By Lisa Abrams
When Exhibit City News (ECN) spoke with Kevin Dana, executive director of marketing and merchandising for CORT Events in our 30th Anniversary issue (“Immersive Spaces”), we were given a history of the company and its growth in the tradeshow and events industry. In this second part, ECN sat down with Stephanie Byrd, marketing manager for CORT Events, to discuss what is in store for the company this year.
Style and Service Delivered
Byrd mentioned the company’s new ‘CORT Events ‘Hands-On Service, Elevated Experiences’ campaign launch, which visually represents the teams behind CORT Events. She emphasized not just products, but people are key to CORT Event’s success.
“We really wanted to visually combine all of the contributing factors behind what makes our entire operation thrive,” Byrd noted. “CORT Events has more than just robust products, locations around the country and high quantities of on-trend furniture. There’s so many of our team members behind the scenes, whether that be drivers, delivery teams, sales teams, and customer support. This is what our new campaign encapsulates and gives credit to.”
Personalization
With all of the robust products CORT Events offers, it’s the personalization program that garners the most enthusiasm from Byrd. “With over 100 products that can be customized, we offer exhibit and event clients share-worthy experiences to maximize every inch of their space,” she said. “The program allows customers to curate a space that speaks to their clients’ end goals, whether that’s with custom printed backdrops, whiteboards on cocktail tables for collaboration, or custom bar setups to perfectly tie in a theme or motif.”
“With personalization, on show floors, events and large corporate lounges, it’s a very popular way attendees get to be immersed in that experience. Tying that personalization in is really beneficial to consider early in the planning process, as it has the sensory power to take a good event experience to a highly memorable event experience.”
A significant example was CORT’s booth at IMEX America. “At IMEX America last year, we immersed attendees in a forested, lush environment. There were high resolution fabric backdrops that placed you in a leafy, wooded spot. You could practically feel the gentle breeze, hear the rustle of the leaves, and see the sunlight streaming through the canopy,” Byrd said enthusiastically. To complete the scene, CORT Events amplified that forested feel by bringing the image out onto the front of a green juice bar, furthering the dimensional experience.
She continued, “We personalized all of these pieces. You really got that immersive, experiential experience from even down the aisle from where our booth was; when you stepped inside, you couldn’t help but feel the immersion.” CORT Events completed the feel with neutral toned, textural soft seating and faux greenery around the edges of the space.
New Arrivals
When asked about CORT Events’ latest offerings, Byrd revealed that the company annually introduces new products. Currently, they are launching new items for their collections, including expanding upon the popular Allegro collection, with the new Allegro loveseat. With a mid-century design, and a bold corporate blue hue, the Allegro loveseat is the perfect addition to the collection as it offers a comfortable, mid-sized option for exhibit spaces and show management floorplans.
Byrd elaborated that another popular addition to the collection is the Timber cocktail table, which compliments the wooden Timber end table. The natural, biophilic feel of the larger table is a go-to creating show floor spaces where exhibit planners are wanting to bring the outdoors inside.
Another in-demand collection at the core of the CORT Event’s catalog is their Posh Collection, which makes a striking impression in today’s trend of brightly lit trade show exhibits.
Byrd also discussed their drape program expansion, introducing Poly Premier fabric alongside their Super Velour offerings.
“Our Poly Premier collection is launching this summer, and we are excited to offer it to our clients! We’re expanding our collection of exhibit drape to feature Poly Premier fabric. We carry a lot of Super Velour, and we will continue to, but the benefit of Poly Premier is that it’s a lighter weight; perfect for versatility in draping a variety of exhibit spaces, and it offers a better value as well, especially when planners think about draping off large booths or creating delineation or a dramatic design with large drape installs.” Byrd added that this expansion will be up and running by early fall.
As Byrd says, “Our highest goal is helping clients achieve their customers’ end results. We want them to shine.”
This story originally appeared in the Q3 2025 issue of Exhibit City News, p. 72. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/exhibit_city_news_-_jul_aug_sept_2025/72.
