by Laura Palker, NTSA Founder/CEO
The Invisible Industry Tour, a collective effort across the live events industry that includes show organizers/associations, general contractors, trades/unions, experiential designers/producers, tradeshow suppliers, venues, convention/visitors bureaus and STEAM/workforce development, debuted its 49-foot Triune Quad-X Mobile Trailer at Global Exhibitions Day in Washington, DC, on June 1 and was met with resounding enthusiasm.
The tour will be visiting multiple US cities and hosting industry events in the next year—although, with gas prices currently skyrocketing, the EXHIBITORLive stop was postponed so the tour can remain on the East Coast this fall. Stops are being planned for Philadelphia, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Louisville and Boston in the next few months.
Visitors in DC enjoyed immersing themselves in the interactive presentations, exhibits and time-lapse videos created by industry associations, designers, builders, unions, support services and more that showed the work that goes into producing a tradeshow, including setup, tear-down and behind-the-scenes moments in proposals and design.
The NTSA is collaborating with many industry veterans across the entire spectrum of the 6.6 million jobs that are involved in the live events industry to create a library of knowledge—consisting of 20- to 30-minute videos—that will help train the next generation of tradeshow workers.
Some of those industry veterans include Triune Specialty Trailers President Harry Kurtz and Senior Project Director Jake Jacobs, who are supplying the 49-foot Triune Quad-X Mobile Trailer; Brewco Marketing Group (BMG) VP, Sales and Marketing Ryan Gililland, supplying the driver, tour manager and logistics; and Captello’s Director of Marketing Brad Froese, Chief Listening Officer Ryan Schefke and Sr. Dir. of Event Engagement Michelle Harman, CEM, UL, who are supplying CRM, marketing automation, lead capture and gamification software. And Genesis Exhibits Senior Account Director Al Mercuro’s contributions have been invaluable as an industry liaison, event designer and social media influencer. And that’s just naming a few!
Triune Specialty Trailers
Based in Michigan, Triune’s Harry Kurtz has been in the mobile tour and exhibit equipment business for more than 30 years. He has developed projects for dozens of Fortune 500 organizations, including Ford, AT&T, Toyota, Target, Dole, Siemens, Johnson & Johnson, Aetna, Boeing, Fuji, Volkswagen and Mazda, and has also worked with a multitude of non-profit and government clients, including the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, US Army, Mayo Clinic, and Detroit Institute of Arts. Jake Jacobs, currently a professor in the Museum Studies program at George Washington University, also brings more than 30 years of experience in exhibit design to Triune. He worked from 1980 until last year with the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress as an exhibition designer and program manager, including his work as the lead designer for the 250,000-square foot National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. From 2009-2015, he served as the chief of the Interpretive Programs Office at the Library of Congress.
Brewco Marketing Group
Based in Central City, Kentucky, with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and London, England; Brewco Marketing Group (BMG) creates and executes custom mobile marketing programs that educate, energize and entertain. They specialize in vehicle/trailer design and construction, timelines, checklists, event manuals, site selection and negotiation, program logistics, DOT compliance, event staffing and execution, and event reporting and analysis. BMG is providing both the driver and the tour manager for the Invisible Industry Tour, handling the tour’s logistics (setting up parking at tradeshows, community colleges, high schools, etc.) as well as the DOT compliance, timelines, etc.
Captello
Captello, a leading provider of premium lead capture and event engagement solutions based in Ohio, has partnered with NTSA to empower the tour to expand its reach with CRM, sales enablement and marketing automation solutions, and a suite of interactive gamification experiences. By using Captello’s premium lead retrieval solutions, which enable data capture via customized forms and a mobile device app from anywhere in the world, and their interactive gamification experiences, the tour experience is enriched, engagement is increased and the tour is building a growing support network.
For more info about these partners, visit triunemfg.com, brewco.com and captello.com, or visit www.nationaltradeshowalliance.org.
