Exhibition Stands & Event Display Inspiration 1/8/16

This week we explore how technology has been used to improve exhibition stands, particularly in terms of creating an engaging experience around a product or service. Airbus Airbus Exhibition Stand Virtual Reality The first stand we look at is the Airbus stand at the Defence and Security Exhibition. The exhibition itself is aimed at top level military personnel, and major procurement officials - and while we’re not saying this exhibition shouldn’t be interesting, it definitely serves a functional service, rather than providing inspiration. Airbus decided to challenge this, by creating their entire stand around a virtual reality playground. They introduced individual pods, with mounted sound bars integrating into Oculus Rift headsets, that immersed viewers in three different airspace environments. Using VR had two benefits for Airbus. One is the fact that many of their parts and equipment would potentially fill the entire exhibition hall, therefore using VR meant they could introduce/demo pieces of kit without the logistical headache. The second is the more obvious benefit, in that it created an engaging experience that naturally attracted visitors to the stand by word of mouth. Introducing multiple pods rather than one or two meant participation didn’t feel awkward, as sometimes introducing new technology that people aren’t used to interacting with causes some discomfort… Siemens Siemens took things one step further, creating an exhibition stand that contained a custom VR solution. However, how they translated that to visitors to the exhibition stand was really interesting. Rather than relying on the headsets/word of mouth itself to pass around the exhibition, there were screens that live-streamed users interacting with the software, which worked well for both creating an attention grabbing graphic, and breaking down the barrier of the unknown - so visitors wanted to try the system themselves now they know what happens throughout the experience. dock10 DOCK10 Exhibition Stand Virtual Reality Our Marketing team witnessed Dock10’s use of VR first hand, at the Prolific North exhibition. Dock10 are a media studio based in Media City, offering post & content platform production. Before the exhibition, they partnered with ‘The Voice’ to use a 4K multi-rig in the studio, which captured the show from every angle. Dock10 showcased this technology at Prolific North, an exhibition targeted towards content & marketing professionals. Making the most of their limited stand space, they kept the stand design itself simple, with branded graphics surrounding the technology. This shows the extent of how VR can engage passers by, with visitors simply having to be wearing the headset for interest to be generated. For companies exhibiting in small exhibition spaces, introducing leading technology such as this, with relevant content, can create more exposure than having larger stand space! Unibox VR Experiment Unibox Exhibition Stand Virtual Reality Although arguably less complex than the system Siemens have created (don’t tell our Head of Creative - Duncan I said that!), we created a VR-style shop that contained more information on our products, and how they apply to the areas they’re situated in. We see this as a stepping stone for clients, as this doesn’t involve the expense of developing your own system, and it can run on anybody phone or computer. Similar to the way Siemens added interaction points to their system, adding in simple calls to action such as the ‘i’ button naturally draws people towards that area of the store. Bear in mind - this was a test environment, to see how the software worked, but it’s interesting nonetheless.