Case Study
Afresh
Bringing fresh thinking to the produce aisle — and to Groceryshop 2024
Pure Exhibits designed and built Afresh’s custom 20×30 ft island exhibit at Groceryshop 2024 — in the Aisle A 400s/500s area of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, October 7–9, 2024 — creating a multi-zone environment that translated the AI-powered Fresh Operating System™ into a physical experience grocery buyers could feel, touch, and trust. The booth featured a striking dual-green color system (bright lime for structural elements, deep forest green for data panels), two monumental data storytelling columns layered with produce photography, customer testimonials, and ROI metrics, a warm wood slat hospitality lounge with white upholstered seating, a glowing LED beacon cube visible from 50+ feet across the show floor, a semi-private meeting room with frosted glass panels, and interactive demo kiosks — all unified by Afresh’s fresh green palette and natural material language. Positioned among 500+ exhibitors including Algolia, SymphonyAI, Fetch, ibotta, Upside, Aperion by Hussmann, and Phononic, Afresh’s booth delivered the Fresh Operating System™ message to 5,000+ grocery industry professionals.
The Challenge
Make AI Feel Like Fresh Produce
Groceryshop 2024 brought 5,000+ grocery industry professionals to Mandalay Bay for three days of immersion in the technologies reshaping how America shops for food. For Afresh — the AI-powered fresh food technology company whose Fresh Operating System™ helps grocery retailers reduce waste, optimize inventory, and improve profitability through intelligent demand forecasting — the 20×30 ft island booth needed to accomplish something that most enterprise AI companies struggle with at trade shows: making abstract technology feel tangible, human, and connected to the physical world of fresh produce.
The competitive landscape was formidable. Among 500+ exhibitors, Afresh shared floor space with Algolia (AI Search), SymphonyAI, Fetch, ibotta, Upside, Aperion by Hussmann, Phononic, and Upshop — companies with massive budgets and established retail relationships. Pure Exhibits had previously designed grocery-tech and retail-adjacent booths that navigated similar challenges — including SpyCloud’s MRC Las Vegas booth — but Afresh’s brief demanded something specific: a booth that could communicate AI and algorithms to grocery buyers who think in cases of avocados, not neural networks, while simultaneously hosting private executive meetings with major retail chains like Albertsons, WinCo Foods, and Raley’s.
“AI-powered ordering for your entire fresh business.”
— Afresh Fresh Operating System™
The Creative Journey
From Algorithm to Avocado
Dual-Green Brand System
The single most distinctive visual decision in the booth — and the detail that made Afresh immediately identifiable from any aisle approach — was the precise two-green palette deployed across every surface. Bright lime green for the structural frame, columns, and edges conveyed freshness, nature, and energy; deep forest green for data panel backgrounds and logo badges conveyed trust, authority, and tech precision. In a convention hall where most AI companies default to safe blues and neutral grays, Afresh’s bold green commitment was a deliberate act of visual subversion: the colors of the produce aisle, not the server room. Together with white surfaces and warm natural wood, the dual-green system reads as both tech-forward and organically connected to the grocery world — communicating that Afresh’s technology lives where the food is.
Data Storytelling Columns
Two monumental freestanding columns served as data storytelling surfaces that made Afresh’s value proposition impossible to ignore — even for attendees walking past at speed. Each face carried a layered narrative: vivid produce photography of blueberries, asparagus, oranges, and citrus; customer testimonial quotes in large type (including the Albertsons SVP’s endorsement); ROI metric tiles (+3% Sales Increase, 25% Shrink Reduction, +20% Less Waste); and a customer logo bar featuring Albertsons, WinCo Foods, Raley’s, and Thrive Market. The columns functioned as self-contained storytelling engines — a passing attendee could absorb the complete value proposition from any angle without stopping, while a longer look revealed deeper layers of proof points and social validation.
Wood Slat Hospitality Zone
A warm honey-toned vertical wood slat partition created a visual threshold between the open booth and a dedicated hospitality lounge — and the material choice was as intentional as any piece of technology on display. In a convention environment dominated by laminate, aluminum, and printed PVC, real wood communicates something different: warmth, permanence, and human craftsmanship. Behind the partition, white upholstered lounge chairs, a patterned area rug, and a low coffee table created a boutique-hotel atmosphere for private conversations. This wasn’t decoration; it was architecture in service of sales. The 25+ private executive meetings with decision-makers from major grocery chains proved that creating a comfortable, human space within a trade show booth converts attention into pipeline more reliably than any demo station.
Glowing LED Beacon Cube
A freestanding illuminated lightbox cube at the booth entrance emitted vivid lime-green light with the Afresh pinwheel logo in white — visible from 50+ feet across the show floor. In the dimly lit Mandalay Bay convention hall, it functioned as a navigational beacon that drew foot traffic from every surrounding aisle. The cube’s design was deliberately simple: a single glowing form, one color, one logo. Among 500+ exhibitors competing for attention with screens, banners, and flashy graphics, the beacon cube’s quiet intensity stood out precisely because it didn’t try to say everything at once. Attendees walking toward the Afresh booth reported seeing the green glow before they could read any text — proof that in trade show design, sometimes the most effective communication tool is the one that says the least.
Produce as Design Language
Rather than abstract tech visuals, flowcharts, or dashboard screenshots, the booth used beautiful, vivid photography of blueberries, asparagus, oranges, tomatoes, and citrus as its primary visual vocabulary. Every panel anchored the AI platform in the physical world of grocery — reminding buyers exactly what industry Afresh serves and exactly what they’re protecting from waste. The produce imagery served a dual function: it communicated Afresh’s domain expertise to grocery professionals (who immediately recognized the visual language of their own world), and it created an emotional connection that abstract technology graphics never achieve. When a category manager sees a stunning photograph of fresh blueberries next to “+3% Sales Increase,” the value proposition becomes visceral — not theoretical.
Semi-Private Meeting Room
A glass-enclosed meeting space with frosted translucent panels and green horizontal stripe accents provided confidential demo capability for enterprise-level conversations. Architecturally integrated into the booth’s back section, it enabled Afresh to host private meetings with decision-makers from major grocery chains without leaving the show floor. The frosted glass struck a precise balance: enough transparency to maintain visual connection with the active booth beyond (signaling energy and credibility), enough opacity to provide the privacy that enterprise sales conversations require. Combined with the hospitality lounge, the meeting room gave Afresh two distinct private engagement modes — one for relaxed relationship-building, one for focused business discussions — both operating simultaneously.
The front view of Afresh’s 20×30 ft island booth — showing the signature warm wood slat partition leading to the hospitality lounge, the dual-green color system with lime structural elements and forest green data panels, produce photography throughout, and the complete booth architecture at Groceryshop 2024.
The Message
Fresh Operating System™
“AI-powered ordering for your entire fresh business, including ingredients, bulk, and random weight” — the promise that turned Afresh’s 20×30 ft island into the most compelling fresh food technology story at Groceryshop 2024.
Sales increase with Afresh’s platform
Afresh’s booth messaging hierarchy moved attendees from brand awareness to product understanding in three steps: the emotional hook (vivid produce photography that grounded AI in the physical world of grocery), the performance proof points (+3% Sales Increase, 25% Shrink Reduction, +20% Less Waste, 97% Order Adherence), and the social validation (customer testimonials from Albertsons, WinCo Foods, Raley’s, and Thrive Market). The data storytelling columns amplified this narrative from every angle, ensuring even passing foot traffic absorbed the complete value proposition.
“The solution is able to work with imperfect data, and it’s really geared toward having the right data to make the best decision.” — SVP and GM, Albertsons Companies
“Afresh has been a game changer.” — Thrive Market
“25% Shrink Reduction — +20% Less Waste — 97% Order Adherence”
“AI-powered ordering for your entire fresh business, including ingredients, bulk, and random weight”
“Trusted by Albertsons, WinCo Foods, Raley’s, and Thrive Market”
Gallery
The Booth in Detail
Front entrance view — dual structural columns with data storytelling panels, ceiling-suspended Afresh sign, and the glowing LED beacon cube
Data-driven columns — Albertsons SVP testimonial, ROI metrics (+3% Sales, 25% Shrink Reduction), and vivid produce photography
Exterior social proof wall — customer logos (Albertsons, WinCo Foods, Raley’s) and the frosted-glass meeting room visible behind
Hospitality lounge — warm wood slat partition, white lounge chairs, and patterned area rug creating a boutique-hotel atmosphere
Full-width frontal view — product positioning panel and the complete booth architecture with three lime-green structural columns
Wide-angle view — glowing LED beacon cube, interactive demo kiosks, and the booth’s commanding presence on the show floor
Booth Walkthrough
Experience the Booth
A full walkthrough of the Afresh 20×30 ft custom island exhibit at Groceryshop 2024 — showcasing the dual-green color system, data storytelling columns with produce photography and ROI metrics, the warm wood slat hospitality lounge, the glowing LED beacon cube, interactive demo kiosks, the semi-private meeting room with frosted glass panels, and the complete scope of Afresh’s presence at Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas.
Impact & Results
By the Numbers
From AI Algorithms to the Produce Aisle. A Fresh Approach to Trade Show Design.
Groceryshop 2024 brought 5,000+ grocery industry professionals to Mandalay Bay for three days of immersion in the technologies reshaping how America buys, sells, and manages fresh food. Among 500+ exhibitors competing for the attention of retail executives, supply chain leaders, and category managers, Afresh’s 20×30 ft island booth needed to cut through a show floor packed with AI promises and make the case that their Fresh Operating System™ wasn’t just another dashboard — it was the platform that Albertsons, WinCo Foods, Raley’s, and Thrive Market already trust to manage their entire fresh supply chain.
The design strategy centered on a single insight: grocery buyers don’t trust abstractions. They trust blueberries, shrink numbers, and the SVP at Albertsons who says the system works. Every surface of the booth was engineered to deliver that trust at different scales — the glowing LED beacon cube drew attention from 50+ feet, the data storytelling columns communicated ROI (+3% Sales Increase, 25% Shrink Reduction, +20% Less Waste) at 15 feet, the customer testimonial quotes from Albertsons and Thrive Market provided social proof at arm’s length, and the interactive demo kiosks let prospects experience the platform hands-on. The wood slat hospitality zone and semi-private meeting room provided the warm, human spaces where exploratory interest became genuine pipeline. Pure Exhibits had explored multi-zone engagement strategies in other retail and technology builds, including SpyCloud’s island at Black Hat 2025, Appdome’s Black Hat 2025 booth, Radware’s RSA 2025 booth, and Teramind’s RSA 2025 booth — but Afresh’s approach was distinctive in using produce photography as a design language and warm natural materials to make an AI platform feel tangible, trustworthy, and connected to the grocery aisle.
The functional results exceeded expectations. Over three show days, the booth welcomed 500+ visitors and generated 150+ qualified leads through interactive platform demonstrations. The wood slat hospitality zone hosted 25+ private executive meetings with decision-makers from major grocery chains. Setup was completed within an 8-hour window — on time and on budget — with graphics and branded elements delivered the day before the show. The booth’s dual-zone design proved its worth: the open demo area served high-volume quick engagement while the private lounge served deep-dive sales conversations, and both zones operated simultaneously without interference.
“From the moment we began collaborating with the design team, we knew we were in expert hands. The final booth perfectly balanced Afresh’s tech-forward innovation with our commitment to sustainability. It not only drew attention but genuinely sparked meaningful conversations with decision-makers.”
— Aria Jelinek, Director of Product Marketing, Afresh
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Pure Exhibits designs and builds custom trade show exhibits for grocery technology companies, retail brands, and enterprise organizations nationwide. From 10×10 inline booths to 30×60 island exhibits — we handle everything from concept to breakdown.