A company’s success story often involves a founder who “thinks big”. At Advanced Exhibit Methods’ Richard Diess “ thinks bigger” by helping his mid-sized client base “look bigger” at their tradeshows and events.
“I always liked the full-service model that the larger builders offered,” said Diess, whose company is based in Irvine, Calif. “The niche I have tried to build with AEM is (as) a full-service systems house for mid-size exhibitors.”
Such an approach might even be more beneficial to smaller exhibitors, because as smaller companies, tradeshow managers often have multiple duties, he added.
When Diess, 56, first started AEM in 1981 he mostly sold Scanamural graphics. Over the years, he expanded the company, adding more portable display and structural systems such as Octanorm.
“The term ‘modular exhibit dealer’ applied to us for some time,” Diess explained.
For the past few years, AEM has been a systems house, combining fabric, graphics and aluminum.Born in Portland and raised in Oregon, Texas, Louisiana and Southern California, Diess attended the University of California, Irvine and University of California, Los Angeles, studying chemistry and biology.
In 1979, he started selling Scanamurals, or large format graphics printed on fabric, for his neighbor. Produced by the 3M Company, they were unique for their time, Diess said. And though the emphasis in the beginning was on murals for interiors, Diess started using them for tradeshows.
“Early on, I attached a canvas-based graphic to a FOGA aluminum frame to create a semi-portable tradeshow exhibit,” Diess recalled. “This led to a greater involvement in tradeshow exhibits.”
Since then, Diess and AEM have worked with a wide range of clients across a variety of industries – from “coffee and carbon composites to insurance and pharmaceutical waste management,” Diess said.
Such variety dictates the company stays ahead of trends in design. Maintaining a fresh approach to aesthetic design in the tradeshow industry is important to a company’s success, as it helps exhibitors separate themselves from the visual clutter on the show floor and reinforce brand imagery. But aesthetics don’t trump functionality; if it doesn’t work well, the exhibit’s overall success will be limited, Diess added.
AEM handled 400 shows a year nationally, at least until the economic downturn. That number is now down to 300. But Diess sees the potential to grow new business on the horizon.
In the immediate future, to combat the economic malaise, Diess’ company plans to offer expanded services to existing clients because “clients who are exhibiting need as much support as we can supply,” he said.
Finding time to work on the company and its marketing and other long-term goals has proven to be one of Diess’ biggest challenges. Still, he sees the potential for growing the business by increasing marketing efforts to find new clients.
“It is easy for the company’s immediate needs to take precedence,” Diess said. “(But) I think there is value in face-to-face marketing, and the industry will recover though it might take longer than in previous downturns.”
