Inspiring Art Museum Design

This design for the Art Museum in Milwaukee is certainly worth taking a look at, as the design is carried throughout the structure.

What structures have you seen that have inspired you?

An Avatar Booth Staffer at a Trade Show?

What better way to draw a crowd than by using interactive software, which includes a virtual person (avatar) in conjunction with real booth staffers. These virtual employees are personalized with emotion, speech patterns and intelligence to represent the exhibitors' needs. The virtual employee, in combination with a plasma screen, can creatively conduct surveys, help drive sales, or easily assist attendees to find the information they are looking for --when the technology is used with a kiosk.

In addition, avatars are guiding people through training modules, hospitals, and museum exhibitions – all at the comfortable personal pace of the user.

Whether it is a web application, kiosk, or plasma in a tradeshow booth, an avatar may be a tool to consider.



--Valerie http://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriehurst

Travel to a Trade Show? It's Flu Season!

Travel is a necessity in the exhibit and tradeshow industry, but how do we protect ourselves from exposure to a flu bug? Here is an article that may answer some typical questions that our families and co-workers may be asking us everytime we prepare for a trip. Safe and healthy travels!

GALLO Creative Cafe October Design News

Check out our new monthly design newsletter, which focuses on not only what is happening at GALLO, but new substrates and technologies that are new to the industry!

Will the Cities we Travel to for Tradeshows Change in 2010, 2011. . .?

It seems that convention and visitors bureaus see trends of boosting the economy of cities like Denver, Detroit, New Orleans and Dallas in the upcoming years, according the article in USA Today.
It will be interesting to see what shows relocate to one of these cities over the next couple years, and whether it will affect the number of attendees. Would you attend a show if it were held in one of these cities instead of Las Vegas for example? Or is the show itself enough of a draw that the location does not matter?

Musings of a guy who used to play football…without a helmet

I was reading a discussion on a museum blog on the topic of using a motion tracking system to determine the movement of visitors and measure the time/interest they were spending at each exhibit. I was a bit surprised that the discussion took a turn in the direction of “confidentially of movement”. I was intrigued that this would be a concern since museums historically employ guards to monitor traffic flow. It seemed to me a natural and logical progression from merely observing visitors to compiling information and using it to improve content, seemed like a good idea to me. What ensued was a pretty spirited discussion about individual vs. organizational rights, and freedom of movement vs. monitoring movement. Before long, incendiary phrases like” Big Brother" were being thrown around. So I guess the question is to what degree do we as curators, marketers and designers have the right to use all of the information at our disposal to improve the visitors, or in the case of commercial exhibitions, the prospect's experience? Maybe I have just gotten to the point where I accept being on camera most of the day, certainly in my car and probably when I am walking down the street. On the upside, I am pretty sure I have privacy at home except of course when I am watching TV via cable.
---Richard http://www.linkedin.com/pub/richard-boothroyd/2/3bb/635