A few weeks ago, we were contacted by our partner, The Gilman Brothers Company of Gilman, CT., to help them produce 1400 beds for COVID-19 patients in the State of Connecticut. Without hesitation, our answer was "yes," and we quickly mobilized a team to safely work in our warehouse, to cut the pieces that would eventually form the modular beds.
“Our partner, the Gilman Brothers, had the design for the beds, and they reached out to us and asked us to help build them,” said Chris Valentine, CEO, T3 Expo.
Our T3 employees got to work. We created two 12 hour shifts, 10 people at a time, over four days in both our Massachusetts and Nevada locations to quickly produce the pieces that could be assembled. The beds were then set up by the Connecticut National Guard at Western Connecticut University's O'Neill Center to support the overflow of COVID-19 patients from the hospitals.
The Gilman Brothers Company is one of North America’s premier manufacturers of foamboard products for signage, display and graphics. They are a long-time partner of ours as they provide the material for us, and we depend on their foam boards to create event signage, displays, props and other things for many of our trade show shareable moment exhibits. We also use the material to create our Presta™ patented magnetic panel system that allows event installers to snap printed panels onto a 20-foot trade show booth wall in just ten seconds.
“We had to align our equipment, vendors, and supply chain and put everything together so quickly,” added Valentine. “When the events industry came to a halt, we immediately chose to pivot our focus and to work with our partners in order to identify where we could help and utilize or expertise.”
“Throughout our 122 year history, our company has always found ways to utilize our materials to fill a need for those on the front lines. We are very proud of the Gilman legacy and our partners, like T3 Expo, that support our unconventional ideas and help bring them to life for the greater good,” said Ari Luna, business development manager, The Gilman Brothers Company.
T3 has had a decade long partnership with The Gilman Brothers Company and working together was easy, fast and efficient. We knew how to work with the materials used to make the beds, including how to cut it, at what temperature and how to manipulate it.
“In this type of environment we are in, it is important to do what you can and not what you think should happen. We don’t have the ability to create a vaccine, but our expertise has value – especially to any COVID-19 patient who might be laying in that bed,” added Valentine.