How to Evaluate a Portable Trade Show Display

If your business is preparing to go to trade fairs in a small trade show booth - ten x 20 or ten x 10 - you'll have to decide whether or not you will buy or rent a portable trade expo display or a modular exhibit. Each one of type has benefits. However one tremendous advantage on the side of a portable exhibit is that your company can carry them into the fair meeting place by yourself (without union labor) and you can set them up and remove them without hiring labor. These advantages can not merely make the trade expo easier, they can reduce your costs by a third or more.

Initially, what is a portable display and how does it diverge from a reconfigurable trade expo exhibit? A transportable exhibit, as it sounds, is easily transportable. It usually stores within a container and is self-contained - one display in one container. It may set up not using tools (sometimes a hex wrench or screwdriver is required) and doesn't need more than one person generally. Typical kinds of transportable trade expo exhibits incorporate pop up models, fabric pop up displays, tension fabric booths and banner stands. Every one of these displays is transportable - generally ninety pounds or less. This allows you to send them via UPS or FedEx and also on airlines as checked baggage. And they are completely self-contained: the whole lot is in one case.
By contrast, a reconfigurable display generally is delivered in a few containers and demands a couple of hours to assemble. Because it is typically sent in numerous hardcases, you are often not allowed to carry these displays into the fair center by yourself - you must arrange getting these booths to the company's trade fair space using union workers and paying out drayage (the fee for moving a specific amount of weight). And your firm will pay more to ship these booths, typically. Obviously there are exceptions - some modular displays can travel in one container and some are almost as lightweight as the heaviest portable trade expo displays (pop up booths). Nevertheless every one of them is more complicated to assemble than a portable.
So if you're contemplating a transportable, your advantages are that you may save on drayage by bringing in (self carrying) the exhibit and by setting it up yourself. And in shipping. For the most part - up to a ten by twenty trade convention display, there are not sizeable trade-offs in graphic presentation area or other features - most trade expo booths that are ten by ten or ten by 20 will have a straight display, and your business can use anything from banner stands to pop ups or a tension fabric backwall, and the functionality will be 90% or more of a modular display. And since you're limited in most show halls to a niney six height in 10 x 10 or 10 x 20 booths, you can't take advantage of the extra height a modular display can provide.

Of course, modular displays have advantages over portables in certain situations, even in smaller trade show booths. They're reconfigurable and generally have more options and can be customized more easily. But if budget is important and you don't need the extra features of a modular trade show display, consider a portable - you'll save enough money after a few trade shows to host a dinner for your best customers or - go to a new trade show.

Ted Ridgway is President of Impact Displays, a company that offers portable trade show displays and trade show graphics. You can also find helpful trade show display buying tips and trade show exhibiting tips on the company's website. Impact Displays is located at 1934 Junction Ave in San Jose CA and the company can be reached at info@impact-displays.com or by calling 877-217-2681.

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