I’ll be reporting from the classes and events via this blog and it’s brother (The Relentless Networker). Let’s compare notes and maybe share project ideas.

Lee Knight and his team from Exhibitor Magazine have done a great job on this meeting of industry minds since they turned it into an educational venue for TSMs just starting out or needing mid-career guidance.

The event is held annually at Mandalay Bay and includes continuing education classes and an exhibit floor. It is a quality interaction between suppliers and buyers.

Learn more at www.exhibitoronline.com/exhibitorshow

See you there.

TTSG

I will be at the HeliExpo on Sunday, February 21, at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston. The show opens tomorrow and runs through Tuesday.

I will be there to meet with clients, prospects and colleagues. I hear the new Eurocopter booth looks fabulous and I hope to snag a tour of this double-decker booth.

Otherwise, I will be there to spot trends and gain ideas to save costs and give you all that edge in what works and what doesn’t.

More from the site. Stay tuned.

TTSG

Does that mean we abandon trade shows? Quite the contrary.

From what I’ve learned about these new media, they are really great tools to help deliver clients to other media. think about it: if you could start a conversation with someone and have it culminate in a face-to-face meeting, how valuable would that be?

Sure, this is overstating the obvious, but is it? How many of us have thought past the tactic? “I blogged today” or “I tweeted” or “I used LinkedIn and Facebook this week” are all part of our vernacular these days. But how different are they really from letters and phone calls from an earlier time? Not much, except for the compressed time factor, as I see it.

Truth is, we all need to see these things for what they are: delivery tools. In our case, as trade show and events practitioners, to deliver prospects and clients to our venues so we can engage (talk to) them.

So as you develop your trade show lead capture strategies, be sure to remember the engagement possibilities of these tools. Where in the past you may have had a direct mail postcard as a pre-show device, consider pairing a Twitter campaign with it. Our audiences are more tuned in and discerning than ever before and we need to be sure they are directed to that landing pad know as your trade show with facts and information that will help them engage with us.

Your time is yours and these new, for now, tools will help use it more effectively.

TTSG

Let’s take our current US President. It seems Mr. Obama doesn’t understand just how influential a few words can be when he says not to blow your money in Vegas.” The last time I was on the show floor at the LVCC the labor was still cursing the Chief Exec for his swipe at banks holding business meetings in Sin City. From what I heard, after Mr O’s comments, the bank (I believe it was Wells Fargo or Citi) took their meeting to San Francisco–and spent more money.

Truth is, Las Vegas is probably the best-equipped and cost-effective (in most cases) convention city in America. When the Prez (whether it is Clinton, Reagan, Bush or Obama) says not to go, many people swallow it whole. He doesn’t realize how many jobs, from forklift drivers to carpenters to hotel staff–depend on those convention dollars.

So, as an industry, we need to take the time to educate more of those who don’t know who we are and what we do. Or watch further damage be done to our economy by misinformation.

Here’s the whole story from Yahoo today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_las_vegas

TTSG

From and exhibitor or exhibit house point of view list the TOP 5 MOST DIFFICULT cities to work in:

1. Philadelphia
2. Chicago
3. New York
4. Boston
5. Las Vegas

From and exhibitor or exhibit house point of view list the TOP 5 BEST cities to work in:

1. Atlanta
2. Dallas
3. Denver
4. Orlando
5. Ft. Lauderdale

An interesting discussion. Kind of parallels the cost and other issues I outlined. If it is easier to work with people and trades in a city plus the other factors (weather, cost, location), why stay in the Rust Belt?

Thanks to Marc Mousseau, Moose Exhibits, for starting and leading this discussion.

TTSG

In the past week I have received no less than four Exhibitor Show guides, two in one day yesterday. Now, I really do intend to register and go to this event, but I really only need one book.

Maybe I should be keeping track of the priority code on the back of the book?

TSG

Really?

Seems the folks gathered in Las Vegas for this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) didn’t get that message. Or for the Mac event coming up in California later this month. Or the Builder’s Show. Or…wait, I think you all get the point.

While attendance numbers are down, the audiences at these shows (and putting on these shows) are sharpened. Where else can you see more people in less time and handle and try out the latest gear/software/ideas in one place?

The number of blogs dedicated to CES, the print and electronic (TV, web, radio) time devoted to this event is extraordinary. Now, granted, it is happening at a dead time of year (football season is essentially over), it is in Vegas, and the world is electronic and loves gadgets. But that is just the point: this show and many like it demand face-to-face interaction and interaction with products, services and between buyers and sellers.

So, again, what’s dying or is already dead?

TTSG

1. Pick the right shows. Do your homework by walking the show, reading stats from the promoter, talking to other exhibitors and visitors to the show.
2. Create an attention-getting display. Make sure your graphics are simple but with a clear message and not complicated. Pay attention to how products are displayed and how traffic flows in the space and the hall.
3. Prepare staff. Set realistic goals and objectives for them. Give them training and the messages you want conveyed.
4. Qualify prospects. Don’t just collect names and numbers–identify people who can make or influence buying decisions.
5. Follow up. Both with leads and by having an internal post-mortem meeting to see what worked and what didn’t.

Numbers 3 and 4 remind of the old axiom “you should be able to do this on a bare piece of concrete…”

Thanks to Jean Holewa and her story that appeared on the Understanding Marketing web site. Read the whole story here: http://tinyurl.com/ylgky5a

TTSG

From the Chicago newspaper, this story (http://tinyurl.com/yfqyxq5) points out what we all knew was coming to the Northern and Eastern cities: your labor costs and rules are killing marketing budgets and the desire of businesses to use trade shows in their mix.

For those of us in Right-to-Work states, this was obvious from the first time we did a show in New York, Boston or Chicago. Work rules kept us exhibitors from doing simple things like moving a monitor or laying a cord not only puzzled us but grew our bills.

Now, don’t get me wrong here: I am all for making sure that people aren’t cheated out of work. But I’m not in the business of guaranteeing someone a job, whether I hire them in a hall or put them directly on my payroll. If you work for a wage or a fee, you have to earn it with performance. However, this problem isn’t new–the whole industry from exhibit houses to general contractors to van lines to caterers and just about everybody who touches an event are a part of.

We must do our part to help control costs or exhibitors will choose to engage their customers differently. When the old adage of “you can meet more people at a show for less cost” ceases to be true any longer, shows will flat go away.

So, suppliers: consider what you really need to bill that client. General contractors: consider reinventing your model (can drayage be looked at?). Labor contractors: examine what your real costs are and the price of being competitive as wqell as looking at your union’s rules. And caterers: do things really have to cost that much?

We all need to do our part to make this work.  Face-to-face marketing is what will help business thrive, not just survive.

TTSG

Thanks to Scott Adams and Dilbert from the Dallas Morning News, 12-22-09

Not one to hype things, I do have a soft spot for this event. You can be certified and network all in one place–and that place is Vegas, the ultimate trade show city.

The 2010 event is at Mandalay Bay, March 14-18, 2010. Lee Knioght and his team at Exhibitor Magazine (www.exhibitor2010.com for the event or www.exhibitoronline.com for the magazine).  Lee turned this event a few years back into one of the best training opportunities for trade show managers and marketing people.  And it has grown significantly since he made that decision.

Classes and roundtables along with networking events, make this one of the best opportunities out there for teh dimensional communicator. The trade show floor, too, gives access to a broad brush of suppliers and services.  Kind of practices what we in our industry preach.

A couple of years back this event gave me a great opportunity to bond with our largest client’s new trade show manager.  We attended classes together and apart and met between and after classes to discuss and network.  The result was a better, more trusting relationship between us.  Both company’s benefited.

Be sure and put Exhibitor’s show on your Christmas list.

TTSG