Portable & Modular Trade Show Hardware Makes Sense!

The days of huge custom exhibits that shipped to the show in huge crates that could hold large animals and cost you an arm and a leg to store and move around the show floor are becoming more and more a thing of the past. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to spend ungodly amounts of money to achieve custom looks.


A typical custom trade show crate like this. That might hold an exhibit like this.

Compared To:

3 cases like this, that can hold a display like this


As a matter of fact, many of todays newer exhibit systems allow you to create substantial looking structures that fit in to wheeled cases that can be shipped via UPS for a fraction of the cost a full sized booth would be. Not only do you save on the shipping aspects of the exhibit, but also drayage, storage and setup. Many times one person can set a portable trade show exhibit up in less than a day.

At Bokland Custom Visuals we handle several different exhibit makers hardware, but focus primarily on products from Mark Bric Display. We choose Mark Bric for the quality of the products they bring to the table as well the diversity of hardware they manufacture. Remember that at the end of the day, whatever money you save on the exhibit hard costs, you can spend on stronger marketing and promotion of the show!

Free 11x14 LightJet Box Mount From Famous Nature Photographer Carl Heilman.

We are offering a free 11x14 LightJet Box Mounted print from renowned Adirondack photographer Carl Heilman. Carl has produced a number of published table books and has worked with Bokland Custom Visuals on a number of décor projects.

Just select from a gallery of 30 Carl Heilman images on our Digitalphotoprints.biz website and then order one of his fine prints with a 2" cherry Box Mount frame. We believe that you will be so impressed with the simple elegance and adaptability of our LightJet Box Mounts that you will realize that this can be a perfect resource for many office and hospitality environments.

Bokland will also include 3 other Box Mount molding samples and custom wall covering in this sample décor kit.

Our digitalphotoprints.biz website allows you to upload images or graphics into galleries and order Lightjet Photographic Prints in Box Mount frames to fit any image, even panoramas. With our production systems we can offer professional high quality reproductions in Box Mounting at exceptional value, either purchased online or worked up as a project via a quote with Bokland Custom Visuals.

Bokland can be a great resource for art, graphic and photographic images for your next décor project. We can direct you to some wonderful resources and websites that can be utilized and matched with our printing and box mounting products at reasonable prices.

Bokland Custom Visuals also is a complete Large Format Print producer that has a number or printing technologies to compliment any environment. If you need printing on Fabric, Canvas ,Wood, PVC, Banners, Metal ,Wall Covering, Adhesive Back Vinyls we can be your resource.

Click here to learn more about Bokland and all of our services!

Trade Show Awareness

Trade Shows these days are a funny thing, as mentioned in my previous article, costs are up and attendance is down. There still are those heavy hitting decision makers walking the floors however, making choices on whether to attend, how much to spend, how to niche your services, etc., etc, harder to figure out. I just read this past week that McCormick Place in Chicago just lost 2 of it’s largest shows for 2010. The trade show business is definitely a fluid one at best, but I think that there are some ways in which you can leverage the chaos in your favor, especially if you are a small or medium sized business that may not have to rely entirely on tier one, national trade shows to increase your business.

The fact of the matter is that national venues like McCormick Place, The Javitz Center, The Moscone Center are losing their luster in favor of venues like Orlando and even smaller places like The World Trade Center Boston, and resort settings. No, these smaller halls can’t handle big shows, but they do a very good job hosting targeted, niche trade shows and conferences. The question every business considering a trade show must answer is, “Is there enough business to be had in these “boutique” type events?”

A real world example of making these decisions is Bokland’s own experience in trade shows. Twice we have attended the national “Global Shop” trade show, focussing on the point of purchase market on a national level. There were great national prospects walking the show, but there were also literally thousands hundreds of companies competing for their attention. In the end, we walked away with the warm and fuzzy feeling that we had done a national show and looked pretty good doing it, only to find that the ROI never quite came around.

Bokland, At Global Shop 2005, a $30,000 investment in a Trade Show

By contrast, last year Bokland attended the National Brewers Conference in Boston at the World Trade Center. This particular show was two days, cost 1/10 of the amount it cost to do the national show and focussed very specifically on a small niche market. We were able to make a smaller space work for us, we could identify our prospects easily, and weren’t competing with the proverbial 800 lb. gorillas of our industry. We walked away with more business from this specialty trade show than we did displaying twice at the national level. We also advanced our presence as a leader in our particular field within this industry and continue to do so by leveraging this strategy.

Bokland at The National Brewers Conference, a $3000 Trade Show Investment

At the end of the day, we all have to ask ourselves where we fit within our industries. Some, unquestionably, have to work on a national level, but the vast majority of small and medium sized service companies do have a choice in regard to what trade shows they attend, and should without question make this a part of their decision making process!