Intro
Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Dayton, Ohio. It's time for Dayton Business Radio. Now, here's your host.
The Mag
Lee Cantor here, another episode of Dayton Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today we have Jeff Hannah with us and he is with Exhibit Concepts. Welcome, Jeff.
Jeff Hannah
Hi, Lee. Thanks for having me. Good to be here.
The Mag
Before we get too far into things tell us about Exhibit Concepts. How are you serving folks?
Jeff Hannah
Well, Exhibit Concept has been in the business for almost 40 years. But we do face-to-face marketing, broadly speaking, we create tradeshow exhibits and interior environments globally. And that includes everything from permanent interiors, like museums, Executive Briefing centers, immersive educational environments, which is a new thing, a relatively new thing, an emerging trend. And tradeshow exhibits both in the US and internationally. So kind of a broad array of things. And we also that does include mobile marketing vehicles as well. And nowadays, we're launching into new territory, more so which is virtual exhibit platform, where we're able to take what's happening traditionally on the tradeshow floor and do it in a virtual environment based on the fact that everybody's basically stuck in their homes these days.
The Mag
Now, the company though, pre-pandemic was, it wasn't just temporary places, you also create permanent places as well, like when you said museums or is it just the temporary exhibit within a museum?
Jeff Hannah
No, it's actually the permanent interior environments and the permanent exhibits at museums around the country. The museum work is mostly in the US. But some of our permanent interior work is done outside the US, Singapore, and other places around the world. But yes, it's not the temporary exhibits. It's permanent, like the Computer History Museum, California. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum is one that we recently did, to the awesome Museum of Science, and Technology. And just a number of them, the Navy SEAL Museum in San Diego. Those are the kind of museums that we produce, design, and produce.
The Mag
Is there a different strategy when it's a permanent Museum as opposed to a temporary even a tradeshow? Like, is it the same when you're dealing with a customer that you're trying to give a good experience to? Do you attack it slightly differently? If you know it's going to be there for a long time.
Jeff Hannah
Yes, we do. And it's a good question. I mean, the process for the design development is a lot more intensive, generally, and more time-consuming and spans over a number of months starting with an interpretive plan. And it goes through a lot of iterations of design development. And so it's a lot more intensive, I would say because it is the creation of something permanent, and will probably have a lot more visibility over its lifespan than a tradeshow exhibit. So the tradeshow exhibit, you know, effort, although important in the design phase is a lot shorter, faster turnaround, generally speaking, it's done within, you know, a couple of weeks to two a month or so sometimes for larger shows, we might spend a couple of months back and forth working on design development. Whereas it's not uncommon at all in the museum world to spend, you know, six months or more, even longer in time to develop the interpretive plan and then get into the conceptual development phase. So yeah, and the approach is different, the time is different. And the level of intensity, and research, and everything that goes into developing the museum side, and the content part is a lot more robust.
The Mag
Now, let's talk about kind of the human behavior side of your business. Because I would imagine that in each case, you're trying to have a human being first see it and say, Wow, this is amazing, and then interact with it at some level. How important is that element when you're doing any kind of design work?
Jeff Hannah
I think it's huge. I mean, you do want to attract people and then you want them to really engage with it. You want them to get excited about whatever it is that you're attracting them to, and you want them to have a takeaway from it. So we are constantly looking at ways to interact with people ways to attract people to look at certain things. How much information can they take in and what ways and methods can they take it in? Are they just reading something? Are they interacting with something? Are they listening to something or watching something? And listening to something can be not only like an audio track or some kind of, but it might be musical, it might sound, it might be all kinds of different things. So I mean, finding different ways to interact with people, attendees, and creating that experience is hugely important. And our design team really focuses heavily on understanding human nature, human behavior, uncovering that, especially for the target audience that we're trying to reach. And then what kind of form that needs to take so that we can get that in front of them and connect that with that person. And the more you know, our philosophy is, the more senses you can stimulate, the more memorable the experience becomes.
And so a large part of that is trying to get them to interact and engage and all that and they don't always necessarily engage or interact the way you want them to, or they may have be having a bad day or not feel like engaging or whatever. So you, you may have different experiences, or you will have different experiences based on what's going on in an individual's life at the moment, they, you know, interact with some kind of, you know, display or whatever it might be. But that's the point of it is trying to reach people where they are, and bring them outside of themselves and into a unique experience that's going to be memorable. And it might be something that we in some of the museum work that we do that they that we want to change behavior, or we want them to have a learning moment, or reach deep down inside and touch an emotional chord with them. And so there's a lot of different reasons. But yeah, that's hugely important.
The Mag
Now, when you're working with a client, at the beginning stages, and you're just trying to get an idea of, you know, what is the outcome they desire? What is it they want the person to feel? I'm sure your solutions are things that aren't even like they don't even know how to ask or even kind of articulate what the finished product is. So how do you kind of guide them through this process to really get to the, you know, maybe the five whys deep into why they are working with you and what they want to happen, because I'm sure you're going to deliver something that's not something they are asking for directly, but you're trying to create, like kind of an emotion that they're that they want to have happen.
Jeff Hannah
Yeah, that's true. Very good insight to that kind of question. But you're absolutely right. They ask us things, what they think they need, but what they're really asking for might be quite different than what they're articulating. So it is a short conversation, it ends up being a process that we go through to guide them. It's the discovery process that we call it, where we take them through either brainstorming sessions or design Charettes, with all the key stakeholders within that organization, whether it's a corporation, or a museum team, or whatever kind of situation it is, sometimes it's an immersive educational environment. But we'll go through a process of discovery with them. And that means that our team does various kinds of exercises with them to get them to kind of try to articulate what it is they want the outcomes to be like you mentioned the five things or whatever. We want to bring that out of them.
But we want to bring that out of a number of people not just out of one person, so that we can reflect that back to them in the planning process and say, This is what we're hearing that you wanted to achieve. Do you all agree with that and get the stakeholder buy-in if you will before we start developing the concepts further. So it is a process sometimes it's individual meetings with people sometimes it's group and team meetings, sometimes it's a full-day design charrette, or it might be brainstorming sessions for a few hours and, and you're doing different things, not only, you know, writing stuff on a, on a whiteboard, or whatever, but you're also doing exercises where people are kind of forced to wrestle with different aspects of the topic and things come out of that process. So it's very productive, I guess I would say in the end, and helpful as a way to get to that solution.
The Mag
Right. And I would imagine it's very collaborative like this is there, they're probably digging deeper than they probably imagined that they would have to in order to really deliver that kind of, kind of final product that stimulates the five senses.
Jeff Hannah
Yes, absolutely. And collaboration is key. And we want them to be involved along the way. And that way, it will be better. They're the subject matter experts typically in their field, if it's the Navy SEAL Museum, for example, or some company or group like that. So, you know, they know they have a sense of who their audience is. And sometimes that even comes into question if they think they know who their audience is. And sometimes through some of the research, we find out that their real core audience isn't who they think it is. And, and you're going to do something quite differently if you're working on a children's museum than you are if you're working on, you know, something like the Navy SEALs.
The Mag
Now, let's talk about the pandemic we're in now and the impact it's had on the tradeshow and event industries. How have you seen that play out, uh, you know, a lot of people are working from home, they're not going anywhere, the travel is kind of shut down. I'm sure that's had a dramatic impact into your world.
Jeff Hannah
It has been particularly devastating, I think, to the face-to-face marketing, trade show, and event companies are really, really suffering right now. I mean, not only the travel industry and hotels and airlines, but shows are canceling in the beginning. You know, I was kind of downplaying it. And I thought, you know, maybe a few shows will cancel and things will spring back in a few weeks. And then as time progressed, started to see how big this really was and how big the impact is and how long-lasting it's going to be. And you started to see more and more shows canceling. So in the first few weeks, it was everyday series is a number of series of shows we're canceling. And even now, they're continuing to cancel through the end of this year.
So I've also been, some companies have started to reach out to some owners or senior leaders that other companies have reached out to me recently just to, to share what they're going through and kind of what they're facing. And I think some of the companies that are solely engaged in the event and tradeshow sectors only are not going to make it. Unfortunately, they're going to some have already had to file for bankruptcy, and others probably will be doing that soon. Thankfully, in our case, we're quite diversified in the permanent interior environments and other areas so that we can ride out that storm. But a lot of companies that are not going to make it through this, because they just simply don't have any work. And it looks like the return of most of the studies that have been done in our industry, most people believe it's going to be the first or second quarter at least if 2021 and some think even further than that before the trade show and event world returns to some sense of normalcy.
The Mag
Now, are there any kind of leading indicators you're looking at to seeing how they are behaving? That's kind of going to be a clue on how your world is going to open back up? Like are you looking at? How are they going to handle sporting events or things like that, that? You know, right now they're talking about, you know, having sporting events without fans. So anything that how other people are attacking kind of large groups of people, I would think would be an indicator for you that, hey, this might be breaking or this is getting worse.
Jeff Hannah
Yeah, it is stuff that we are looking at and monitoring pretty closely, including shows overseas, Germany has started to have some events. And China actually has started to have some new events start back with, you know, safety measures in place and that sort of thing. So we are monitoring that. And there's a number of organizations like show organizers, or associations, and events. industry associations like IFES, the International Federation of Exhibition, and Event Services. EDPA exhibit, or sorry, it used to be exhibit but it's Experiential Designers and Producers Association. A number of associations in our industry are monitoring those things, and also working with the government as well to look at ways to be able to bring events back. I think the big thing is going to be consumer competence. The show organizers are probably a little bit more willing at this point to put on the event if they think they're going to get the attendees. The issue is the attendees and some of the companies they work for are afraid to send them and then if the exhibitors don't think they're going to have the audience they don't want to spend the money to give the show and put on the exhibit. So virtual is becoming a reality right now too. So that's one aspect but it's uncharted territory.
The Mag
Now you bring up virtual will has its advantages and disadvantages in this world. Virtual probably can attract bigger crowds in terms of anybody can tune in because it's virtual. But the negative is, is you're not kind of stimulating those five senses that you can in the face-to-face setting. How have you guys kind of responded to that? And do you have some solutions that kind of tried to thread the needle?
Jeff Hannah
Yeah, that's a good observation. What we've launched is, through our next lab, which we have, which our next lab group is a team that I oversee its new experiential technologies lab. And that's the group within exhibit concepts that does all the interactive and engagement kind of technology development stuff, including augmented reality, virtual reality, and so on. And that team within the company along with some other parts of, of our team, creative departments, so on, create a virtual exhibit platform. And you're right. Well, traditionally, face-to-face marketing, people have always shied away from virtual events, because they saw it as a threat. My outlook on it in the outlook of some right now is that we're embracing virtual events more because I think that for one, that's the only option we have anyone has at this point. But number two, I think that as we go through this, there will be permanent changes that happened as a result of COVID-19 in the world, and in our industry in particular. So my thinking is that virtual will find a balanced place within the face-to-face world. And like you said, it has a broader reach in many cases. And for people that can't for one reason or the other, whether they might be sick, I'm talking about post-COVID-19. In the future, whether people can't travel for one reason or the other and can't go to a show, I think that shows will have a virtual dimension to them that they had not had before.
So that they can have a longer lifespan or a longer shelf life, there will be aspects of it that can live on beyond just the event itself, which is great, because shows typically, you know, it's three days, four days, and after that, it's a photograph and a memory. So the good thing is it can have a little bit more existence beyond the actual event and reach people that couldn't be there otherwise, the downside is yes, it doesn't have the stimulation aspect that you have. And people do get tired of sitting in front of their screen all day just looking at, you know, one webinar after the other. So what we're doing to thread that needle in your term is that we're making it interactive and engaging and using virtual reality or augmented reality kind of experiences to go along with that, which are different, and putting people in a more of an immersive environment and having them be more participatory, where they are remote. And so we think that's going to be a better solution than just being a non-interactive participant watching something online.
The Mag
Well, that's a great pivot on your part and a great kind of attitude into leaning into the circumstance and not try to just deny it and just say, Okay, this is our new reality. Let's work with it as best we can and just put the kind of the weight on you in terms of, okay, we're gonna figure out a creative solution that stimulates as many senses as possible and do the best we can under these circumstances. Well, kudos to you and your team.
Jeff Hannah
Thank you. Thanks.
The Mag
Now, for you personally, you've always been a thought leader in the space and a choice and how you're handling this kind of crisis situation. Talk about some of the other work you do in terms of kind of sharing this knowledge you've learned over the years.
Jeff Hannah
Well, I have outside of my work at Exhibit Concepts. I do have a website and a blog and a podcast, referred to as the global exhibitor podcast, and the global exhibitor blog, and website, and I speak at a number of events and do interviews like this from time to time and speak on various topics related to the industry, which I really enjoy. I like teaching and it's important to me and I like to give back and I think it's really rewarding to be able to help people move forward in one way or the other or give them a different perspective. And so, with the global exhibitor podcast, we're able to which is in its second season, and we're able to bring in a lot of guests from around the world and talk about cultural aspects of, of working together and how that manifests itself in the face to face world. So it's been really fun, exciting and interesting and, and you learn the most, when you're doing like what you're doing interviewing people and talking to them, you learn a lot through that process. So that's been really rewarding for me. And I've learned a tremendous amount through it.
The Mag
Now at the Exhibit Concept, do you have certain kinds of verticals that you work within? Or do you? Or is it kind of a free for all? You'll work with anybody?
Jeff Hannah
Me personally, or the company itself?
The Mag
Company Exhibit Concepts like is that? Do you have specialties that you're "hey, we're really good at with technology, or that's our niche"? Or is it pretty much kind of wide open?
Jeff Hannah
It's pretty broad. Although I would say there's some industries that we probably don't work in so much like the automotive industry, there are some companies that kind of specialize as specialize in automotive. We do some in the healthcare sector, we do a lot of technology work, but it's pretty broad, I would say across the spectrum. But there's some news that we probably don't do so much, which is automotive, but most of the other ones where we have a presence in anything from technology to foodservice and work with a lot of major brands, including companies like Kellogg's, and companies like that, that you would know and recognize. So
The Mag
Now for you, what's the most rewarding part? Is it the kind of coming up with the concept the idea? Or is it the actual when you're on the floor? And then somebody comes in there, and it's got a wow moment?
Jeff Hannah
Yeah, I think, well, it's hard to beat that. Having that, that wow, moment. And, you know, the unfortunate thing is, some of our design team doesn't always get to go to the show to see the wow moments from the client. So we try to get them out to shows when we can, but those individuals really do enjoy, you know, getting to see people interact with something that they created in their mind as an idea, you know, and to see that in 3d space on the floor, and people are interacting with it. It's, it's hard to beat that kind of experience, and rewarding experience for you as a designer. So I think that's probably the most fascinating part of it, but we have a great team too. And, and they play off of one another, they, you know, motivate and inspire one another. I mean, I have to say, since I've been at exhibit concepts, and we've been sort of going through some rebuilding process a little bit for the last several years in the creative area. And we have such a really dynamic and great team. I've never worked with such a talented group of people before. They're just amazing.
The Mag
Now, if somebody wanted to learn more about Exhibit Concepts, is there a website?
Jeff Hannah
Yes, it's exhibitconcepts.com.
The Mag
And then if they want to kind of check out your podcasts or website for that?
Jeff Hannah
It is yes, it's just globalexhibitor.com. And it's on Apple podcasts. And you know.
The Mag
Wherever podcasts are found?
Jeff Hannah
All the technical platforms for podcasts. Yes.
The Mag
Well, Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your story today. It's an amazing story you've got and the amount of work you've done and all the things you've accomplished is really impressive.
Jeff Hannah
Well, thank you, Lee. I appreciate it. And it's good to talk to you again and appreciate you having me on the show.
The Mag
All right, this is Lee Canter. We will see y'all next time on Dayton Business Radio.
Image source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreyhannah/
