Virtual Fun Run
To promote its Alcatel OneTouch smart watch, TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd. sponsored the 2015 Shine Tour, the latest iteration of The Color Run, during which runners are doused in colorful powder. So to bring that fun to its booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show, TCL teamed up with BrandFirst Interactive to create a multimedia-based activity that allowed attendees to experience the run for themselves. A video wall ran footage of the event, while a wall-mounted camera tracked attendees' movements. When participants ran in place atop a vinyl decal, the camera advanced the footage, matching the pace of the video to the speed at which they were running. Meanwhile, the camera also tracked attendees' hand movements, which made virtual colored powder shower on-screen runners, and took still shots of attendees jogging in place. Players earned points for the distance ran, number of runners hit with colored powder, and accuracy of their throws, while a leader board tracked the action. A tablet PC adjacent to the screen allowed participants to share their scores and snapshots taken during the virtual race via email and Facebook. More than 1,200 players took part in the activity, helping TCL run laps around the competition.

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A Moving Display
Movement makes us stop and stare. That's why at EXHIBITORLIVE, Cort Exhibit House Furnishings (a Berkshire Hathaway company) crafted an ingenious little motorized display atop the back wall of its exhibit. Here, Cort built a circular podium of sorts and placed one of its armchairs atop it. Then the furniture provider set the whole thing in motion via a concealed motor that slowly rotated the chair and podium throughout the show. Positioned along one aisle, the simple display served one purpose: It captured attendees' attention from aisles away, directed their eyes to the skies, and eventually lured them to Cort's ground-floor display of rental furniture.

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T-shirt Tactics
Give a person a T-shirt, and he or she talks to you for a few seconds. Transfer a vinyl applique onto a T-shirt, and the person might talk to you for five minutes. That difference in dwell time convinced Tripwire Inc. to purchase two heat-transfer machines for its booth at the RSA Conference. Tripwire set up the two machines near an aisle, and two booth staffers manned the devices. While attendees waited to pick one of six images depicting male and female superheroes representing Tripwire's products – e.g., Vulnerability Ranger and Intelligent Threat Scout – and to have it transferred onto a T-shirt, staffers struck up conversations. Tripwire made 2,000 T-shirts during the show, and attendees wore the shirts around the exhibit hall, spreading brand awareness for the company.

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Welcome Wagons
Every exhibitor knows that trade show attendees love a chance to take a seat and rest their feet for a moment amid the hustle and bustle of the exhibit hall. But some- times the seating sits vacant, as would-be squatters pass by, unsure whether or not they're welcome to sit for a spell. Avinode AB skirted that empty-seating snafu at the 2015 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) show, held in Las Vegas, by giving its stools a little personality and allowing the seats themselves to welcome weary prospects to take a load off. Messages such as "Feel free," "Waiting for you," and "Be our guest" adorned the side panels of several of the stools surrounding Avinode's in-booth hospitality area, beckoning to passersby, and letting all NBAA attendees know that they were more than welcome to belly up to the bar – or in this case, booty up to the bar stool.

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Bottle Neck
Drammen, Norway-based Repant ASA manufactures what it calls "reverse vending systems." The product allow users to deposit empty plastic bottles and redeem applicable deposits, while the bottles themselves are then collected for recycling. Although its product is somewhat complex and difficult to explain in an elevator speech, Repant wanted to create an eye-catching focal point for its exhibit that hinted at its eco-friendly ethos, and funneled attendees into its space where they could learn more. The idea the company came up with was an installation of 250 plastic bottles arranged within an archway that visitors could pass through to meet with company reps and get hands on with the reverse vending systems. LED lighting accentuated the artful archway, while vinyl graphics on the floor created a pathway directly through the arch, which bore the word "welcome" in seven different languages. Eye-catching, welcoming, and on brand, Repant's plastic-bottle entry proved that McDonald's arches aren't the only ones that attract a crowd.

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Timber Land
Eyeglass frames made of wood are a relatively rare and wondrous thing. So at Vision Expo West, wooden-eyewear provider Specs of Wood gave booth visitors business cards that were just as rare and wondrous. Several different cards were available, each one of which comprised one of the wood varieties that also form the firm's frames – i.e., ebony, oak, cherry, bamboo, redwood, and zebra. Displayed inside the exhibit, alongside the company's frames, the business cards drew passersby in for a closer look – and then prompted them to stick one in their pocket for a second, post-show glance.

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Robo Prop
To promote the latest installment of its "Fallout" series at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Bethesda Softworks LLC turned one of the game's most recognized characters into an interactive animatronic fixture in its exhibit. Powered and voiced by a booth staffer hidden inside a nearby production room, the robot turned and gestured toward passing attendees, initiating conversations and encouraging E3 attendees to stop and chat. The popular figure pulled people in, and the cleverly worded conversations enthralled attendees and fans of Bethesda's video-game series.