City of Louisville Adopts ‘Paperless’ Trade Show Solution at Expo Center

LOUISVILLE, KY—Oct. 12, 2010—Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson visited the International BoatBuilders Exposition & Conference (IBEX) here recently to see a demonstration of a new “paperless” trade show system that has the potential to significantly reduce or eliminate the distribution of paper-based marketing materials at trade shows held at the Kentucky Exposition Center (KEC) starting in 2011.

This new system—the Green Box solution from Tustin, CA-based Viridistor LLC—offers the city and the expo center the first viable way to dramatically reduce the volume of trash generated at trade shows and conferences. The system will be used at future IBEX shows held in Louisville, as well as other events at the KEC, to provide all-electronic distribution of corporate marketing materials in exhibitor booths as well as for handout of presentation materials at conference educational sessions.

Here’s how the system works. When show attendees register on-site, along with their normal show ID badges they will receive a free high capacity USB device. As they tour the show and discover products and services for which they want more information, the USB drive is simply inserted into a port on the Green Box distribution devices in exhibitor booths to instantly download that exhibitor’s materials.

Attendee USB-devices are tailored to each specific show and will feature an electronic show guide and floor maps so that attendees can search exhibitor offerings by company name, by product category and by booth location. Using the Viridistor software applications that are included on each USB, people can better plan what they want to see and with whom they want to meet. They can review and share all of their collected literature more easily following the show simply by inserting it in their Mac or PC computer. Finally, when they’re done with that content, they can erase the USB and have a high capacity memory stick for personal use.