Exhibits and Special Events

Most of the activity of public relations practitioners, especially those who are communication technicians, is office work: writing, editing, conferring with clients, and attending internal meetings to plan infor­mation programs. But their assignments and projects occasionally take them out of the office to do non-routine tasks such as arranging a lobby display, setting up a booth for a trade show, planning an open house, or running the firm's annual meeting.

All of these special events require conducting site inspections, working with designers and other artists, anticipating logistical prob­lems, and dealing with emergencies far from home base. Most practi­tioners consider these challenges a rewarding change of pace.

Today we’ll talk about several formal ways you can make person-to-person contact with members of your publics: displays and exhibits, open houses, tours, and the annual meeting.

Placing a display in the lobby of your organization's building is a good way of commemorating a special occasion, calling attention to a new program, or soliciting employee involvement in a worthwhile project.

But only rarely does a display booth stand alone. Usually, along with the other exhibits at a trade show, career day, or information fair, it is assigned a standard space of so much front footage and depth. Un­less a desirable freestanding center or corner space is obtained, it most likely will be jammed in between two other booths.

Each year in the United States there are more than two thousand fairs, ranging from huge state fairs attracting more than a million visitors to trade fairs that target special-interest audiences.

All fairs, even those famous for their midways, grandstand con­certs, and stock car races, have education as a main objective. In addi­tion to commercial exhibitors showing their wares, most fairs and exhibitions also have booths sponsored by organizations desiring to get a social message across to their publics. MADD and SADD—Mothers and Students Against Drunk Driving—find fairs an effective place to get their literature into the hands of ordinary citizens. Conservation and environmental groups recruit members and demonstrate "earth-friendly" habits and behaviors to interested passers-by.

 There are several problem arising along with the favor of establishing your glamorous booth in a fair. One of the keys to deciding whether to place a booth at a fair is whether your exhibit will be in a high-traffic area or stuck in an infor­mation ghetto far from the churning crowds. Literature costs also have to be weighed: Will the thousands of visitors who willingly take your brochures really read them or merely toss them away with the sticks from their cotton candy and taffy apples? Let’s look closer at the procedure.

The first task is to obtain from those in charge of running the show a detailed outline of rules for displays, the available services (including electric power), and the precise dimensions of the space. Will back and side walls be provided, will there be curtain separators, or does the space consist merely of marked-off floor space? Convention and trade-show facilities are fairly standardized in terms of services, but hotels, motels, and government agencies often leave it to you to figure out what to do.

Before designing the display, decide whether it will be used once only or reused as a standard exhibit. Single-use means the display can be built to the specifications of the one place and the one message. The multiple-use display must be adaptable to various spaces and applica­tions. Because durable display materials are so costly, the display should be designed so that it can be updated and modified easily.

Most organizations that pack displays around to several locations spend anywhere from $5,000 for basic booth materials to $50,000 for custom-designed displays that can stand the transportation and yet be simple enough for a small team of workers to assemble in a few hours.

Visual Impression

A basic booth might consist of nothing more than a sign on the back wall and a table with literature, attended by a smiling person who is prepared to answer questions. But most successful displays are more sophisticated.

Consider the overall impression the booth will make on the audi­ence. Will the display communicate a single concept, or several? It is pos­sible to devote 70 percent of the impact and space to a major theme while also piggybacking related themes in the other 30 percent. For example, a company might give major emphasis to a new product line at a trade-fair booth while also offering information about established products.

Will the display encourage active audience involvement or only the passive soaking up of information? Will the viewer merely pass the dis­play, or is there an opportunity to enter the space? At the annual Philadel­phia Garden Show, the W. Atlee Burpee Company erects a greenhouse and a small vegetable plot with pathways so that visitors can walk right through and observe the plantings closely. Involvement increases interest in the company's products.

Will the mood be serious or fun? Several exhibitors at the annual Premium Show at the New York Coliseum display games and toys that can be imprinted with the sponsoring organization's name.

  Sometimes the accent on prestige rules out pizzazz: The Beatrice Foods booth at trade shows is done entirely in gold, and attendants dressed in gold pass out gold-foil-covered pamphlets. The decor consistently carries out the concept that the Beatrice product line is of the highest quality.

Once you have announced an event to your target publics, spent money on preparations, and invested your time and energy in exhaustive plan­ning, it is dispiriting to find that your event competes directly with another one aimed at attracting the same audience. In some cities, arts groups join forces to publish a "cultural calendar." They coordinate through a central office so that nobody schedules an opening night or a benefit against another group.

Religious holidays are most important to avoid, not only because an event will lose some of its audience, but because some members of the target public may be offended. (Jewish holidays begin at sundown the previous day, so it usually is best to block out two days if many in your audience are Jewish.)