While it might just seem like trade shows are just an occasional event that hit the floor of your local indoor arena, the greater trade show business is an absolutely massive field in the U.S., valued at almost $17 billion in 2017.
贸易展会在普通人眼中，只是在当地的室内展厅里偶尔举办的活动。但是在美国，却已经形成一个规模巨大的行业领域。在2017年，美国贸易展行业的整体价值就达到近170亿美元。
And that means plenty of opportunities to work with wholesalers to provide customers with fully customized and totally portable trade show display stands—with technology and new products aplenty, created by the pros.
对于标识行业的供应商来说，巨大的市场意味着巨大的机遇。于是，由专业人士创新制造，面向参展商供应的高定制化、强便携性的贸易展示平台，就此应运而生。
Victoria Rodriguez, who handles marketing with Carlsbad, California-based WS Display, says fabric is still the primary construction material among the 19 categories of trade show displays her company manufactures, ranging from retractable banner stands and flags to pop-up fabric displays and canopy tents—in sizes from 2’ to 30’ widths.
加州WS展示器材公司营销负责人，维多利亚·罗德里格斯介绍，她的公司提供给参展商的共有19种展示器材，纺织材料是其中的首选。例如可伸缩的横幅标识与旗帜标识，还有宽幅从60厘米（2英尺）~9米（30英尺）不等的顶蓬标识，这些都是纺织材料制作出来的。
“Fabric is easy to ship, it can fold, and it can be washed and still hold its color—it can also be stretched out taut around tube displays,” she says. “Lately, people are liking organic shapes, as well, with circles and general roundness attracting a lot of buyers. Most of our displays are still designed for 10 x 10 or 10 x 20 booths so we’re huge on being portable, and allowing you to set it up yourself.”
维多利亚说：“纺织材料容易运输，经过折叠与清洗后仍然能保持原有的色彩，还可以紧缚在展示架上。针对最近客户喜爱使用的有机形状，例如一些圆形或类圆形，纺织材料也可以很好的去制作。我们的展示器材一直是按照标准10*10或10*20的展位规格来设计，但是更为轻便，可以让客户自由组合。”
Geoffrey S. Duncan, director of sales and marketing with Radius Display Products, in Dallas, says his company’s 41-year history as a direct manufacturer of trade show display technology has given RDP some unique skills and one-of-a-kind products. Duncan says displays have gone from the old days when a Velcro-backed tri-fold table-top back wall unit and a skirt on the table was the industry standard. As processes such as dye sublimation and print-to-paper, transfer-to-fabric have been replaced by high-resolution direct digital printing, displays have become more vibrant and more flexible.
Radius展示器材公司在达拉斯地区的销售与市场总监，杰弗里·邓肯介绍，他所在的公司经营已有41年，是贸易展示器材技术的领导者。40多年的制造经验使该公司拥有独一无二的产品与技术。邓肯说：“以前的行业标准早已不适用于现在的展示器材。在以前，纺织材料标识只是用尼龙扣在背景板上栓一块彩色的布；现在随着印刷科技与染料油墨的升级，高分辨率的数字印刷直接取代了传统的印染工艺，这让展览出的标识变得更有活力，也更加机动。
“As an actual manufacturer of these items, we are fairly unique in that we can make custom-size products, where many of our competitors cannot,” he says. “We recently had a request from one of our dealers to print a 65-foot fabric cover for a bus that was going to be used in a media unveiling, and we’ve also done banners large enough to cover building scaffolding during a demolition.”
That customization, Duncan says, allows for a range of products a bit different than the typical one-size-fits-all solutions a reseller might find during a quick internet search.
“We differentiate ourselves by offering unique, scalable display solutions. We want our clients to get the biggest bang for their exhibit dollars, not only for the ‘wow’ factor, but also be able to reconfigure or scale their displays up or down to fit a variety of booth spaces.”
邓肯继续说：“作为这些产品的制造商，我们公司的独特之处在于，不论客户提出怎样的要求，都能够生产出定制尺寸的产品。我们的许多竞争对手则无法做到这一点。最近，一名经销商要我们为一辆公交车印制长达20米的纺织材料表皮，以及覆盖施工脚手架的巨大横幅，这些都将通过媒体宣传出去。类似于这样的定制，可以延伸出一系列的产品，这就与普通的经销商在网上所寻找的`一刀切`式解决方案形成了差异化。从公司的角度，通过提供独特的、具有扩展性的展示器材解决方案，可以更好的进行市场定位。
我们也希望客户们能从展会上获得最大化的收益，所以不仅要追求惊艳的效果，更要可以根据实际情况来调整整个展位与展品的大小。”
Today’s technological innovations in trade show display stands focus on those modular displays with an emphasis on portability and ease of assembly and disassembly, as well as eye-catching lighting. WS Display’s SEGO Lightbox Display provides magnetic electrical connectors for the LED lights pre-installed in the display itself, providing a clean, cool-looking and entirely tool-free system, Rodriguez says.
WS公司的维多利亚告诉我们，在当前的贸易展会上，技术创新集中体现在模块化的展示器材上，要主打易于组装和拆卸与便携性，以及足够吸引眼球的照明。而WS公司的SEGO灯箱为展示器材本身预先安装的LED灯具提供了磁性电子连接器，可以让整个展览系统无需工具，外观更为简洁利落。
RDP’s flexible system uses a common set of hardware, Duncan says, and units can be adapted for use in an 8 x 8 booth, attached together to fill a 40 x 40 space or stretch as high as 20’, with backlighting or motion lighting to make things more dramatic.
“Back-lit displays are today’s rock stars of the display world, and silicone-edge graphics are also the preferred attachment method, versus Velcro or clips,” he adds.
Radius公司灵活的展览布置系统，在表面上看只使用了一些普通的硬件，可以适用于一个8*8的展位，但是当它们连接在一起时，足以填充一个40*40的空间，伸展开来的长度可达6米（20英尺）。这一套系统与背光灯或动态灯搭配起来，就能让整个展位极富戏剧性。
在如今的展示器材领域，背光标识也处于明星地位，硅边图形与它搭配的效果，比传统的尼龙搭扣和夹子要好上很多。
Rick Barber, vice president of sales and marketing with Ontario, Canada-based Frontline Systems Inc., offers a range of display units including retractable banner stands, pop-up backdrops, literature stands and outdoor displays. Barber says he is also seeing an increase in fabric-based materials.
加拿大FS公司的副总裁，里克·巴伯明显感觉到以纺织材料使用量的增长，为此他专门提供了一系列的产品用于表明这一现状，包括可伸缩的横幅展架、弹出式背景布、文学展架以及户外展架。
“Perhaps one of the most significant changes has been the emergence of textiles and their many applications for trade show displays,” he says. “They are replacing traditional materials due to their vivid print quality and lightweight characteristics.”
巴伯表示：“这一增长最大的体现，就是纺织材料在贸易展会上的广泛应用。因为它们生动的印刷质量和便携易拆装的特点，逐渐取代传统的材料已是大势所趋。”
As a master importer and wholesaler for trade show products, he notes that politics has also gotten into the game, with a recent global tariff war leading to a jump in prices in many of the foreign-made products he sells.
“The recent tariffs imposed by the United States government on imports from China has impacted many of the portable display hardware items and there have been cost increases, as a result.”
FS公司一直在进行大量的贸易展用品进口与批发活动，巴伯指出，现在政治也加入了这场“游戏”中，最近的一场全球关税战，中国进口的产品被美国征收大量关税，影响了许多便携式展示器具，导致其产品成本上升。
How should you—or a customer—pick a wholesaler to work with in the trade show display stand field?
“Buyers tend to fall into two camps, the price camp and the quality camp, and in the past, the disparity between those two was very small, since there weren’t very many manufacturers,” Duncan says. “Over the decades, that void has exponentially expanded. Super-inexpensive import fabrics and overseas labor costs have driven prices to a rock bottom in recent years, but what you frequently get are poorly-sewn, gauzy, lightweight fabrics that only last a single tradeshow season. I know it’s a cliché, but you really do get what you pay for.”
怎样让客户选择自己作为他们贸易展会上的供应商呢？
Radius公司的邓肯回答了这个问题：“如何让客户选择你的公司，一般来说会有两个导向：价格导向和质量导向。在以前，因为没有太多的制造商，客户几乎没有选择余地。在过去的几十年里，价格与质量之间的空白地带以指数形式扩大，近年来，超廉价的进口面料和海外劳动力的涌入把价格推到了最低水平，但这就导致参展商们使用的大部分是制作粗糙、轻薄的纺织材料所制作的展具，有些甚至是一次性的。这些都只是老生常谈的问题，但质量确实是让客户选择你的重要标准。”
