By Emerson Schwartzkopf
If it’s January, there must be a trade show.
Two, to be precise. One in Orlando, one in Las Vegas. (And one more in Atlanta by early May, for good measure.). It’s time to make decisions: Should you go? And where?
The second choice is up to you, depending on your business location and your needs. The first one is easy: Yes. Go.
It’s okay if you think I’m acting in my best interest here. We promote trade shows in Stone Update Magazine, and we don’t do it for free. (Yes, as the game-show boilerplate goes, “promotional consideration paid by ….”)
You’ll read plenty about events, education and awards to entice attendance. After a number of years in the trade, you might see this as more of a way to fill magazine pages.
For me, it’s not an exercise in futility, or the same-old, same-old every year. I believe it’s in your best interest to take in a trade show, and next year’s a good time to be at one.
This is not said for the romance of going to trade events. I attended my first, in another industry, 38 years ago in January. By and large, these are not held in exotic places of pleasure and general debauchery. (If you think Las Vegas counts, you’ve never been off The Strip.) I’ve yet to be at an after-hours party where anyone’s danced with a lampshade on their head or jumped, either fully clothed or naked, into a pool.
Most involve tromping down endless aisles of thinly-padded carpet in halls with enough concrete to arouse a designer of nuclear-missile silos. A colleague once described her average day as “wake up with a hangover, consume early morning grease, spend eight hours being everyone’s best friend, eat a can of Crisco® for dinner, drink a case of beer, go to bed, and repeat it all over again the next day.”
So what’s the attraction? Why do I keep going and travel on my own dime to do it? Very simple: I’m always learning something.
I spend nearly all my time walking those aisles (strong recommendation here for compression socks) looking at exhibit stands, along with the people in those booths. I can tell a lot about how the industry’s doing by the kind of wares offered by exhibitors and what attracts the big crowds. It’s often surprising to find out the “gotta haves,” whether it’s a $90 tool or $390,000 machine.
I also listen a lot at questions being asked, and with general conversation. Fabricators like talking to other fabrications about, well, fabrication, and there are mounds of tips, techniques, gossip and general banter that you rarely get anywhere else. It’s the unstructured time and the off-the-cuff talk that often provide real gems for your business, and you don’t get it in a PowerPoint® presentation in a conference room.
Do you need to go every year to every show? Good gravy, no; that falls under my job category, not yours. You can’t leave the job that often; I can work on the magazine anywhere there’s wireless service, and you’d be hard-pressed to digitally fabricate a countertop in your hotel room.
At least one show every two years? That’s a good minimum, but it’s better if you try a bit harder. Many professions have requirements to bolster education, and fabricators need to see and hear the new on a regular basis.
I’ve heard people say they didn’t need to go to a show because they don’t have any big problems in the shop. Turn that thought on its head; finding out more at a show can help you refine your shop and avoid having those big problems.
Not every day at a trade show is a happy day. There are afternoons when I know I’m dragging along, and the thought occurs of my last fading vision on earth being the bright vapor lights and crossbar-steel of a convention-center ceiling while I lie on thinly padded carpet. But it’s only a few minutes before something piques my interest, and I’m finding out about something I didn’t know an hour ago.
Take a look at the schedule. Make plans for going somewhere and learning something new. And, when times get draggy and feet are sore, take my sage advice: Ice cream helps. A lot.