Trade Shows: Carpet Choices

Choosing the color for your trade show booth carpet is a very important component of exhibiting. Why? Because if you choose the wrong color, it could prevent people from entering your booth. Now what I mean by wrong color, is a color different from the aisles. Choose your booth carpet to match the color the aisles carpet.

Color differences present a subconscious barrier to trade show attendees. Look at other booths and watch people look at the items in the booth without stepping into the booth. If they aren't engaged by booth staffers, they keep walking.

I've had trade show booths on the corners of an aisle with booth carpet matching the aisles carpet. Many people are walking by and end up walking right into our booth. This effect intensifies with island booths.

Book Review: Velocity: Combining Lean, Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints to Achieve Breakthrough Performance

This is the first "business novel" I've encountered. I think overall that strategy helped make the LSS principles understandable, but I think there was too much romance added into the story line. Even though implementing LSS principles into this fictional company's processes, a large part of their issues seem to be communications-based. Obviously there is a reason for the challenges that this fictional company has, but in real life, each of the company's business units should have been communicating to one another and may have been able to implement LSS principles without a huge LSS investment. If you're looking for an introduction into LSS principles, learning about the Theory of Constraints and the benefits of an unbalanced system, then pick this book up or listen to the audio book.

Trade Shows: Fair Pricing

In the June 2011 issue of Inc. magazine, Seth Burstein of Trade Show Internet writes to Norm about the exclusivity of some in-house services at trade shows. Unfortunately, many exhibitors believe that they are forced to utilize the "preferred" or in-house services, but there are ways around that. There is no reason that you cannot search for what meets your company's needs and budget. The trade show and conference managers know this too, that's why they provide an Exhibitor Approved Contractor sheet in many exhibitor manuals that exhibitors fill out. This sheet tells the organizer of the trade show or conference that you've decided to use a vendor not listed in the exhibitor manual.

In the Inc. column, Norm does suggest some ways for Seth to keep momentum with his company stating, "Seth and his partner need to stay focused on their real goal, which is to build a viable business, not to change the way trade shows are managed."

There will always be road blocks and naysayers trying to prevent you from achieving your goals, but just make sure that you've vetted all possibilities and resources to continue on your path around them.