Welcome to our behind-the-scenes look at Shepard’s booth at IMEX 2025! If you’re short on time, here’s what made our booth special this year:
IMEX America 2025: the perfect stage to showcase integrated, modular booth design
IMEX America is where event professionals gather to see what’s new, what’s next, and who is truly on top of their game in the exhibit design space.
Having such a strong Las Vegas branch presence and personal connection to the city—Shepard was named the LVHA’s Organization of the Year in 2024 in recognition of our philanthropic efforts—felt like having home field advantage. And with so many of our industry peers in attendance, we knew we had to bring our A-game.
Our booth combined 5 signature elements: 1) expertly fitted beMatrix and LEDskin modular components, 2) brand-new LED threshold lighting from Belgium, 3) backlit logos built by hand in our Las Vegas workshop, 4) a space designed for comfort and engagement, and 5) activations that brought a touch of hospitality and warmth.
What made this booth a success, though, wasn’t any single element. It was how it all came together, a result of close collaboration between our exhibits, audio-visual, event services, marketing, and operations teams.
In this article, we explore how our integrated approach to exhibit design works, and how our clients benefit from that high degree of integration. But first, let’s dive right into the star of the show: modular exhibit design.
Going all in on beMatrix and modular booth design
This year our IMEX booth was constructed almost entirely out of beMatrix modular components.
If you’re not familiar with modular exhibit design or beMatrix, a leader in the modular booth design space, we like to describe them as trade show Legos. They’re building blocks that can be mixed and matched, reconfigured, and, importantly, easily shipped from site to site.
When modular design is executed well, it shouldn’t announce itself; it should simply look cohesive and modern. When done really well (see below!), you get flexibility without having to compromise on aesthetics.
A great thing about beMatrix is that you can rest assured that your design is going to take shape as intended, closing the gap between rendering and implementation.
The ability to reconfigure components for future shows is another advantage to going modular. For the next show, we won’t have to start from scratch; we have a template we can build from, making it both cost-effective and more sustainable. If we want a bigger booth size or our placement on the show floor changes, we can easily extend components and shift them around. And we know that the components will fit together with precision and look great, thanks to our in-house beMatrix expertise.
Speaking of which, our beMatrix specialist, Travis Lynch, played a big role in the success of this booth. Lynch joined Shepard from beMatrix in 2023 and has already elevated our exhibit design capabilities. We’ll be exploring Lynch’s approach in greater depth for an upcoming article, so be sure to check back and subscribe to our newsletter if you haven’t already, for updates.
Flexing our AV capabilities with LED tiles and the U.S. debut of brand new European threshold lighting
beMatrix + LEDskin for LED integration
LED integration has long been part of our booth design playbook, but IMEX 2025 marked a turning point. Instead of outsourcing, we showcased our own AV team’s growing capabilities with newly acquired LED tiles. Our LEDskin tiles are also engineered by beMatrix and designed to lock seamlessly into place with other beMatrix frames.
The double-sided LEDskin displays attached to beMatrix aluminum frames drew attention from multiple angles, highlighting our services, partner brands, and recent projects–effectively turning the booth into a dynamic portfolio.
U.S. debut of new threshold lighting from Belgium
Visitors might not have taken explicit notice of the light-saber-bright threshold lights framing the archway and drawing them toward the booth’s symbolic entrance, but the lighting certainly enhanced the vibe. That lighting system was developed not in a distant galaxy, but in Belgium. And it turns out Shepard was the first exhibitor in the U.S. to use them in a trade show!
LED lighting is typically associated with cooler tones, but LED lights can actually be set to any color tone you desire, including the full range of warm tones. For our purposes, we wanted the LED lights to add clean bright white tones, to complement the palette of creams, grays, blues, blond wood and chrome faux finishes.
Custom-built flourishes, fabricated in our Las Vegas workshop with Las Vegas talent
While we embraced modular design throughout, two elements required a bespoke touch.
Above the archway and under the front counter / coffee bar we installed two variations of the Shepard logo, backlit to make them pop in three-dimensional relief. These components were hand-fabricated entirely in-house at our Las Vegas branch.
While the full logo projected the Shepard brand across the show floor, the smaller diamond logo under the coffee bar made a different appeal. Set against a blond wood finish, it drew attention to the gleaming chrome espresso machine we had on site, an activation designed to draw folks in with the promise of a delicious, high quality coffee drink and a good conversation.
Designing for comfort and engagement
The most visually striking booth falls flat if visitors don’t want to linger. With that experiential design tenet in mind, we sought to create a welcoming space that appealed to the senses.
We incorporated a dedicated soft seating area framed by greenery, which was designed to encourage more relaxed conversation. That coffee bar we mentioned, along with a fresh cookie bar, served as natural conversation starters and gave visitors reasons to linger.
And it worked. Visitors appreciated the hospitality, often settling in for substantive conversations. In an industry where we often find ourselves rushing from engagement to engaging, cultivating a space that invited people to pause felt like a small triumph.
One other neat thing worth noting: hidden storage between the walls maintained clear sightlines and cut out needless clutter, keeping the space open and flowing enough for more brief standing conversations, which were also encouraged.
Reusability is key to exhibiting sustainably
The front counter with the diamond logo in the photo above is now in its fourth year of service across multiple shows. That’s impressive longevity in an industry where materials often suffer in the post-show tumult and can end up consigned to the landfill. And it speaks to our commitment to minimizing waste and maximizing lifecycle.
All told, our booth embodied sustainable exhibition practices in these areas:
- Modular design allowing for multiple reconfigurations vs. single-use builds
- Reusable front counter components in 4th year of continuous use
- Hydration station with reusable water bottles provided
- Local Las Vegas fabrication of custom components reduced shipping miles
Integrated services and collaborative design process
Finally, we mentioned at the outset that what made this booth a great success wasn’t any single element, but rather how it all fit together. We’re not just talking about the physical integration of modular components. We’re talking about how our exhibits, event services, audio-visual services, marketing, and operations teams collaborated closely from the earliest conceptual stage through final implementation to design the experience and bring it to life at IMEX 2025.
When it comes to experience design, technology matters, sure. And craftsmanship matters, too. But the level of sophistication on display here would not have been possible without having our teams fully integrated.
Integration means our exhibits specialists are working hand in glove with our audio-visual technicians at the design stage and on-site. It means the creative vision developed by marketing, exhibits, and event services gets refined in conversation with the sales team who will be there to welcome visitors into the space. And it means the operations team makes sure everything arrives on time and is efficiently executed.
This integrated approach is what our exhibitor clients experience when they work with Shepard—not handoffs between departments, but everyone at the table from day one. The result: a perfect marriage of form and function.
Final thoughts
We had a lot of fun designing a welcoming booth space that served as both meeting place and showcase. We introduced new technology and pushed the boundaries of modular booth design. And we had a great time connecting with colleagues and industry peers. It was great to see you all in Vegas. Hope to see you again in 2026!
Interested in exploring what we can create together? Get in touch with our Exhibits team today.
Sources & further reading
Brewing up connections through experiential design at Expo! Expo! – a look at our coffee bar activation at Expo! Expo!
Sustainable events with Shepard and Honeycomb Strategies – a deep-dive into sustainable event planning with our partner compay, Honeycomb Strategies
Shepard Audio-Visual & Production Services – an overview of our AV capacities and past work
Our Exhibits Collection – more modular booth design ideas here!
Shepard’s Booth at IMEX America 2024 – a case study
Shepard Named LVHA’s Organization of the Year – mentioned in the article
