'The Tackifier' Blog by FindTape

If you are a millennial or have a millennial living in your home, you are no doubt aware that teens are using their creative talents to ask the most important question in spring..."Want to go to prom?" Gone are the days of simple hallway conversations between classes and passed notes from your best friends. Our kids are finding more and more innovative ways to entice each other to prom. The good news is that Duck Brand, marketed by ShurTech Brands LLC, celebrated this new trend by awarding three winners $1,000 for their promposals!

Stuck-at-Prom Duct Tape Promposal

Duck brand invited students to use the vibrant assortment of Duck Tape® colors, designs and crafting tapes – as well as its original silver – to create their fun and unique promposal, and then share their stories on social media for a chance to win one of three $1,000 prizes to help offset the costs of prom. High school students posted a photo entry via Twitter or Instragram using hashtags #DuckTapePromposal and #Sweepstakes, Winners were chosen at random and just announced.

FindTape.com offers over 35 unique Duck Brand duct tapes for all of your most colorful and special projects. Low prices, fast delivery and easy shopping. Good luck...and we hope they say YES!

ATG dispensers are popular among scrapbookers, crafters, photographers, and event producers. They make it easy to apply pressure-sensitive adhesive tape known as ATG tape. This tape comes unsupported by a backing or carrier (like cloth, film, or paper), and is pre-applied to a special release liner. It is reverse wound, with the release liner being located on the underside when you unwind it from the roll. If you were to apply this tape manually to your project, it could be very messy. An ATG dispenser makes it clean and simple to apply.

But there are four primary ATG dispensers to choose from. With several varieties of ATG refill rolls available, it can be confusing at first to determine which type fits in your ATG gun.

The key is in the design of the plastic core of the ATG refill roll. Some cores have wider openings than others. In the video below, I’ll show you the difference between the ATG refill rolls and explain how to match your ATG dispenser to the right ATG refill tape.

For greater detail, our handy matrix will help you determine which ATG refill tape best fits your ATG dispenser.

Easter is just a few short weeks away, and church production managers and media ministry are well underway with planning some of the year's biggest productions and events.

Churches with memberships of several thousand or more already put together events of significant size. But holidays like Easter and Christmas put big demands on their creative and production teams. The holidays draw far more attendees than regular weekly services, requiring most houses of worship to hold additional services on Saturday to accommodate the larger crowds.

But it's not just the crowds that are bigger. Easter services are usually more elaborate productions as well.

Liquid Church, a contemporary Christian church in Mountainside, NJ, aims to put on a bigger, more elaborate show for Easter, along with adding Saturday services. The ministry is a multi-site church with 3,500 attendees across all sites each week. With three portable locations and one permanent in Mountainside, the church sets up three stages every week.

Technical Director Joel Freeman, who oversees all the audio/visual systems and gear, says they'll bring in a lot more lighting for the weekend Easter services. And because the productions are more elaborate, they'll require bigger props.

At Easter, as he does throughout the year, Freeman will work with members of the creative team to understand what they need to put together the production and whether a new staging or video element is required.

His biggest challenge is time and complexity, something that is more challenging at Easter. "We want to do the best show we possibly can," he says.

That's especially challenging at Easter - a time to focus on families. That means fewer volunteers than usual, and Freeman needs to lean more on regular staff to get sets, lighting, and props in place in a short amount of time - and on multiple stages.

With about three hours to get ready for each production, set up needs to go smoothly and quickly. At Easter, the ramped up complexity includes more doorways to cross and more lines to prep. Freeman uses Scapa 425 gaffers tape in 2- and 3-inch widths to hold down wires, trussing, and cables, and to hold carpets together so that no seams are showing. His teams use it to mark off the stage for props and performers, as well as to hold back drapes.

Scapa 425 is one of the most adhesive gaffers tapes we sell. It adheres longer and more securely than other gaffer tapes, and also has high tack, high tensile strength, and an easy unwind. It has an extremely low gloss finish which causes it to reflect the least amount of light. This makes it a good choice for stage production.

Every Easter production is slightly different, although all are likely to require lighting, audio, and video. The choice of tape will vary depending upon the type of set up and individual preferences. Here are a few tips and suggestions for helping your Easter service run smoothly by choosing the right tape for your needs.

Start planning early

A great way to begin is to ask what worked and what didn't in your last production, according to Shaun Miller in Church Production Magazine. This applies to the type of pressure-sensitive adhesive tape you used. Did you have enough for what you needed? Did you have the right type of tape for each job?

For example, a gaffers tape like Pro Tapes Pro-Gaff Gaffers Tape is ideal for holding down wires and carpet, removes cleanly from most surfaces, and is available in a wide array of colors. Because it's very dependable, it’s used throughout the entertainment industry and is a good choice for large productions.

Map Your Lighting

Creating a visual for your stage production will help you better understand the types of lighting supplies and materials you'll need.

"If you are doing a dramatic production that will have different lighting requirements from a normal service, consider working up a lighting plot. A lighting plot is a drawing of your stage area along with each light and its location," suggests Mike Sessler at ChurchTechArts.org.

Setting the Stage

Keeping performers safe as they move on and off the stage is a priority. Shurtape P-661 Glow-In-The-Dark Gaffers Tape can be used to mark stairs and exits. It's hand tearable, so it's easy to use and quick to apply. An added benefit is that is photoluminescent after the tape is activated by an artificial or natural light source.

Plan Your Media Production

Video producers will also map out their camera angles and shots ahead of time. Once you've created your shot list, you can work out the path of wires and have a better understanding of what needs to be marked and what needs to be invisible. Commonly referred to as AV cord tape, JVCC J90 Low-Gloss Duct Tape is a good economical choice.

Budgeting For Your Needs

Once you've settled on the type of tape needed for your production, you can visit FindTape.com to order the right sizes and amounts. If you need help, contact us at questions@findtape.com, and we'll work with you to place your order.

GES Trend Tracker

Each year, GES, the global event marketing company, releases its Trend Tracker white paper, identifying 50 emerging trends in the trade show and event industry. The 2015 report was released in January, and it covers four areas: budgeting and planning, marketing, technology, and design.

This year, the report noted one very big overarching trend: Brand Experiences. Marketers are aiming to connect and engage attendees with their brands and with each other. As a result, GES says, "marketers will go 'all in' on experiential with bolder budgets, bolder strategies and bolder experiences that tie together creative, execution and data analysis."

High-tech, including gamification, drones, and next generation audio/visual, will also be front and center during 2015. In a post-report follow-up blog post, Paul Wedesky, the senior vice president of Audio Visual Services for GES, describes several additional audio visual trends for 2015.

Here are a few of our favorite insights both from the report and from Paul's post.

A Moveable Exhibit

Exhibit booths are being designed both to incorporate technology and to be re-purposed. According to GES, designers are being challenged by clients to create experiences that can be taken on the road after the event, to be used by the sales team. This includes not only product display elements such as digital catalogs, but also exhibit booths.

Helping your salesperson recreate this experience on the road is a lot easier if you have the right adhesive tape to tamp down wires and secure media equipment. We recommend packing a roll or two of JVCC GAFF30YD Gaffers Tape, an economical and popular general-purpose gaffer tape, along with the booth.

Open Floor Plans With More Media

With clients looking to create more inviting spaces, exhibit structures are becoming more open. At the same time, they're demanding interactive features, including more LED displays, touchscreens and tablets.

To keep wires under control and out of the way, but also have flexibility of movement, you can use JVCC Wire-Line Cable Cover Tape. The adhesive-free zone in the center of the tape allows for cable and wire to be easily pulled through, and no residue will be left behind on your cables.

An Artist's Space

More marketers are forging partnerships with artists, incorporating more creative and cultural elements into their events. For example, GES noted that "TD Bank commissioned artists to turn its storefronts into mini art galleries."

In case you're wondering, you can create some amazing artwork with adhesive tape. Check out some examples HERE. And to see a list of tapes used in the examples click HERE.

3D & 4K Monitors

More high-tech monitors are reaching the trade show floor in 2015, according to Paul Wedesky. He has noticed 3D and 4K monitors being using at medical and pharmaceutical trade shows to enhance the brand experience, and he believes that 3D eventually will become the norm.

For protecting and anchoring the monitors' electrical wires, we recommend Polyken 510 Premium Grade Gaffers Tape, which has a softer adhesive than most other gaffers tapes so it adheres better to carpets.

Projection Mapping

Another trend in audio visual Wedesky has noticed is an increase in projection mapping, in which special software is used to spatially map a design or scene onto an object, such as a building. The design usually fits the shape of the object.

When constructing your object, an ultra-high bond tape will help keep your structure together and stable. The 3M 4941 VHB Tape is a good multipurpose option, as it's ideal for use in many interior and exterior structural bonding applications. It's strong enough to replace rivets.

Low-Res Prototyping

As a way to test ideas and manage budget more effectively, event planners are creating prototypes of their space. "It allows decision makers to visualize the concept, and for changes to be made quickly without impacting the budget," GES says.

A good all-purpose duct tape will work for temporary structures. We recommend Polyken 2280 General-Purpose Duct Tape, which is often used for bonding and holding applications and bonds well to a wide variety of smooth and rough surfaces. It's easy to unwind and tear, so it's perfect for manual applications. The tape is also available in a variety of colors.

Electronic Brochure Kiosks

Printed product brochures have long fallen out of favor, but show attendees are still interested in receiving more information. Kiosks designed to deliver electronic brochures can be incorporated into the exhibit or as a standalone. Attendees can download only the material they want.

Robotics Technology

Creating and deploying a robotic attendee, as EventMobi did at IMEX, might be on every event planner's list now. If you plan to have your robotic ambassador travel the show floor, you can create a suspension system using double-sided sticky tape. By attaching the wheel servos using double-sided sticky tape such as Scapa S301, all four wheels will remain even on an uneven plane.

Finally, when you're packing up your exhibit, be sure to have plenty of Shurtape HP 500 on hand to seal your boxes. This tape is ideal for sealing cartons, and is recommended for overstuffed or underfilled boxes. It's perfect for trade shows, when you're likely to be re-packing older cartons or taping up bulky or odd-shaped materials.

Gaffers tape, which is also referred to as gaffer tape, is a form of adhesive tape that has numerous uses. Gaffers tape can be purchased in rolls that come in varying lengths as well as widths. The traditional color of this tape is a matte black but you can find them in several other colors such as blue, white, burgundy, gray, fluorescent pink and so on.

Gaffers tape is quite similar to duct tape in the sense that it can be useful in an array of applications. However, unlike duct tape, this tape will not leave any adhesive residue when it is peeled off a surface plus it offers a matte finish.

So, what are some of the numerous uses of gaffers tape?

Mark Positions
A common use for gaffers tape is in positional marking. It is commonly used in the theater industry to mark positions on the surface of the floor that will indicate where props are supposed to go. It is often used in the theater and TV industries to mark actors' starting positions. What’s great about this tape is its durability. It won’t easily wear down due to foot traffic. In addition to marking starting positions, it can also be used to coordinate props since it comes in a wide variety of colors.

Manage Cables
Production studios, and convention halls also use gaffers tape to manage cables. Many cables in one area can prove to be a hazard as people could easily trip over them and have a nasty fall. With this tape the cables can be firmly affixed to the floor thus lowering the chances of any accidents happening. And when it is time to remove the cables and wires the tape will not leave them sticky like a duct tape would.

Bus Seat Repairs
Since this adhesive tape is a vinyl-coated cloth product it pairs nicely when covering tears and rips in vinyl seating like on buses. It comes in wide widths like 3 and 4 inches wide and in colors such as burgundy and dark green which works great for matching common bus seat colors and making repairs.

Book Binding
Gaffers tape is also widely used when binding books since its matte appearance is preferable to the shinny look you would get back with a duct tape. Its cloth backing also makes it very conformable so as to wrap nicely around a book binding. Typically a high tensile strength gaffers with good adhesion is used for book binding applications such as Shurtape Professional Grade (P-672) gaff.

Other Uses
Gaffer tape is not only used for positional marking in the theater industry, it can be used in plenty of other places. For example, it can be used to mark a hazard area, an incline, flights of stairs, and so on. FindTape.com sells gaffers tape in all its varieties.

We've seen over the last several years incredibly creative work done with tape purchased from our web site. From hula hoops to art installations to window displays customers have used our tape in a myriad of ways. We just saw a new window display one recently posted online so we thought we'd showcase a few of these now.

Monika Grzymala's Distortions 2008 art installation in Vancouver, BC

POST 27 window display in Chicago, IL

Martha Stewart gift wrapping in Blueprint November/December 2007

Martha Stewart halloween decoration in Martha Stewart Living October 2008