction instead of lightweight metals (see image, right).

There are also lots of promotional products available for those thinking about their carbon footprint. Promotional pens, carrier bags and other items can be purchased that are made of recycled materials and are re-usable.

In some cases the products are almost identical to their non eco friendly siblings althought prices can be slightly higher.

Using a selection of recycled products also makes it easier to increase brand awareness as they are likely to match with similar printing and messages on each.

Of course there are also several day to day items that can be purchased in a recycled or recyclable style. Business cards, letterhead and other stationary are all popular choices for this.

Exhibitions are no longer just a national event

Popularity in exhibitions and events like them seems to have been increasing for many industries over the years and as a result more businesses are looking to take advantage of the higher visitor numbers.

However high costs of exhibition stands, marketing materials and staffing can make it difficult for many business owners to find the money available to exploit such events.

Local Exhibitions

Many people only consider large scale national industry specific events when they think about taking part in an exhibition like this, but locally organised and run meetings can be well suited to some industries, especially for those who running an SME.

Locally held exhibitions are often organised by groups such as councils, chamber of commerce and local industry groups.

These smaller events are often far easier to attend for a variety of reasons, including:

Local travel – Using staff to travel to the event is likely to be less time consuming than a large scale exhibition being held at an international arena. The travel and accommodation costs are likely to be lower too.

Captive audience – Other business owners that live and work locally are going to be taking part, creating not just an exhibition opportiunity, but a local networking opportunity too!

Lower exhibiting costs – The cost of the exhibition space is likely to be lower at a local small scale venue and a smaller space will probably need less decoration and products, so you can save money here too.

Attendee lists – It is sometimes easier to obtain a list of attendees from a smaller networking event, so you can prepare specifically for the audience.

So if you are thinking about taking part in an event I would also consider looking at the local associations that might hold events suitable for your business in an effort to try and save money and promote your business locally.

Make your 2012 stand more powerful with a pop up banner

I have spent some of my time in the Christmas break looking at the 2012 events calendar and considering what I should be doing in preparation for this year’s events.

Planning for exhibitions take a lot of time and organisation and I often find that preparing well in advance saves challenges that might come up at a later date. With this in mind I have been assisting others with ways to create a more interesting exhibition stand for their events in 2012 and thought I would share some ideas with you!

Exhibition organisers often sell space in “shell schemes” and although this might seem like a money saving exercise, there are ways to create your own space without looking as uniformed as some of the others and often without spending as much money.

Pop Up Exhibition Stands

If you are exhibiting more than once in 2012 but don’t have the budget of a bigger blue chip company, then having re-usable stand furniture and decorations is a must.

Pop Up Banner Stands are an excellent idea for this purpose and offer the versatility of a fully customised stand without the cost, making any exhibition space look your own.

As this picture demonstrates the pop up stand is a larger option than its smaller sister, the standard banner stand, but adds a more complete look to the stand, acting as a wall or backdrop to your area.

I have seen several large companies using these systems at B2C events and in some cases, several pop up banners were used to cover a larger floor space.

As my previous post mentions, the pop-up stand is also a popular choice for shops in shopping centres too, and there is no reason this could not be set-up for a commerce stand at an exhibition too.

In addition, these styles of stand have the bonus of being easily and safely packed away, lightweight and simple to transport. Various sizes are also available, making them suitable for many different stand dimensions.

Sometimes creating a stand from scratch can seem like a big task and at the end you might find the stand doesn’t look as professional as you had hoped. A Pop-Up stand will certainly help to take some design worries away without breaking the bank every time you exhibit.

Christmas exhibition season gets underway

Although many businesses are now considering their exhibition participation for next year, for many of us the exhibition season is just starting with B2C events taking off around the country in preparation for the festive season.

Locally I have seen advertisements for the new Glow exhibition centre in Kent, which opened last week. Their first event will be a B2C Christmas fayre with stall holders offering gift ideas and other seasonal products to the masses.

From a marketing perspective, I see many businesses that deal with these Seasonal times as separate to the rest of the year and as a result many marketers have a pool of seasonal marketing materials to design and print ready for events in December.

Promotional products specifically made for the festive season are less easy to come by, but that doesn't mean you can't fashion some standard items (such as printed pens, mugs and stationary) in a festive way. Here are just a few ideas:

Festive Printed Pen

This frosted red pen is a good example of a standard product that could be made to feel quite festive during the winter season. With personalisation completed on the barrel in a colour such as white or green and maybe even a Christmas message to custome rs, this is a cost-effe ctive giveaway that can be used in many ways and over repeated years.

Printed Stationary

With the addition of a Christmas message or some seasonal artwork, many businesses can obtain set quantities of printed stationary just for use at this time of year. Printed Christmas cards themselves are also a popular option for businesses who want to thank their clients and customers.

Printed mugs and other items can be created in the same way. The key to seasonal personalisation is often to select some seasonal base colours. Reds, Greens and Golds are traditionally used to great effect at this time of year.

And of course, the products are not limited to use at exhibitions alone, they are also a handy giveaway if you are writing to your clients for any reason during December - their first Christmas gift!

Will exhibitions suffer because of the Tube closure at Olympia?

Those of you who are familiar with London Olympia will be as surprised and saddened as I was to read that Transport for London have confirmed they are going to axe weekday services on the District line to the destination.

This historic venue has been one of the favourites for exhibitors and visitors in the UK for many, many years and still hosts some of the most important shows in the world. In the coming months of late 2011 and early 2012 alone the following shows are booked to take place:

• The Restaurant Show 2011
• E Commerce Expo 2011
• Spirit of Christmas Fair
• Traveller Luxury Travel Fair
• Masterchef Live
• The Wine Show
• Toy Fair 2012
• British and International Franchise Exhibition 2012

Many visitors (both large and small) have visited this place and installed their exhibition banner stands, posters and products for sale for days and weeks on end, so the massive reduction in this tube service seems like a strange move.

However, if you have already purchased your roller banners, promotional products and posters for an event in Olympia as the changes are not expected to take place until December and Transport for London is reported to have said that any major events will still have tube coverage along with a standard timetable that will continue over the weekends (useful for consumer shows).

As well as this a special shuttle service is going to be provided between Kensington High Street and Earls Court for Olympia, so hopefully there will not be a massive effect, although it is reported that many exhibition industry professionals have complained to TFL and Boris Johnson over this decision.

I’m sure Earls Court and Olympia will remain popular destinations, it would be reassuring to know that TFL are going to put the right infrastructure in place to support this though.

The Restaurant Banner

I have used many examples of ideas for Roller Banner Stand use recently, but this week I saw my first banner being used in a Restaurant.

Whilst dining in a well known national eating establishment I was surprised to see the amount of portable banners they were using to promote some changes to their new menu. The one I saw was similar to the Roller Stand pictured here and was freestanding in the visitor entrance so it received a good footfall.

Of course, using a Banner Stand in this way has many benefits and it is likely that they keep the stand itself and just replace the re-printable banner when needed.

How the Banner was being used

The Banner itself was clearly purchased to advertise the new menu and included information such as:

• Pricing
• Examples of dishes
• Dates and times of availability
• Contact details for the restaurant

As well as this they had used a very clear picture of a popular menu item as the background – I have to admit the picture looked appetising and assisted me in making my own menu choice that evening.

Using pictures on banner stands in this way is highly beneficial and a popular way of using the space the banner provides. Of course, if you are going to use an image for the printing of any banner you should ensure that the digital image is of good quality and taken in the appropriate light with a digital camera.

However designing a banner stand yourself can be pretty simple and many suppliers will even offer a design service, so you know the finished article will look good!

Pop Up Stands creating Pop Up Shops!

I mentioned previously on here the fact that Banner Stands are being used on the high street by small and large retailers as an effective way of easily updating their shop exterior and windows.

So I was fascinated recently when I started a conversation with a small jewellery store owner who had hired a permanent stall within a shopping centre and was advertising her business brand and information using some Pop Up Stands she had purchased several months ago.

She explained that using these stands was especially useful for her business because she sells in several places on different days, so she is able to pack her stock and promotional materials away easily ready for her new destination the following day.

Pop Up Stand Benefits

Of course this is one of the principal benefits of using a stand like this and after looking around the rest of the shopping centre I saw a few others who had hired a similar space from the centre and were using temporary banners, stands and posters in a similar way.

Recent reports in the national news have suggested that small businesses are struggling during these difficult financial times, but it is good to see some small business owners are finding cost effective ways of building their company and profits without having to spend a budget they dont have yet!