Link2: the DIY display

We recently realised that we have very few images of Link2 (our premium roller banner system) in action at an exhibition. Unlike exhibitions using some of our portable display systems and almost all of our modular systems, this is because Link2 is very much a DIY display product. That makes it the exhibition industry’s best-kept secret.

DIY display with roller banners

Roller banners have portability built in; they are light and pack away small, meaning exhibitors can easily store and transport them. Another feature is how easy and quick a roller banner display stand is to install and break down; this is partially why so many exhibitors use them. This potent combination of portability and ease-of-use means that anyone designing a small-to-medium exhibition display will consider a roller banner system to avoid the cost of an installer.

Unfortunately, that leaves the exhibition industry in a bit of a time warp, with those determined to cut costs making do with a display technology that has hardly changed or advanced in 30 years. Smaller shows still abound with basic single roller banners, and are crying out for something new, different, better.

Enter the Link2 premium roller banner display system…

Link2: the king of DIY display

Link2 enables DIY display with professional results

It’s no coincidence that our sister company, Eve Products, who manufacture and assemble the Link2 hardware here in Skipton, are selling them like hot cakes. That’s because their exhibition trade customers are resellers. They are well aware of the product and the reason it stands head and shoulders above other roller banner systems. They therefore understand the allure it has in the ‘DIY display’ market.

Quickly running through the product’s main features is probably the easiest way to explain this:

Link2’s graphic panels seamlessly link together (facilitating much larger imagery), and they can be joined using a flexible panel (so that this continuous image goes around corners). All roller banners have a similar cassette and spool system, but Link2 is re-tensionable – a fancy way of saying you can wind up the spool’s spring to add back lost tension. The importance of this is that Link2 graphic panels can be replaced with new ones (or old ones) as many times as you like, so you only need to buy the hardware once.

It can easily be used to create a full back-wall for an exhibition stand, even within the 3-sided space of a shell scheme. But because it is free-standing and has flexibility of shape, the same stand (or variations of it) can be used in a wide range of display contexts and stand spaces:

• Bigger stand space? Add more panels.
• Different stand space? Change the shape.
• Different campaign? Swap in new graphic panels.
• Dark display area? Use the LED down-lighters.

So yes, you might occasionally need to buy more graphic panels for a new campaign or product launch, and they’re not something you can just run off your office inkjet printer. But other than that, everything about Link2 is geared towards DIY. Link2 enables DIY display with professional results. And when the cost of the venue’s stand space can dent your marketing budget so heavily, DIY display can become a highly attractive option.

Redressing the balance

It may sound obvious, but because Link2 is a DIY display product, we rarely install it for a client ourselves. That means that despite all the positive feedback, we’re not in a position to photograph the finished stand in situ as we normally would at a show. In the thick of a very busy installation season, we don’t prioritise hounding our clients for imagery. Yet this is a story that needs to be told, a secret that has remained so for too long.

So we’ve searched back through our archives since Link2 launched in 2016 to find images our clients have sent us of their exhibition stands. We also found a couple from installs we did ourselves. Whilst this post is about ‘DIY display’, it’s important to note that a Link2 display might be used as part of a larger stand like the Middlesex University one shown below. In this situation, despite the ease with which the Link2 elements can be installed, the rest of the stand might still demand a full logistics and install service.

Also, as we keep saying (because we think it’s really important), a DIY display might save you some money, but if your exhibitors are spending the first hour of the day getting equipment into an exhibition hall and installing it, they’re not focusing on whatever the desired outcome from the show is. Some people can instinctively handle this distraction well, especially if they are experienced exhibitors. But with others, it creates the wrong headspace for the show.

TomTom Telematics have been long-term users of a set of Link2 panels for their shows about WebFleet technologies, so we include an image of theirs below. There’s also a great example of a ’round-the-corner’ 2-wall backdrop from TruVision VR, incorporating their striking image of a man lost in the experience of using their incredible VR headsets. Finally, we have Acteon’s eye-catching 3-wall shell scheme dressing.

Despite the search, we’re still running very low on imagery. If you are a DIY display client with a Link2 show under your belt, please fell free to email us a retrospective image or two from the show (to hello@roundededgestudio.com) and we’ll append them to this post. To bolster our gallery, we’ve used a couple of our own marketing shots and three example Link2 stands from Tiger Presentations, a trading partner in America.

Client images

Tiger Presentations images

Link2 configuration ideas

More information

Images are one thing, but the best introduction to this premium roller banner system is to see it in person, and we’ll happily come to your offices to do a personal demonstration. Failing that, there’s much more detail on our Link2 product page, including a PDF brochure to download and a video we put together at product launch showing off the system’s features. It’s time for Link2 to step out of the shadows and make yours the exhibition stand causing the stir at your next show.