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What's the Expiration Date of Your Trade Show Display?
Has Your Exhibit Passed Its Freshness Date?
Trade show displays, like yogurt and milk, have expiration dates. While it may not be printed on the box, it's not hard to spot one that's starting to spoil. Here are 20 Clues it's time to buy a new exhibit.
You Know It's Starting to Smell When . . .
1. Graphics are attached with Velcro to a fabric backwall. While that may be OK for a FFA display at the county fair, it's no longer acceptable at a professional trade show.
2. I&D won't touch your property without hazardous duty pay. When show labor has to don hazmat suits before starting an install, that's not a good sign.
3. Duct tape is an important design element. And you're excited it now comes in designer colors -- Baja Blue and Desert Sunset Yellow.
4. When your booth was purchased, a quarter could transform your hotel bed into Vibrating Magic Fingers. Ahhhhhh!
5. Attendees compliment the "vintage" theme of your booth and graphics. "Very retro!"
6. You decide to re-print your graphics and hand the graphic designer a floppy disk.
7. There are more "just in case" parts than actual display parts.
8. The shipping labels have added 50 pounds to the weight.
9. You lust over the two $99 banner stands in the adjacent booth.
10. The No Questions Asked Lifetime Warranty has expired.
11. It smells like the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Even Fabreze can't kill that odor.
12. You found your distributor by flipping through the Yellow Pages of the phone book.
13. Your storage costs have exceeded your purchase price by a factor of 10.
14. Your graphics have a "Happy Days" theme, and the Fonz is still your unofficial spokesperson. "Ayyyyyyy!"
15. 
Someone tagged your crate with the Rolling Stones tongue graphic (and you think that's cool).
16. It folds and weighs more than an AMC Gremlin.
17. Children flee in terror as if they've just seen a circus clown.
18. Your competitors gush over your booth . . . . "Don't Change a Thing! Seriously, Not a Single Thing!"
19. You found a "Win a Free Palm Pilot" Promotional Flyer in the case.
20. Your boss says, "By golly, it was good enough for Old Joe, bless his heart and God rest his soul."
If you answered "Yes" to any of these, put your display in the compost bin. How do you determine the expiration date of a trade show display?
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Mel White, CEI
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