Galaxy Quest

design awards

Photos: Blue Telescope

lue Telescope set out to showcase its technological capabilities at the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association's Annual Meeting (HCEA) last June. The New York-based firm, which specializes in interactive media for trade show and museum exhibits, boldly took attendees where they had never gone before - an effort honored by Exhibit Design Awards judges with a Bronze Award in the Elements category for its use of technology.

ELEMENTS
Element: iPad Application Exhibitor: Blue Telescope Design: Blue Telescope, New York, 212-675-7702, www.blue-telescope.com Fabrication: Blue Telescope, New York, 212-675-7702; ExpoDisplays, Birmingham, AL, 800-367-3976, www.expodisplays.com Show: Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association, 2010

After staffers scanned attendees' badges, they invited visitors inside the 200-square-foot-booth to build their own planets. Armed with a trio of iPads running a program of Blue Telescope's own design, staff input each visitor's name, company, city, and e-mail address, along with other career-related info. Then, guests commenced world building.

Attendees mixed and matched features from four different categories - color, texture, rings, and glow - to create their very own heavenly bodies. Afterward, the app launched each attendee's custom-designed planet into orbit on a 65-inch LCD touchscreen in the middle of the booth.

With each planet on the touchscreen labeled with its creator's name, guests traced lines from their own world to others made by attendees they knew. Once visitors finished, staffers used the touchscreen monitor to create a diagram that resembled a solar system, depicting attendees with the most connections clustered in the center. The starry scene then shifted to bar chart-like illustrations, which showed those who had spent the most years in the business, as well as those who attended the most shows in 2009.

"This wasn't another ho-hum technology-for-the-sake-of-technology activity," one judge said. "Blue Telescope's high-tech demo helped its small space make a Milky Way-size impact on attendees." e

Planned Planethood
Blue Telescope invited attendees to build their own planets by selecting options from four categories - color, texture, rings, and glow. Once finished, each participant's planet was sent into orbit on a 65-inch LCD touchscreen inside the exhibit. The faux galaxy ran the gamut from Lucifer-red orbs with the coarseness of volcanic rock to spheres with more rings than Tiffany's that gleamed like neon nebulae.

Charles Pappas, senior writer; cpappas@exhibitormagazine.com
Photos: Blue Telescope

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