Exhibits commissioned by Toronto radio station 92.5 CISS FM, exhibit supplier TecnaFrame, Chrysler Canada, Volkswagen Canada, Royal Bank, Ontario Lottery Corporation, the U.S. National Park Service and Imax were pronounced top of their class at the 10th annual eddi awards.

The eddis, presented Nov. 24 at The Limelight Dinner Theatre in Toronto, recognize excellence in exhibit design and are presented to the client and the exhibit builder.

Exhibit builders

Exhibit builders ExpoSystems Canada, Worden-Watson, Exhibits International, Convex Systems and Dimensional Communications Group, all of the Toronto area, designed and manufactured the winning entries.

Finalists were selected from a field of 31 entries representing 23 clients and 11 exhibit builders.

Exhibits ranged in price from a few thousand dollars to in excess of $100,000, and the range and quality of the entries support what smart marketers have been saying for some time – that trade and consumer shows are yet another opportunity to communicate key messages, support their corporate and brand image, and, ultimately, sell more product.

Exhibit and Display Assoc.

The eddis are organized and presented by the Exhibit and Display Association of Canada (edac), a North York, Ont.-based association that represents companies that design and make exhibits used in trade and consumer shows, museums, exhibitions, and in permanent displays.

The competition is restricted to edac-member companies.

Awards are presented in seven categories: portable exhibits; exhibits under 240 square feet; exhibits 241-600 square feet; exhibits over 601 square feet; special projects under $100,000; special projects over $100,000; and best use of photography.

President’s award

As well, the president’s award of excellence, which, this year, was presented to Imax for an exhibit promoting its 3-D technology, is awarded at the discretion of the association’s president.

Entries were judged by an independent panel of experts on the basis of five criteria: exhibit design excellence/overall visual impact (worth 20% of the final grade); effective client identification (worth 15%); effective product or message presentation (15%); achievement of the client’s stated objectives (40%), and the quality of the presentation (10%.)

Profiles of winning exhibits

Descriptions of each of the winning exhibits, plus a summary of the client’s objectives and an explanation of how the exhibit met those objectives, follows.

In a related announcement, Ron Gooch, general manager of Scarborough, Ont.-based exhibit builder ExpoSystems Canada, whose firm designed two of this year’s winning exhibits, was pronounced edac member of the year for his ‘hard work, single-mindedness and dedication to the association,’ edac President Campbell Whyte said.