How Scalable Wow Won Best Use of Technology at The EXHIEs™

At the inaugural EXHIEs™ at Connect Marketplace, SmartSource and exhibit partner ExtraMile turned LED posters and beMatrix LEDskin tiles an award-winning booth, proving that great event tech is less about how much you put on the floor and more about what you do with it.  

The challenge 

Connect Marketplace fills the Tampa Convention Center with planners moving between back-to-back appointments, which makes grabbing attention the biggest challenge on the show floor. Our goal was to take our 1.8m LED posters and 1.5m LEDskin by beMatrix and turn a medium booth into an experience attendees could not walk past, one creative enough that they would still be talking about it at dinner. 

The solution: strategy and creativity, not just placement 

Plenty of booths treat screens like wallpaper. Hang them up, loop a video, hope for the best. We started somewhere else. Before a single panel went up, we asked what attendees should feel as they approached, where their eyes should land first and how the content could draw them deeper into the space. 

Strategy decided where every LED poster and LEDskin panel would live. Creativity decided what each one would do once it was there. Because beMatrix LEDskin tiles unique characteristics as part of a modular building system”, the LED became part of the architecture itself rather than a screen hung on a wall, which gave us a seamless canvas for content. 

The partnership: built with ExtraMile 

We worked alongside our exhibit partner ExtraMile to bring the content and the technology home as one experience. Their exhibit craft and our LED technology and content were planned together from the start, so the structure and the screens blended seamlessly to tell one story instead of two. On the show floor, attendees reacted the way every exhibitor hopes they will. They stopped, they looked up, and more than a few of them caught their breath. 

WHAT IS SCALABLE WOW? 

Scalable Wow is our belief that every exhibitor and every event deserves a show-stopping moment, whatever the size of the space or the budget behind it. It is not about adding more screens. It is about pairing the right technology with smart strategy and creative content, so the impact grows with your goals. 

Start with a single LED poster at registration. Scale up to a wall of LEDskin. Go all the way to a fully immersive booth. Wherever you begin, the wow comes with you. 

The result 

On the first day of the show, an independent panel of industry judges walked the floor and scored booths on creativity and design, technology and innovation, attendee engagement, alignment with the event and overall excellence. When the certificates went up the next morning, SmartSource walked away with The EXHIEs™ award for Best Use of Technology in the medium booth category, in the program’s first year. 

In its coverage, TSNN highlighted the stopping power our LED displays brought to the show floor and how the booth showed event professionals a way to integrate technology without overwhelming attendees. That is Scalable Wow in a sentence. 

What’s next: even more wow at IMEX America 

This booth is not heading to a warehouse. It travels to IMEX America in Las Vegas this October, with even more wow built in. Come see what is new, and let us show you how Scalable Wow can work for your next event. 

Read TSNN’s announcement of the winners