Portable Trade Show Exhibits have been around ever since the introduction of the first Pop Up Display in the late 1970's. They quickly became popular because relative to the heavy, plywood based exhibits of the time they were economical, lightweight, easy to set up and had the ability to display graphic images very well.

During the 1980's, portable exhibits continuted to flourish as one panel system after another was introduced. Unfortunately, it soon became difficult to tell one from another because there was so much copycat design but there was still much innovation going on. After the ecocomic downturn in the early part of this decade new product introductions largely went on hold.

There has still been some great exhibit design but the focus has been on, as far as 10 x 10' booths are concerned, producing customized looks that fall in the $10,000 plus price range that haven't been particularly portable. This has left a lot of companies, particularly start-ups, with limited options. Sure, they could still purchase a pop up display but for those wanting to differentiate themselves from the crowd this hasn't been a good option, until now that is.

Just over the last eighteen months there have been several new portable trade show exhibit systems introduced in the important $5-10,000.00 category. Really cool stuff that allows designers to innovate. Elements like Plexiglas, laminate or graphic wings and header panels, fabric tension mural graphics on the backwall, plasmas and locking counters provide a lot of flexibility. What's best is that it all packs down into UPS-able shipping cases. Portability is back in trade show exhibit design.