Shooting from the Hip — 4.10 (Traveling in Ohio)

Trade Show Blog

Shooting from the Hip (trade show tips)

Shooting from the Hip

Well, this week has been a whirlwind of travel and appointments with some fun scattered in. I toured Ohio all week: from Michigan to Cincinnati (Jimmy Buffett Concert), north to Dayton, over to Columbus, then Cleveland, Akron, and Canton. About 1300 total miles were driven.

I almost always travel alone. On a rare occasion, Kevin (Carty) or Dave Brown or Gina Porcaro (both from Optima Graphics) will travel with me for a specific customer event, but that is pretty rare. It just so happened that my wife was able to go with me on this trip. I am not sure she will want to go again. We did see the concert, which is always a good time, but I think she now understands that business travel isn’t leisure travel. Business travel isn’t about sightseeing. It’s a lot of packing up and moving to the next city.  Dragging everything in, setting up, and then getting it all ready to pack and leave the next morning. I am not complaining, but I hope you know this isn’t all entertainment and room service.

I want to take an opportunity to thank Vinnie Papa from Ohio Displays for taking me to the Winking Lizard in Cleveland for lunch last week.  What a cool place. Not only did he pick a cool spot, but then he (the customer) bought me (the vendor) lunch. Jim Hoffmann always says the vendor pays, but that didn’t apply this time. Sweet!

May’s business climate is certainly better than the 55 degrees and rain in NW Michigan. Classic Exhibits and ClassicMODUL are on track to have a solid May. Let’s just hope it continues until September when the typical busy season starts again. As always, thank you for your business and many thanks to all the folks I saw during my trip last week. You’re the best!

Until next week . . .

–Reid Sherwood

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