A Dartmouth company whose product is gaining traction in the trade show industry is pondering whether to make a similar mark in an unexpected market — skiing.

SGS Solutions Inc. has produced portable batteries for exhibitions and trade shows that allow exhibitors to save thousands of dollars by avoiding electric installations. In the meandering way entrepreneurs stumble on innovation, it is planning a system that will allow skiers to become a human light show during night runs.

Last year, SGS Solutions introduced its ShowBattery at the ExhibitorLive conference in Las Vegas and won the buyers’ choice award. This year, the company returned to the annual trade show — attended by 6,000 people from the trade show industry, representing 30 countries — to introduce a smaller version of the ShowBattery, and it won the award again.

“It’s just the beginning,” said founder and CEO Shelley Simpson-McKay in an interview. “It’s a huge thing in the industry because traditional electrical services now hold a monopoly.”

The industry she refers to is trade shows and exhibits, and it’s worth about $36 billion annually in North America. But companies that exhibit regularly have problems because the cost of electricity can be exorbitant.

They often have to get electricity from the site and pay electricians for connections, costing as much as $150 an hour. The costs add up for companies that attend 20 or 30 shows a year.

To reduce the burden, Simpson-McKay, a former partner at Adhpro Adhesives Maritimes in Dartmouth, invented a portable, rechargeable battery strong enough to power booths. Clients are buying the product. SGS, which has three employees, had sales of as much as $30,000 in its first year, and they are increasing in Year 2.

By pairing the battery with LED lighting, it can dramatically reduce the amount of energy used at booths and meet the demand for “green” features in the trade show industry.

SGS has taken the product a step further by developing an automated system that can control LED lighting on the booths and provide a mini light show. Simpson-McKay is also working with the iDLab at Dalhousie University to further develop products.

The company wanted to demonstrate how portable the batteries are and how cool the lighting can be. So in March, Simpson-McKay and her team planned a demonstration on a ski hill. They lined a pair of skis with programmable LED lights, the new industry standard for trade show booths, and used an automated program to control them. They put one of their smaller batteries in a backpack and sent a skier up on a hill at night to put on a show as he zoomed down the slopes.

The video it produced was so cool that friends are telling Simpson-McKay she has to develop a product for skiers — a kit that has rhythmically flashing lights on skis. She believes the opportunity is too attractive to ignore and is interested in moving forward.

To help her drive the business forward, Simpson-McKay enrolled last autumn in the Master of Technology, Management and Innovation program at Saint Mary’s University. (Disclaimer: The program and Dalhousie are both advertisers on Entrevestor.)

“It’s helped a lot,” she said. “It’s helped us focus in terms of strategy and helped us to fill in the gaps and broaden our vision.”