Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

When we refer, (or should I say “reefer” as indicated in the Urban Dictionary) to the promotional product world, Schwag is something that helps you with your company brand.  As I mentioned earlier, I will be an exhibitor at a booth in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Las Vegas Convention Center coming up next week.  I wanted to have a way to make my company memorable and decided I would check out some research about what I could possibly give out as schwag.   I don’t have a very large budget so my wow factor cannot be too high as it relates to my giveaway.  I thought about pens or pencils or stickers with my branded logo, but then I wanted to leave a more branded experience than a pen that ends up under the seat of your car that nobody ever sees again.  I decided on Candy.

I tin full of mints is a cool item that doesn’t require a huge budget and of course it leaves only a temporary mark.  Actually, the best part about it is you can use candy to bribe your kids when you come home from a convention and have an empty pocket and no excuse for not bringing home that treat.  The folks at Conventions.net can help in finding one of these companies to assist you with your promotion and branding needs.  If you are a branding and a promotional products company give us a hint about what is the best inexpensive seller in your stable of products.  I for one like the child bribery route.

I have been wicked busy recently (my hat tip to the Boston Red Sox there since my Rockies were swept) and need to catch up the posting here at Convention Insider.  Part of the reason of my busy schedule is getting ready for a convention coming up next week in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  In fact, I will be posting from the convention floor next week and will put up some pictures of the facility and perhaps some pictures of the Vegas experience.  I promise not to be too graphic of course. 

I have spent a year now planning this conference and convention as a sponsor, a speaker, and an exhibitor.  To say the least I am getting the full monty of the experience.  I realized that the planning has taken forever  to get to the point where I am now, but it really has only been a little over a year of time.  The problem is that for a year of planning it is only a three day conference.  It seems that the experience is somewhat climactic since the event will come and go in such a short period.  I was speaking to this problem with my wife, and she likened the scenario to planning a wedding.  As much planning as goes into that event, it starts and ends in a very short period.  It has been much less fun than planning a wedding, perhaps not because I don’t like the conference or convention, but because I’m actually paying for this one!  I look forward to bringing you in and letting you ride though the experience as it passes by quickly.  We might even have a reception after so we can all dance The Funky Chicken!

I say Randy is a surprise, because he has no idea I am making him the Friday Feature this week.  I have been having trouble getting together with some of the people we are hoping to feature here, and I didn’t have a Friday Feature lined up for Convention Insider and when I told Randy of this, he said I would think of something.  That was enough inspiration to now make Randy our featured person here on Convention Insider.

You know when you speak to someone on the phone and have a long conversation with them, you get a sense of the person and can usually figure them out.  Nothing could be more true when I got off the phone with Randy in our first conversation.  I knew Randy had a good head for business, understood this thing we call blogging, and all of the other parts of the online experience.  I know you may be thinking “sure Jim he’s the boss what else would you say?”   Yeah I know my bias may show a little here, but I can assure you if you have a conversation with Randy about Conventions.net, you too will understand that he is the perfect man at the helm. 

Many of the people I speak to about online marketing have a vague idea of what I’m talking about, but then I spoke to Randy.  He is a guy that completely gets “it”.  He knows how to market and promote which makes it doubly important why companies should get on board with the Conventions.net team.  Randy is truly interested in getting your company discovered.  If you are a vendor or supplier for conventions or trade shows, he is making it a priority to seeing that your company is not only discovered, but that it also prospers.  Randy is an entrepreneurial spirit that thrives on seeing a business develop and be successful. 

This has not been a paid endorsement of Randy, actually it should be, but I do feel that Randy and everyone at Conventions.net deserve a hand and my heartfelt thanks for making me a part of this exciting venture.  Sorry Randy, I hope I haven’t embarrassed you, at least I didn’t put up that picture of you and that…[edited ]   

I’m kidding of course!  If you want to be a Friday Feature here at Convention Insider, contact us and let us know.  If you are a vendor or supplier of the trade show industry or are part of the convention or event planning community we want to hear from you. 

I was recently talking to a person involved as a professional exhibitor.  That is mostly my name for him, because he basically works as a professional working trade shows and conventions for companies that hire him.  He travels from show to show and basically acts as an evangelist for the companies he represents and works the crowd.  It especially interested me because I too was looking for someone to help me with my own convention coming up in the early part of November.  I spoke to him a little longer before I finally gathered up the courage to ask him how he could possibly make a living at this type of job, and his response was surprising.  He told me he really doesn’t make a good living.  Of course, after talking more, he doesn’t really need to make much at it.  He is single, has no car, is basically on the road all the time and most of his needs are fulfilled by the clients that use his services. 

I asked about the perks of the job, and he said something interesting. 

“I love it when organizers put together a really nice exhibitor lounge.”

He indicated that some of them have great meals, he gets to eat on their dime, they have all the comforts of home in some cases, and they make it nice to be on the road.  When asked what his favorite part of the lounges was, he was quick to answer. 

“I love getting a massage.”

I had to ask him again as I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly, and he said it all again.  He loved the last conference that offered him a massage.  I suppose if you are a conference organizer or planner, it does payoff to treat the exhibitors well, but I still had to chuckle a little when I thought about an exhibitor lounge and people standing around in towels waiting for that full body massage.  That might be a little much.   I guess we will have to have another category of vendors listed on Conventions.net for a masseuse!

You had to know that I would eventually have to get around to talking about my Colorado Rockies being in the World Series.  I’m all giddy of the notion of watching my hometown team in the World Series against the likes of a legendary team like the Boston Red Sox. So I thought about how I could tie the event into a blog post here.  I have already discussed sporting events and how you move a number of people with the likes of The Convention Store.  I could talk about how the sports industry has lot of conventions about memorabilia and collectibles and those types of conventions. I suppose I could talk about all of the t-shirt companies that are scrambling to capitalize on the Rox vs. Sox  ideas, and of course T-shirt companies I’m sure are a huge trade show unto themselves.  I could talk about the economical impact events such as this World Series and of course conventions and trade shows have on the local businesses.  I just can’t seem to nail down a way to tie it in here.  If I hadn’t spent 2 1/2 hours online trying to buy tickets yesterday, I am positive that I would have researched a cool convention like topic, but I have to stand here hat in hand and let you know that I can think of no way to talk about conventions and trade shows and try to make it not about the only thing I can see on my windshield today.  With that said…LET”S GO ROCKIES!!!

I was recently doing some research on a convention involving poker, or gambling or other types of gaming type conventions, and ran across an interesting site.  This site really gets the idea of promoting their convention online and goes far beyond what most conventions do in their marketing of the event.  I am speaking of the NABJ Convention 2007.

This organization has just about every thing online that can attract people to their event.  The thing that I was most impressed with was their Breaking News Blog, the I Spy Vegas Blog, their newscasts, and the NABJ radio.  They have it all from A-Z and they do a great job of promotion.  How did I find them in a search for a Poker Convention?  I’m not quite sure, but I think it had to do with Vegas Virgins and Gambling Tips.  Great job using everything and the kitchen sink to promote your event.  Event planners and organizers take notice of a group that really gets it when it relates to marketing their program.

I was recently making a list of the things I wanted to get out of a convention my company is sponsoring and attending as an exhibitor.  The regular stuff showed up on my list such as new business, exposure, some advertising benefits, some leads and the rest of the things that we all hope for when we invest in a convention or trade show as an exhibitor.  One of the things I put down on the list that caused me to pause was the fact that I am also looking for market research.

Market research can be an invaluable tool for a business that provides a service.  I first thought of this in the trade show setting when I was interviewing Elaine Curl, the CEO of The Convention Store.  One of the services they provide that I did not get into the piece is market research for their clients and customers and it started me thinking about market research in the larger context.  How can you perform market research at a convention?  This question led me down many paths, and I came up with all kinds of ideas for myself and others, but the one that stuck out most was the market research that can be done by the convention center themselves.

Follow my thinking here if you will.  If the convention center themselves had a booth at each of the shows they hold, they could gather valuable information from attendees and exhibitors on how their experience was from both sides, one as attendee and the other as vendor or exhibitor.  This would also show some faith in the convention organizers that you are backing their trade show or convention as being an exhibitor yourself.  Go through the process of being on the end of having to deal with conference organizers and event planners.  Did the convention center make it easy for the exhibitor, and did the experience go smoothly?  These are only a few questions that would prove as valuable feedback of the convention center themselves.  Perhaps this is accomplished through other means like email surveys and hand out surveys for feedback, but I would think that being in the trenches and being a part of the event itself would be a great way to be a part of the experience.  How can market research play a role in your convention or trade show?  This is a question that I hope spurs some attention to this and other ideas on how to gather intelligence at an event or convention you attend.

Colorado used to be host to The International Golf Tournament every year and it was played at a very exclusive golf course called Castle Pines.  Not only was the course itself very exclusive, the neighborhood was like trying to get into Fort Knox.  It was nearly impossible to drive past the gate of this guarded community.  So what happens when you have to have 50,000 people attend the golf tournament?  I myself had attended the tournament and can remember parking in a horse pasture a few miles away from the gate.  How did we reach that elusive community?  We were moved there by a specialty company that specializes in moving people at events.

This special type of company is what we are featuring in this week’s Friday Feature.  I had a chance to speak to the CEO of The Convention Store, Inc., Elaine Curl and I learned a number of very interesting facts about the ability to move lots of people from point A to point B in the area of conventions, trade shows and other events.  Other events to the people at The Convention Store include very important gatherings such as Presidential Inaugurations and of course my favorite events, sports gatherings, such as the Ryder Cup!

It was clear after speaking to Elaine Curl of The Convention Store that she is truly and expert in her field of Transportation Logistics and Design Management, or in other words she can do a great job of moving lots of people and doing it securely and safely and with little hassle to the passengers as possible. Elaine tells me that transporting people is like”

“Creation of a beautiful dance, or like choreographing a wonderful production of a dance in a Broadway show.”

Truly this is the case since they can choreograph moving 10,000 people in 45 minutes!  Try to wrap your mind around the logistics of that and you will understand why it is imperative to have experts such as those as Elaine and her company The Convention Store.  Thinking just about the issues of safety and security alone can make my head spin, but The Convention Store is equipped with the expertise to make this a very easy proposition for your convention or trade show or other events as I spoke about above.  I asked about their experience, and it is clear they are an industry leader with 24 years of experience. 

Showing a bit of her human side Elaine quipped that she has gone as far as printing up T-shirts that had on the front:

“We Have Told A Million People Where to Get Off!”

We had a good laugh and then she also showed her professional side  when she revealed a very impressive list of clients and people they have served all over the country and in Canada, including of course, the Clinton Administration with its inauguration, The PGA, Baltimore Airport, Dulles International Airport, and National Education Association to name just a small list.  

After speaking to Elaine I got a feel for her hands on approach to every contract they fulfill, down to her inspecting every driver roster, vehicle maintenance logs, and visits to every bus maintenance facility they use for fulfilling the needs of their customers.  She has a huge responsibility with her choreography , but after 24 years, they are not only on top of the game, they love to play it.  I for one know where to find my next vendor for convention transportation.  You might check out The Convention Store yourself and find out if they can dazzle you as they have me.  Just take a moment to read about the people they have served and the opinions of that service. Good luck Elaine with your future and if ever I need to move 10,000 people in 45 minutes, I’ll definitely look you up!

One of the many hats I wear as a business owner and entrepreneur is the fact that sometimes I am asked to be a speaker or a presenter at trade shows, conventions and conferences.  This can be a good way to promote yourself as a thought leader in an industry and a way to get better exposure for your business.  One of the downfalls of being asked to do this is that it can be costly both in money and in time.  As I get into a particularly busy part of my speaking circuit, I find myself running out of time for the little things that need to be taken care of in order to allow me to be on the road a little.  The little things are making hotel arrangements, flights, scheduling of meetings and other things outside of the actual speaking or presentation at the event. 

If you are an event coordinator or planner, this would definitely be a perk that would set aside your event, if you had  a person to take care of the little things and the little details for your speakers and presenters.  Even the little things like transportation to and from the airport to the event, and perhaps coordinate meals and even to make sure the hotel had the proper accommodations to allow your speaker and presenters to conduct business seamlessly on the road.  I guess this may be asking too much as I know that event planning in itself leaves no room for catering to the needs of the speakers and presenters, but then again,I suppose if that were all taken care of I would probably find something else to complain about.

I am a prolific procrastinator.  If there was a procrastinator club, I would be its President and best member.  I have a convention I am attending as an exhibitor in the second week in November.  I am only now addressing the issue since we have to have our details into the event planner by tomorrow.  Where do I begin?  In this particular instance I delegated the job so I could procrastinate on something else for a while.  What if I delegated the job to you?  Where would you go?  All very good questions.

As it turns out I probably should have done the job myself because I had to be involved in all the decisions.  How hard can it be to set up a convention booth?  In a word?  Very.  First I had to know what carpet to use and what color, the color of the back wall panels, the color of the sidewall panels, the heights of the aforementioned panels, the type of chairs, the type of drape, wastebasket or not, and the list keeps going on forever.  I had no clue that there was so much involved.  What did we decide on?  We outsourced the deal and sent a check, problem solved.

At Conventions.net the same thing can be accomplished.  Conventions.net wants to a be a complete resource for the little things and the big things.You can find ways around procrastinating, it’s just too bad that it usually costs a little extra for the benefit of being tardy.