How to really stand out at a trade show or exhibition: My Best Tech

Isla Haddad is the national operations manager for Evexis Group, which designs and constructs stands for exhibitions.

Our business is predominantly in the design and construction industry of exhibition stands. We don’t do trestle tables – we build monuments!

One week we’re building a stand in the medical industry, the next it’s in finance or fashion. We have a broad range of clients including Motorola, Tennis Australia, ANZ and Rebel Sport.

We’re two women in a male-dominated industry – one of us is under 30 – and hopefully we’re opening doors for other women. We’re in our second year of business, and by the end of this financial year, we will see our turnover exceed $1 million and we now have a total of four full-time staff.

We’ve recently bought out a hologram presenter – or “ghost presenter”. It’s a really simple concept to explain, but it makes a really big impression.

You start off with an acrylic cut-out of a torso. You then film a videograph presenter do a one or two minute spiel about the product. It almost looks like a ghost! While we’ve seen it used in Europe, it’s not a product many exhibitors use here, so it really stands out.

It’s something we’ve just started using – we first tested it last June – and it’s a high-end product, so not everyone is going to be able to afford it, but we are working to bring down the price. You could even use it in retail.

So say Optus has just bought out a new phone. You would use the ghost presenter to use a crowd and talk about the key features of the phone, and then the [real-life] sales staff to sell the product.