Voted by EXSA as the best supply company, 3D Shell and one of the busiest suppliers of exhibition infrastructure in Africa, has innovated the exhibition industry for organisers, exhibitors and suppliers with the launch of its innovative EaziXpo online exhibitor and services management system.
Developed locally by a team of information systems experts briefed by 3D’s sales and marketing director, Conrad Kullmann, EaziXpo bridges the communication divide between exhibition organiser, exhibitor and the supplier to provide a seamless exhibition experience for all three.
Based on workflow principles and housed in the cloud, it does away with the need for the endless paper trial and complicated spreadsheets of data, historically proven to be unreliable because of human error, to provide an elegant solution for managing all aspects of the exhibition, including money collection for extra services.
“Simply put, EaziXpo is easy-to-understand, flexible online exhibition management and services ordering system customised for each new exhibition to address its unique requirements,” says Conrad.
Customising EaziXpo is done after a detailed briefing between 3D and the exhibition organiser to establish the ground rules – what stand sizes will be on offer, what additional services, how will signage be handled, which are the required mandatory forms, what general information would the organiser require, and so on.
Thereafter, 3D’s experienced services personnel load the entire exhibitor manual onto the site, add all services with pricing, and add the show banners to the site. These show banners also populate all the online mandatory forms so there’s no need for the exhibitor to print these out, fill them in, scan them and then e-mail them back.
Once the exhibition has been loaded, the organiser receives a unique user name and password to check that all the details and the setup of the site is correct. On his or her dashboard are just four tabs – ‘exhibitor list’, ‘add exhibitor’, ‘loaded documents’ and ‘load a document’.
The organiser uses this zone to see a list of all exhibitors as well as their passwords, stand details (space only or shell, for example), stand number and how many times they have entered the site. This last bit of information allows 3D’s services department to see which exhibitors haven’t completed all their forms, and call them to expedite this.
In addition, EaziXpo emails the exhibitor a unique user name and password for access to the site.
On receipt of the welcome message and user name and password, the exhibitor can enter the site and access his or her dashboard, which has only three buttons – ‘show information’, ‘mandatory forms’ and ‘services’. The exhibitor must complete the mandatory forms and order additional services online using the system.
Of course, as supplier, 3D benefits too because the site houses – at any one time – a complete and up-to-date database of exactly what is required and for which exhibitor. This facilitates its planning and scheduling.
“For the organiser, EaziXpo is a game-changer: there’s no paper work, no filing, no dragging files to site, no arguing with exhibitors and suppliers over infrastructure and extra services. All he or she needs is an iPad or computer and an internet connection. For the exhibitor, because it is workflow based, it’s an organisational tool; a way of ensuring all the bases are covered so there’s no unpleasant surprises a few days before the exhibition opens,” adds Conrad.
3D Shell is currently the exclusive shell scheme supplier to HobbyX, MamaMagic, HuntEx, Manufacturing Indaba, Africa Energy Indaba, Infrastructure Africa, A-OshExpo, Hostex, World Travel Market Africa, The Solar Show, Africa Rail, Cards & Payments Africa, Power & Electricity World Africa, and BreakBulk Africa.
