Last weekend, my husband attended a local trade show with a client of ours. On Friday evening and all day Saturday things were pretty much, well, your typical trade show. However, at 12:30 on Sunday afternoon the energy level in the building suddenly raised by about 200 percent. Why? The puck dropped at the Olympic gold medal game between Canada and the US and Prospera Place had the game on the big screens.
For the next 2 hours, people that previously looked like they were about to keel over from either exhaustion or boredom became animated. Smiling. Cheering. Finding it very easy to make small talk and initiate conversation with the show attendees. Curious, isn’t it?
Why do companies invest thousands of dollars in product, materials and time to stand on concrete floors for 3 days with hundreds of other vendors? (It sure isn’t for the perks of drinking trade show coffee.) They do it because trade shows provide a prime opportunity to make a face-to-face connection with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of prospects with whom you may not have otherwise met. What impression do you want to give them about your company?
You can have the best looking booth, the most eye catching signage, and a prime location on the trade show floor… but if you look like you’d rather be anywhere else but working in that booth, your impression will fall flat. I was amazed to hear of the dramatic difference in attitude of the various vendors when the hockey game was on. If they had showed that kind of life and personality for the other 15 or so hours of the trade show, people may have left with a very different impression about their products.
Not all of the vendors fell into this category. My husband was quite impressed at the energy and passion that the client he went with showed to each and every person. And there were a few others like him. But for the most part, many did indeed appear to be wishing they were elsewhere. And it showed.
Don’t waste your hard-earned marketing budget on a trade show unless you plan to demonstrate gold-medal enthusiasm to those who come. Let your passion, not your exhaustion, shine through and just like Team Canada – you’ll have victory.
Peace.
The past few days have been heavy with a capital H. Every where I turn, new photos of the Haiti devastation bring fresh tears to my eyes. I was thrilled to see a photo today that made me smile – and read a story that reminded me of the importance of loving what you do.
Shout Backs