Trade Show InsightsNews, tips & tools to expand your knowledge of exhibiting

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Lately there’s been a lot of buzz online about whether or not trade shows are still relevant, both inside and outside the industry. Ironically, some of the external sources have been more positive than the insiders. Check out the second half of this video from Open Forum with two business consultants on trade shows. Note what they say at the end … it’s often not a matter of the show, but what you do with it!

Photo by: International CES

Once again there’s good news coming out of Vegas — this week’s International CES has once again broken records in number of exhibitors and net square feet of space. Attendance is on track to exceed 150,000.

Every year, the mammoth show draws lots of attention from both the trade show industry and the mainstream media. So here are just a few of the articles that have popped up around the Web about various aspects of this year’s show:

Interview with Marlys Arnold, ImageSpecialist from Bill Sell on Vimeo. The discussion includes tips for media relations, booth staff behavior, partnering with show management, sustainability and more.

It takes a lot to wow a crowd of trade show industry veterans like those who attend the EXHIBITOR Show. But a few companies always manage to stand out beyond the basic bells and whistles.

This year, one of the most buzzed booth attractions was a 21st century upgrade of an old stand-by: the in-booth caricature artist. PRMconnect, a lead management solution provider, had an artist from DigitalCaricatureArtists.com sketching photos of visitors. But the twist was that he sketched them on a digital tablet, which allowed for not only printing it out in the booth, but also the ability for visitors to download and share the sketch on their social media profiles — which several people have, some even using it as their profile photo. (Want to see all the sketches? Check out the album on Digital Caricature Artists’ page on Facebook.)

There’s never a shortage of creativity at the EXHIBITOR Show in Las Vegas. Each year, the industry’s who’s who pull out all the stops to impress exhibit managers from companies large and small. Here are just a few examples from this year’s show.