To showcase its game-changing radiotherapy machine at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2018 annual meeting, RefleXion Medical Inc. employed two outsized wave-like design elements to first arrest attendees' eyes, then seize their imaginations. Assisted by Czarnowski Display Service Inc., RefleXion placed a lightweight replica of its 6-ton wonder in the center of the 30-by-50-foot exhibit. Meanwhile, the wood-frame floor on both sides of the booth seemed to surge upward to form symmetrical, stylized waves.

Measuring 10-by-20 feet, the curvaceous constructs were meant to suggest the major impact the device would have on battling cancer, similar to the consequence the actual 12,000-pound machine would have on the carpeted floor had it been dropped from above.

Attendees were greeted by staffers who qualified and then escorted them to either of two kiosks with touchscreens running a two-minute animated video highlighting the company's novel approach to radiotherapy and how the machine can uniquely "see" exactly where healthy tissue rests and cancerous tissue lurks. It then zaps the malignant material, leaving the undamaged flesh intact.

After visitors absorbed that basic summary, they shifted over to the faux machine. Even with the upended corners bordering it, the device still might have seemed as nothing more than a hunk of inert metal. To remedy that potential problem, the company affixed a curved OLED screen to the instrument and created digital animations that seemed to peer into its internal workings, much as the device itself might gaze into the human body. Four "huddle spaces" nestled into the undulating structures offered bench seating for casual conversations, while the interiors of the waves themselves contained two formal conference rooms where staffers and guests explored at length how the company's technology could make waves in the best possible way. E