Actually, It’s Easy Being Green

“Go-Green.” What had started as a revolution in aiding our environment, the crusade has since grow in to a multi-billion dollar cash cow of an industry, often times muddied by false claims and a multitude of unverified green products. The tradeshow industry has been largely targeted by the movement, with green exhibit displays, promotional items and even green tradeshows themselves moving towards the forefront of the industry. Whether you support a green tradeshow, as a means to assist the environment or as a strategy to reduce costs on non-essential materials, how can you ensure that your green strategy is legitimate?

Last month, I talked about a few iPhone apps that could enrich your next tradeshow experience. One app that intrigued a number of people, myself included, was a new app from Digital Collateral. As you’ll see, there’s little doubt that this simple, yet powerful technology, could dramatically reduce a dependancy on traditional paper products, and set the trend for an honest, green, tradeshow.

How it works

1. Exhibitors Upload Their Documents

Exhibitors upload PDFs of the documents they’d normally print, ship, and hand out at a show.

2. Exhibitors Print DC Barcodes

We generate a barcode and an SMS (text message) code for each item, which Exhibitors can print out on standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper and display at their booth. Click here to view a sample Barcode.

3. Attendees Scan those Codes

Attendees scan Barcodes of items they’re interested in with our free iPhone app. Download the free app from iTunes.

3.5 …or Send a Text

If attendees don’t have an iPhone- or don’t want to install the free app- they can simply text the DC Code to 50500.

4. Log in, View, and Share

After the show, attendees can log in here to view, download and share their collateral. Users of the iPhone app can view and share PDFs right from their phone- forwarding the stuff they really like to anyone in their contact list, instantly.

While QR technology has been around for a couple years, Digital Collateral is the first to utilize the technology targeted heavily at the tradeshow industry. And why not? The app is universally functional for both attendees and exhibitors. Attendees lose the need to carry catalogs, brochures and other literature in bulk and, most importantly, nothing is thrown away. For the exhibitor, time, cost of printing and cost of shipping materials are all significantly cut. Beyond that, Digital Collateral provides the exhibitor with measurable statistics, not only for the number of scans, but the number of downloads and forwards their information receives.

Jaxon Repp, CEO of Digital Collateral, “We decided to target the trade show industry because that environment is specifically designed to hand out printed materials to an interested audience. More-so, we wanted to start with a focus on B2B shows, where adoption will benefit from the fact that collecting stuff is the attendees’ actual job, and the benefits of sharing the stuff they collect with the home office immediately rather than once they get back are so obvious.”

Launched in January 2010, Digital Collateral made its debut shortly after at the Go-Green Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center, January 22-24. A natural environment to pitch the eco-friendly service, the universal mobile platform availability proved successful, as 100% of all attendees responded positively to its introduction. With the help of its introduction at the event, the app has received over 1,000 downloads.

“This is an expensive ecosphere, and our product has always focused on delivering value as much as saving the environment- every company likes a good “Green” PR angle, but they like saving thousands of dollars on printing even more.”

Throughout the event, Digital Collateral displayed their ECO-METER™, which provided realtime updates on the amount of resources that were saved in favor of the digital downloads. The ECO-METER™ will be prominently featured on both the Digital Collateral site and in the latest version of the mobile app, which was released just this week.

Not only is the service free to the attendee, but there are no up-front costs to exhibitors who choose to upload their content. Instead, the Digital Collateral system allows you to purchase credits for as little as 20 cents each, with each distribution counting as one credit and distributing a folder of unlimited assets counting as two credits.

Repp illustrates the dramatic savings this system offers.“A folder with three catalogs that cost $5 each to print can now be distributed for as little as 40 cents instead of $15.00.”

Though venturing into the event world initially, Digital Collateral is reaching beyond the tradeshow market and proving it can be valuable in almost any industry looking to reduce material dependancies. There are no commitments and little startup efforts. Simply create an account, upload PDF documents to your library and share your codes. New accounts are given 25 free credits to start, a $10 value.

Digital Collateral will be utilized at the Go Green Expo in New York this weekend, March 19-21, 2010. Beyond, they will have a physical presence at 24 shows in 2010.

“Learning first hand from the Attendees, Brands, and Producers is how we can make the system better,” says Repp.

While the app is currently available only for iPhone, Digital Collateral is scheduled to roll out support for Blackberry and Android devices later this month.

Want more information on Digital Collateral? Download the “DC Scanner” on your iPhone and scan the barcode below to receive an e-brochure. Don’t have an iPhone? Simply text “DC Setup” to 50500.

Digital Collateral on the web

1. 

   Midori Connolly says:

   March 17, 2010 at 1:37 pm

   Eric, outstanding post – and one that is so near and dear to my heart.
   You have such a fantastic pulse of what’s happening with mobile applications and their practical application (sorry, that was not intended to be a pun) for events.

   The ECO-METER feature is probably what will set this product ahead of its competitors. Green Meeting planners and producers have the most dire need for measurement and tools to help make those measurements. This is spot-on and I can’t wait to use it!

   Bonus points for the fact that I can read this on my Tradeshow Insight iPhone app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tradeshow-insight/id352670605?mt=8) and link directly to the Digital Collateral download One less step to take…nice.

   Midori Connolly, Chief AVGirl
   http://www.twiter.com/GreenA_V

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2. 

   Eric Lukazewski says:

   March 17, 2010 at 1:49 pm

   Midori, thank you for commenting. I had a feeling you would find this as compelling as I did!

   I think you’re absolutely right. People respond to measurements and to see them put in to relatable environmental units, like trees and fuel, makes it an invaluable feature. ‘Green’ business is competitive and dirty at times and it’s difficult to know who to trust and what is genuinely efficient for our earth. It’s good to see an example like this, that is simple and clear to understand its significance towards a cultural environmental shift in progression.

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3. 

   Heidi Thorne says:

   March 23, 2010 at 2:54 pm

   That Digital Collateral app is awesome! And since I don’t have an iPhone (which you know!), it’s great to see that a text messaging option is available.

   When I go to the main promotional product show in my industry, the ASI Show, I’m so inundated with printed brochures that I’ve resorted to bringing a folding cart to save my shoulders and hands. (I know you’re probably chuckling at that visual.) But my plight is not unique. In fact the show offers a shipping service (not free either — the other “green” issue) for materials you collect. Digital Collateral would eliminate that almost entirely. And since I’d rather be able to access the info digitally anyway, this would be a godsend.

   Plus, being involved in the ecofriendly product arena, I’d definitely like to see more apps like this in the future.

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4. 

   Eric Lukazewski says:

   March 23, 2010 at 3:06 pm

   Thanks Heidi! I see endless possibilities and major conveniences, dollars and most importantly, environmental assets being saved as a result of this. You’ve illustrated what I believe most people go through at an event, and it’s hard not to be surrounded by wasted dollars from printing and shipping. I hope this idea catches on so we’ll continue to see the positive results magnified throughout the industry.

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