Durban exhibitions company off to London for a world first

The company will build the first ever modular, customised, double-story Octamax show stand at World Travel Market (WTM), one of the industry's largest international tourism shows. The 312m², custom-made stand has been designed for an international tourism client.

The structural system, made by German company Octanorm, was launched at the Euroshop trade show in Düsseldorf in this year, but this is the first time a customised version will be used at a show. Looking back on a busy year, including attendance at shows in Berlin, South Africa, Japan and now the United Kingdom, Eclectic director Patrick Allen reflects on some of the changes that are transforming this dynamic industry both locally and globally.

“When we started the company 15 years ago, computer three-dimensional rendering as a form of presentation was in its infancy,” remembers Allen. “We would prepare a two-dimensional black-and-white line drawing which I would take to the client. A small model, with corporate graphics applied to it, accompanied certain designs. Today we operate Archicad 12, a 3-D architectural program. The sophistication of the program is so extensive that clients are continually amazed at how the final product is the exact replica of the presentation drawing. Perspectives look like a photograph.”

“We have also seen enormous changes in the nature of shows,” Allen continues. “Many big, established shows such as Saitex and Export Africa have been dropped from the exhibition calendar and many new shows have been added. Some don't stay around for long and others have joined together to maximise budgets, venues and target audiences.”

“We have also seen many of the bigger companies who used to be at every show, not exhibiting at all, cutting down on the size of their stands and keeping their stands for longer, before they update them. With reduced budgets the tendency now is toward system stands and minimally decorated shell scheme stands, rather than massive custom-made exhibits.”

The company has been involved with designing and building stands for shows in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Bangkok, Luanda and San Diego for the past nine years. “Shows in London and Berlin creatively are spectacular, with many exhibitors maximizing the height of their stands to increase their visual exposure in the exhibition halls and the use of graphics, colour and lighting is exceptional,” says fellow director Jay Ramjee.

“Notably, system and custom-designed stands are most prevalent, where large budgets are still available. “In Tokyo it was evident that medium-sized stands, made up of modular system components and graphic panels, was in the minority,” he continues. “The local Japanese tend to use very lightweight construction consisting of plywood applied to timber framework, in some instances up to 5m high. They do not paint the wood panels but instead apply a membrane type of wall paper in various colours and with very large graphic images.”

“It's also interesting to note that at break-down at the end of the show (which was only four hours long!), armies of Japanese workers descended on each stand and within a short period of time the stands had been razed to the ground. This was followed by a fleet of 10 ton shredding machines to finish the job! At this show a R30,000 per hour penalty fee is charged for late completion.”

Eclectic Exhibits currently design and build exhibition stands for a number of national and international clients in areas from opthalmics to tourism and trade to FMCG.