TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report

Job Hunting

After four years of working full time at the coffeehouse, it's become apparent that there's less than a snowball's chance in hell that revenues from the shop will ever be enough to support both my wife and I. 

One of us needs to get back to work.  And since I'm the minority owner, it looks like that's me.

So, if anyone is looking for someone with a ton of experience in marketing trade shows, marketing and selling services (technology or otherwise) to exhibitors, or is looking for someone to handle research and/or due diligence for launches or acquisitions, drop me a line. 

Particulars are here.

When Amex Loses, So Do You

Just had an interesting experience with American Express that I think does not bode well for the meeting industry.

I'm doing a project for a conference using an online printer.  I went to charge a not-all-that-unusually high figure to cover print and postage. 

Declined. 

Say what?

I've been doing this for the same client for roughly the same amounts at the same time each of the past four years.  Because he's also a good friend, it's the only time I'll advance print/postage charges on my card.  Never had a problem before.

I call Amex to see what's up.  They tell me that because my monthly charge total has been averaging X for the past six months, this new charge, which is higher, was automatically declined as it does not reflect my "pattern" of spending.  That, and I had a Sign and Travel balance I'd been carrying.

And here I thought the whole purpose of the Sign and Travel feature was to allow for carrying a balance.  Silly me.

It didn't matter that I've had this pattern of major Q4 print and postage purchases for the past four years.  To Amex, it only matters what has happened in the past six months.

The representative (who was very nice) told me that if I pay my current Sign and Travel balance AND the charges I've incurred this month to date - which I haven't even received a statement for yet - then, with the approval of a supervisor, I can put through the print and postage purchase I'm trying to make.   

I pay.  My purchase goes through.  My conference can now be marketed.

Then I ask her a question.  I have an even bigger job that I need to print in three weeks.  It's 3x the amount I just charged.  I've also done that for four years running.  The rep tells me I have to call ahead to get that charge approved.  And that I may have to prepay some part of that charge in order to get it approved by Amex.

At that point, it simply makes more sense to pay by check, doesn't it?

Now, I've been a "member" with Amex since 1984.  I understand they're having some difficulties.  But this seems absurd.

And while I am willing to work around this because I have to get this print job out, how many potential attendees whom you're targeting for your next conference will find themselves in the same situation, trying to put through a big flight or hotel or registration fee that exceeds their six month spending "pattern", and when their purchase is declined, will just say, "Screw it," and not attend?

My guess is that it will be quite a few.  For two reasons.  First, it's a pain to deal with and even if it's Amex's fault and not yours... well, it rubs off.  And there's a decent chance many of those potential attendees won't have the funds handy to pay off their current balances. 

Second, and this is more critical, is that anything that in the way of completing the registration process is an opportunity for your potential customer to reconsider whether they really need to attend your event.  As many attendees use Amex to complete their purchase, many are going to be in for a rude surprise.  And my guess is, that once they're done fuming over the problem with Amex, they may discover it really wasn't as urgent to register for your event at that moment as they thought.

In other words, when Amex has a problem, it creates problems for others.  And you lose.

Be prepared for it.

Either You're With Us Or Against Us

Tim Bourquin bares his soul in this intriguing and sure-to-be-controversial post on whether he should continue in offering a tradeshow component to his New Media event.

He lists five areas of dealing with vendors and prospects where he's reached his wit's end:
- wireless internet
- drayage
- "pay for play" (prospect's refusal to exhibit w/o a speaking opportunity)
- attrition
- lack of control over how subcontractors treat customers

On first read, I think part of Tim's challenge on the cost issues is that his exhibitors are new school thinkers, possibly undercapitalized, and armed with deep and wide metrics from their online marketing activities - metrics difficult to duplicate with inexact media like tradeshows.

The experienced among us know that booth space is often only 20-25% of total exhibitor expense. But as show managers, we have to justify the other 75% too.  Despite advances in data capture, our industry's metrics remain too inexact for many customers and prospects.  For the show manager, there's simply no one spreadsheet factoid we can point at for a specific show and say, "This was your expense. This was your return. How can you say exhibiting at our show didn't work?"

That, plus, particularly with drayage, many of Tim's exhibitors may not be "used to" this type of extortion (or the soda example,  which truly sucks), whereas in traditional and mainstream industries the person responsible for managing the logistics just plugs that number into a spreadsheet because they know it's coming.  So it maybe the unanticipated surprise and shock as the actual figure.

I wanted to give Tim a wider audience for this post as it's a necessary discussion for our industry.

I'd write more about it, but I'm on my wife's Dell which has a broken space bar and uses XP, which I've all but forgotten how to deal with ;-)

SlideShare for Dummies

And I am a dummy.

Before I went to sleep last night, I uploaded Friday's presentation for NACS08 to SlideShare.  First thing I did when I woke up this morning was go look at it.

Oy.  The font was all but unreadable.  After digging around I figured out why:  apparently the Stone Sans ITC font I used is considered an "obscure" font and thus, converts to something else when it's processed.  Something hideous.

Moral:  humble yourself and read the FAQ when you're using a new app for the first time.  This is explained on the FAQ and also visible when you look at everyone else's uploaded presentations, none of which use "obscure" fonts.

I originally chose the Stone Sans ITC because I took the advice of someone (a famed blogger I'll not name here) who does a ton of presentations who recommended using a more unusual font to make the presentation more memorable.  I guess that person doesn't use SlideShare.

So, I'm off to spend an hour or so converting a copy of my slides to boring old Arial Bold for the upload.  I'll keep the Stone Sans ITC for the live presentation.

I'll post a link over here once I'm happy with the final product.

Derailed

It's been almost a month since I posted on the SCAA's use of blogs and live video blogging at their most recent conference.   I was hoping to be able to discuss that in more detail, including some metrics.

Looks like that's not going to happen.  Although I was told, "Sure Rich.  No problem.  Let me know what you need," by one of the association's directors, nothing more has been forthcoming.

Which is a shame as I thought sharing that info would have been helpful to other associations.

And this from an association that's recently suffered through an embarrassing financial scandal and has pledged greater transparency. 

Actions, not words, folks.

We'll ford on.  I've been learning about some new stuff from an aging boomer who happens to be the most knowledgeable guy on social networking apps in all of Mt. Lebanon, PA.  Helps that he's a customer of the shop.  We've been talking a bit... so I'll share some of that instead in the coming weeks.

The Best List of Social Media How-Tos and Whys

In preparing for speaking at NACS next month, I wanted to make sure that I'm prepared for questions on all things regarding my topic - using social media to add value to your event. 

As more of my daily use of social media tools is for our coffeehouse and local networking and not specifically for conferences, I felt the need for a quick refresher on the broader picture of application usage beyond what I typically use them for.

And there was Chris Brogan anticipating my very need.  The best list of "how-tos and whys" that  I've ever seen.  Saved me a ton of hunting and gathering.  If you're looking for a primer on all things social media, I can't think of a better post to start with.  And even if you're an experienced user, it's a worthwhile refresher to ensure you're covering all your bases.

Chris is the catalyst behind PodCamps.  I've been fortunate enough to speak at and attend a couple in Pittsburgh and found Chris to be a totally down-to-earth guy who (unlike some) can relate to non-techhies.  If there's a PodCamp in your area, get to one - you'll learn a bunch and meet a lot of interesting folks.

Specialty Coffee Association Conference - Coming Around to the Benefits of Social Networking

Some new posts are forthcoming...

I was at the SCAA convention in Minneapolis last week as both a technical judge for the barista competition and a trade show attendee.  But as good as attending both events were, the thing that blew me away most about being there was sitting in the lobby during the barista competitions.

The reason was that there was live video blogging of the competitions.  With a real-time chat screen.  This was the first time either was attempted at this event (last year's even had some time delayed video, but no interaction).  The live video/chat enabled family, friends, colleagues, fellow baristas and coffee growers whose beans were being represented from around the globe as well as curious folks like me to witness the competition with close up camera work while engaging in ongoing conversation as it was happening. 

In many ways watching the competition remotely was preferable to taking a seat in the bleachers and watching in person (very little talking inside (kinda rude to do so), poor sight lines,  hard to see the details that mattered for scoring).

There was also a conference blog that included video interviews from the show floor, some session reviews and even some light entertainment.

I'm going to post a few things about this event as more information is made available on specifics of how it was done and what the Association hopes to acheive with ongoing social networking initiatives.  The dynamics are pretty interesting as several members of the production team themselves are coffee industry bloggers who put their own content aside temporarily to write and produce for the benefit of the Association and its members and prospective members.

All in all quite interesting to see what a mainstream event (non-tech) can do vis a vis live real-time production.  And that the Association in question did not have a prior reputation for innovation.  Now it does.  The feedback from those in the barista community has been overwhelmingly positive.  The question is, how to measure the value of what was just achieved and how to interpret those results going forward.

Stay tuned...

It Would Be Funny If It Weren't Sad

Those of you still getting the feeds from this site are well aware that I spend no time here anymore. 

As I did a post tonight for a new application, I figured I'd do a quick ego search on this blog just to see where we ranked.

Surprisingly (to me), this blog is still #1 on Google for "trade show blog".  And #3 for "tradeshow blog".  And I've posted a mere 12 times in 2007.  13 including this one.

How come nobody else has even tried, save for Tim Bourquin?  It's going on four years since I started this.  And more than a year since I basically "retired". 

Every other industry you can think of is rife with blogs.  Why not this one?  Is it that we're unable to be transparent?  Unwilling to share?  Too overworked to bother?  Or only in it for the money and not because we really care to evangelize and be a community?

What do y'all think is the reason?

Facebook Apps: Event Connector

I'm doing this one for a new acquaintance who messaged me over on Facebook this morning.

Pete Warden has a Facebook app he's put together called "Event Connector".  It's basically a widget that announces to the world that you're going to some event and will compile a list of friends and friends of friends on Facebook who have also stated their intent to attend the same event.  You can also place the widget on TypePad and Blogger blogs.

I don't yet see a payoff in mainstream conferences (although certainly niche tech and social network events should be all over it).  But it would be a boon for local and regional events near universities or those that target students or recent grads most likely to be Facebook users.

And yes, that would include consumer shows.

The Marketing Conference I'd Like to Attend Even If I Don't Sell to this Audience

Do you ever run across conferences that have little or nothing to do with you, your hobbies, your current business or your golf game - yet you want to go anyway just to attend and sit and listen?

This is my choice for 2007:  Mashup, run by the folks who produce YPulse, the media site for marketing to teens (those of you I met in Milwaukee at NACS - this was the "youth marketing company" I referred to during our session).

The Mashup agenda is extremely compelling.  It's a race for me as to whether I'll need to be marketing to these kids in 10 years or whether I'll be semi-retired by then.  Regardless, I think understanding how this age group perceives media and marketing is already extremely important to anyone in B2C.  That there are teens on the panels is interesting and I expect, fascinating.

Unfortunately I won't be making it out to SF for Mashup.  Other more important priorities and commitments with the coffeehouse.  And I've only got a couple of toes in show biz.  You've got both feet.  I'd suggest checking it out.

Here's the punchline:  organizers told Guy Kawasaki he couldn't speak at the conference because he was too old.  One can imagine they think Tom Peters is already dead.

Besides, if you didn't attend, how else would anyone over 30 year old learn about something like this?