| Downing Displays | Issue 01 • Tuesday, October 6, 2026 |
Trade Show Trends & Takeaways
Notable industry news and ideas worth knowing
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Greg Ward President & COO, Downing Displays |
Welcome to the first issue of our monthly digest on what’s happening across the experiential marketing and trade show industry. Our goal for anyone managing trade show programs, events, or branded corporate environments is to collect the latest industry news, stories, and content you may not have had time to bookmark and serve them up to you once a month. We’re curating from Exhibit City News, TSNN, Event Marketer, EXHIBITOR, Trade Show Executive, Event Industry News, and IAEE. Got a source or topic you want to see more of?
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In This Issue – Recent Articles On:
Experience & Design Articles
Five trends defining trade show booths at the midpoint of 2026
AI-powered activations, kinetic elements that pull crowds, a swing back toward tactile analog moments, and oversized “hero product” displays anchoring exhibits — real examples from this year’s floors.
Source: Event Marketer
Ten exhibit managers on how they actually pick booth space
Real practitioners share their own rules of thumb — from reading traffic flow to whether sitting near a competitor helps or hurts.
Source: EXHIBITOR
Installation & Logistics Articles
The team behind the show floor, and what their labor actually costs
Real 2026 rate sheets show straight time, overtime, and double time all in play — a reminder of how much skilled I&D labor underpins every build.
Source: Exhibit City News
The most overlooked sustainability decision on the show floor
It starts with carpet — a small material choice with a bigger footprint than most exhibitors realize.
Source: TSNN
Featured Project
Partner Spotlight
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Sho-Link I&D Labor + General Services Contracting (GSC) Partner
Sho-Link is more than one thing to Downing Displays. Through the original Sho-Link cooperative, founded in 1993, we tap into the only installation-and-dismantle network of its kind — ten member companies covering more than 200 U.S. cities. Through Sho-Link GSC, we’ve spent over a decade delivering general contracting services for event organizers — floor plan execution, exhibitor services, on-site coordination — for small- and mid-sized shows. Two arms, one long-standing partnership. |
Strategy & Cost Articles
The rent-vs-buy call increasingly lands on the CFO’s desk
A growing share of exhibitors are treating this as a finance decision, not just a marketing one — capital expense vs. operating expense, not just preference.
Source: TSNN
Exhibitors on two continents don’t budget the same way
European and American exhibitors approach trade show spend differently enough that it’s shaping how global brands plan multi-region programs.
Source: TSNN
Asked & Answered
Industry Business Articles
The first EXHIEs winners are in
TSNN named its inaugural EXHIEs winners across small, medium, and large booth categories — a new benchmark for exhibitor excellence industry-wide.
Source: TSNN
Who’s on the move across the industry this September
New hires and promotions at Clarion Events, IAEE, PCMA, and more — TSNN’s monthly roundup of who’s headed where.
Source: TSNN
Show Floor Stories
Field note
“We were setting up a client’s booth, a 16-foot wall meant to back up against the show’s perimeter wall, when an overhang we hadn’t been warned about showed up right where the graphic was supposed to go. It would have blocked four or five feet of their biggest piece of branding, and the show never called it out on the floor plan. Carpet was already down, electric was already run, the wall was already built. We made the call: repositioned the branding toward the eating area instead and rotated the whole booth 45 degrees so the reception desk faced the front of the hall. Took two laborers and me lifting the whole structure to pull it off. The client arrived and didn’t think twice, everything looked right to them. I told them anyway: we’d planned on the wall facing a different direction, but there was an overhang nobody flagged. They were furious at the show for not warning them, and glad we’d caught it before they ever saw a problem. That’s the job.”
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Kraig Holmes Account Executive, Downing Displays |
Show Floor Culture & Trends Articles
A look back: trade show history keeps repeating itself
ECN’s ongoing archive series traces recovery, expansion, and leadership change across decades — this edition moves from pandemic-era return-to-live-events stories through global uncertainty.
Source: Exhibit City News
How one organizer redesigned its floor plan — and got exhibitors on board
AAPEX grouped booths by product category and improved wayfinding, turning early exhibitor pushback into support once the results were visible.
Source: TSNN
Find Us in the Field
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Oct 12–15 The Battery Show — Detroit, MI |
Jan 6–9, 2027 CES — Las Vegas, NV |
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Jan 26–28, 2027 IPPE — Atlanta, GA |
May 2027 NPE — Orlando, FL |
Who’s Got Your Back
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Connie DeLap Account Manager / Account Executive, Downing Displays Connie’s been with Downing Displays for over 12 years, working out of the Elgin, Illinois office. She’s the rare Account Manager who also runs full accounts herself, presenting quotes, negotiating terms, having the design conversations directly with clients, wearing her Account Exec hat. If you’ve ever caught a “we’re all set up” post on LinkedIn, Camp Systems at NBAA-BACE, BWH Hotels at GBTA, J.D. Power at NADA, there’s a good chance Connie was behind it. Fun fact: Connie’s 3rd hat is running our Chicago office! She’s one of those rare pros who says, “I’ve got this,” and you can count on it!
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Behind the Scenes
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