The Print Show 2024: How Venture Banners Helped Exhibitors Stand Out

Venture Banners had another successful outing at The Print Show this September. Having been at every show since its inception (bar one that coincided with a premises move), visitors should by now be familiar with our trademark orange branded stands complete with our extensive range of signage products, from roller banners and stretch fabric solutions to flags and wall-mounted displays - all printed in-house by us at our Essex production facility. 

As a trade-only printer, our trade show presence is a representation of our print quality, product portfolio, expertise, and customer service; and our stand needs to reflect this. Conveniently, having been designing and producing exhibition stands since 2009, we are well placed to achieve this, and we were pleased to support a number of exhibitors at The Print Show this year with their exhibition stand designs too.

At The Print Show 2024, we officially launched our Monolith honeycomb-board-constructed and fully-recyclable alternative to a roller banner or stretch fabric stand. The face and base, along with the packaging box, are all completely disposable and recyclable and the honeycomb structure is proudly displayed on the edges of the graphic panels. 

We utilised this environmentally friendly product for our own stand with the booth utilising Monolith and cardboard-based products. The response from visitors to the new product was overwhelmingly positive, reflecting the growing demand from consumers for environmentally friendly signage alternatives. 

Product and brand sustainability has been a key consideration amongst consumers for quite some time now and according to PwC, 46% of consumers say they are buying more sustainable products as a way to reduce their impact on the environment. 

As demand from print buyers and brands for sustainable signage solutions continues to grow, so too does the amount of recyclable and sustainable materials being used at events with short lifespans where signage typically ends up in landfill at the end; be it PVC-free banner options created with reduced amounts of water and free of toxins, reusable textile graphics, or recyclable cardboard and honeycomb alternatives.

Recently, we have seen a sharp increase in the adoption of textile solutions such as stretch fabric displays, SEG fabric displays, and SEG fabric lightboxes for events and exhibitions due to lightweight fabric graphics being easy to install, remove, and transport. The graphics can also be washed, reused, and recycled with other textiles, offering environmental benefits to increasingly eco conscious consumers.  

It was in response to this continued growth that we expanded our textile capacity last year, adding a third EFI VUTEk FabriVU dye-sublimation printer capable of direct-to-substrate and paper sublimation printing.

Requiring graphics for an exhibition stand which was open on three sides, Colin Sinclair McDermott aka The Online Print Coach opted for an SEG backlit fabric pop-up, a stretch fabric rectangle counter, and our newly launched Honeycomb Monolith, all working together seamlessly to create an inviting and open space for visitors to learn more about his print coaching offering. 

Colin said: “Venture Banners supports me year on year in my own growth at The Print Show and continues to creatively advise me on options that align with my show goals. The feedback I received on my stand from clients and prospects alike was really positive and I am ever so grateful to the Venture Banners team for helping me up my exhibition game. They always go above and beyond helping me in the assemble/disassemble process, and ensuring everything is set up correctly.”

Just across the show floor, Howden Insurance was making a splash with a simple but well-utilised shell transformer system with display polyester SEG that can be reused time and time again. 

A shell transformer solution can elevate a drab, uninspiring stand into a premium offering that draws attention without the excessive price tag. Shell transformers are printed using dye-sublimation on display polyester for rich and vibrant graphics. Each wall is printed as a single piece and finished with silicone edging (SEG), allowing it to easily push-fit into the T3 framework.

Luke Wildey, Business Development for Print at Howden Insurance, said: “It made sense to ask Venture Banners to help us out as they do the event logistics side of things and knowing the quality that they produce, it was a no brainer to go with them. They helped us massively, because we were able to rent the shell scheme system from them and they printed the graphics, took everything up for us, and put it all together for us.”

Emma Luxton, Marketing Executive at Howden Insurance, added: “Venture Banners were really efficient with the installation, the graphics looked vibrant and crisp, and I think the sustainability aspect of it is great especially as these shows can create a lot of waste.”

Having turned to Venture Banners to produce a stretch fabric wall divide, a stretch fabric podium, and feather flags which were placed on the outskirts of the stand to attract the attention of visitors roaming the show corridors, Founder and Managing Director of Artworker, Nate Duckworth, praises the quality of the graphics and the simple and easy to use templates available on our website. 

“Previously you might have used a vinyl for a stand which can crease and it’s not the best impression; but it was really slick, a really high quality finish, and super easy to assemble. Having brought all the graphics to the show with them, when we arrived the team had even helped set it up! The quality was amazing. It was super simple to order. All the information we needed was there on the website. The whole process is really efficient and I highly recommend Venture Banners.” 

Like Howden, Artworker plans to maximise the investment of its graphics by reusing them for future events. A huge benefit of textile signage is the ability to pack it away whilst retaining its quality and all our textile products come with a carry bag that contains the unit hardware, and the graphics can then fold up and fit into the bag for easy portability and transportation. This makes the signage convenient and easy to store and if needed, replacement graphics can be ordered rather than having to re-order the entire stand again.

According to The London Display Company, 71% of SMEs have generated new business through face-to-face networking at trade shows. However, each exhibitor is vying for the attention of thousands of potential customers in a room full of competitors all doing the same. 

That’s why it’s crucial to maximise the success and ROI of your trade show presence by grabbing the attention of visitors and drawing them in to find out more about your offering; and unless you literally stand there shouting “roll up, roll up”, the only way to do this is with an effective exhibition stand design, and thanks to developments in exhibition stand solutions this doesn’t need to cost the earth. 

As well as demonstrating the huge variety of exhibition stand products available, these examples showcase the fact that print service providers don’t need to invest in specialised equipment or get their heads around a new offering in order to grow and diversify. Collaborating with experienced trade-partners enables you to add a new revenue stream with events and exhibitions without the hassle and cost that goes with it.