A Wider Net

In a recent issue of Lighting Dimensions magazine, Chauvet Lighting took out two consecutive full-page ads promoting their new campaign “Green Thinking” as a method of driving traffic to their exhibit at Lighting Dimensions International (LDI) 2007, the premiere lighting trade show in the United States. It resulted in a two-sided page with mostly images of green leaves and white space. In fact, one side featured no product shots at all - just green, white, and this sentence:
“Chauvet is a leader in eco-illumination for the entertainment industry with the wides range of innovative, earth-friendly LED luminaires.”
I’m sure the folks at Philips Solid State Lighting (formerly Color Kinetics) would have some issue with that claim, especially since some of the Chauvet technology is licensed from Philips, but that’s not what this article is about.

Surprisingly, there aren’t many LED-based lighting manufacturers jumping heaving onto the “green” marketing bandwagon. You certainly hear about big stage shows talking about their switch to LED as a way to save energy, but not the lighting makers themselves, at least not in the entertainment space. I was very pleased to see the ad and decided to take a look at Chauvet to see what else they were doing with their “Green Thinking” campaign.

Unfortunately, they have not done much with their new campaign on their website. I was expecting (hoping, actually) that they had integrated it thoroughly into their corporate marketing and even their strategy. “Green Thinking” was only exposed on the website as a small element of a graphic promoting their tiny LED-powered moving spotlight called the MiN Spot. Also, their corporate mission has nothing in it about green values whatsoever. I am close to calling this a greenwashing campaign, but the LED lighting is a very green technology and I will simply suggest that they should try harder to highlight that.

There was a nice article on their site about an outdoor holiday tree lighting project they did for St. Paul, Minnesota. In it, they claim that the switch to LED lights dropped the power bills from $1,300.00 to approximately $130.00, and carbon emissions from 18.7 tons to about 4 tons, according to an estimate from the Minnesota State Energy Office. Pretty impressive! LED Lighting has become a highly effective and technically viable solution for events and while it does cost a bit more to specify, is a reasonable way to reduce energy costs on your events and exhibits.

Chauvet, a company best known in the nightclub market, really made it’s presence known at LDI by winning Best Big Booth. They captured that booth experience on video and delivered it through their website. While the video was way too long at 45 minutes, I heartily applaud the use of video to extend the reach and value of their booth. The also have their own YouTube video channel but the LDI booth tour is not on there (length issue, maybe?).

In summary, I give high marks to Chauvet for playing the green card in their LDI booth promotions, but low marks for not integrating it onto their website and corporate mission. Also, I love their use of video and their channel on YouTube - they just need to package the booth tour better. If you’re considering the impact of lighting on your next event, talk to a good lighting designer. Most professional lighting designers are now well-versed in the ins-and-outs of LED and other low energy lighting solutions. If you have set goals to make your events or exhibits more green, then LED lighting should be part of your plan.

Gizmodo has a nice top 10 booths of CES roundup. I would bet this is the only gallery of its kind in which Peter Frampton is depicted as a “top booth”.

EDIT - And Engadget added something of a booth gallery, too.

Or you can just check out the rapidly growing Flickr pool tagged CES2008.

The bloggers from Gizmodo ran amok at CES with a tiny portable IR transmitter that shuts down almost any TV screen in sight. The fact that CES, with 1.85million square feet of TELEVISIONS wasn’t prepared for this even though the devices have been around for years, is fairly surprising.

This sort of prank isn’t unique to CES, so exhibitors at any show will want to heed this vivid warning and block their IR ports. In the meantime, I have to work on not laughing every time I see this video of the prank in action.

EDIT - The blogger has been officially banned from CES, and additional actions against Gizmodo may also be taken.

Reactrix, a gesture-based interactive signage company who is best known for their permanent interactive floor installations in malls all over the USA, partnered with Samsung at CES to showcase a new product called WAVEscape. Clearly a competitive offering to Gesturetek’s Gestpoint, the WAVEscape appears to be considerably easier to stage. You simply hang a 3D Infrared sensor bar above the screen and you’re ready to go (I think). The sensor can detect hands and fingers in 3D so it can react to motion such as a horizontal sweep or a forward point, which it would probably interpret as a mouse click. It appears to work with several people at once.

The video at Gizmodo makes it look fairly decent, although it suffers from the same awkward lag that Gesturetek’s products can have when the application isn’t well-tuned. They demonstrate the device being used in a “box the panda game” (has PETA seen this?), a traditional point-and-click application, and virtual volleyball.

As a method for creating a compelling interactive experience, with one or more participants, this looks like another promising offering. Is it as intuitive and slick as Microsoft Surface? Not even close - but it can service a larger crowd, will probably work through storefront windows, and is much easier to hang on a wall. It is also much easier to keep clean!

CNET has a nice article about it, too.

This 52″ Multitouch screen that LG/Philips showcased at CES appears at first to trump the Microsoft Surface product, at least in terms of a multitouch interactive display device. Surface is a coffee table, whereas this is a wall-mount display. Surface is, again, a coffee table, and this is a flat panel display. They both offer multi-touch. But when you watch the video below you notice several big differences. The surface interface demos have been optimized for intuitive behavior. If you place your hand on an image and drag your hand it moves the image with your hand. In the LG/Philips demo, the hand movements of the presenter and the google earth images on display are not intuitively connected. Also, he regularly struggles with the interface which is the exact opposite experience of Surface. Frankly, I could have brought up the images he requested far faster with a traditional mouse and keyboard, so what’s the point?

The Surface team has been very careful to make sure they design applications that use the technology effectively and appropriately. They step back and ask themselves “could I do this as well or better with a mouse and keyboard or a traditional touch screen?” and “Am I adding value or adding to the experience with this technology”.

The best part of seeing this video is the fact that other companies are getting inspired to join the party. Multi-touch interfaces are a big part of our man-machine interface future, and like the iPhone, Surface is creative very positive activity in the research labs of their competitors. Now I think they need to pick up the pace!

Thanks again, Engadget.

Exhibitor Magazine published “An Inconvenient Booth” - a trend report covering the “economic impact of the Green movement on the trade show industry.” It’s a very good read that highlights some positive trends, some less-than positive trends, and good details of the obstacles facing exhibitors and suppliers as they attempt to incorporate Green practices. Note: It feels very weird to me to capitalize Green in this context so bear with me if I miss one or two.

A positive highlight of the report is the amount of interest in green exhibiting by exhibitors and suppliers. 62% of exhibitors and 81% of suppliers said their interest in Green exhibiting options is high or very high. Another highlight: “51% of exhibitors believe that adopting Greener practices will enhance their companies’ brand or image.” These numbers are expected to increase in 2008. Despite only about two-thirds of the exhibitors expressing high or very high interest in Green practices, 86% of them anticipate setting aside budget dollars in 2008 for Green options. That’s significant, and that’s part of the reason that the report highlights a $9.24 billion untapped market for Green exhibiting options. That’s the upside of the report.

One of the most disheartening aspects of the report was the fact that, despite the clear interest in Green exhibiting options, there is a shocking lack of interest in paying extra for it. People want their Green, but not if it costs more and not if it limits their options. Once the cost of incorporating Green practices adds a 5% premium to their total exhibit costs, the number of exhibitors willing to go that route drops to 73%. If they incur a 10% premium, then the number of willing participants drops to 45%. And if they have to pay 15% more to use Green options, only 14% said they would pay the difference. So - that should tell us how much they value the impact going Green on their brand and corporate image.

This is the toughest part of the Inconvenient Truth that we all face. We want to save the planet, but we’re often not willing to make sacrifices to do it - especially in business. That’s why we see so much greenwashing - it’s far cheaper to pretend to be green than to actually do it. The report indicated that one of the major obstacles facing exhibitors who want to go Green is the lack of interest and support from the leadership within their company. What I hope will follow, in Trend Report #2, is the research to show executives how valuable a Green strategy can be, and how little it can cost to make a big impact. Give exhibitors ammunition to fight the fight all the way up the ladder/chain.

The report is available as a PDF. Download it. Don’t print it. The hard copy that was inserted in every issue of Exhibitor Magazine was printed on only 10% post-consumer waste paper. 10%. Great report - not a great delivery. Similarly, the US Post Office, in an attempt to promote printed direct marketing, keeps sending me thick printed brochures-disguised-as-magazines about how green direct marketing can be, when targetted properly. Here’s a suggestion: Send me a postcard and put the thick document on the web.

I applaud Exhibitor Magazine for taking the initiative to perform this research. It’s a great step and I hope they continue to identify and share ways for exhibitors to incorporate Greener practices.

Creative Technology Germany has, in cooperation with Horao, produced a stunning 3D led display module. The picture below doesn’t do it justice - click through to the product page and play the videos. It won’t be your average trade show exhibit that can afford to feature a large display built out of these devices but it will probably be the one everyone remembers.

Amazing resin materials from Lumicor filled with organic materials including grasses and bamboo. You can even special order their panels with whatever you want inside. Imagine a clear wall full of post-it notes that say “call your mother”.

A wild lighting product for stagecraft, exhibits, and environments: TapeLites - fiberoptic illumination technology

Bag warfare. If you have ever exhibited at a trade show, you know what this is all about. Whoever gives out the biggest free bags at a trade show wins, because the attendees inevitably end up stowing everyone else’s bags inside the largest bags. The giver-outer of the biggest bag gets an army of brand ambassadors while the rest of the bag-donors get to have their brand, and their good will, literally trashed. Largest bag wins.

The gauntlet has been thrown down with the Show Cart. You can fit everyone’s bags in here, plus a generous daily helping of SWAG, product literature, and samples. Just think about how many fuzzy dice, inflatable hammers, and LED-illuminated USB shot glasses you can fit in these babies!

So - next time you’re running a tiny booth at a show for the first time, consider handing out these roll-around shippable weapons of bags disruption.