Marshall Yard:

There are several tradeshows that are upcoming in the spring time, while researching a few of the events that will be taking place at Offshore Technology Conference on May 5th, in Houston, Texas.  I thought the theme “Waves of Change” was a very fitting not only to OTC 2008, but could be equate this to each and every industry we come across.

When you are launching a new business and trying to break into the fast paced growing industry standards, your marketing endevour for first time exhibiting can be quite frustrating, I recently read a post at Domestic Diva that brought to light the struggles of exhibiting for first timers. 

Decisions to exhibit should be weighed carefully and several months in advance, looking for prime trade show floor space with alot of traffic.  If you start early, you are more apt to get a prime location for your exhibit.  National Hardware Show is another tradeshow that will be taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center - May 6th-8th.  There will be over 18,000 buying attendee’s, planning to exhibit at a tradeshow in your industry could bring in new relationships, transmit your message to a large audience, help with service related issues and stimulate add-on sales.

Looking ahead at trends in booming marketplaces can become a complex process, recent advances in technology can help you capture your prospective clients attention.  If you are not infront of them, someone else will surely jump at the chance.

If you are contemplating exhibiting and marketing your business in the trade show arena, look ahead and start your strategy with an exhibit house that can offer you customized solutions.  Customized Rental Exhibits give you flexibility and can assist in your branding efforts. Offering you a valuable opportunity to introduce your products and services in a 3D Marketing environment.

Thank you Brad Trnasvsky of Sales Management 2.0 for hosting this weeks carnival

Several of the pieces that were included I have to strongly agree with.   Jim Logan of Accelerate Business Group, LLC   discusses Customer Loyalty.

With the following statement:

 ”I believe the foundation of customer loyalty is trust, predictability, and dependable quality”

Adding to those, I believe with innovation, efficicency, growth & quality, customer loyalty can become the solid foundation of any business plan. 

If you are planning on a business venture there is some smart advice about the marketing scheme of your business name that can be found over at Yes to Me.  I enjoyed this article because of the fact that we are in an “instant” society, with everything right in front of us for quick action. 

This made alot of sense in planning and strategy for marketing.  The best laid out plans seem to have the largest impact when it comes to exhibiting, we feel the time line for a successful exhibit as well should be well thought out so this article struck a cord with me. 

I have to agree with the post from Changeologists as well, being ready and being prepared for change.  That falls into my growth part of a business plan, if you have ever been in a company that is stagnent, you will agree with this article as well.  Change is inevitable, the only constant in life.  Being able to hurdle over several of the obstacles to expand, is a business challenge, and does need to have attention to detail. 

Thinking back about ten years ago, I recall doing mass mailings and postcard campaigns to prospective clients.  Running to the post office and trying to get everything out by your deadline.  Marketing has taken a completely different turn in the last few years, by way of social networking.  Where do we go to look for information? How many times a day do we tend to run to our computers to look something up? Even when we are interested in finding the best trade shows for our product and services, we head to the internet. 

I recently spent several days reading and catching up on all the events that happened at CES 2008, the largest consumer electronic trade shows. Spending several hours reading and keeping in touch with the upcoming trends can be a time consuming task.  With all of the new sites that pop up each and every day online that can give you an avenue for your marketing strategies, it is something that we should all be considering, and that manpower is needed for all the facets of social marketing.

Viral Marketing is defined as marketing that propagates itself, this type of marketing is at full throttle around all of us, it is quite an interesting but simple concept and trying to explain it to anyone that is not familiar with it becomes a rough and often times lonely road.  When you begin the process of this type of marketing, you will feel as if you are beginning to swim all over again.  There are several groups and forums to join and read, and this is where the masses of the internet marketers, search engine marketing & search engine optimization experts all hang out. 

Some take this to extremes and solely rely on cyberspace campaigns for marketing these days, is that smart, if you are in that business it is, if you know a lot of the heavy hitters among the forums and boards and top social sites, you can reach far more people than anyone that has just ventured into this type of marketing.  I believe that with most marketing campaigns a bit of balance is needed – continue with your print advertisement, exhibiting at trade shows, mass mailings and viral marketing.  All of these elements can get exposure and introduce you to prospects that may have been overlooked.

Viral Marketing is a tough campaign to sell to anyone that is from the old school, and relying solely on what they are familiar with.  Start out small, show the effects, keep logs of your success and failures, if this becomes a passion and you are enthralled at the outcome and the social contacts that are to be had, continue to push forward.  

Looking for the most stunning exhibit for CEDIA Expo 2008? If you are looking for variety, a custom rental exhibit is a great place to begin.  With successful exhibits at CES 2008, Catalyst Exhibits can help. 

Whether you are a first time exhibitor or a seasoned veteran on the trade show circuit, The Catalyst process is to create a noticably different and inviting enviornment for trade show attendee’s to flock to.

Knitting together the elements of your products and services in a display that will dazzle and will drive traffic into your exhibit space.  CEDIA Events  happen year round and the calendar is full, if you are planning on exhibiting at the CEDIA Expo - September 3-7th, 2008 in Colorado, a custom exhibit rental solution could be the best solution.  With several other events throughout the year with the CEDIA Organization, instead of an exhibit purchase, why not invest the time and effort into an exhibit rental that will give flexibility and variety?

If you purchase an exhibit, you are completely stuck with that entire look and feel for all of the trade shows that you have on your upcoming trade show calendar.

When it comes to exhibiting, there are many questions as well as varying right & wrong answers, customized rental exhibit properities give you flexibility to change things up and reach out to different audiences with different messages.  Attending several trade shows a year, as many corporations do, you want to excite and create an impact with the trade show attendee’s, if they see the same booth year in and year out, they may not see beyond that.

Change it up - Customized Rental Exhibits & Displays.

It must be that time of year, there have been several employees talking about these events.   Because of my complete lack of knowledge on the activity of a Pine Wood Derby, I really thought these participants were going to be standing out in the icy arctic freeze,  a little bit crazy I thought.   Alas, it is the miniature event that happens during the artic freeze in Chicago and it happens inside.  Who would have known!Catalyst Exhibits, Inc, recently sponsored a car for Dave’s son Craig, he is enrolled in the Cary, IL Cub Scouts Pack 857 - Den 1.  They recently participated in the 2008 Pinewood Derby on January 26th.  This was very exciting for the both of  them since this was their first year participating.The top 10 best times of the 50 cars which were entered in the Derby went ahead and advanced to the finals which will be taking place in Rockford, IL.  later this year. Unfortunately, they did not qualify for Rockford but they did win something else.

When you begin to plan your marketing strategies, and you come across the column for trade shows,  keep in mind what it is you are trying to accomplish.

Set your standards a little bit higher, you want your exhibit to send an aspirational message.  If you are investing your exhibit dollars to attend trade shows in your market segment, in all likelihood the competition is out there. 

Rent big

Buy small

With customized rental exhibits, your exhibit space can be a beacon of success on the trade show floor…a beacon of light that will shine well beyond the trade show.

Think leadership, your exhibit space should communicate leadership, along side your products, service and ideology.

MDM East will be hosted at Jacobs K Javits Convention Center in New York, June 2nd-5th, 2008.  Medical materials, electronics and computer aided designs will only be a fraction of what will be housed under 135,000 square feet of exhibit space. 

Seperate Pavillions with an array of specialty sessions and products will be available for education and networking with some of the industry leaders.  MDM East started in 1983, and is a great resource for Medical Equipment Manufacturers in North Eastern United States, an industry that continues to grow at unforseen speeds.  With the advancement in technologies, the trade show floor houses some of the most extraoridinary advancements in the medical device industry. 

Over 900 exhibitors, this is a prime trade show to take advantage of such an experienced group of suppliers in all facets of the medical device industry.

Whether your trade show booth is a 20 x 20 penisula, 40 x 40 or custom double deck exhibit, the ultimate goal is to produce an environment that portrays your corporate branding and products, planning for trade shows such as MDM East should be well thought out, discussed and reviewed a few months prior to the show date.  With a well thought out strategy and support of a highly trained manufacturers and designers of exhibits, you can go with confidence to trade show opening.

There will be four other events that will be happening at the same time at Jacob Javits Conference Center;

Atlantic Design & Manufacturing Trade Show

EastPack

ATX East - Automation Technology Expo

Plastec East

Your visit to MD&M East includes admission to
four co-located shows—delivering design, processing,
and packaging solutions…and everything in between.