Printing for Award Ceremonies, Conferences, and Events
When you attend award ceremonies, conferences, and events as a guest, delegate, or visitor how much do you notice around you? Most of your focus will probably be on the stage to see who’s received an award, who’s presenting a guest speaker slot, or is headlining at a festival or concert. But if you took a moment to look around you, you would see how your surroundings are filled with printed material in its many forms. This article looks at the work that printers undertake to ensure your event experience is the best it can be.
So, let’s start with a look at the importance of external signage
Impactful promotional signs often need to be durable for some events
It’s not unusual for some types of events to run for many months (sometimes years), so external signage for these needs to be extremely durable. Prime examples are the sorts of signs displayed outside or close to theatres, concert venues, exhibition halls, and across cities and larger towns. They are often used to promote events months ahead, so the materials used have to hard wearing and resistant to fading and weathering.
Conference, Expos, and Exhibition signs help delegates and visitors to find venues
For shorter duration events, highly visual signage can add value too by helping visitors to easily identify where they need to go, while promoting the event at local level. And, if the event is a success, there’s a good chance the organisers will use the same venue, year after year (with satisfied vendors and visitors on the alert to look out for details so they can book early).
Helping visitors discover what’s available
On a smaller scale, visitors often benefit from seeing signage that helps them to plan their day, locate the correct entrance to use, and find out what is available or going on at the event venue. This level of detail enhances an event’s appeal by adding to the user experience and can influence visitors’ decisions about attending again the following year.
The signage shown above is particularly useful for venues that have continually changing events, such as museums, concert halls, conference centres, and sports venues (how many of you have used them at Fan Zones when attending football, rugby, or other sporting events?).
Signage at registration areas
Signage inside venues is important too. It helps people to get to the right place, at the right time, and is vital when it comes to setting expectation levels for visitors to an event (“Wow, this is organised well”). Bold, bright colours and well-designed layouts help too, enabling people to quickly establish where they need to go. The example above is a prime example of getting it right.
A word or two about backdrops
Red carpets look great and generate advertising revenue for organisers
From red carpets at the entrance to awards ceremonies and conferences, to stage backdrops that add sparkle and impact for the audience, print plays a key role in setting the tone and creating the best atmosphere at all types of events. They are also crucial for sponsors too, with organisers offering a multitude of advertising packages to help small, medium, and large companies to get their brand and company name out there.
Every winner can help to promote the hosting industry
And don’t forget to use print options backstage too. Most award ceremonies, and even small events such as book signings, offer the opportunity to have your photo taken with an event host, VIPS, or a celebrity guest at the event. You may not get to meet a former President but your business or organisation will certainly get noticed (even if it is in the background).
Photo opportunities in front of backstage signs and banners
Everyone likes a winner
Sporting events that attract large crowds present terrific opportunities for organisers to generate revenue from sponsoring businesses. From advertising hoardings around football grounds to banners on marathon or cycling race routes, every metre of space offers the means to raise brand awareness.
Banners around race routes offer high profile advertising
And once the race is over, everybody wants to see the winners presented with their awards. The stages for these are an ideal way to promote the event, the hosting city or venue, and major sponsors.
Winners’ enclosures always provide prominent levels for brand awareness
It doesn’t have to be all glitz and glamour
Many venues offer lower key events but these can also benefit from great displays and signage. Examples are museums, exhibition spaces, and similar venues, all of which can add to their footfall by attracting visitors using several of the advertising tools we’ve mentioned above.
They can also benefit from using more permanent printed collateral too. The example below is typical of the way exhibits can be designed and set-up to make visitors’ experience more interesting and informative.
Displays in museums and exhibition spaces offer enhanced visitor experiences
In this article we’ve highlighted some of the benefits that organisers for award ceremonies, conferences, and events can gain by using different forms of printed collateral, but there’s so much more that sits underneath the big picture stuff.
Don’t forget about the small stuff
A substantial proportion of our work with event organisers includes producing promotional posters, leaflets, flyers and smaller banners, alongside medium-sized banners and signage. A lot of this is pre-event material designed to increase footfall for events, especially festivals.
If you need tickets, wristbands, ID cards, lanyards, venue guides, site maps, or programmes, we can design and print those for you. In addition, we can produce or source name badges, table plans, menus, sponsors’ leaflets and brochures, certificates, and a wide selection of award types (including glass awards), for award ceremonies and graduation events. We can even produce pop-up or exhibition style stands to serve as entrance points or information posts.
Lisa Mortimore, Commercial Director at IQ Digital House comments: “We really enjoy working with event organisers, sponsors, and exhibitors because of the enthusiasm they bring to each and every project. That rubs off on our design and print team too. It’s not unusual for a number of our employees to go along to the events we work on. We’re just finishing off some signage for Guilfest 2024 and several staff are planning to go along.”
We suspect a few of our staff will go along to this one!
Find out more about our services
We work with organisers for all types of award ceremonies, conferences, exhibitions, trade shows, and festivals. That also extends to working with small and medium-sized events, such as a weekend market just down the road from our Aldershot base and this year’s Guilfest 2024 event in Guildford, Surrey.
Beyond local events, we design, print, store, and distribute printed collateral (including exhibition stands) for clients appearing at trade shows and Expos across the U.K. and abroad. So, we know a thing or two about helping organisers to promote, present, and run seamless events that create fantastic visitor experiences.
If you think our services can help to elevate your event to a higher level, please contact our Commercial Director, Lisa Mortimore on 01252 796 903 or email [email protected].
Published March 2024
Categories: Award Ceremonies, Conferences, Events and Festivals, Graphic Design, Small Format Digital Print, Large Format Digital Print, Storage and Distribution
