Trade shows and golf tournaments continue to push the demand for temporary signage.

The debacle of AIG appearing to use bailout money to treat executives to a luxurious retreat has had wide-reaching repercussions in the hospitality industry with corporations across the nation hesitating to appear wasteful by holding their annual special events for employees and stockholders. Of course, this means that they won’t be ordering any signs, either.

Fortunately, most charitable organizations do not feel so constrained, and golf courses and gaming casinos appear to be putting on the Ritz without reservation. The entertainment industry also is going strong with orders for props, backdrops and red carpet events continuing unabated. At least that is the impression received from several companies that provide signage for a variety of special events all over the country.

I spoke to Howard Volin of Graphic Impact, Brian Thompson of Express Signs, Max Hoyt of Pixus Digital Printing, Evan Swartz of Sign Expo and Stacy Mast of Sellner Sign Factory, and they reported some similarities and several differences between their customer bases and the focuses of their businesses.

Many claimed golf tournaments among their most regular customers, with Mast expressing enthusiasm over the creativity allowed in designing hole sponsor signs to fit their themed events. Nonprofit and charitable events seem to be running a close second, and, as Volin explains, it doesn’t matter how inexpensive the signs are. With full-color graphics printed on banners or foam board, a small nonprofit can look as big as the American Cancer Society.

He goes on to say that, by offering discounted or even donated signs to such organizations, Graphic Impact’s reputation is spread to all of the members of the board of directors and their associates, many of whom own businesses, and he has seen the referrals bring in highly profitable jobs and satisfied long-term customers.

Golf courses are a good place to use corrugated plastic, but for other events a higher-quality product may be needed.

Hoyt is happy to provide the Louisiana gaming industry with signs for their sponsored events, including ice shows, rodeos, golf tournaments, picnics and family days. Pixus is sometimes called upon to erect large temporary structures to display the graphics for such outdoor events, and he cautions that personal safety is of utmost importance.

This is not often an issue for Sign Expo in New York City, where much of its event business involves backdrops and temporary wall or floor graphics for TV or film production companies. It has converted a banquet hall into a soccer stadium, complete with walls of printed fans holding up signs, and wrapped a tram for a Fear Factor bungee jump.

Though the temporary nature of event signs would seem to offer an opportunity to use “green” materials, the higher cost makes them less attractive for the event market. The profit margin is sometimes pretty slim, especially when the event is a fundraiser, and lower overhead means a greater return for the charity. For the most part, however, event coordinators understand that quality signs are worth paying for, even when they will only be used for a few days or a few hours.

Thompson asserts that the golf tournaments are the only ones that consider corrugated plastic an acceptable material for their signs; most of the charitable and corporate sales training events want their digital prints, charts and graphs mounted on smoother surfaces, such as foam board. Clients of Express Signs also typically order new signs each year, rather than changing a date on an existing banner. Some signs have removable panels that allow the background graphic to remain the same from year to year, but, as Max Hoyt explains, signs often get lost or damaged in storage and end up being remade, despite the attempt to plan ahead.

Across the board, every company reports that individual events, such as birthdays, bar mitzvahs and weddings, are a small to nonexistent part of their business with inquiries trickling in and usually amounting to nothing once they understand the expense involved. Only Sign Expo reports that families appear willing to spend some coin to make their child’s party the best in the borough. Most companies assume that the business goes to do-it-yourself printers, such as Kinko’s, and they are happy that they are there to serve that market.

Overall, it appears there still are opportunities to provide high-quality temporary signs for a variety of events, even though the big corporate retreats may be delayed for a year or two. By offering great customer service at a reasonable price, the rest of 2009 may still be an eventful year.