The Dallas Convention Center was the site of this year’s version of the rotary-wing exposition. Most of the newness was at last year’s show with the debut of the new Eurocopter exhibit in Houston. This year’s HeliExpo saw the product rollout of Bell‘s Relentless model (hey, that’s my name!).
Seriously, the Relentless rollout took over the show and the building. From the graphic attached to the convention center stairs to the hotel mirror stickers to the massive media show in the exhibit during the show, Bell built their show presence around this product debut.
But let’s not ignore what else happened at the show. This was also the rotary-wing debut of Aviall‘s new exhibit. First shown at NBAA last October, this variation of the Impact Unlimited built display stand worked very well in the environment. From the cloud graphics (conceptualized by Danny Flanagan’s team at Zachry Associates) to the lit header to the uncluttered soft seating areas, Aviall’s exhibit was built to house conversations and customer interaction, not bits of hardware. Kimberly Williamson certainly achieved her team’s goal of creating a clean, useful space.
Another exhibit in transition is Esterline. My colleague, Peggy Keene, told me this variation of the exhibit was a transition away from the “hardware store” approach and more toward customer interaction. Here exhibit partner had outfitted the old product kiosks with large, platform-specific graphics that painted a broader picture of this parts supplier from Seattle.
“Shows are about interacting with the customer firsthand, ” Peggy told me. “They give us the chance to show our unified brand to our broad base of clients,” she said.
Overall, the show was the place for the four anchor airframe makers (Bell, Augusta, Sikorsky, Eurocopter) surrounded by hundreds of 10x10s and 10x20s housing the wares and staffs of actuator makers to field test equipment to uniform makers. More fabric, lighter materials and less hardware than in previous years.
As for the DCC itself: the environment is much improved with the addition of the Omni Hotel adjacent to the show floor. More seating and meeting space and some great new restaurants make this a vastly improved convention area. Thanks to Tom Leppert for his vision.
Look for photos and more reporting on this show in future posts. Thanks to all who contributed and added value to this report.
TTSG
