Trade Show Tales Blog

For the next two weeks, we’ll share 10 Things We Probably Shouldn’t — one each day. Actually one, plus another one. Enjoy! #10. Unlike many of our competitors, we do not dictate your shipping/freight options. It’s your choice. We can arrange your freight, or you can arrange it through your carrier and your account number. We’re flexible. However, there are several reasons why allowing us to arrange your freight is advantageous. First, our FedEx and UPS discounts are probably much better than yours based on our volume and history. We consistently ship 10-20 orders per day. Second, we purchase freight insurance, not through the carrier, but through a separate policy. This insurance is MUCH BETTER and typically covers the full cost of the exhibit.

We encourage you to discuss your freight options with your Project Manager. You may discover that allowing us to arrange your freight makes a lot more sense both for your peace-of-mind and financially.

For the next two weeks, we’ll share 10 Things We Probably Shouldn’t — one each day. Actually one, plus another one. Enjoy!

#8. Electrical and wire management can be a challenge — not the implementation but the communication. It’s the trade show equivalent of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell.” We neglected to ask you about wire management, and you forgot to tell us about your client’s electrical or cabling needs. This may sound a little whiney, but we’re begging you to initiate that conversation on every design and order. Better yet, make it part of the initial design criteria. We do our darndest to be proactive about wire management, but we’re not perfect. If you don’t see it on the drawing or in the order confirmation, then it slipped through the cracks — and someone’s going to have to deal with it on the show floor. That’s just one more issue that we want to solve before your client does.

Plus 1. Every Friday afternoon between 3-5 pm we play dodgeball in our Setup Area. The teams are almost always Production vs. Customer Service, Design, and Management, which helps to diffuse any tension percolating during the week. The two best players in Production are Igor and Ivan. The two best players in Customer Service are Anne and Edie, which shouldn’t surprise you if you’ve ever met the men in those departments. Remember the the 5 D’s: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge.

To learn more about dodgeball, view The 5 D’s of Dodgeball video.

For the next two weeks, we’ll share 10 Things We Probably Shouldn’t — one each day. Actually one, plus another one. Enjoy! #7. You probably already know this but will confirm it anyway. Not every exhibit design shown in Design Monday has been built (or in some cases even engineered). Heck, that’s why we called it “Design Monday,” not “Kits Monday.” Has it ever bit us in the tutu? Never, because we either design the exhibits to be built or we figure out how to build them. Sure we take risks . . . but we’re not stupid.

Plus 1. Classic Exhibits is located on International Way in Milwaukie, OR (a suburb of Portland). Now, we’re not sure our industrial park, which is a beautiful industrial park with trees, a stream, and a wetlands, qualifies as international, but our workforce may. In addition to the many native-born Oregonians and Washatonians, we have employees born in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, Bosnia, and Turkey. And then there’s Charlie Shivel, our Kentucky-born PM. You’d think there would be a temptation to pick on Charlie, but Mel White, the VP of Marketing, is a much easier target. Although born in Washington State, he’s live much of his life in West Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and North Dakota. Statistically, Mel wins by a landslide.

For the next two weeks, we’ll share 10 things we probably shouldn’t — one each day. Actually one, plus another one. Enjoy! #6. Good exhibit designers are different (and sometimes a little scary). By nature, they are creative, resourceful, efficient, inquisitive, and even petulant at times. They have the uncanny ability to envision complex solutions with minimal instructions. And while many of them are mentalists, like Kreskin, they are not psychics or mind-readers. They are good, just not that good. Want some practical advice on how to maximize a designer’s creative potential and minimize any peevishness (Hey, we’re human too), then we urge you to avoid the following “cotton candy” design descriptions:

Open and Airy
Contemporary but Classic
Clean not Cluttered
Modern Looking but No Metal
We’ll know what we want when we see it (Ugh?!!!!!!!)
Plus 1. Our production manager is Jim, but that isn’t his real name. Ten years ago, our former production manager couldn’t pronounce “Yevgenity,” so rather than learn to pronounce it, he simply decided that “Jim” was easier. He’s been Jim ever since. We share this because it illustrates how our production team accommodates distributor requests (sometimes to a fault). If you want a Yevgenity to be a Jim, then they’ll make it a Jim.

For the next two weeks, we’ll share 10 things we probably shouldn’t — one each day. Actually one, plus another one. Enjoy! #5. Classic markets two pop up displays — the Quadro S (square frame) and the Quadro EO (self-locking, economy option frame). We want to be sympathetic when you tell us that naming both pop up systems Quadro is confusing (we really do). But the evil side of us says, “This is the same person who could describe ‘at length’ the differences between the Oreo Sandwich Creme and the Oreo Double Stuff and why the Oreo Cakester is better than the Milk Chocolate Covered Oreo.”

Plus 1. Anyone who has ever visited Classic can confirm the following . . . Classic has no lobby, no showroom, no receptionist. When you enter our building, you step onto the manufacturing floor. There’s no better example of who we are and what we do than that. We are a designer and manufacturer of trade show exhibits whose products are sold through an independent network of professional distributors.