Exhibition stand construction suppliers: Flash of inspiration in the showroom

A case involving Syma illustrates that a modular system does more than just provide structures. A system can also deliver ideas for how to present brands at trade fairs.

It all begins with an idea. Designers provide designs, and exhibition stand construction companies translate them into three dimensions. But modular exhibition stand construction systems also often enable new design ideas to develop. The Swiss company Senn & Widmer AG offers floor and wall coverings. The company was faced with a decision: to stick with the status quo or make a better exhibition stand. And better in this case meant making an exhibition stand that stood out more. When it came to how this would be done, Senn & Widmer’s exhibition stand construction company pointed them in the direction of Syma, a leading vendor of variable modular exhibition stand construction systems. The next question was whether to create a stand using a compact starter set or on the basis of a complete design. The answer was to go bigger. And it came in a flash on a visit to Syma’s showroom in Kirchberg, near Zurich. A two-storey prototype came to the attention of Senn and Widmer. The multi-storey Syma Cubic system made an immediate impression on them with its open architecture. “I saw a starter set on the Syma website. I found that interesting and wanted to see it in real life. So I went to Kirchberg,” recalls Thomas Senn, one of the company’s co-founders. “But then I saw the black Cubic stand in the showroom, and it was like falling in love at first sight.”

The decision was taken on the spot. Since then, Sinn and Widmer have entertained their guests in a lounge on the first floor. Conversations are held with prospective customers in quiet meeting rooms next door. Visitors to the company’s exhibition stand come into contact with its products on the ground floor. Senn & Widmer provide the coverings for the exhibition stand floor. That is the exhibitor’s core business. The idea is to let trade fair visitors really experience what the company has to offer. Visitors to the stand are thus able to examine and touch the seamless floor and wall coverings for shops, kitchens or wet rooms at eye level. The surfaces of the range have been fitted onto walls consisting of Syma System 30 and Syma Molto supports. But let’s return to the long-distance impact, the ability of the stand to attract attention in the first place, which was one of the exhibitor’s aims at the outset: anyone entering the hall sees the free-standing illuminated wall immediately. The secret behind it is the Syma Lightbox, a system for large-scale homogeneously backlit graphical structures. A large part of the rear walls of the stand consist of Syma Molto systems that are clad with printed sailcloth and illuminated.

The stand underwent its first acid test at the Swissbau 2026 construction fair in Basel. It attracted a lot of attention there and provided suitable surroundings for intensive conversations with customers, but it has done the same elsewhere as well: “We have used the stand a number of times within a short space of time and acquired new customers that we wouldn’t have got to know if we hadn’t exhibited at these trade fairs,” explains Thomas Senn. “We will continue to use it, adapt it and add to it.” What the exhibitor also appreciates is that the stand can not only be adapted to fit the space available but also set up and taken down extremely easily. Following an induction by Syma, the exhibitor’s team are gradually learning how to do everything in connection with the stand themselves (www.syma.com).