Somehow over the past few years, between having kids and changing careers, I had forgotten about some of the absurdities of the tradeshow industry, including the exorbitant charges and strange fees associated with everything. At my last telecom conference in Atlanta a few years ago, the cost to rent a fold-up chair was $139 (although I could purchase the same one at Costco for 14 bucks); the carpeting – straight from the eighties – was $250 (I didn’t even inquire on the cost of underlay.) And let’s not forget drayage… basically, big burly men (cranky of course) getting your boxes from the outside of the site to your booth space inside the site (sometimes a whole 200 feet away), at a cost equivalent to my mortgage payment. Tradeshow mania.
It all came racing back to me when we signed up Every Little Bit to participate in EP!C this year. Billed as western Canada’s largest consumer sustainable living expo, it was a logical event for us to debut at. A tremendously successful weekend, but its still necessary to give the Clint Eastwood précis of the event.
The Good
- Booth location. We were conveniently situated about 50 feet away from the foodies…chocolate bliss balls, Hard Bite potato chips, organic wine….what more could we ask for?
- Qualified customers. Aside from Sunday morning when we should have been enjoying mother’s day brunch, there was a lot of traffic and great customers.
- Awesome volunteers. An EPIC volunteer saw I was on my own for a while during set up and jumped right in with box crushing, poster hanging and floor sweeping. And two of our Soroptimist sisters also helped Meg & I get off our feet for a bit. Thanks Clare & Wendy!
The Bad
- Time limitations. I guess this could be looked at as “the good” too, since it was only because we were so busy at our own booth, that we didn’t get much time to check out the other green products and entertainment out there.
- Tight pants. Yep, the booth location was good, but had a consequence on the waist-band by weekend.
- Price-gouging. Not by us. Seriously, the power drop to our 6X10 “booth” was $65 – more than my monthly bill from BC Hydro. See earlier rant on exorbitant pricing.
The Ugly
- Drought. In this “green” convention center, not a water fountain to be found. So, all of us eco-wannabes were pretty much driven to the dark side, almost falling prey to the evils of the plastic water bottle. Again, thank goodness for some really amazing volunteers who walked around periodically with pitchers of clear fluid. Not vodka. Drat.
- Sunday 4pm flea-marketers. Seriously…do you haggle at the Bay? While I respect a deal-hunter (being one myself), harping at us for 45 minutes to lower our price on a product we only make $3.40 profit on, is just not cool. Nor is blocking real customers from asking real questions.
By the time the show closed on Sunday night, our feet were swollen, voices gone and we were rather grubby (similar to an average day with my kids). But the closing also came with a high – natural of course. A lot of sales, potential partnerships, new leads and relief that it was over.
Tags: EPIC, green tradeshow
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