The average trade show attendee produces 61 pounds of solid waste at a three-day conference, compared to 13.5 pounds of waste generated during a three-day period at home, according to a 2008 white paper authored by green meeting consultants at MeetGreen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. At the International Sign Expo (ISE) in April, attendees produced less waste and avoided lugging heavy tote bags of trade show paraphernalia by using the Virtual Totebag, a new product from BDMetrics that allows attendees to take it all home — digitally.

Attendees can store speaker presentations, exhibitor brochures, sell sheets, business cards and other materials in the Virtual Totebag, says Mollie Spilman, CEO of BDMetrics. Exhibitors and speakers assign mobile codes to any materials or signage, and attendees simply request, receive, store and share session content and exhibitor materials via their mobile devices. Each item is tagged with a short code, such as 1234, which attendees send via text message to the designated show number. The requested materials are then stored online at virtualtotebag. com in the attendee’s personal online “tote bag,” which can hold up to 10 MB of content.

“The Virtual Totebag lightens the load as attendees walk the exhibit hall; it drives leads and lowers costs for exhibitors; and it reduces trade show waste for a more eco-friendly event,” says Lori Anderson, President and CEO of the International Sign Association. “In today’s environment, green solutions like the Virtual Totebag are essential to the future of our industry and our planet.”

“For attendees, the Virtual Totebag ensures a more convenient and productive event experience by reducing the burden of brochure-heavy tote bags,” Spilman says. “For exhibitors, it decreases the costs of printing and shipping materials to the show and increasing leads by collecting the contact information of attendees requesting materials. For event organizers, this initiative not only delivers superior value to their attendees and exhibitors, it also reduces the amount of waste produced by their show.”

In addition to launching at ISE in April, the Virtual Totebag also underwent a beta launch at the National Association of Broadcasters Show the same month.