Home Sponsorship: A Key to Powerful Marketing 1 2007 Education Report 2008 Education Schedule 2008 Operating Council 3 Airlines Shut Down in One Week 3.15.06 Thoughts 3.15.06 TSEA Tips 5.1.07 News 4.15.08, Bits From Bob Become a Speaker at TS2 2008 – THE Industry Event for Exhibit & Event Professionals FREEMAN LAUNCHES CUSTOMER TRAINING PROGRAM FOR PART-TIME SHOW SITE STAFF Krisam Group Announces Ecomomic Stimulus Plan for Meeting Planners TSEA MEMBERS ONLY Aaron Bludworth Joins GES as Vice President of Corporate Events After The Show: Self-Analysis, A Critical Component to Improve Performance April 1 Bits From Bob April 1 Industry News April 1 New Members April 1 Thoughts from the Corner Office April 1 TSEA Tips April 2: TSEA Open House Are You Throwing Money Away? Begin at The Beginning: Three Secrets for Tradeshow Success Best Booth at Expo! Expo!: ARI Bits From Bob 5.1.07 Bits from Bob, Aug. 1, 2007 Bits from Bob, December 17, 2008 Bits from Bob, Feb. 1, 2008 Bits from Bob, Jan. 4, 2008 Bits From Bob, July 1, 2007 Bits From Bob, June 1, 2007 Bits from Bob, Mar. 3, 2008 Bits From Bob, November, 2007 Bits From Bob, October 1, 2007 Bits from Bob, September 1, 2007 Bits from Bob: May 1, 2008 Boothsmanship is Dead: "Preparedness" Reigns Supreme Canon Communications Acquires Pharmapack Carnival Refunds $40 Million Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau Unveils Online Video Marketing Tool for Customers Cleveland’s I-X Center Expansion Completed in Record Time; Fed Ex Kinko’s Opens Three Gigs in Vegas Creating Customer Evangelists Eight Effortless Exercises to Improve Trade show Performance Elaine Cohen Named Finalist in Stevie Awards for Women in Business Emap To Sell Events Division for $1.97 Billion ENK International to Acquire WSA Global Holdings LLC Exhibiting the Easy Way Exhibition Industry Revenue Grows 11.3 Percent in Second Quarter of 2007 Fairmont and WWF Join Forces to Address Climate Change Four Generations In the Marketplace: What This Means For You Freeman Announces Management Changes Freeman Recycles 25 Million Square Feet of Used Carpet Gaining Corporate Support GES® Acquires Ethnometrics Business Good Shows in Bad Times: Exhibiting When Your Industry is in Crisis Great Connection Weekend: The Master's Retreat Greenhill SAVP Completes Investment in BDMetrics, Inc. Help Wanted! Hey, You - Exhibitor Manners at a Trade Show Hortec 2008 Postponed; Food Tec Middle East and Food + Hospitality Middle East Rescheduled Hot Button Exhibiting How to Avoid Eating Your Words: 10 Essentials for Networking at Tradeshows and Events How to Avoid Eating Your Words: Ten Essentials for Networking at Tradeshows and Events How to Stand Out on the Job and in the Booth Hyatt Meetings Take Two Offer Ian Twentey Named Experient Eastern Region Senior Vice President iBAHN and IAEE Services, Inc. Launch World-Class Converged Network Industry Expert Harris Schanhaut is Available for Hire Industry News, August 15, 2007 Industry News, July 7, 2007 Industry News, June 15, 2007 Industry News, Mar. 3, 2007 It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: Body Language at Tradeshows ITN International Scores Judy Fairbanks as Vice President of Marketing JetBlue Now Offering Refundable Fares Jones Joins 3D Exhibits as Sr. VP, Client Results Strategist Las Vegas Sands Completes Initial Funding for Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Learn More About Your TSEAConnect Mack Brooks Exhibitions Announces the Acquisition of the International Converting Exhibition (ICE) Series Meeting Planners Rate Toronto Top Canadian City Member-of-the-Month, Bob Dallmeyer National Capitol Area Chapter Launched New Washington D.C. Chapter to Hold First Meeting January 28 News, April 16, 2007 News, May 15, 2007 Nick’s Cove & Cottages Announces Events Space October's Webinar: Your Booth Staff and the Four Levels Of Proficiency Open Skies: Deal is Sealed Between United States and EU PCMA Names Mark Holmes New Chief Financial Officer Penton Media Reorganizes Reed Exhibitions in the News Remaining Relevant: Tracking Trends for More Effective Exhibiting Revenues Projected to Rise Sandra Pizzarusso Joins Impact Unlimited as Director of Meetings and Events Secrets to Increasing Off-Site Meeting Productivity Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton Hotels Go Smoke-Free Strategic Acquisition in Fast-growing Dubai Market The Six "P"s of Marketing?! The A-Zs of Exhibiting Overseas The Nielsen Company Names Greg Farrar President of Nielsen Business Media The Power of Asking Questions: 7 Strategies to Discovering what Your Prospects Really Want The Tradeshow Curse The Virtual Trade Show: The Top Four Things You Need To Know The Wearing of the Green: Exhibiting for the Environmentally-Conscious Audience Thoughts From the Corner Office Thoughts from the Corner Office 5.1.07 Thoughts From the Corner Office, April 1, 2008 Thoughts from the Corner Office, April 15, 2008 Thoughts from the Corner Office, April 16, 2007 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Aug. 1, 2007 Thoughts From the Corner Office, August 15, 2007 Thoughts From the Corner Office, Dec. 3, 2007 Thoughts from the Corner Office, December 18, 2007 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Feb. 1, 2008 Thoughts From the Corner Office, Feb. 20, 2008 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Jan. 16, 2008 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Jan. 4, 2007 Thoughts From the Corner Office, July 16, 2007 Thoughts From the Corner Office, June 1, 2006 Thoughts From the Corner Office, June 15, 2007 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Mar. 3, 2008 Thoughts From the Corner Office, May 1, 2008 Thoughts From the Corner Office, May 15, 2007 Thoughts From the Corner Office, Nov. 1, 2007 Thoughts from the Corner Office, Nov. 16, 2007 Torch Passed to Next Generation at Hargrove, Inc. Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago Debuted January 30 TSEA at Expo! Expo! Dec. 10-12 TSEA Connect Book Club: Stimulating Conversation Underway! TSEA Members: New Discount Affiliation with FCm Travel Solutions TSEA New Members, Aug.1, 2007 TSEA Tips 5.1.07 TSEA Tips, April 16, 2007 TSEA Tips: The Scent of a Show TSEA to Exhibit at Exhibitor 2008 TSEA's Career Center TSEAConnect: the ONLY Online Community of Its Kind TSNN.com Reports Dramatic Increase in Event Interest in 2008's First Quarter Turn Your Team Around: Seven Strategies to Transform Trade Show Performance Valera Global Joins Chicago Climate Exchange, Commits to Offset 100 Percent of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Windy City Chapter Events for 2008 Windy City Logo Contest Windy City News Exhibiting the Easy Way We all want life to be easy. Challenges, obstacles, and difficulties abound, and although we do our best to overcome them, the truth is it’s a long and exhausting process. Unless we have a real, concrete reason to keep going, it’s far easier -- and much less work -- to give up and abandon our efforts. This is true in our personal lives, and it’s true in our business lives. It is especially true when it comes to tradeshow exhibiting. On the surface, exhibiting sounds simple enough: you go to a convention center, set up a booth, talk to a few hundred people and walk away with new prospects and leads, perhaps even a few substantial deals more than halfway started. Yet simple is seldom easy. What appears to be a straight-forward process turns out, in actuality, to be fraught with nuances and subtle strategic decisions, any one of which can mean the difference between success and failure, at the event and beyond. The reality is, exhibiting is as easy as drawing pictures in water with a fork: if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can go through the motions all day long without accomplishing anything at all. It might be easy -- but it’s certainly not effective, and when exhibitors who have this experience are asked to demonstrate a positive return on investment on show participation, they invariably falter and fail. That’s one scenario. Another situation, unfortunately too common, occurs when exhibitors come to the show with preconceived notions about how exhibiting is ‘supposed to be’. They believe everything is supposed to be easy, so any challenge, frustration, or set back is viewed as proof positive that something is wrong -- either with their performance or more commonly, with the show itself. Frustrated and annoyed, they give up, convinced exhibiting is just not right for them. Both groups are suffering from a type of tunnel vision. They can’t see past the difficulties to the destination! Being a successful exhibitor isn’t necessarily easy -- but it is impossible if you give up before you truly get started. The way we meet and address challenges on the show floor determines our effectiveness as exhibitors. If exhibiting successfully was easy, everyone would be doing it and doing it well. Instead, there are many, many exhibitors who try the show once, fail to be satisfied with the experience, and never return, and even more who keep ‘plugging away’ at exhibiting, even though they know something’s just not working for them. Both groups are reacting to challenges in different ways: however, neither group is acting in their own best self-interest. Abandoning exhibiting substantially reduces the number of B2B marketing tools you have at your disposal, while exhibiting ineffectively is a waste of time and money. What can be done? How can one master the simple art of exhibiting, even if it’s not particularly easy? Largely, the answers to these questions are to be found after a show. To understand and overcome exhibiting challenges, post-event analysis is critical. This is more than an informal ‘Monday Morning Quarterback’ session. Effective exhibitors take the time to compare results to objectives, analyze booth staff performance, assess the efficacy of show specials and marketing initiatives, and more. It’s only by recognizing what worked and what didn’t that a team can identify a baseline point to start from and improve upon at the next show. Post-event analysis allows a team to create plans for subsequent shows that anticipate and address difficulties. The most agile exhibitors are the ones who have contingency plans in place for almost any event -- what happens if the demonstration model doesn’t work? What happens if the literature doesn’t arrive? What happens if half the booth staff is stuck in the airport in Wisconsin and the show is in Florida? Being able to adapt and overcome challenges of an extraordinary nature makes it far easier to handle the everyday bumps in the road that are part and parcel of exhibiting. Exhibiting is a process, not an event. The show is not the entire journey. To be successful, it is critical to view each show within a larger context: understanding what role the show plays in an overall marketing strategy. This understanding is essential to avoid the two pivotal mistakes outlined earlier: exhibiting the ‘easy’, inefficient way, or abandoning the show floor at the first sign of difficulty. Consistency and commitment aren’t trendy buzzwords right now, as economic pressures bear down on every industry. However, they’re essential elements of any effective exhibiting program. Maintaining a constant, effective presence at industry events is one way to add a dimension of trust and reliability to the relationship you’re developing with attendees. You’re demonstrating that you’re in the game for the long haul, and not likely to abandon ship once the water gets choppy. Exhibiting does come with its share of difficulties -- but so does the larger business world. Your customers and potential customers all have to navigate dangerous waters every day, and they expect the same from you. Show them you’re more than up to the task, by sticking the course and not giving up too soon! Written by Susan A. Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, N.Y. Friedmann is an internationally-recognized expert who works with companies to increase their profitability at trade shows. She has also authored Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a Small Market and Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies.”