Throughout my career, I have designed many tradeshow booths. Mostly for Zildjian but also for National Geographic Learning, and Overtone voice chat. Obviously, in the current landscape, companies are doing virtual tradeshows and conferences instead. But after those experiences, I have gained a great deal of experience and lessons with these experiences.

Phone-a-friend

Throughout my experiences, I have had issues or unexpected challenges that required me to phone-a-friend for help. Having not only the tradeshows maintenance numbers and your printers who are printing and shipping the graphics but also third party companies in case you need something done ASAP. A case in point we had an Avedis product launch for Zildjian the back of the booth had a glass display and we did an Avedis cymbal one and the logo was a signature that was carved out of foam core. The problem was it was delivered underneath 50lbs of booth pieces and crushed and cracked. I had a few people call and have one made and brought over to the booth within the same day. It was good that I could reach out to my list of contacts to make things happen.

Nothing is Forever/Mistakes Will Be Made

Each year a booth will have repeats but then the booth will have new sections and releases. In the time I worked at Zildjian I went through many unique pieces that supported the booth and worked to improve the experience every year but some years, I want to forget. Almost every year, whomever my boss would be at the time, I would always have someone disappointed when they see the approved artwork in person, they say, change it. I never could get angry but it would add to the list of items that I needed to do with finding the graphics, getting them up, getting ready for filming, and then now reprinting something. Again where the Phone-a-friend comes in hand but having the patience to make it right and or the unexpected, we saw this on a booth, we need to change it. One time we used the likeness of a drummer that we thought was approved until his daughter came to the booth with a cease and desist and we had to take down and replace the graphics. Never a dull moment and challenged our problem-solving skills.

It’s Loud

Almost any convention is loud and will leave your ears ringing and your eyes overworked. Also, headaches were even more enhanced by the after-hours parties. Again not just the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) show with Zildjian which there was a great deal of but every industry has them. You should always pack aspirin and take breaks when you can and go outside of the convention center. Being on a booth that is all cymbals we were probably the loudest booth which adds the pain. Some years I did interviews on the booth with drummers and those were an audio nightmare.

Do You Have Any Free Stuff?

If you have been in a booth of your company, you get some interesting questions and asks. The main thing is: what can I get for free? I remember we had a drumstick wall and we wanted people to try them out but they got legs and walked away all the time. So we glued them and still people found a way to rip them off the wall! It was frustrating but funny to come out and see the stand and glue all torn out. Luckily we put key locks on the cymbals or we would have had nothing to display. People pay to get in and see the new products are not good enough and they feel they deserve to take items. I remember every year at PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) we made a Zildjian hat that we gave away and it was everyone would run to our both right away and be like “do you have the hat!?” and then they would take off.

Overall, it has been a great experience and I will forever be thankful for the time I have had with my experiences at tradeshows.