It’s no secret that the remodeling of the Anaheim Convention Center to increase available space by 40% will be a boon to the meetings and conventions market in Orange County. The expanded center, which will give Anaheim 1.6 million square feet of convention space, has been awaited anxiously by the tourism and hospitality industries ever since work began in late 1997. But other companies will benefit from the expansion, too, among them exhibit builders who are an integral part of the convention industry. In anticipation of the expected 25% growth in visitors to the Anaheim area, competition among these companies has heated up, with some opening local offices for the first time and others expanding their services.
Here are some of the players in OC who fill the needs of companies for convention exhibits, compiled by Jason Ross.
BLACKLINE ENVIRONMENTS
(formerly X-Zibitz)
1660 Placentia Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Phone: (949) 646-0858
Fax: (949) 650-9785
Blackline Environments has been tapped into the Orange County trade show industry since its founding as X-Zibitz in 1991. The company grew up surrounded by the action sports industry, with clients that include OC companies like Billabong, Volcom, Hang Ten, Rusty, Hurley International, Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Smith Optics, OP and Burton Snowboards. Blackline has full in-house design capabilities, including woodworking, metal works, custom environments, booth construction and interior design. Blackline president Steve Titus said that recently clients are taking the interactive approach to their trade show needs.
“Interactive is in very high demand,” Titus said. “Most companies that request booth design and construction want some sort of interactive service like a computer that is continually tapped into their Web site.” Industries that have seen increases in their exhibit needs recently are the medical and electronic entertainment industries, according to Titus. Blackline, whose clientele is particularly image-conscious, focuses largely on the men’s and women’s apparel and the electronics industry. Blackline’s Costa Mesa facility houses 27 employees that do design and construction for 15 to 20 shows annually, supplying multiple booths at each show. Blackline does much of its work outside the area, listing Las Vegas as its major venue, along with Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Diego.
BLAINE CONVENTION SERVICES
6310 Caballero Blvd.
Buena Park 90620
Phone: (800) 637-7343
Fax: (714) 522-8271
Buena Park-based Blaine Convention Services has been in Orange County since 1972. Blaine provides services in floor-plan production, show registration, show entrances, stage productions, event planning, decorating, installation and dismantling, graphic design, furniture rental, special effects and audio visual. It works shows at venues in Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, Orange County, San Francisco, Palm Springs and Sacramento.
DISPLAYWORKS
6489 Oak Canyon
Irvine 92618
Phone: (800) 441-8895
Fax: (949) 654-0401
www.displayworks.com
DisplayWorks was founded in Costa Mesa in 1980 by Jim Stoneman. The company maintains three offices: a 205,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, along with facilities in San Francisco and Portland, Ore. With more than 200 employees, DisplayWorks generated $20 million in revenue in 1998 and $22 million in 1999. Last year, DisplayWorks snatched Herb Hite from leading competitor Exhibitgroup/Giltspur, where he was the president and general manager of the Los Angeles office.
With approximately 70% of the company’s business coming from trade shows, DisplayWorks was looking to tap into another market. So, three years ago, ComWorks was created as a sister company to tackle the corporate market, particularly retail and commercial fixture installations and corporate lobbies. Areas of specialty include custom exhibit and graphic design, project management, digital graphics, exhibit construction, furniture rental and storage. DisplayWorks’ local activity includes the full interior design of the 6,100-square-foot Traditional Jewelers at Fashion Island in Newport Beach and a lobby design for computer hardware company MTI Technology Corp. in Anaheim. Other notable clients include the Walt Disney Co., Anaheim; Quiksilver, Huntington Beach; Broadcom, Irvine; Viking Components, Rancho Santa Margarita; Toshiba, Irvine; Canon Computer Systems, Costa Mesa; Van’s, Orange; Nike, GT Bicycles, and ESPN.
EXHIBITGROUP GILTSPUR
5560 Katella Ave.
Cypress 90630
Phone: (800) 486-3452
Fax: (562) 356-3707
www.e-g.com
Exhibitgroup Giltspur has more than 1,200 employees with 2.5 million square feet in facilities throughout the U.S. In anticipation of the new Anaheim Convention Center and a growing number of OC clients, Exhibitgroup relocated its LA-area operations from Commerce to Cypress in 1998. The 90-employee, 215,000-square-foot warehouse and office building is the largest exhibit house in Orange County. Exhibitgroup Giltspur, a $2.5 billion subsidiary of the Viad Corp., Phoenix, also has operations in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore.; Rochester, N.Y.; San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto. Exhibitgroup Giltspur has done work for the LA Lakers, Clippers and Kings at Staples Center, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks at BankOne Ballpark in Phoenix, the Getty Center, Beckman Coulter in Fullerton, Nissan Motor Corp., Honeywell, Motorola, Lucent Technologies, Kodak, GM, NEC and Caterpillar. The company is a full-service exhibitor with services in themed marketing centers, interactive areas, specialty displays, custom graphic design, showrooms, mobile exhibits, interior design, event coordination, and floral arrangements; it also has a $5 million furniture rental inventory.
FOLIO EXHIBITS
(formerly Grondorf-Field-Black & Co.)
2825 Warner Ave.
Irvine 92606
Phone: (949) 451-9100
Fax: (949) 451-9120
Folio Exhibits has been in Orange County since 1978. A three-man operation for 22 years as Grondorf-Field-Black & Co., Boston-based Folio purchased the company a year ago and the company since has grown to generate more than $20 million in annual revenue. Folio now maintains a 140,000-square-foot facility in Irvine with more than 100 employees, and has another 500 employees spread over Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and Las Vegas. A full-service exhibit house, Folio provides in-house services for graphic design, fabrication, storage, show service management, portable exhibits and furniture rentals with a specialty in designing custom booths. The company’s Irvine office provides exhibits for 1,200 to 1,300 shows a year, mostly in California. Along with growing business resulting from the new Anaheim Convention Center and Disney’s California Adventure, Folio has noticed a steady and sharp increase in the number of shows in Las Vegas. Notable OC clients include Interplay Entertainment, Emulex, Kingston Technology, PairGain Technologies, Allergan, ICN Pharmaceuticals and St. Jude Medical.
Freeman Decorating Co.
610 S. Olive St.
Anaheim 92805
(714) 772-9049
Fax (714) 563-8064
Freeman Decorating Co. was established in 1967, but did not begin operations in Orange County until September 1993. As a full-service exhibit house, Freeman’s Orange County operation has 140 full-time employees that provide services for approximately 600 shows annually across the Southland.
In total, Freeman has 47 offices in 25 cities throughout North America, with more than 4.5 million square feet of warehouse and office space. Freeman recently was the main contractor for the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia. Freeman provides all services for trade show events, including exhibit design and construction, graphic design, installation and dismantling, furniture rental, show coordination, and storage.
GES EXPOSITION SERVICES
7300 Chapman Ave.
Garden Grove 92841
Phone: (714) 934-1500
Fax: (714) 934-1699
Headquartered in Las Vegas, GES Exposition is a division of the Viad Co. that maintains 36 offices in major cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company, headed by CEO Paul Dykstra, has about 3,000 full-time employees, with 120 based in Orange County. Additional union workers are hired at show sites as required. GES, which offers a full range of services including exhibit design and fabrication, exposition management, furniture rental, graphics design, lighting and installation and dismantling, consolidated its Southland offices in Orange County a year ago. Julia Smith, vice president and regional director of sales, said the consolidation here provided both the physical space (310,000 square feet in Garden Grove) and location from which the company could most effectively service the region. GES handles about 300 events a year from this location, including shows in Orange, LA, Riverside and San Bernardino counties as well as Sacramento and Hawaii. Other offices are located in San Diego and San Francisco. Smith said the company, which has about $1 billion in annual revenue, has seen a definite increase in demand in the past year, particularly for more use of technology in every aspect of their services. Recent events for which GES has provided services locally include the Democratic National Convention, the Southern California Home & Garden Show at the Anaheim Convention Center last week, and a recent Auto Parts & Services Expo in Anaheim. Still to come this year are shows for the Produce Marketing Association, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Telecon West, among others. “We certainly expect to see additional business as a result of the expansion of the Convention Center and the overall growth of tourism attractions in Orange County,” Smith said. GES also provides services to the giant Comdex technology show, the Consumer Electronics Show and the World Shoe Show in Las Vegas.
SKYLINE DISPLAYS
1881 S. Chris Lane
Phone: (714) 937-5566
Fax: (714) 937-5570
www.skycorp.com
Skyline Displays has been in Orange County for more than 14 years and recently moved the local operations to a new 280,000-square-foot facility in Anaheim. A privately held company, Skyline has its manufacturing and corporate offices in Egan, Minn. Although all construction of custom displays and exhibits is done in Egan, the Anaheim facility is a full-service exhibit house with on-site services in custom design, graphic production, furniture rental, exhibit management, storage, refurbishment, installation and dismantling. Skyline specializes in the design and manufacture of lightweight custom exhibits and collapsible box trusses, displays that are lightweight, take any shape and have full graphics capability. “The recent trend in the industry has been an emphasis on displays with unique shapes and dimensions,” said John Funk, president of Skyline.
Another trend in the industry, according to Funk, has been an overall increase in demand for trade-show exhibits. “We have seen an increase in business this year of 25% to 30%, partly because of the new additions to the (Anaheim) Convention Center, but partly because of the strength of Orange County business right now,” said Funk. Skyline employs 33 at its Anaheim facility and roughly 1,000 company-wide. The entire corporation generates approximately $200 million in annual revenue, doing business with the likes of Boeing, Telenetics, Panasonic, Monivision, Suzuki Marine, Hunt-Wesson, Odetics, Walt Disney Co., Ingram Micro, Rainbow Technologies, Canon and Hyundai USA.
TAYLOR EXHIBIT & EXPOSITION SERVICES INC.
1635 Claudina Way
Anaheim 92805
Phone: (714) 776-1000
Fax: (714) 776-0311
Taylor Exhibit and Exposition Services Inc. has been in OC for more than 10 years. Now housed near the Anaheim Convention Center, President Michael Taylor is looking to expand his $3 million yearly business to a 40,000-square-foot facility in the same area. Taylor has about 20 employees, whose work ranges from custom design and fabrication of exhibits, to installation, graphic design, transportation, storage and furniture rental. The company works about 185 shows per year at sites across the West. In his 10 years in the business, Taylor has seen many trends come and go. “The big trend used to be shows with gifts and collectibles like sports cards or something,” said Taylor. “Now we are seeing a larger trend toward very ethnically cultural shows because of the large ethnic presence, especially in Orange County.” He said one trend that has taken center stage is the use of multiple portable displays, called portable graphic displays within the industry. These displays are easily constructed, transported, installed and dismantled. Taylor’s clientele includes Ferrari, the Long Beach Grand Prix, All-Style Apparel and New Line Cinema.
