It's EuroShop time again! Once every three years, the European exhibit and event industries — not to mention various retail sectors — strut their stuff on an international stage. This year, several EXHIBITOR staff, including founder Lee Knight, editor Travis Stanton, and senior writer Linda Armstrong, hopped the pond to Dusseldorf, Germany, to cover the show.

Hailed as the "Global Retail Trade Fair," Euroshop offers everything from store fittings and design to sales promotion, visual merchandising, and retail-related IT products — all scattered over 17 exhibition halls within 19 buildings. (Our feet are already aching, and it's only day one. Sigh.)

While we'll certainly cover the retail aspects of the show — offered in the EuroCIS, EuroConcept, and EuroSales portions of the show — we're concentrating on EuroExpo during our first day at the fair. In a sense, EuroExpo is the European equivalent of EXHIBITOR Show in Las Vegas. Halls nine and 10 provide the latest in exhibit design and materials along with all the ancillary components you need to create an exhibit or event program.

This morning, we caught a train to Messe Dusseldorf (Free public transit is included with our press passes!), and checked in at the Press Center, which was brimming with exhibitor press kits, booth photos, copy machines, computers, snacks, etc. (Ah... the press room.) Then, we grabbed an espresso, pulled out our show directory, and hit the show floor just as it opened at 10 a.m.

Today was the unofficial "press day" at EuroShop. Nevertheless, far more than press people were jamming the aisles, and we often found ourselves asking, "Could you please step to your left and out of my camera shot? Danke!"

Halls nine and 10 were absolutely brimming with eye candy, including everything from stunning light fixtures and never-before-seen product-display methods to one-off exhibit furniture and gorgeous suspended ceiling structures. As expected, we found a ton of raised flooring; however, this wasn’t your average laminate. Gorgeous floors comprising everything from Green materials to stunning wood products left us wishing we could afford a remodel in our own homes.

Overall, we noticed a lot of angular exhibit components – back walls leaning out toward the aisles, entire wall structures that seemed to undulate with angles – as well as an abundance of mirrors. We even ran across a student-designed booth promoting Green exhibiting. When student staffers or attendees pedaled one of the six bicycles in the exhibit, a pulley system inflated towering white columns with air throughout the booth.

After the show, we relaxed and refueled in a quaint Germany restaurant in Altstadt, the "old town" part of the city. Located just off the Rhine river, this cozy area hosts some of Dusseldorf's more traditional German restaurants. Of course, we tried a little ofenfrische schweinehaxe (grilled pork knuckle), warmer apfelstrudel (warm apple strudel), and a few pints of some German bier. Yum!