Exhibition stands from PNG Digital

“I’m doing a trade show in Dubai, can I have an exhibition stand that will fit in my suitcase please?”

This was what Andrew McDonald, of Gopak, asked Mike Rawcliffe from PNG Digital. Mike hummed a little, but after a bit more discussion, decided that the answer was certainly yes.

Gopak are one of the UK’s leading educational furniture suppliers. Most of us will have sat on or at a Gopak product at some point. Even if it was whilst we were at school.

Whilst Gopak have certainly embraced technology over the years, providing many innovative products. A glimpse at certain pages of their catalogue can be rather nostalgic for those of us educated within the UK over the past, well let’s just say several decades.

It turns out that much of the school furniture provided by Gopak has stood the test of time, is still produced and in many cases have become design classics.

This isn’t just the case in this country, Gopak exports their products throughout the world, hence the GESS trade show in Dubai.

Back to Andrew McDonald. Andrew handles most of Gopak’s export business and a large proportion of this goes into the Middle East, where the British education system is very highly regarded. Particularly when it comes to IT within education.

Andrew had booked exhibition space but it wasn’t entirely clear what he would be presented with when he arrived. The furniture to be exhibited had been sent weeks before the show in various packing cases but this still left the question of graphics for the stand.

As we mentioned earlier, Andrew would have to carry the graphics in his luggage on the plane. Another factor to take into account was the fact that he would have to apply or fit the graphics himself. Now, Andrew’s a clever chap, and he knows a lot about exporting furniture. But he’d be the first person to admit that he’d never fitted any exhibition graphics himself before. Not only that, he’d be half way across the world when he was doing it.

After a bit of thought, Mike recommended printing the graphics onto a tough, tear proof media, applying a ‘widow adhesive’ to the rear and a hard, clear laminate to the front. The tear proof media would make the graphics almost immune to tearing whilst Andrew applied them, the ‘window adhesive’ would allow the graphic to be peeled off and re applied if Andrew didn’t get it on straight first time and the laminate would protect the graphic whilst in transit and also once it was up.

Andrew said,

“I had an idea what I wanted to achieve and I knew I’d have to carry it there myself, but I hadn’t got a clue what to use or how I’d fit it. Luckily, Mike is a very knowledgeable and helpful chap. He explained how it would all work and even sent me a little fitting kit and some instructions. In actual fact it all went on fairly easily and it looked brilliant”.

Not bad for an exhibition stand in a suitcase.