Derse Exhibits Chicago has received the 2005 Compassionate Employer Recognition from The Compassionate Friends, the nation’s largest self-help bereavement organization.

     The TCF is a national nonprofit self-help organization providing friendship, understanding, and hope to families that have experienced the death of a child of any age, from any cause. Each year, TCF and its nearly 600 chapters honor a number of employers that have shown exceptional caring and compassion when an employee has experienced the death of a child, sibling, or grandchild. This year 31 organizations are being honored throughout the nation. Derse was nominated by employee Emily Cornejo, who lost her son last year in a tragic swimming pool accident.

     “Employers play an important role in the positive resolution of grief and it is gratifying to see these examples in both the public and private sector responding with compassion and understanding,” said TCF Board President Patrick Malone:

     The criteria for Compassionate Employer Recognition include, but are not limited to:

• Corporate policies that reflect a compassionate attitude toward bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents

• Personal support extended by management team toward the bereaved employees following the child’s death

• Caring attitudes demonstrated by employer’s entire workforce

• Flexibility in work assignments and evaluation of job performance during the stress and personal pain associated with the death of a child

• All other acts of compassion that bereaved parents and siblings will forever remember

“As a company, we believe that family always comes first, in good times and in bad,” said Derse Exhibits president Adam Beckett.

A complete list of the 31 recipients of the 2005 Compassionate Employer Recognition is available at www.compassionatefriends.org

     Nimlok, the global single-source solution provider for the tradeshow exhibit industry based in Niles, IL, continues to grow with the recent addition of seven new U.S. Distributors.

     “We are very excited about continuing our expansion as these five companies join the Nimlok network of distributors,” said Nimlok President Simon Perutz. “Our distributors are not simply vendors, they are our core business partners.”

     Nimlok has built its reputation on thinking, “outside the booth, by designing and building creative, award-winning display and tradeshow exhibit solutions,” Perutz noted. “With an emphasis on service and truly listening and understanding client needs, Nimlok is the only full service company to offer a single-source solution providing all support services from design to dismantle under one roof,” he added.

     Nimlok welcomed these distributors to its international network: Exhibitors Service Network, Houston, TX; Advent Marketing Results, Nashville, TN; Tem Compass North, Las Vegas, NV; Exhibita, Phoenix, AZ; Unique Exhibit Solutions, Moore, OK; Hamilton Color Lab, Omaha, NB; and Exhibit Associates, Dallas, TX.

    The new partners join an international network of 200 Nimlok distributors worldwide.

     Derse Exhibits, a full-service face-to-face marketing firm, announces the appointment of Katharine Frederick, Gold Level CTSM, as Director of Research and Measurement. Derse continues to lead the industry with an experiential marketing approach to customer programs by adding this full-time person dedicated to research and measurement. Frederick will work across Derse’s six divisions to help develop and implement results-oriented, experiential exhibit programs.

     Katharine joins Derse with over 20 years of strategic and tactical marketing experience in both B-to-B and B-to-C channels. Katharine’s experience in everything from strategic market and brand planning, to budgeting and lead management is client-side, so she truly understands the perspective of the exhibiting company. She joins the experiential team already in place and will be responsible for working directly with customers, sales, and creative to both establish and examine quantitative data used to successfully guide client’s exhibit marketing programs.

     “Bringing research and measurement in-house was the next piece of the puzzle in transforming us from an exhibit builder to face-to-face marketing experts,” says Adam Beckett, President of Derse, “our goal is to ensure that our clients are getting the best results from their trade show investment.”

Gene Winther of Expon Exhibits was recently presented with a plaque in recognition and appreciation of his service on and outstanding dedication to the Sho-Link, Inc. Board of Directors.