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The (In)Complete Glossary of Trade Shows, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

May 5th, 2025 Harold Mintz COMMENTS

What to Expect When You’re Expecting Exhibiting

Harold Mintz
Harold Mintz, Regional Sales Manager

A close friend of mine recently had her first child – a healthy baby boy. When I hear that a friend’s new baby is about to be born, I head to CVS or a newsstand and purchase as many newspapers and magazines as I can find with that day’s date. The papers can be major ones (Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, etc.) as well as more regional papers. For magazines, I grab Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and my fave… TV Guide.

I place each newspaper and magazine in thick clear plastic bags (specially purchased for this purpose) to keep them airtight and clean. Then I put my cool little Time Capsule in a box and send it off. The baby might not appreciate it now, but he/she will when they grow up.

Unfortunately, I often don’t learn of the baby’s birth until a day or two later which totally thwarts my Time Capsule concept. When that happens, I buy a baby Levi jean jacket and have it embroidered on the back with something like Zampella & Son, Since 2025 (see image below). It’s a goofy but fun keepsake that will make Mom and Dad (and eventually the baby) smile for years to come.

What does all this baby talk have to do with me? Absolutely nothing. But ever since my friends Jackie and Gina recently had their healthy baby, I’ve had baby brain. So, without further ado, I present you with my new glossary of trade show terms about “pregnancy and childbirth”!

Enjoy! Please add your terms in the comments section.

Glossary A-C

Breech – When your graphics are printed backwards or upside down

C-Section – The third level of Classic’s Gravitee display

Conception – When that brilliant booth design first sparks

Contraction – Going from a 30×30 to a 10×20

Cravings – Show hours are from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm and you’re starving

Crowning – Winning “Best of Show”

Glossary D-F

Dilation – What happens to aisles during I&D

Embryo – Your client’s very first 10×10

Epidural – When you find time to get a foot massage from the booth next door

False Labor – When show labor has to wait for your crates to clear material handling

Fertility – Your client gets their new budget and is ready to spend it

First Trimester – Your booth’s first of three back-to-back shows

Fontanelles – Conference Room walls using SEG fabrics

Full Term – You tell your Client you need artwork no later than 4:00 pm and you get it at 3:59 pm

Glossary F-N

Gestation – The time it takes your Designer to create the next award winner

Home Birth – Trade show exhibitors building their first booth in-house

Induced – Slipping labor a $50

In Vitro – A booth design that uses pillowcase graphics (tubes… get it??)

Labor – Sometimes late, usually painful, and never the same

Midwife – Your work wife who continually reminds you to save your receipts

Morning Sickness – When your rookie booth staffer stays out way too late the night before the show

Natural Birth – When you suggest designing with Classic’s ecoSmart Sustainable Exhibits

Newborn – A new booth at its very first show

Nursery – The warehouse or dock where crates are stored during the show

Glossary P-Z

Pelvic Floor Exercises – How you prepare for being on your feet for 12 hours

Postpartum – Having to do a week’s worth of laundry after returning from a trade show

Premature – That one exhibitor who begins to dismantle their booth – 2 hours early!

Presenting – When the edge of your booth creeps into the aisleway

Stretch Marks – SEG graphics that have seen one too many shows

Ultrasound – The booth next to yours that has their presenters mic set too loud

Umbilical Cord – That one extension cord that magically connects ALL your electronics

Water Birth – That $12 bottle of Aquafina water (so refreshing but so painful)

Water Breaking – Spilling that full $12 bottle of Aquafina water

Harold and Baby Shy

Who We Are

For over 30 years, Classic Exhibits has been designing and building creative custom solutions for our Distributor Partners and their clients. As North America’s largest private-label exhibit manufacturer, we have the unmatched capability, capacity, and creativity to create 3D projects ranging from 10 x 10 inline displays to 60 x 80 double-deck islands. 

Find success on the trade show floor with an exhibit that reflects your marketing message. For more information, see www.classicexhibits.com and explore Exhibit Design Search or request a meeting with a Classic Distributor Partner.

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Thoughts on EXHIBITORLIVE 2025

March 25th, 2025 Harold Mintz 2 COMMENTS
EXHIBITORLIVE 2025

“Where are you going this time?”

It’s a frequent question for trade show people, like you and me. Vegas? Orlando? Chicago? This week it was San Antonio, TX to attend the trade show about trade shows... EXHIBITORLIVE.

Here’s how my trip started. My supportive wife dropped me off at LAX, but the trip took longer than normal because the recent Los Angeles fires had shut down the Pacific Coast Highway. It now takes longer to drive to the airport than it does to fly from LA to San Antonio. Sorry, Sue. You’re the best Uber driver ever.

Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

After checking in to the hotel, I quickly headed over to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. I grabbed my badge and walked on to the chaotic show floor. We’ve all seen this before. It doesn’t look remotely possible that this cavernous and disheveled hall overflowing with crates and bodies will ever be ready for the show opening in two days. But it will. We’re show folk. It’s what we do.

EXHIBITORLIVE: Day 1 and 2

EXHIBITORLIVE 2025

Day One. Once the doors opened, the foot traffic in the Classic Exhibits’ booth was busy. Not as busy as it used to be 4-5 years ago, but busier than I’d expected. The number of exhibitors at EXHIBITORLIVE continues to shrink. Exhibition companies that were regulars are no shows, even if they still walk the floor. As a result, EXHIBITORLIVE is now a 2-day, not a 3-day show that starts at midday, so fewer show hours. Everyone is trying to wring as many leads out of the diminished show hours and attendees as possible.  

Wednesday morning… the second/last day of the show. I was too busy on day one so the first thing I walked the show floor to check out everyone else’s booth. There were some real beauties this year. Our industry dresses up quite well.

I eventually found myself standing in front of The Exhibitor Advocate booth. Staffing the booth was Amanda Helgemoe. It was the first time we’d had a chance to chat in quite a while. For me that’s probably the most enjoyable part of attending EXHIBITORLIVE… getting to see/blab/hang with friends we only get to see once or twice a year.

After our chat, Amanda asked to take my picture with her swanky Polaroid camera. The Exhibitor Advocate team was snapping pix and asking folks to write in how many years they’d been in the biz on the bottom of the Polaroid. They then posted it on their backwall along with hundreds of other industry peeps.

45 Years?

TS2 2006
TS2 2006

And that’s when I kinda froze. How long have I been in the biz? My first real job out of college was working with CES, at the time the largest trade show in the country. That was in 1980. Well, it’s now 2025. In my head I started calculating… 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020, 2025… 45 years? 45 YEARS??! How is that even possible? I don’t feel like I’m that old. Have I become… one of them?

Them… you know who I mean. No matter how old you are or how many years you’ve been in the business, you can recall walking your first EXHIBITORLIVE or TS2 or Exhibit Builder… and seeing them sprinkled around the show floor. The industry vets. The iconic pillars on whose backs this creative, intimate, unique industry was built. The ones who’d already walked miles and miles of aisles.

Jack Wayman (CES), Larry Crumlish and Rick Kent (The Exhibit Store), Joan Carol (The Joan Carol Group), Pat Rodgers (Exhibigrafix), Bruce Deckel (Deckel and Moneypenny), Trudy Graham (TG and Associates), Gordon Savoie (Skyline), Brenda Keiner (Grondorff, Field and Black), Irving Sacks (Sacks Exhibits). These were my industry icons. I’m sure you have your own.

Susan Mintz, Judy Watson, Ted Zeigler, and Harold Mintz

Significant Changes Over the Years

I’ve witnessed significant changes in our industry over the past 45 years.

  • I watched in awe as the first Gerber machines started cutting a roll of bright red vinyl eventually replacing the steady-handed sign painters and silk screeners.
  • I saw portable exhibits go from folding panel systems to pop-ups to modular systems.
  • I sold 10’ pop-up displays back in the day when you could ask $8000 for one and get it!

And probably my favorite observation, I’ve watched dozens and dozens of young people that I’d hired and/or trained over the years still running around the show floor and still working in this nutty biz. THIS provides me with immense pleasure. To have helped open the door to so many is immeasurably gratifying. 

Over time, everything changes. Show hours, the hottest trends, technology and the faces of our industry. All different today than they were yesterday. But one thing stays the same… that’s the feeling you get when you step foot onto the show floor.

For those icons who paved the way for me, the ones who spent extra time teaching me the ropes, the ones who always made me feel part of a special club, the word thanks doesn’t nearly come close enough to express my gratitude. Whether this was your first EXHIBITORLIVEor your 36th I hope you continue to find that same joy that you did on your Day One.

Classic Exhibits Inc.

For over 30 years, Classic Exhibits has been designing and building creative custom solutions for our Distributor Partners and their clients. As North America’s largest private-label exhibit manufacturer, we have the unmatched capability, capacity, and creativity to create 3D projects ranging from 10 x 10 inline displays to 60 x 80 double-deck islands. 

Find success on the trade show floor with an exhibit that reflects your marketing message. For more information, see www.classicexhibits.com and explore Exhibit Design Search or request a meeting with a Classic Distributor Partner.

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Posted in Classic Exhibits Inc., EXHIBITORLIVE, Harold Mintz | 2 Comments »

Booth #339 at EXHIBITORLIVE 2025

February 9th, 2025 Harold Mintz COMMENTS

At EXHIBITORLIVE in San Antonio, Classic Exhibits will be in Booth #339, a 20 x 20 island.

Coincidence or Conspiracy?

You’re thinking, “Booth #339? Hmmm… Why do I know that number?”

Harold Mintz
Harold Mintz, Conspiracy Theorist

Number 339 just happens to be the most highly researched and studied number in our Arabic Numbering System. What you may not know is that Classic Exhibits and “339” have a long and somewhat mysterious relationship. Some think it’s a coincidence. Perhaps even a conspiracy!!

You be the judge…

1). It takes exactly 339 steps to walk to Classic’s Booth #339 from the Henry B. Gonzolez convention hall main entrance. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

2). Last year Classic Exhibits rented 339 booths that were 10×20 or larger. And in 2024, Classic Distributors earned exactly $33,900 in Rental Rebates. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

3). When the show opens in San Antonio next month, Classic Exhibits will be celebrating 33 years and 9 months in business. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

EXHIBITORLIVE 2025

4). Section 33, Paragraph 9 of The Exhibitor Handbook clearly states, “…Creativity, Trustworthiness and Experience are the CLASSIC ingredients to offering Clients a superior booth and show experience.”  Coincidence or Conspiracy?

5). Last year, Classic Exhibits created 3 displays that were 39 ft. tall for the Guinness Book of World Records. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

6). There are 33 barbecue restaurants in San Antonio — 9 of them offer “Classic Pulled Pork.” Coincidence or Conspiracy?

7.) Since its inception in 1945 Baskin Robbins has created 339 flavors of ice cream. The most popular flavor ever… CLASSIC COOKIES AND CREAM. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

8.) 339 in Roman Numerals is CCCXXXIX – Classic Classic Classic Xhibits Xhibits Xhibits Incredible Xhibits. Coincidence or Conspiracy?

Visit Us at EXHIBITORLIVE

We urge you to visit us at booth #339 in San Antonio. Where you’ll learn the many reasons why Classic is the exhibit industry’s leading private-label designer and builder.

BTW… Take a guess how many reasons there are? Go ahead. Guess!

For over 30 years, Classic Exhibits has been designing and building creative custom solutions for our Distributor Partners and their clients. As North America’s largest private-label exhibit manufacturer, we have the unmatched capability, capacity, and creativity to create 3D projects ranging from 10 x 10 inline displays to 60 x 80 double-deck islands. 

Find success on the trade show floor with an exhibit that reflects your marketing message. For more information, see www.classicexhibits.com and explore Exhibit Design Search or request a meeting with a Classic Distributor Partner.

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Amid the LA Fire Devastation, Heartwarming Support

January 16th, 2025 Harold Mintz 2 COMMENTS

Those Pretty, Bright Orange Flames

Most kids are intrigued by fire. Admonitions from my mom like, “Don’t get too close!” only made me want to get closer.

As a kid, I’d be enthralled watching dad masterfully stack logs into the fireplace. “Always make sure the flue is open,” he’d say. I had absolutely no idea what a flue was, but I assumed it had something to do with birds flying down our chimney.

He’d take a long matchstick and light the 3 or 4 crinkled up newspaper balls spread underneath the logs, and we’d watch as the fireplace would become aglow with flames.

Those pretty, bright orange flames. The warmth that emanated from the hearth. Stunningly beautiful. And if we were good boys that day Mom would take out a bag of marshmallows so we could each make our own burnt sugar noogies. Mmmmm… Can I please be 7 years old again?

Today, the word fire does not give me that same warm and fuzzy feeling. When I hear someone say fire in Southern California my heart skips a beat. Where is it? How close? Do we still have electricity? Where’s our go bag?

The windswept fires that have consumed Los Angeles over the course of the past 10 days have been devastating. The images you see on TV look like Hollywood special effects. But they’re not. The flames have destroyed some of my favorite restaurants sitting right on the PCH. Homes and businesses of friends and neighbors. Gone. Schools, churches, coffee shops, grocery stores… gone. They are ashes and rubble. All that remains are chimney stacks. 

But enough of that. Let’s try to flip this around and find the positives…

Worldwide Effort

Since power, gas, water, and internet were all shut off over a week ago, the only way to access critical fire and evacuation information via the internet was by driving over the Santa Monica Mountains into the San Fernando Valley. As Susan and I evacuated Malibu last week, we watched a miles-long caravan of firetrucks, fire engines, ambulances and other First Responders heading into the town that we were fleeing. And it wasn’t just local fire stations. Susan said she saw fire companies from San Francisco and other NorCal cities.

Over the past few days, we’ve even seen trucks from Oregon, Texas, Colorado, Washington, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. We learned that Canada, Mexico, South Africa and even UKRAINE have all sent fire fighters to Los Angeles to help battle the flames spreading across the city. It might be a California fire, but it is being fought by the entire world. THANK YOU for allowing your state’s first responders to travel west to assist in our fight.

The Stud Next Door

We live in a cul-de-sac. The ridiculously heavy winds (up to 100 mph gusts) that created this fire storm blew away both of my next-door neighbors’ carports. Why ours is still standing is beyond me. These gusts of wind are the reason they cut our utilities last week. It is virtually impossible to get evacuation and fire updates if you don’t have any “ears.” 

Sitting at one of my favorite coffee shops in the Valley, I was reading my neighborhood news updates when I noticed a post from Chris, my next-door neighbor. Chris is an IT techie. He posted a note to the entire community stating that anyone could drive up and log on to his temporary Wi-Fi oasis in our cul-de-sac. He gave the network name and the password to use. The next day when Sue and I drove back into Malibu to ensure our home was still standing, we saw our cul-de-sac stuffed with cars, golf carts and dog walkers all getting/sending messages and emails to loved ones across the country. Chris is a stud.

Neighbors… Assemble!

Local news stations have captured plenty of stories about neighbors banding together to try and hold back the hungry flames. “My home was already gone, but my neighbor’s home was still in danger. I had to help.” Armed with garden hoses and buckets to scoop pool water some of these mini fire brigades managed to stave off disaster. Uplifting moments in a sea of devastation.

Hello Helle Snelligan!

Holy crap! THANK YOU to everyone who has reached out (and continues to reach out) to make sure that Susan and I are okay. You’ve offered homes, clothes, food, generators… and I even heard from Helle Snelligan, my elementary school friend who lives in France. I hadn’t seen or spoken with Helle in 50 years! I’ve heard from so many people that I’ve met over the years, both personal and business. And I’ve heard from many of YOU. Your heartfelt offers of assistance and love continue to pour in from just about everyone I’ve ever met.

It’s Good to Be Harold

To my friends at Classic… You’ve stood by me over the past five years as my life was in chaos with serious health issues, loss of family, COVID and now the LA fires. Your support is a reminder of something that every Classic employee knows and feels daily… Classic is not a business. It is a family.

Back to where we started… Once the marshmallows were eaten and the flames from our family’s indoor campfire had died out it was my responsibility to clean out the ashes in the fireplace. I’d sweep them into a paper bag and toss them in the trash can. Easy Peasy. The clean-up after this fire won’t be as simple. But we will clean up.

Thanx for all your support. All of you. It’s good to be Harold.

Please help people affected by the 2025 California Wildfires by visiting redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767) or texting the word CAWILDFIRES to 90999 to make a donation.

–Harold Mintz (harold@classicexhibits.com)

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If Harold Mintz Handed You $1 Million Dollars

May 3rd, 2024 Harold Mintz 1 COMMENT

Harold Mintz in a Tutu

If I, Harold Mintz, was your tutu wearing Fairy Godfather and handed you $1 million dollars, what would you do with it? This generous gift would come with one condition. You must spend 100% of it on your business. What would you splurge on?

Many of you have already gotten this question from me because I often ask it during my Distributor visits.

Below are your Top 10 answers (in reverse order). Do you recognize your response?

10. It’s a Schvitz-a-thon out there! Our shop is an oven for at least 4 months of the year. With the bay doors open and fans swirling you could still roast a chicken in the shop. We’d bring in some sort of air conditioning to make life more tolerable for our employees.

9. I’d bring back our showroom. We eliminated our showroom years ago so we could create additional set-up/staging areas. While necessary, we still miss the impact that our showroom had on everyone who saw/experienced it. It was our silent salesperson. 

8. Our website is ancient. We’d upgrade it immediately.  The first thing we’d do is engage with a professional developer to assist with revamping it. We know Prospects and Customers often go to our website, but we are underutilizing this blockbuster sales tool.

7. Add to our rental inventory. Our current rental inventory is ancient and sparse so we don’t offer rentals as much as we would like. We can’t do everything, but it would be nice to handle basic inlines and islands.

6. We’d boost our social media presence. We don’t post on social media as much as we should. We post large, cool jobs but forget about all the other tidbits that Clients and Prospects might appreciate. I’d hire a dedicated social media expert.

5. I’d invest in an LED tile inventory. Backlighting was/is hot. Just about everything going out the door these days has backlit graphics. LED is coming on strong. I’d acquire the tiles and the A/V experts necessary to travel with them.

4. Graphics. We’ve flirted with the idea of bringing in our own graphic production for years but never pulled the trigger. It requires a level of expertise and volume outside our current scope. That said… the influx of cash would allow us to dip our toes in the water or in-house graphic production.   

3. I’d boost employees’ salaries across the board. Everyone took a hit during the COVID Pause. When their salaries were cut, their work ethic increased. They treated this company as if it were their own. We owe them. 

2. More storage space. Our current storage space is full. We make good money on our active clients, and if we had more space, I could fill it with those types of clients. Cha-Ching!

And the #1 comment I hear when “giving away” $1 million…

1. We’d add more employees. I’d use a chunk of the money to find and hire a new batch of employees in all areas – PMs, Sales, Design and Production. Especially PMs.

What would you do with a $1,000,000 gift from me? Share in the comments.

—————————————————–

For 30 years, Classic Exhibits has been designing and building creative custom solutions for our Distributor Partners and their clients. As the largest private-label exhibit manufacturer in North America, we have the unmatched capability, capacity, and creativity to create 3D projects ranging from 10 x 10 inline displays to 60 x 80 double-deck islands. 

Find success on the trade show floor with an exhibit that reflects your marketing message. For more information, see www.classicexhibits.com and explore Exhibit Design Search or request a meeting with a Classic Distributor Partner.    

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Posted in Classic Exhibits Inc., Harold Mintz | 1 Comment »

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