Please come visit our large new showroom, sparkling new offices, shop and warehouse all under one roof.

We look forward to your visit.

NAME recognizes outstanding achievement in exhibition from all types of museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and non-commercial institutions offering exhibitions to the public.

Winners will be announced at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Museums in Minneapolis St. Paul, MN in Spring 2012, and will receive national recognition in the AAM publication Museum. In addition, all entries will be displayed at the 2012 Marketplace of Ideas.

NAME also provides fellowships for young people entering the field to attend workshops and conferences.

Commenting on why Steel City Displays chose to be a sponsor of NAME, President Bob Heck said, “We believe that promoting education for the next generation in the field of exhibit design is a worthy goal that inspires us. Sponsoring this event is a contribution to furthering excellence in our field.”

About NAME

The National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME) is one of the Standing Professional Committees of the American Association of Museums (AAM).

NAME’s mission is to enhance the cultural landscape by advancing the value and relevance of exhibitions through dialogue among individuals, museum leaders and the public. They promote excellence and best practices, identify trends and recent innovations, provide access to resources, promote professional development and cultivate leadership.

Additionally, NAME offers professional development opportunities through conference sessions and workshops.  NAME also promotes dialogue with exhibits colleagues through their professional journal Exhibitionist, other publications and their website.  They offer networking through our Members Directory and social events and are the nationwide voice of the exhibits profession.

NAME also provides fellowships for young people entering the field to attend workshops and conferences.

NAME represents over 800 museum staff and independent professionals. The membership includes designers, content developers, fabricators, evaluators, and others engaged in public programming and museums. For more information visit http://name-aam.org/home

About Steel City Displays

Steel City Displays, located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is a full service exhibit house that designs and builds show-stopping custom exhibits plus offers a wide variety of portable displays. Our sole purpose is to create outstanding exhibits for our clients, not only in the tradeshow world, but in interactive environments as well. Our partnership in the development of museums, visitor centers and other permanent installations, showcases our understanding of multiple facets of the 3 Dimensional marketing and story telling experience. Steel City Displays team is comprised of exhibit designers, graphic designers, engineering, project management and the highest degree of skilled fabricators and installers.

Note: Due to tremendous client growth of its exhibit face to face marketing services, Steel City Displays will be moving to the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, PA on April 1, 2012. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for a free exhibit consultation, visit http://www.steelcitydisplays.com and contact Nancy Johnson at 610-983-9803.

Project – Saint-Gobain’s Creative Services asked Steel City to create new custom displays for AIA 2011.

Challenge – To create display areas that highlight Saint-Gobain North America’s products as functional plus the exhibit had to be integrated into an existing booth space alongside CertainTeed products.

Solution – Steel City responded with sleek designed, double sided, modular display kiosks consisting of aluminum extrusion and dye sub tension fabric murals for each of the signature products. An added bonus was that the exhibits had the ability to display some of the products without increasing the size of the valuable footprint.

Project - Steel City was asked to design and build a custom exhibit for The InterSolar 2010 Show.

Challenge – The criteria was to merge (3) product lines into a 10’ x 20’ space yet still provide an impactful exhibit. The budget was tight and a specific number had to be met including new graphics and product pedestals plus a private meeting area was a prerequisite.

Solution – Steel City was able to achieve all of the goals by cutting down on the shipping weight of the previous exhibit by 75% which dramatically lowered shipping and drayage costs and significantly lowered the set up and dismantle time by 2/3 compared to prior year. Using custom, creative exhibit components gave the exhibit a very unique, non-rental look. The exhibit was such a success that it is being used again this year.

Pictured above is one of the Saint-Gobain Creative Services exhibits that featured their award-winning graphic design.

Creative Services was honored for their design of the Saint-Gobain Corporate Communications display kiosks that were featured at the 2011 AIA (American Institute of Architects) Show.  Steel City Displays designed and fabricated the custom built exhibits.

Commenting on the award, Bob Heck, President of Steel City Displays, said, “We are thrilled that Saint-Gobain’s in-house creative team was recognized for their exceptional graphic design talent.”

Added Kristin Dankanich, Saint-Gobain Creative Services’ Creative Director, Design, “This honor is a result of the fine collaboration between our creative team and Saint-Gobain Corporate Communications for the AIA Show.

The American Graphic Design USA Awards is a four-decade-old flagship competition that honors outstanding new work of all kinds: print, packaging, point-of-purchase, Internet, interactive and motion graphics. It is open to everyone in the graphic arts community – graphic design firms, advertising agencies, in- house corporate and institutional designers, publishers and other media. Each year, roughly 1,000 pieces representing all media appear in the printed Design Annual and online at http://www.gdusa.com/winnersgallery2.php.

 About Saint-Gobain in North America
Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building materials company, has its North American headquarters in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. As the world leader in sustainable habitat, Saint-Gobain is committed to inventing solutions to help professionals and communities around the world build and renovate comfortable, healthy, economical and energy-efficient buildings. The company has more than 265 locations in North America and approximately 19,000 employees. In the United States and Canada, Saint-Gobain reported sales of approximately $7.3 billion in 2010.

Saint-Gobain’s family of companies in North America includes CertainTeed Corporation, as well as Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Saint-Gobain ADFORS (previously known as Saint-Gobain Technical Fabrics), Vetrotech Saint-Gobain North America, Saint-Gobain Glass, Saint-Gobain Solar, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and more.

Recognized as a 2009 and 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Saint-Gobain earned the 2011 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award, the highest level of recognition for outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency. For information about Saint-Gobain in North America, visit www.saint-gobain-northamerica.com

About Saint-Gobain Worldwide

Saint-Gobain (SGO:PAR), headquartered in Paris, is the world leader in habitat markets – providing innovative solutions to meet today’s challenges of growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection. With 2010 sales of $53.2 billion, Saint-Gobain operates in 64 countries and nearly 190,000 employees. For more information about Saint-Gobain, please visit www.saint-gobain.com.

About Steel City Displays 

Steel City Displays, located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is a full service exhibit house that designs and builds show-stopping custom exhibits plus offers a wide variety of portable displays. Our sole purpose is to create exhibits for our clients that stand out from their competition thus increasing face-to-face selling opportunities. Other exhibit services include graphic design, warehouse storage, booth refurbishment, plus trade show logistics such as registration, transportation and booth I&D (installation and dismantle.) For more information, or to schedule an appointment for a free exhibit consultation, visit http://www.steelcitydisplays.com and contact Nancy Johnson at 610-983-9803.

Project - New Custom Booth for GREENBUILD 2010, AIA 2011, IBS 2011

Challenge – HOMASOTE needed a sustainable approach to booth design and construction for GREENBUILD 2011. Their 10′ x 20′ booth space had to be made up as much of their sound barrier product as possible plus as many sustainable materials as possible.

Solution – HOMASOTE chose Steel City over two other exhibit houses because the design incorporated their sound barriers in construction plus were able to highlight their product assemblies creating a face-to-face customer experience.  The flexibility of the product assemblies allowed for viewing on all four sides.  Backwall graphics were contoured cut to reveal sound barriers.  Sustainable materials highlights included Performance Core Wood as opposed to Plywood, Ultra Core Graphics as opposed to Sintra, Chain of Custody Sustainable Laminate as opposed to Standard Sustainable Laminate and Homasote Sound Barriers (recycled product) for booth structure and crates.

“Needing a new custom exhibit for GREENBUILD, we invited several exhibit houses to bid on the project. We met with each of the companies to discuss our requirements and goals for the show and how we were looking to position the company.

We chose Steel City Displays for their innovative design which best captured the messages we wanted to convey in an exhibit booth that also addressed many other concerns such as ease of use, longevity, setup and breakdown. What most differentiated Steel City was their honesty, their intimate knowledge of the industry and their ability to translate what they heard into the development of a visually dynamic and highly functional exhibit booth.

Per our requirements the booth is made of highly sustainable requirements.  In addition to utilizing our product for most of the booth structure as well as the crates, Steel City created unique product assembly displays that could be viewed from many different angles.  As a result, sales conversation experiences were maximized.  All of the exhibit materials including our graphics messaging were carefully chosen to be as sustainable as possible.

We had a very successful show and have been very satisfied with our growing relationship with Steel City.”

Robert Hackman
Director of Sales and Marketing, Homasote
rhackman@homasote.com

Saint-Gobain Creative Services

Project - Steel City was asked by Saint-Gobain Creative Services to design and build a custom exhibit to be showcased in the new R&D Center for its grand opening.

Challenge – Being a high profile global project, the messaging was text heavy as a result of information that needed to be incorporated representing Saint Gobain and CertainTeed’s mission for sustainability.

Solution – Steel City recommended large dye sub tension fabric mural graphic banners because they were lightweight making shipping more sustainable plus the 15’ long seamless banners looked impressive and were easy to read.

Client Quote:

“Steel City was great to work with for both for The Northboro R&D Center Opening and the recent AIA Show.  They went out of their way to help us in the initial show planning stages and offered many display options based off of our needs and worked with us in making any tweaks to the setups as we requested. They always give our design team a reasonable lead-time for graphics so we can produce our best work and still have files to you to get the job done on time. They always work within our budget- not one of those “pie in the sky” type exhibit companies who hear the name Saint-Gobain and start spending money that isn’t available for the project. The sustainable material options they recommended also kept transportation costs down.”

Kristin Dankanich
Account manager, Art/Director, Saint-Gobain Creative Services
kristin.dankanich@saint-gobain.com

Commenting on why this promotion features Steel City Coffee House, President of Steel City Displays Bob Heck says, “So many people ask us if we are affiliated with the renowned Coffee House which is a popular show venue.   Heck adds, “While we have no partnership even though we are both located in Phoenixville and share the Steel City name, we like to support the community, where my wife Barb and I live.”  Five other Steel City Displays employees live in Phoenixville.

The winner of two free tickets to the Steel City Coffee House show of their choice will be announced on January 3, 2012 on http://www.steelcitydisplays.com and on Twitter by @nancycjohnson.

About Steel City Coffee House

Steel City is a family owned gathering space where the Phoenixville community can share in a sense of fellowship and awareness, participate in the expression of art and craft, experience the best in original music and live performance and enjoy a variety of delicious food and drink, using organic and locally grown ingredients.

Steel City is a place to enjoy the harmonies of life in a socially and globally responsible way. Steel City welcomes all artists, ideas and suggestions.  Visit http://www.steelcitycoffeehouse.com

About Steel City Displays

Steel City Displays, located in Phoenixville, PA, is a full service exhibit house that designs and builds show-stopping custom exhibits plus offers a wide variety of portable displays. Our sole purpose is to create exhibits for our clients that stand out from their competition increasing face-to-face selling opportunities. Other exhibit services include graphic design, warehouse storage and booth refurbishment, plus trade show logistics such as registration, transportation and booth installation and dismantle. For more information, or to schedule an appointment for a free exhibit consultation, visit http://www.steelcitydisplays.com and contact Nancy Johnson at 610-983-9803.

]]> http://www.steelcitydisplays.com/phoenixville-steel-city-displays-announces-free-steel-city-coffee-house-coffee-and-a-chance-to-win-popular-show-tickets/feed/ 0 http://www.steelcitydisplays.com/the-abcs-of-eacs-and-gscs-for-id/ http://www.steelcitydisplays.com/the-abcs-of-eacs-and-gscs-for-id/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 12:14:23 +0000 nancy http://www.steelcitydisplays.com/?p=238 Overcoming the Temptation of Crying OMG!

When it comes to Exhibit Installation and Dismantle (I&D), you must first understand the ABCs of Trade Show Floor Acronyms. From industry novices to veterans, trade show jargon can be confusing so, here is a quick, easy to understand, glossary of I&D terms:

EACs — Exhibitor Appointed Contractors – Outside (independent) contractors who have a team of experts in I&D. Typically, they assign experienced laborers that have worked at a specific convention center because they already understand the unique rules of that particular venue. EACs are also known as Independent Contractors or Exhibitor Designated Contractors (EDCs). In addition to I&D of exhibits and booths, they can also provide floral, audio visual (AV), models for demonstrations, photography etc. Many EACs offer similar services like General Contractors (see below). So ask lots of questions to be sure before you hire both.

GSCs — General Services Contractors – Refers to the designated official contractor, chosen by show management. GSCs are often referred to as Decorators or GCs (General Contractors). In addition to I&D, they can also prepare and distribute service kits, create signage, manage booth registration and arrangements, provide rental offerings including displays, monitors, tables, chairs, table skirts, flowers, pipe and drape and flooring, etc. Other services include cleaning and vacuuming.

So. If EACs = EDCs for I&D, not to be confused with GSCs or GCs, then which is better, an independent Exhibitor Appointed Contractor or a General Services Contractor?

Once again, the acronym, OMG, comes to mind.

What do you think? Comments welcome!