I was exchanging emails with a few fellow Dopers and was ranting a bit about my experiences over the past few days -
I figured I would open it up to the SDMB in general. I gotta put on my monkey suit and press the flesh for a few hours right now; help me out by serving up some commiseration so when I get back and put my feet up I can have a giggle.
So - what trade-show war stories have you got?
Back in 2002, I helped some extended friends staff their booth at a show. About all I can remember at this point is roughly 15-hour days and by noon on the first day, our visitors had all blended together into a blur.
If I can offer any advice, it’s water, water, water. Keep drinking water throughout the day. This will keep your voice from devolving into a croak and it will help keep you from falling over. Eating through the day is important as well. Nothing makes quite an impression on a potential customer as fainting on them because your blood sugar just crashed.
I haven’t done any real booth duty for 15 years, but a month ago I agreed to work at a booth my conference got in trade with another. It was just me for an entire day - luckily traffic was light. The fun part was that when I arrived an hour before the show started, I found that they hadn’t bothered to set up the booth - even though we were on the map. It then took an hour or so after the show started to get my table and chairs.
But a guy in the next booth was someone I had worked with on a program committee a long time ago, and who I had dealt with a bit when he did a stint in the trade press, so that was fun.
My trade show hell was usually on the other side - I was the crazy person there to visit every booth. Not too difficult at a small show like Graphexpo or SIGGRAPH but damn near suicidal at a mega-show like CES with it’s 2700+ exhibitors. It’s a 20 mile a day Bataan Death March on the worst walking surface known to man, cheap carpet on concrete with no pad.
Worked one for a defense contractor - what a bunch of SERIOUSLY cheap people. EVERY other contractor that came by was just there for the swag, and we had made the mistake of turning our backs on the display. Someone took our demo product (showing the work we can fabricate) and put it behind THEIR display case!
Dumbasses, too, because our logo was what we created.
I’ve only done one and that was enough for me. I made the mistake of only taking one pair of shoes for working the show. My feet needed a week to recover from the torture.
You have my sympathy.
I’ve been doing them in one guise or another for more than 10 years. The suck, it is huge.
I had to explain to my wife why I hate them so much. She was all, “You get to go to Miami and Vegas and L.A. and Chicago. You love to travel, I think it would be fun.”
I then explained that between breakfasts, the show, dinner with prospects or partners or whatever that it was anywhere from a 16-20 hour day, being “on” the whole time, for three days in a row. It doesn’t matter what city you’re in, all hotel ballrooms and convention centers look pretty much the same after you’re in them for a bit. There’s little time and no motivation to go and do anything touristy in the city you’re in, and besides, your feet hurt too damn much to do it anyway.
True story. A couple years ago I was on a back to back to back to back to back set of shows in different cities. It was toward the end and I was just exhausted and burned out to the point of stupid. I’d made a list of some restaurants close to the hotels where I was staying that I wanted to try.
I walked to the lobby one night and asked the consierge if he could give me directions to Franco’s. He looked at me puzzled. “You know, really popular French bistro. Great reviews. It’s only supposed to be like a mile from here.”
I had him stumped, and he was obviously bothered by this. He called over the manager, asked him. He had no idea. Then he pulled out a guide to see if he could find it for me. It was then that I realized I was now in Chicago, not St. Louis where the restaurant is actually located. I muttered, “Uh, you know, that’s okay. Never mind,” and walked away.
One quick show survival tip: Take three pairs of shoes. 1 for first day of show, 1 for second day and one to relax or do evening activities in. Your feet will thank you.
One time many years ago, when I was working for a software company, I had to fill in for our regular booth babe, who was out of town. Note that I’m not a woman.
The show was uneventful, but actually reasonably successful; I was the only man “manning” a booth! Maybe the guys were too busy ogling to actually try the other companies’ products or something.
But yeah, standing there, being “on” all day is tiresome, although since it was just one day and local, it wasn’t too big of a deal for me.
I did one in the winter for my non-profit. The booth was comped for us, which is a good thing since vendors seemed to outnumber visitors about 3:1. I bailed about 2 hours early and skipped the second day entirely, other vendors were bitching about a refund when I left. The moron organizers picked the weekend of the Gasparillafestival for the show, when there about a million better things to do.
Well my show ended and I made out. Jeez, I can hardly wait to go to yoga and see if I can get some of the kinks out of my body. Oy.
FallenAngel your stories take the cake - thanks everyone for commiserating…
I’m laughing in sympathy. I did only two a year, and I was the technical expert, which was an easier job than doing demos all the time. I also did a lot of demo suite duty, where you can actually sit down and even have something to drink if no one is there.
Great story, btw! I’ve forgotten what city I’m in a few times, but only in my room. I bet everyone who travels a lot has at one time or another.
LOL
FallenAngel, you’d like my part in trade shows even less than your own if 3 days of those hours bothers you.
I’m the guy who lights the booths (and the General Sessions) at trade shows. I routinely work 8a-12mid for as many as 28 days straight (some car shows are very intense), and I’m not just standing around. I’m humping cable that weighs about 1.5 lbs. per foot, in 100-200 foot lengths. I have to hang and replace lights that weigh upwards of 100 lbs each. Sometimes I have to walk on and hang from truss that is 1’ wide, suspended 25-45’ over the concrete floor. Occassionally I have to program the moving lights in booths that are so big I can’t see the other end, or even all of it at once.
Trade shows are not, for anyone, an easy time. And yeah, more than once I’ve not only forgotten where I was, but when it was. As in, I’ve gotten the month wrong more than once, even tho it might be the 20th.
True story: I used to do GM’s press events at NAIAS in Detroit. 5 weeks in Detroit, in Dec-Jan), every year. One year, I got a phone call from my landlord while I was installing the press event lighting.
Bo: Hey, Steve. What’s up?
Landlord: Hey, Bo. Yer neighbors Joe & Freddie called me, and I thought I better give you a call. Are you at work?
Bo: Yeah. I’m in Detroit doing the auto show.
LL: I thought so; I can hear all kinds of machinery and stuff in the background.
Bo: Yeah it’s a big show, lots going on. What’s up? Everything okay?
LL: Everything is fine. They called because they hadn’t seen you in a few weeks, and they hadn’t seen your truck move, and they were worried you were dead.
Bo: (laughing) No, I’m fine, except for being stuck in Detroit for another couple of weeks during winter.
Bo - whoa. I was involved with that level of behind the scenes stuff at a big store mgr meeting for Staples, the office supply store a few years ago. I got to sit on a chair and watch techs like you do the real work. Much respect - like watching pro roadies do big concert set up.
ETA: Oh - no demo dolly stories? 
I believe they prefer the term “booth babes”.
Which reminds me of my (one) experience:
Bring a full change of clothes, just in case. If nothing else, you’ll appreciate driving 2 hours homeward not smelling like a locker room towel.
Always know where the bathroom is.* Talking to a potential customer for twenty minutes can magically transform that light pressure in your bladder into Niagara Falls Urgency without you noticing, and the lines can be long.
A good pair of shoes makes all the difference in the world.
I had a buddy who wore shades most of the time to cut down on the glare from the overhead halogen lights. If anything, it drew random peoples’ attention and brought them to the booth.
If you can get restful sleep in a quick (15-20 minute) nap, do it at least once halfway through. But don’t count on getting that nap.
YMMV.
Wait…the women at these things are actual employees of their company? I always thought they were from temp modeling/acting type agencies?
A company I once worked for hosted an event once a year. I would get there before dawn for the set up. Dealing with the vendors and their displays was worse than heading cats. 10 feet wide means 10 feet. I don’t care you can’t squeeze a little into the next space because his display is 10 feet also. If everybody turns it up to 11 there is a problem with physics, like the walls surrounding us.
Or aisles. No you cannot be special and put some of your stuff in the walkways. That creates bottleneck and pisses off the customers. Remember them?
2nd year on, I carried 2 tape measures a ton of photocopied maps and spraypaint to put marks on the floor. I caught people with their own rolls of duct tape, masking and electrical tape in every color in their kits so they could innocently make their own booth marks larger saying these are the marks that were there when the arrived. Bullshit.
It was an adventure once a year that broke up the routine of the regular job. Even after I left the company I was begged and paid very well to come back that one weekend a year to help out and set up.
It depends. Before my time, when the National Computer Conf. was in LA, they hired about every unemployed actress in town.
But anyone actually talking to customers about products or taking leads seems to be employees, in my experience. I’ve seen booths with guys with show biz experienced hired to give high level presentations. It was clear that they had no idea what they were talking about, but they said it very dynamically.