Trade Show Exhibitors Strut Their Own Stuff for a Change at Anaheim Expo
Chocolates, robotic puppets and magicians aren’t necessarily what comes to mind when you think trade shows. But those were among the offerings of Orange County companies on hand at last week’s Trade Show Exhibitors Association show at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The event is designed to showcase products and services for the exhibition industry. Approximately 225 exhibitors, including a couple of dozen OC companies, touted their wares to other vendors, booth builders, sign companies and ad specialty providers.
Local booth designers like DisplayWorks, ExhibitgroupGiltspur, Cypress, and Foothill Ranch-based Exhibit Works were absent, but others like Dallas, Texas-based Freeman Cos., and Eagan, Minn.-based Skyline Displays, both of which have offices in Anaheim, were out in force.
One local company, San Juan Capistrano-based Laser Exhibitor Services, recently has expanded to Orlando and San Antonio, bringing the company’s total regional offices to 10. Its key service is the installation and dismantling of show booths, but it also handles transportation, exhibit rental and photographers.
Another exhibit services company, Expo 3 International, made the move to OC from Carson in November. The 27-year-old company brought about 20 employees to new offices in Garden Grove in order to be more accessible to clients in both Los Angeles and San Diego.
But it was the eclectic collection of other exhibit services that illustrated the variety of the industry and gave the show its ambiance. On hand were fledgling entrepreneurs as well as long-established players.
Dynamic Fabrication Inc. has been doing precision welding and machining in Santa Ana for a quarter-century. It counts amusement parks, museums and architects among its clients. But it also can create laser-etched brass signs and other specialty items near and dear to the hearts of trade show vendors. President Mike Kartsonis said the company’s quick turn-around times appeal to vendors.
Robots have been working trade shows for about a decade. But most of them look like R2D2 in “Star Wars.” Not so for the robotic puppets of Robotainment, a Newport Beach start-up still in its first year of operation. The company specializes in lifelike interactive robots and puppets that draw people to a booth in an entertaining fashion.
The robot on duty last week was “Hugh,” a mock 7-year-old who rides a bike in the booth while carrying on conversations with attendees.
Robotainment president Jim Jacob said his stable of four characters can be costumed to any theme. And their heads can be customized to look like famous figures, or a company’s CEO.
Though he’s only been in business six months, Microsoft already drafted “Hugh” at a recent show to help round up attendees for a keynote address.
“The characters allow you to say things to people that you ordinarily couldn’t say,” Jacob said.
In the next aisle, Sweet Talk Chocolate Promotions of Laguna Hills lured people in by appealing to their taste buds. The creator of chocolate logos and graphics has done work for local entities like Kawasaki Motors, Orange County Building Services, the Richard M. Nixon Library and Birthplace, Westin South Coast Plaza and the city of Anaheim. Terry Roark, who heads Sweet Talk, said he has few competitors.
“I’ve done a lot of these shows,” he said. “And I’ve never seen another company doing the same thing at any of them.”
Nearby, Scott Tokar of Tustin’s Corporate-FX used trade-show magic to entice attendees to stop at the Birmingham, Ala.-based Diamond Displays booth. Tokar said Corporate-FX employs 11 magicians who thrive strictly on the trade show business, helping to drive people to show booths with stunts such as turning a $1 bill into a $100 bill (regretfully, takers don’t get to keep the $100).
“We don’t do cruises or birthday parties,” Tokar said. “We’re strictly business.”
On a more high-tech note, Cerritos-based GST was touting its painted “skins” for computers that create a custom look for the equipment at trade shows. One computer on display would have been at home in a silver Jaguar, while another would have fit right into a setting in the “Jungle Book.” Though the “skins” are just one aspect of GST’s tech business, a spokesman said the technology for the product is proprietary and brings in business from people looking to draw attention to their computer displays.
Most exhibitors interviewed admitted this has been a tough and unpredictable year for the trade-show business, but they also were upbeat about the prospects for fall and next year.
Nancy Whitley, proprietor of promotional products company The Right Conextions in Lake Forest, said she thinks companies often do things backwards when the economy slows.
“When business slows down, they stop doing promotions, and that’s when they should be doing them,” she said.
While the tempo at TS2 was decidedly upbeat with plenty of people cruising the aisles, not every exhibitor was happy.
Judy Venn, a Costa Mesa provider of convention personnel, said it was her first time exhibiting at the TSEA show, and she hadn’t found a lot of takers so far.
“I’m not finding a lot of the decision-makers here,” she said, referring to show promoters. n
