Virtually any major trade show venue is within throwing distance (well bussing distance, at least) of a cooking school. This is a great place to have your drinking, eating event for VIP’s while getting everyone to schmooze with everyone else. Working with the cooking school coordinate groups of 8, 10, or 12 of different company exec invitees both current clients and prospects and your staff members. The casual atmosphere of a cooking school takes everyone out of business talk and into socializing within minutes. The cooking presentation can have a few prompts for your company or you can leave this to chance with the repartee of the crowd carrying your company along – this will be a surprising, memorable night for all involved.

Hope to see all of you at The Exhibitor Show -
Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

What causes a client to walk out the door?  There is the generic better offer, great pricing elsewhere, promises of terrific service, and guarantees of much better quality.  However – these are really not the reason a client goes to the other side.  Truth be known, and whether true or not – the salesman is always to blame.  Customers rely on their emotional encounter with salespeople more than any anything else when trying to come to a decision whether or not to stay with a company.

It’s vital for salespeople to recognize customer sensitivities and regularly collect feedback. Meeting their expectations is not enough. Customers want to know you are concerned. They want a positive response when they run into problems or have serious questions. 

As a trade show warrior you have expertise and knowledge. You know what’s happening in your industry, and you know your customers’ needs.  Try to help the customer get what’s needed. It will build their confidence and trust in you and your company.  It is most effective to act as if no one knows you or recognizes the value you bring. Strive to prove it every day. Just because you have been around the block does not lead everyone to your door automatically.

Keeping hold of your worthiness in the minds of your customers requires determination and concentration. Clients’ needs change repeatedly.   You must stay away from making assumptions.  If you don’t have current, up-to-the minute answers to client’s uncertainties, you’re in no position to meet their needs. Always stay in touch. Use your contact management database frequently to find out what challenges customers are facing.  Don’t wait to call until you think they might want to place an order – make an effort to call or email every 60 days.

You may be doing a great job taking care of clients’ troubles, but that’s not always enough.  It is also the ideas, thoughts, information, assistance, and leadership that you offer clients that merits the privilege of doing business with them. Start discussions that center on their coming needs, new projects or areas of impending development.  That is how to keep clients.

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

Use lots of light! Do not get lost in the tradeshow shadows. We know it costs more money for electricity and we know you have to pay union labor to plug you in! Is this the time to scrimp – or shine like a star? Your exhibit should be the bright spot in the neighborhood. Know the difference between halogen lighting and incandescent lighting – incandescent is much less bright. Point your lighting at a bright and powerful graphic or your highlighted header and get the attention you deserve.  Here’s a great trick – it costs a little bit but it will make you stand out dramatically.  Have the houselights above your exhibit space turned off and to take it a step further order some dramatic spot lights (par can lights) from overhead to shine directly on your exhibit space.  Think Hollywood premiere – that will be the affect!

Jan Koren – jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

We have had a number of shows completed in the past few weeks – and the major complaint we heard time and time again was the dinging of our client’s credit cards by the show contractors. We try to emphasize to any and all exhibitors that you must meet the show deadlines for service purchases to get the discount. And if you do not meet the deadlines, no one can get those discounted prices for you.


How can your exhibit house help you? I cannot speak for all exhibit houses but we do your paperwork for you in regard to electrical, electrical labor, cleaning, material handling, rigging, internet connections, lead retrieval services, and additional services such as plumbing, forklifts, and refrigerated storage. We then send completed paperwork to the client for their credit card information and they or we return fax it to the show.

Having a partnership with your exhibit house can help clients stick to deadlines and keep within budgets. What happens on the show floor? Impulse buying, not thinking through your needs beforehand, items are brought to show site that need additional electric capacity, or simply the realization that your forgot furniture items, a plant or two, or a water cooler.

Again, be a forward thinker, have a planning meeting with the people that are going to be in your booth space, and take an emergency supply box – we know you can always buy tape, or pencils, or an extension cord on site – but at what price?

Jan Koren - jkren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

The people that work day-in and day-out in the tradeshow world are really not masochists - most of them love the excitement and thrill of making something out of nothing in 72 hours! You have to work at your tradeshow site for five to seven days and you literally feel as if you are being poured into your plane seat on the last day.

Tradeshow people live in a tremendously taxing environment, first and foremost due to unpreventable deadlines, and sometimes due to non-performance of service companies. Exhibitors often feel extremely frustrated in their dealings with the tradeshow people.
Some of these exasperating folks are exclusive for your show, and no matter how you feel about that, to make your life easier, you must always treat everyone with consideration, respect, and especially understanding (try to recognize what they are going through and their problems). We suggest using logic, and patience.

 You do not have to give up until you have a situation your company can live with, but end it there - there is no perfect. Keep in mind, that the General Service Contractor assigned to your show believes it is giving superior service. And compared to a decade ago - they really are doing just that.

Changes in service cannot be accomplished in an argument on the show floor or at the service desk. Compromise now and take your issue to your show management after the show.

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

I have to start this blog with an observation – life changes in seconds – an earthquake in Haiti, a hurricane in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, or an act of terrorism in New York, and Washington DC and Pennsylvania  – the list goes on forever both with natural and less than natural calamities.  Putting perspective into our lives is very difficult – unless the disaster hits home.  Here’s why I mention all of this today – a client’s needs are very important, especially to them.  However we all need a little perspective – the world will not come to an end if your potential design does not get there by noon or your extra barstools are not on the show floor the night before opening and arrive the next morning before the show opens.  We need to keep  calm – we pledge to do that at our end and we ask that all of you do that at your end.

I am not a yoga high priestess – just someone that has been on the show floor for way too many years and realizes most everyone pre-show is a hysterical mess and 24 hours later is in a new zone of selling and glad-handing.  Perspective tells us most of our lives are pretty good and we won’t live any longer by venting and spewing – so let’s all vow to calm down and help others do the same.

Remember you need to work with an exhibit house that has representation on the show floor, most hopefully by their own I&D team – or at least someone in a supervisory capacity from your exhibit house.  If your exhibit is sent to an I&D company – will there be someone there to help you, fix any breakage, or take care of a graphic disaster?  Again, remain calm – but prior to signing check references!

Where does the union fit into the show floor picture and who is making the rules? What do you really understand about the different people behind the show at which you are exhibiting? First there is show management – in most cases the association that is directing the show. Then there is the official service contractor that provides services and a labor force to get the exhibits built on the show floor – think GES, Freeman, and many smaller companies. Then there are the EAC’s – exhibitor appointed contractors – that have been hired by the exhibitor outside of the show contractor. It has been our experience as an EAC that many exhibitors on the show floor feel that they must work with the onsite show contractor. This is not true.

However, if you are going to a union-contracted venue then you must use a company that has a union contract. Additionally certain things like electrical services, drayage costs, and specific union jobs such as the electrical labor must be purchased by your company or through your exhibit house from the official contractor. In different cities, even in different venues within a city, there are different rules. As the exhibitor it is your job to contract with a knowledgeable company that abides by the union contract in place – or in the end you will pay through the proverbial nose!

It is very important as the exhibitor that you have shopped and compared. Do you know the local union’s rates and how those rates compare to those quoted by the show contractor and your EAC? What exactly may exhibitors do for themselves, according to union rules? Is there a floor-dispute resolution process in place?

How does it work? Mandatory crew size issues can’t be ignored. You may think it’s a two-man job, but the union work rules, because of OSHA concerns or contract clauses, may say three are mandatory. Remember you are at the mercy of many people at your show – learn your rules early and carry your manual – the most reliable person you have is yourself!

Jan Koren - jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com

Holiday Greetings!  I could write all about how ghastly, unpleasant, and devastating this year has been – and in countless cases it certainly has for many people in our industry and in our world.  Nevertheless I would like to celebrate what this year has taught all of us.  We have been brought together under stressful circumstances and we have learned to rely upon each other to “get the job done.”  We have learned to be far more creative, moveable, yielding, and far less inflexible.

Working together, covering each other’s back – has allowed all of us to take a new look at our competitors – and recognize we can still compete with each other and at the same time be there for each other.   There have truly been some good lessons learned this year.

I remain optimistic about our industry – shows will go on, exhibitors will buy exhibit space, and attendees will be at the shows.  It has just changed – it is that simple.  And we must all change with it.  The past was great (did we even recognize it at the time?).  These are new beginnings for all of us, but I remain optimistic that the very characteristics that have made our industry stand tall for the past 50+ years will lead us to even brighter days ahead.

To a healthy and prosperous new year for each and every one of you –

Jan Koren – jkoren@AbsoluteExhibits.com