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Shooting from the Hip — 4.10 (Traveling in Ohio)

May 21st, 2010 Mel White 1 COMMENT
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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Word on the Street — April 26th thru April 30th

May 2nd, 2010 Mel White COMMENTS

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

International Partners Visit

This week was busy both with orders and meetings. But I want to speak in particular about the meetings we held on Monday and Tuesday with our friends and partners from MODUL International.

As many of you remember, Classic Exhibits Inc. purchased a company called Modul USA in 2005. At the time, we were Modul USA’s largest customer. In doing so, we became the exclusive North American Network Partner for MODUL International, and with the purchase, we launched ClassicMODUL.

This was significant for the Classic Exhibits side of the business, but it was even more significant for the MODUL product line in North America (USA, Canada, and Mexico). Our relationship with MODUL International is quite different from Modul USA’s relationship with our German partner. Modul USA was an importer. We are a manufacturer, designer, and contract extruder. In striking our relationship with MODUL International, ClassicMODUL obtained the exclusive extruding rights within North America. Meaning we can (and do) extrude the majority of the profiles sold in North America. In fact, many of the most common profiles we use every day are pushed by an aluminum extrusion provider just a few miles from our location in Portland (which saves on shipping costs and turnaround time).

ClassicMODUL Aluminum Extrusions

www.classicmodul.com

The MODUL relationship has been important for Classic Exhibits, ClassicMODUL, and ClassicMODUL Distributors because it allows us to better manage inventory and to do so at a better cost to our distributors. While price is certainly a key component, it’s inventory control that presents the largest benefit to distributors. We currently have extrusion depots in Portland, OR, serving the West of the Mississippi region of the US and an extrusion depot outside of Hartford, CT serving the East of the Mississippi distribution. Soon we plan to open a location in the Southeast as well to serve from Texas to Florida and from the Carolinas to Missouri.

Well, I am happy to share with you that we reaffirmed our relationship with MODUL in North America this past week, and reviewed some exciting new profiles and accessories. These profiles will be available in the coming months.

On multiple occasions, you have heard me stress the value we place on our partnerships with vendors like Optima Graphics, Eco-systems Sustainable Displays, and Brumark (to name a few). But it is equally rewarding to have such a great relationship with our European partners. Relationships like the one we have with MODUL International allow us to better serve our distribution and manufacturing here in the States for years to come.

A special thanks to James and Bernd for their time, ideas, and partnership. James and Bernd — Be sure to spread the good word in Europe about the excellent Oregon Pinot Noir wines you discovered during your trip. And, yes, it did rain nearly every day you were here, but that only lasts for nine months. 🙂

Be well and have a safe and restful weekend.

–Kevin Carty

http://twitter.com/kevin_carty
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-carty/3/800/32a

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Word on the Street — April 5th thru April 9th

April 11th, 2010 Mel White 1 COMMENT

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

Got Any Secret Travel Tips?

Busy week. On Monday and Tuesday, we hosted a small group of distributors for an extensive training session. On Wednesday, I was putting the final touches on a business trip for this coming week. I’ll be traveling to three separate destinations, and each destination has a distinctly different agenda. This is a complicated trip, and it made me realize that although I travel frequently, I don’t consider myself either a road warrior or an travel expert.

However, experience has taught me a few things about business trips, so I’d like to share some of my tips. There are many readers of this blog who travel far more than me, and I know everyone would enjoy hearing your tips, tricks, and insights for a successful business trip too.

Appointments

When I start planning my trip, I focus on “anchor appointments.” These appointments should be scheduled at least three weeks in advance if possible. This is especially critical. It helps you plan your flights, hotels, rentals, and other appointments. Setting appointments well in advance of the trip means that you respect your client’s time and by extension that they respect your time and the effort and expense you’ve made to visit them.

Next, I try to have the rest of my schedule set two weeks before the trip. Then, if someone has to cancel or to move an appointment, I have time to shuffle my other appointments . . . although it can be difficult to make schedule changes at this point.

Now, what are my goals for each appointment? It depends. Some appointments are as simple as saying “Hello,” making sure we’re doing a good job, and taking the distributor to lunch or dinner. Those appointments rarely happen anymore. As Classic and ClassicMODUL have added product lines and online features, I’ve found that distributors are hungry for product and website training, industry news, and sales and marketing feedback.

Some appointments can be 3-4 hours long where I am conducting a complete product overview, including a “dog and pony” show of multiple products and services. Those usually are accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation created and tailored for that specific client.

Lastly, there are the 30 minute appointments. They are few and far between but are often the first step in building a relationship with a prospective distributor. I usually have two or three of these on any given trip. They offer me an opportunity to put a face to a name/voice . . . sort of a quick speed date to get formally introduced, answer some questions, and drop off some samples.

Flights

Now the flights. Personally, I like Sunday flights. Red-eyes if I am traveling to the East Coast so I can just hop of the plane and start my day. Plus, it means I can spend all day Sunday with my family. Many think I am nuts for doing this, but I will let you in on a little secret that Dave Brown from Optima, Reid Sherwood, and I know all too well.

(more…)

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Word on the Street — March 15th thru March 19th

March 20th, 2010 Mel White 2 COMMENTS

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

Word on the Street by Kevin Carty

POST-EXHIBITOR 2010 — Thoughts and Comments

What a week!

We are back and in follow-up mode — especially after such a great show.

My trip to Vegas actually started the week before EXHIBITOR as I arrived on Thursday to attend GlobalShop. Also a very good show this year. Then I moved over to Mandalay Bay on Friday to setup our exhibit for EXHIBITOR. I don’t know about you, but I love getting to the floor before I&D starts. It’s completely empty except for the staging of the semi’s and forklifts.

Booth Set-up

Getting Ready for EXHIBITOR

Getting Ready for EXHIBITOR

As I walked the empty floor for a few minutes just looking at the taped out booth spaces, I knew the new floor layout was going to be a huge hit! And if you’ve already seen the floor plan for 2011, they made it even better.

Back at our space, #929, our team from Momentum Management was already hard at work getting our floor ready. If I told you they did a great job, I am not sure that would be giving them enough praise. They have been a dedicated partner for Classic at EXHIBITOR and TS2 for the past 4 years. Thanks again to Rich and Gary!

The booth setup went smoothly. We used one of our standard 20 x 30 island rentals with a few custom tweaks, which included additions to highlight our new TSP ClassicMODUL profiles that accept silicone edge graphics (SEG) from Optima Graphics. We used Flex Floor from Brumark which turned out to be a major attraction throughout the show.

In the end, the booth was attractive and laid out very well from a “booth-staffing” perspective. The graphic message was very direct. It highlighted Exhibit Design Search and the hundreds of exhibit designs in EDS from tabletops to islands to meet any display budget. For a video walk through of the Classic Exhibits booth, see the two video postings that precede this blog.

Day One

The show opened Monday at 11:30 a.m. I love seeing the sea of people flooding into a show hall. And a sea of people is what we had. Booth traffic on Day One was great. Not a lot of end users on our side of the floor, but I wandered around and visited our vendor partners on other parts of the floor and there were indeed lots of Red Badges. The end users did what we all do — turn right or go straight ahead.

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And the Sacagawea Winner is . . .

March 17th, 2010 Mel White COMMENTS
Classic Exhibits in Las Vegas

Classic Exhibits in Las Vegas

Our thanks to everyone who attended the Classic Exhibits Hospitality Suite last night at Mandalay Bay. A special thanks to Gina Porcaro and Tim Bonesteel from Optima Graphics for serving as bartenders. The conspicuous tip jar may have crossed the line, but otherwise your skill at keeping everyone lubricated was accomplished with graciousness and finesse. And, in spite of Mel’s best efforts to provoke distributors and vendors alike, there were no fistfights.

Now to the drawing . . . The winner of the Sacagawea Portable Hybrid Showroom Giveaway . . . . (the obligatory drum roll please!)

Steve Gable, Innovation Exhibits Inc.

Congratulations Steve. Contact Kevin Carty at your convenience, and we’ll get your Sacagawea order into Production.

We’ll post photos from the show early next week in Past Five Days. We’d do it today but typing with a hangover is hard. Editing and posting photos would require several Bloody Mary’s and a handful of Advil, both of which are in short supply this morning. And, frankly, we’re a little afraid of what photos would get posted by mistake. Just a warning . . . We have photos of Reid Sherwood impersonating Chris Farley in the Chippendale skit from Saturday Night Live.

Viva Las Vegas!!!

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