December 30, 2003, Trevose, PA — Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), the largest member organization in the promotional products industry, announced plans today to unveil a new show booth that mirrors the spirit of ASI – high-tech, progressive, welcoming, upbeat and inviting.

The new ASI show booth will make its debut at the ASI Show! in Orlando on January 3.

"What a great way to start the new year," says Timothy M. Andrews, president of ASI. "The entire ASI family is excited about this incredible space we've created with booth experts Art Guild, and I'm certain visitors to the show will echo our enthusiasm." Art Guild, a leading exhibit designer and builder, is based in Thorofare, NJ.

"I think our new booth, along with new products we're showing in Orlando, will demonstrate to members our continued strong commitment to them and to the industry," Andrews says.

The 3,500-square-foot booth includes a one-stop business center providing ASI members with access to fax machines, phones, copiers and ASI's InfoLine, a real-time product research service for ASI member distributors staffed by experienced researchers.

Training and conference areas within the booth space are surrounded by larger-than-life interchangeable photos of professionals at work, set in an ultra-modern glass and frosted acrylic façade. "We've arranged to have two additional PC's set up outside the classroom area for visitors who wish to check their email — free of charge," Andrews explains.

Custom carpeting has been created beneath ten free-standing, dual-sided work stations each representing an ASI product area. The work stations are grey laminate with brushed aluminum, topped off by a lightbox advertising the represented product. Guests are encouraged to view product demonstrations on sleek, new Gateway Profile 4MX all-in-ones available at each work station

Not to be overlooked in the booth space is the ASI hot dog cart, a tradition begun over thirty years ago by ASI's owner-family matriarch, Bess Cohn, as her way of assuring that show visitors didn't skip meals throughout the long day. Today, over 6,000 kosher cocktail wieners are consumed by guests at each ASI show.

Crowning the area are two ASI identification cylinders, suspended overhead — each is 4 feet high, has a diameter of 16 feet and sports the red ASI logo on a white cloth background. "You'll be able to see the ASI logo from anywhere on the show floor," notes Andrews.

The designers of the space, Art Guild, worked with ASI for several months to achieve a look that is both practical and eye-catching, and incorporates comments from distributors and suppliers who asked for easier navigation and quicker access to ASI product information and services.

For 80 years Art Guild has been building exhibits and displays for companies and museums such as DuPont, Panasonic, Mannington, SEGA, Yale University's Peabody Museum and the Children's Museum in Baltimore.

Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 20,000 Distributors (sellers) and Suppliers (manufacturers) of promotional products. Suppliers use ASI print and electronic resources to promote their products to more than 17,000 ASI Distributors. Distributors use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 650,000 promotional products, to locate Supplier products and to promote their services to buyers of promotional products. ASI was founded in 1950 and employs a staff of 500. The company offers catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, Web sites and databases, and provides a variety of interactive business, marketing and selling tools.

Contact

Dawn Marie,
Executive director of corporate communications

Email industry news and press releases to Chris Ruvo, Digital News Director and Promogram Editor at cruvo@asicentral.com

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