GraphExpo Coverage: I want to let my readers know that starting September 9th I plan to blog live each day from the GraphExpo show floor (or my hotel room at 2am). This is a similar format to the IPA coverage I did back in May. Because I do not want to fill up your email inboxes, the posts will be available at JimRaffel.com. I will decide if I do this at future shows based on the traffic increase (if any) on the site during the show. In other words, my future show blogging is in the hands of you, my readers.
Every now and then I am going to write a light hearted Golden Nugget, and this is going to be one of them. I have made my list of customers that I really want to see (you know who you are, as I have been calling you non-stop this week to set-up appointments) I have checked it twice. None of them have been naughty; they are my customers after all, so they are all nice. (Well there is that one in central Michigan…).
I have booked my cheap hotel room. Cheap you say? Yes, when all I do is sleep there 4 hours a night and then use the shower, cheap is good. Four hours a night you say? Yes, up by 7am each day. On the show floor by 9 (we exhibitors need time to set things up each morning). I spend all day on my feet in the booth and at meetings outside the booth. This is why bringing two really comfortable pair of shoes and alternating them between days is critical. (Don’t forget your cross trainers for at night or you will not be able to stand in the morning). Does it sound fun yet? Well, I love it!
Next thing I know it is 3pm and I realize I have eaten nothing since the free breakfast in the hotel lobby. I probably will get nothing to eat until the vendor party (free hors de oeuvres) that I have managed to secure an invitation to, but that doesn’t start for 2-3 more hours. (Way too busy with double booked appointments and unexpected visitors to the booth.) My pocket is full of business cards and lead slips, and being this busy at a show is the best feeling in the world. I love it!
Five pm rolls around and all the exhibitors clap. You wonder why? Go back and read the last couple paragraphs. We head out to a vendor party, the Hyatt bar, or a dinner appointment with a great or potentially great customer. I say great customer because eating out for a week in Chicago could just about put my daughter through school for a semester! By 9 or 10pm I make a quick stop at the room to put on my jeans and those cross trainers I mentioned (they are critical now because I will be on my feet many more hours). I love it!
At this point I head to yet another vendor party at some swanky downtown nightclub to network with yet another group of business associates or customers. At whatever point this next event winds down, my best group of business buddies and I (going back 20 years now) can be found at “The Lodge.” Please come visit us one night during the show. Just ask the cab drive to take you to “The Lodge” which is on the corner of Rush and Division Streets. We can be found here by about 1am, and normally, at least some of us are still there at 3am. I love it!
Groundhog day: Now, just circle back a few paragraphs to the one about my cheap hotel. Is it all starting to make sense? GraphExpo at four nights is not so bad. During a Print show it really begins to feel like the movie Ground Hog Day. But you know what? I love Graph Expo, I really love it!
