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Being Effective and Having Fun at Your Company's Trade Show Booth (video)
No, working your company's trade show or conference booth isn't your job. But sooner or later, an awful lot of people (including me) get tagged for booth duty whether we want it or not. Fine. At least we can learn a little about how to do it well, which is why Andy Saks, of Spark Presentations, is offering us some useful tips on how to do well at trade shoms and conferences.
While Andy's focus is on corporate displays and presentations, everything he says also applies to FOSS projects that exhibit at anything from regional Linux conferences to multinational expos like OSCON and LINUXCON. And one last thought before we turn this over to Andy, who we recorded from Skype at an extremely low frame rate to make this a narrated slide show (with accompanying transcript, as usual): If you're working in a typical corporation, trade shows are often your best way to meet your own company's executives, espcially at casual after-show gatherings. You might also meet execs from other companies and be open to conversations about changing jobs, but this is not something you want to talk about with your bosses or their bosses, but is best kept quiet until or unless you have a firm offer in hand.
While Andy's focus is on corporate displays and presentations, everything he says also applies to FOSS projects that exhibit at anything from regional Linux conferences to multinational expos like OSCON and LINUXCON. And one last thought before we turn this over to Andy, who we recorded from Skype at an extremely low frame rate to make this a narrated slide show (with accompanying transcript, as usual): If you're working in a typical corporation, trade shows are often your best way to meet your own company's executives, espcially at casual after-show gatherings. You might also meet execs from other companies and be open to conversations about changing jobs, but this is not something you want to talk about with your bosses or their bosses, but is best kept quiet until or unless you have a firm offer in hand.
If there's a worse job than working a booth I can't think of it. Frankly, I'd rather scrub the staff washroom with a toothbrush than have to spend endless hours with disinterested people making mindless small talk, with clearly no intent of them ever using your product, or worse, interested people who still won't ever actually buy your product.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
and it was poorly done at that. trade show "booth babes" are fun, though.
It ain't like the giveaways make it worth your while these days.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
More accurately, the story went live before I finished editing it. Sorry about that. Fixed.
...then your company is stupid for putting you in the booth. I've done booth tours before because I wanted to actually talk to some people about what they thought of my products or at least why they've never heard of our company.
>> trade shows are often your best way to meet your own company's executives, especially at casual after-show gatherings
Then your executives probably suck too. They should be scaring up more business or soothing cash cow customers, not fucking around with the help.
>> You might also meet execs from other companies and be open to conversations about changing jobs, but this is not something you want to talk about with your bosses or their bosses, but is best kept quiet until or unless you have a firm offer in hand.
So...your hope is to tag along to a convention on your existing employer's dime, fuck around, and strike up a conversation that gets you hired by someone else on the convention floor? Are you supposed to slip your resume in with your company's glossies, or write "get me out of here" on your business card, or what?
One word: cocaine.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It said up front it was about running a trade show booth. You've got no one to blame but yourself.