The IARU Slide-Show Display

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Introduction                                                                  BACK to TELECOM page

It was expected that many of the exhibiting stands at the TELECOM would use PowerPoint or similar displays to promote their interests. A display about Amateur Radio and about IARU could be desirable at the IARU stand. So a display was developed many months in advance of the event. This was new territory for those involved so the opportunity was taken to experiment and to study the use of and the effectiveness of such a display for the promotion of Amateur Radio and IARU. 

It was an interesting exercise! These notes are to record these experiences for when the use of a similar display at future exhibitions is considered. 

The basic idea

The concept was to write a PowerPoint display prior to the TELECOM event and to borrow a computer from someone in Hong Kong to run this display at the IARU stand. The total money cost to be nil. 

It was expected that the display screen could be placed at the front of the IARU stand to act as an "eye-catcher", to catch the attention of  passers-by, and to use colour and movement in the display to enhance attention. 

The concept is simple, easy to implement, nil cost, and could be an asset to the IARU stand. 

The result?

Many unforeseen things happened! These notes record the expected and some of the unexpected experiences, a part of the experimental learning process! 

Getting the display to Hong Kong

The display computer file was placed on a web page by ZL2AMJ in New Zealand prior to the TELECOM and downloaded from the web page in Hong Kong by Stephen of HARTS on to the computer that was borrowed from him for the duration of the show. It is so easy to transfer information today! 

The original download web page is at:   Download Slide-Show   with download and viewer details. Please run it! 

Developing the display

There were many requirements perceived for the display. The computer file size was kept down so that it could be carried on a single 1.4 MB diskette to Hong Kong. In the event, it was sent electronically, but a back-up diskette was carried to Hong Kong too - just in case! Hi! 

A banner at the top of each slide portrays "Amateur Radio" or "IARU", to be sure that the person viewing is left in no doubt about our business. The IARU name (in full) and the IARU web URL appear on each slide. The IARU "75 Year" logo appears on each slide too. This can be removed and replaced by the standard IARU logo if this display is used as the basis for a display at future events. 

It is difficult to find satisfactory digital photographs for inclusion in such a display. There were few suitable photographic prints available for scanning. Many amateur radio web pages were scoured for suitable material, but it was scarce. All photographs used had to be edited in Corel Photo-Paint 9 before use. The intensity and contrast were adjusted to make the pictures appear "brighter" and the borders cropped to remove unnecessary material. The resolution of some pictures had to be reduced for the resulting display file to fit on the diskette. 

The display deliberately avoids the use of sound. This is a wise decision. There is enough noise and clatter going on at these events and the peace and quiet of the neighbouring stall-holders must be considered too. It is important that the noise at a stand be kept to a low level to permit and to encourage easy discussion with the visitors - which is a prime purpose of the stand. 

This display consists of 50 slides which repeat continuously and without any operator intervention being necessary. (This is in contrast to the use of a video-player which is labour-intensive to set up and to run, and is noisy. A video-player was not used at this TELECOM - a wise decision.) Once started-up at opening time in the morning, the PowerPoint display ran continuously without attention until shut-down at night, for the full six days. 

The display is broken up into discrete sections. The sections are divided by the display of a characteristic blue slide carrying the IARU logo and the full name of IARU. 

Most aspects of Amateur Radio are included in some way or other in this display. The notable exception is ARDF. In retrospect, this topic could have been included in a display for use in Asia. 

The organisation and history of IARU are included. It is difficult to make this topic exciting and pictures or diagrams were not available, so it is all done in words. 

The logos of the three IARU Regional organisations are displayed with a separate series of slides for each Region. The Member Societies of Region 3 are listed. In retrospect, this society listing could have been left out. 

The display is in English (only). There was no possibility to develop it in any other language in the time available. The English version seemed to be adequate for the circumstances. Being for use in Hong Kong, English spelling (rather than American spelling) was used (licence/license centre/center). 

It was expected that many visitors to the event would have English as their second language. The changes of text on the display screen was deliberately slowed down to assist slow-readers. In the event, from observation, it could have been speeded-up to a more normal reading speed. 

The content of the slides came from several sources, from NZART promotional material at:

    http://www.nzart.org.nz/nzart/promo/promoting/promoting.html 

and text from a black-and-white print of the ARAC slides developed at Newington. There was a lot of editing needed to make the contents flow and to fit the text to the slide dimensions and to the expected audience. 

Siting the Monitor

As mentioned elsewhere, the IARU stand was in the form of a short "tunnel", two short walls connecting between two pedestrian walkways, The longer sides of the stand, the entrances to the tunnel, were open to the walkways. 

A standard crt computer monitor was loaned by Stephen of HARTS with a laptop computer loaded with the display file as the driver. The crt monitor was positioned to be seen from one walkway with the laptop screen from the other. The stand could be approached from four directions and the positioning was a compromise. An extension cable to allow a little more displacement between the computer driver and the crt monitor would have been useful. 

The laptop's keyboard was not covered. Only one person, a visitor to the stand, tried to play with the keyboard and was asked to desist, and obeyed. This was not an on-going problem as initially expected. 

The laptop was fitted with Windows 95 - a Chinese version! It could run the PowerPoint display (which had been developed in Windows 98 and PowerPoint 2000, English version) but the fonts were not correct. So a PowerPoint viewer was downloaded from the web page. 

This viewer displayed the correct fonts except for the listing of the Member Societies of IARU Region 3. These lists were shown with a form of double-spacing of the characters resulting in some society names over-spilling their screen area. This was a very minor problem and could be tolerated. Consideration was given to try to edit the computer file and to delete the pages which showed this problem. But with only a Chinese version of Windows (and PowerPoint) available, it was thought wiser under the circumstances to leave it alone! 

This software difference was unexpected and is mentioned here to remind others who may develop a file in one country to ensure that the software available in another country will run it as designed. 

Did it work?

Other neighbouring stands had PowerPoint displays. It was possible by observation to compare the reaction of visitors to our IARU display with the performance of the displays at other stalls. One stand, immediately across one walkway from the IARU stand, had a PowerPoint display positioned at the rear of the stand. It drew no attention whatever because of its bad positioning. This display was largely black-and-white and had little appeal. It had been prepared in-house by a secretary in the firm involved using diagrams taken from catalogues. The firm was from Northern Ireland, promoting underground plastic cable ducting and plastic man-hole linings!  

Many stands had similar displays. Most used flat screens. Very few had audio. Having a display of this type gave the IARU stand an edge. It showed that IARU is more that just a collection of photographs and strange hardware. It showed that attention had been given to preparing the stand and to present IARU in a novel way in keeping with other stands. 

The display was successful in causing viewers to stop.  The number of slides viewed were usually about three or four. This gave adequate opportunity for an approach to be made by staff at the IARU stand offering to provide more information. In this way the display was useful and successful. For its cost, it was invaluable and worthwhile, just another way that Amateur Radio and IARU should be promoted. The personal chat is by far the most effective promotion tool that we have. 

The "stop-and-look" time of visitors at displays at other stands, at the stands of firms with infinite resources for the development of their display, seemed to be less than at the IARU stand. At no time was it observed that a "crowd gathered" to view this type of display. 

Questions were asked at the stands of  other exhibitors about the source of their display, the cost of producing it, and the effect they considered that it had. All persons questioned advised that their display had been produced in-house, so the cost was unknown, and they regarded having it as a necessary addition to their total exposure apparatus. Their competitors have such displays! 

Recommendation

It is recommended that a similar display should be used at future events. The positioning of the monitor is important, and consideration should be given to having more than one display monitor. The cost-effectiveness is high with the labour and maintenance requirements at the stand low! 

Enquiries to:  Fred ZL2AMJ      Download Slide-Show     BACK to TELECOM page

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