One of Australia’s leading trade fair and exhibition contracting firms, Exhibitionco of Cromer, NSW, discovered Neschen Easy Dot removable vinyl when it was asked to put together Starleaton’s stand at VIEE/PrintCom in September.
It is now an affirmed Easy Dot user for all of their large vinyl projects, saying Easy Dot has halved the time needed to put up and remove trade show graphics.
Building exhibition stands or displays for the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions) industry, is the most deadline-driven imaginable
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| Exhibitionco’s busy admin and design area |
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| Entrance to Exhibitionco’s huge Cromer, NSW factory |
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| Andrea Trumble with the Teckwin UV Flatbed press |
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| Exhibitionco’s Andy Buick with Andrea Trumble |
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| Exhibitionco’s busy fabrication workshop |
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| Example of Easy Dot showing dot-pattern adhesive |
where failure to deliver on time is not an option. When a show opens, everything has to be ready and sparkling from the word go. Add to this the need to manage electricians, carpenters, decorators, truckies, riggers and equipment installers in a heavily policed OH&S environment, and the potential for unforeseen delays looms large. Anything that can save time is of incalculable benefit.
Contracted to build Starleaton’s VIEE/PrintCom stand, with a large back wall graphic that was frequently changed during the show, Exhibitionco’s Andrea Trumble saw first-hand how quickly Easy Dot was applied, removed and then a new Easy Dot graphic re-applied. Neschen has engineered a sign vinyl with an adhesive dot-pattern that allows air to escape when applied.
“As soon as I saw what Starleaton was doing with Easy Dot, I said ‘we’ve got to get this product.’ The first thing that impressed me was the instant removability without any traces of adhesive.” Says Andrea, adding: “Then I saw the re-application using just a plastic squeegee – there were no air bubbles and if you need to re-position it just peels off and can be put back.”
Exhibitionco – slogan ‘we’ll stand by you’ - fabricates its own stand structures from a huge industrial unit near Sydney’s Northern Beaches. “The ability to cleanly remove graphics and apply new ones means that many desks, benches and wall panels we make can be used over again with a new look,” says Andrea.
Company Director Andy Buick who started Exhibitionco in the early 1990s adds: “We just love this product, it’s a simple solution to a time-consuming problem and it prints beautifully on our Roland SolJet machines.”
Starleaton General Manager Ben Eaton adds: “It was a classic case of ‘show me how it works.’ When the Exhibitionco team had the opportunity to actually see Easy Dot in action, using it was a no-brainer. We can make extravagant claims about this product but there is no substitute for a hands-on demonstration to know it is a real time and money-saver in the exhibition stand business.”
THE EXHIBITIONCO STORY
The first thing that hits you on a visit to Exhibitionco’s headquarters is the scale of the operation. The cavernous unit is divided into storage of pre-fabricated stands, shipping containers ready to go to shows and materials. The manufacturing workshop is where carpenters are busily creating new stand furniture using MDF, sheet acrylic, steel, aluminium and other materials. Upstairs is the administration and design section, a quieter area but no less busy.
Five account managers work on current and future projects all over Australia while a team of stand designers create stunning show citadels to pitch to clients, who include big names like Canon, Sony, Westfield, Amex, Arnott’s, IBM, St George, Star City, Colgate plus a host of others from small to multi-national.
The inhouse graphics team consists of three under the stewardship of long-time manager Nicola Jennings. The production area is well-equipped with a Roland Versacamm 540 printer/cutter for up to 1371mm wide rolls plus a Roland SolJet 1000 for larger rolls up to 2600mm wide. UV cured flatbed printing is undertaken on a Teckwin machine, and they are now looking at a second unit to keep up with demand. A SEAL 62 Pro Laminator supplied by Starleaton, sits near an earlier SEAL 6000 model.
“In the peak show period of April to November, we have anything up to fifty people working here including casuals and backpackers on working holidays,” says Andrea, “while our core permanent staff is around 24 people. It’s fast-paced during the busy season and we are a mobile team constructing stands in all major ANZ exhibition centres.”
Exhibitionco also has a range of furniture and AV equipment for hire and specializes in modular budget stands for 3 x 3 metre up to 6 x 9 metre areas.
Originally an IT expert from the UK, Director Andy Buick started Exhibitionco 20 years ago to ‘make a difference’ in the expo business.
“We’re trying to be more of a strategic marketing partner to our clients,” says Andy, “it’s not just a case of designing and building a stand every couple of years, but of caring for the visual appeal of brands at point-of-sale, in shopping centres, on roadshows, with signage and of course exhibitions. It’s Experiential Marketing where we can improve customer perceptions and experiences at several touch-points within the highly competitive marketing sphere.”
“Having a reliable supply and support partner like Starleaton is very important to us,” adds Andy, “We also source several vinyls and rigid board substrates from them and being only a few kilometers apart is a big advantage for urgent deliveries. Discovering Neschen’s Easy Dot has changed the way we handle show graphics, and certainly saved us a lot of time,” he concludes.
Exhibitionco
www.exhibitionco.com.au
Starleaton Digital Solutions
www.starleaton.com.au
