22 January 2018
Following our success at the 2017 Lincolnshire Business Expo, where we created the Allen Signs Coffee House with the help of Lincoln Tea & Coffee, we decided to exhibit again at this year’s expo on Wednesday 17th January.
This year, to make an even bigger impact, we joined forces with Optima Design, with whom we enjoy a close working relationship, and Sleaford-based print company DPS to form the ‘Creative Blend’. Optima’s very talented graphic designers developed our concept into a stunning exhibition stand, once again based on a coffee shop theme, with Lincoln Tea & Coffee providing the refreshments.
We decided to go big and literally raise the roof by creating a four-metre-high shop-style frontage. The six-metre wide by three-metre deep timber frame was manufactured in modular sections and clad with panels printed with a tile and wood effect using our Efi VUTEk printer, which is still producing excellent results for us following its recent first birthday. The additional serving counter, display cabinets, shelving and canvas prints gave the stand an authentic coffee shop feel.
The stand certainly proved popular with delegates; Lincoln Tea & Coffee served over 250 cups of coffee during the day and used over 16 litres of milk! The quality of the coffee was a talking point with visitors, who exchanged their business cards for a blend of their choice. To complement this, we also presented all our fellow exhibitors with personalised cookies and note pads, which were kindly produced by DPS using their new HP Indigo digital press.
We had lots of positive comments on the day about the stand and the concept of working together as a ‘Creative Blend’, which allowed us to talk to visitors about the skills and services we have to offer individually as well as jointly.
Events like this are not just a means of selling products and generating leads, but also an opportunity to talk to existing clients, suppliers and other exhibitors. And what better way to do it than over a coffee? We hope it also helps keep Allen Signs at the forefront of people’s minds when they require elements of the ‘Creative Blend’ in the future.
