Michael Rapp

Michael Rapp is an exhibit marketer specializing in campaign-driven programs that attract, retain, and nuture prospects through the sales pipeline. Currently a senior manager of creative, web developments, and exhibits for Fujistu Network Communications, he helps invigorate the corporate brand and deliver objective and ROI-based goal measurement.

Prior to joining Fujitsu in 1995, Michael spent five years as a broadcast designer, documentary writer, and entertainer. Today, Michael’s department works to achieve the right mix of marketing automation, design, and training to enhance customer and trade events worldwide.

Michael is an alumnus of The Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. When asked how his education has prepared him for a career in exhibit marketing, he replied, “Being trained in a Journalism program has its advantages. Technical writing and illustration require clear and concise thought. Product Planning requires scrupulous fact checking. Marketing and web development mean total immersion in popular culture and thinking ahead of trends… and trade events take all those journalistic building blocks and add critical deadlines, logistics issues, and the ‘x’ factor of working in different environments continuously.”

Michael joined TSEA in 2004. He currently serves on the TSEA Board of Directors and is the Chair of the Education Committee, a position that he describes as “challenging and also rewarding.”

Michael believes that TSEA’s partnership with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, along with “a strong regimented education curriculum, makes TSEA’s CME and CME/H programs one of the best today for trade event professionals.” The education committee created this new curriculum based on the following values:

1. The great majority of meeting planners and trade show managers receive very little in the way of formal education to prepare them for the challenges inherent in both occupations. Higher education programs nearly universally ignore or trivialize trade event marketing.
2. There should be a course catalogue similar to what you would encounter at any university. With core classes that form the building blocks of the CME program, as well as a series of “electives,” an individual can focus on certain aspects of the trade.
3. Measurement and qualifications should be modeled on both written and oral examinations to demonstrate comprehension.

When he first joined TSEA, Michael had set a goal to provide his upper management something other than “soft” metrics to support a large program. When asked how his association with TSEA has helped his professional career, Michael responded that the opportunities presented by TSEA “gave me an outlet to try new ideas, participate in the mentor program, and get plugged into strategic suppliers across the globe. TSEA vastly accelerated my learning curve and put my program on the cutting edge of measuring ROMI, ROO, and most importantly, ROI. The network of professionals is invaluable and I’m completely sold on the exhibitor advocacy stance that TSEA has articulated."