You wouldn’t think a revolutionary marketing idea would come from our government, especially the armed services. However, when a marketing mind meets the structure and process of the US Army, interesting things happen.

Colonel Casey Wardynski had a problem. He had to improve his recruiting results. Before, Army recruiting was process over results and activity over productivity. Now, since the Colonel has partnered with Fish Software and his event production company to produce the VAE (the Virtual Army Experience), the US Army can not only reach out to their target market, they have measurable results on which to direct their program and report to their superiors–credible information. Read More...

Trade Show Bob is now one of my heroes.

This Everyman, while he took a bit to get warmed up, did get rolling and imparted some important information: ignore those people you don’t need to talk with and get the right people from your company talking to the right, targeted prospects and clients. Read More...

It’s nice to be the guest. We’ve had some good times with gracious hosts at Exhibitor’s Show this year. And when you’re being hosted by the best people in the world who know how to do this, even better.

MG Design put on a really nice evening for guests, clients and staff at a Vegas cooking school. Bussed to the site, we were treated to wine and a full-course Italian meal that we helped prepare. A nice evening with great people. Thank you Liese, Gail, Marci, Kris and the whole MG team for including us in a very nice and professional evening. Read More...

Katharine Chestnut, you came along at the right time of day.

I was tired, in need of sugar or caffeine. Or sleep. And there you were, talking about integrated marketing communications as if you were describing your garden. Cool. You do have a garden, don’t you? Read More...

If I come away from this show with nothing else, it will be Ian Sequeira’s recommendation to use the ROI Toolkit. Cool stuff, Ian. Thanks. To quote Ian:

“Go to www.iaee.com and about halfway down the page, sign in to use the calculator.” Read More...

Plan carefully. Execute aggressively. Follow up thoroughly.

There we are–back to thinking in threes. Marc Goldberg’s presentation on exhibiting strategically left me with those three thoughts. Good stuff to remember. Actually, memories to be brought back. Read More...

Ok, now we’re getting somewhere. I’ve read Barry Siskind’s books, but never had seen him in action. He is a dynamic speaker (with dry, B&W slides) with great information. Actually, the earlier presentation by Ian set me up really well for this session.

Barry was clear and quick on his feet. His basic thesis is that you need to establish a baseline, a benchmark for the year for your trade show program. All of your work in measurement needs to be set against firm business objectives. This guy thinks in threes (I like that, you know) and his first three are about balance between resources:

• Financial
• Physical
• Human

He also cites three basic questions you, as an exhibitor, should ask yourself:

• Why are we in business?
• Who are we?
• What is our real purpose?

Once you can answer these (or come close or work toward answering), you come closer to a sharp focus. Two steps:

• What are you hoping to achieve?
• What will justify the time, energy and money spent?

This ream of information leads to two areas to measure:

• Sales objectives–easier to quantify
• Communications objectives–softer, but what most relationship-building exhibitors really want to know.

What I really came away with from this seminar is this formula that Barry called “doing the math”:
a. Take a total show population of 5000
b. Determine the percentage who fit the profile of the client you want to reach (10%)
c. Take the average time spent with prospects (typically 10 minutes or 6 per hour)
d. What are the active hours of the show (assume 20 for this example) Read More...

Walking the show allowed us to get some air, meet new people and forget about the terrible lunch we’d been served. Note to self: try the Mexican place across the way on Tuesday.

This area of the show is growing. Over 300 exhibitors ranging from simple banner makers to I&D companies to freight companies to exhibit builders are here. If a company provides a service to the the exhibit industry, they are here. Read More...

This seminar is one of the key reasons I came to this show: to learn how to apply my company’s services to the world of exhibitry. Ian Sequeira of Exhibit Surveys was the presenter. Again, a full house and a good discussion. Less audience participation and dry slides, but a good, informative discussion.

Ian spoke of process mostly. He gave formulas and statistics and few real-world examples. However, the equations seem to work. His point was “why do you do survey work?” and “you should be doing survey work” even at a simple level. The more you know about your audience, the more you can target and get your messages to the right people. The results of even a simple post-show survey (the easiest to do) will help you shape your exhibit, demos and staff training. Read More...

The morning’s first class was growing your brand and incorporating it into your exhibit program. Scott Leech of Brandspeak of Minneapolis (www.brandspeak.com) was the presenter.

This popular (193 of 200 seats in the meeting room) seminar was clear and to the point, however, Scott did have to spend more time setting up brand to the room before sending the discussion off into how it relates to exhibitry. Rally everything around the brand and using exhibit marketing as a brand-building experience were the key messages. His examples (Pella, Qwest, Ultradent) showed this clearly. It also, by extension, showed that his exhibit-building partners understood how the integration of brand into exhibitry and how exhibits fit into the who of the brand program works. Read More...