Kathy and Shannon at the Washington DC Travel Show, Feb 20-21

[Kathy]

Here we are in our booth at the Washington DC Travel show last weekend.

I think we're all still recovering from the weekend... it was a very busy two days! We set up on Friday afternoon and then were at the show from 9 am until 5 pm on Saturday and from 10:30 until 4:30 on Sunday... on our feet most of the time. We talked to hundreds of people and met some other interesting people people in the travel industry. It was also fun to visit with friends, family and some of our travelers who came to the show. Thanks @KeithfromVA and @Jim Zurer for coming to see us!

The show included a wide variety of travel providers... destinations in the USA and abroad, many different types of tour operators, cruise lines, and travel products. Somewhat strangely there were also some non-travel related booths... not quite sure what that was all about. There were featured speakers, panel discussions, cooking demos, and cultural performances. We were so busy at our booth that we didn't get to see much of the show or any of these other sessions.

On Saturday morning before the show opened, we did get to meet one of the speakers. Some of you may recognize him.

Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, was at the convention center early (before it opened) for a media interview. I saw him go by and called to him. He was very kind to take time for a photo (taken by Shannon) and even suggested we step into our booth. Nice guy! His session was standing room only.

Charley and I are thinking about participating in the LA show next year, but we're going to wait to decide until we see what happens as a result of the DC show. After attending the New York show last year (not as an exhibitor) and then the DC show this year, I would definitely recommend attending a travel show. You'll get lots of ideas of possible places to go and can learn and get inspired from the various presentations. Plus you'll meet interesting people who also like to travel... and you'll get freebees and may even win a prize in a drawing.

We had a great time working with Shannon on the show and it was wonderful too that our daughter Kelly could come down from New York to help us... Shannon and Kelly were definitely two big highlights for me!

 

[Kathy]

Sorry my photos were so huge!!

 

[Lisa in Ottawa]

Great pics! Don't you 2 look like travel fair pros

 

[KeithfromVA]

I enjoyed attending the show, as did my wife, Liz, and my daughter, Stephanie. It was a pleasure to talk to Shannon again and to meet Kathy for the first time. I also met Anne and Kirk Woodyard who run Music and Markets tours. It was hard to talk to Shannon and Kathy because they were so busy and I didn't even meet Charley. Being at a show like that with so many people reminded me why I like less touristy (i.e., crowded) places. After he spoke on Saturday, Phil Keoghan was in a booth signing autographs and taking pictures. I think there were about 50 people lined up.

 

[Shannon]

Yes it was a very nonstop show - especially on Saturday. I almost lost my voice!

Sunday was a little quieter. I had a meeting with an agent from Armenia who wants me to do a wine tour there

Towards the end of Sunday, we were almost falling over with exhaustion, and this guy came up and said "I am flying into Copenhagen. What should I do? I want horse drawn carts, but I don't want potholes." Or something like that.

I would definitely go to LA if Charley and Kathy do.

 

[ellen]

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier - I've done trade shows in various industries for nearly 30 years and while I love them, so many exhibitors don't maximize their opportunities. What did you learn? What would you do again, what would you do differently if you do another trade show?

 

[KeithfromVA]

I had a meeting with an agent from Armenia who wants me to do a wine tour there

My first thought was Armenian wines? But then I found this review of Zorah wines http://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/uncategorized/zorah-karasi-a-remarkable-armenian-wine and there are some fantastic pictures on the Zorah wines website http://www.zorahwines.com/about-us/armenia-wine/

 

[Kathy]

Good point Ellen. (I made my "lessons learned" list on the plane coming home.) We enjoyed sharing our booth with Shannon and we helped one another... that was definitely good!

I think we presented really well, professionally and friendly. I was very happy with our booth and we had a great location. We did drawings, which ended up to be a bit complicated, and it was hard to read some of the emails addresses people left. I would do some of that differently. I would re-think my handouts for a future show... I had too many of some things, not enough of others.

Spending the few days in DC also gave us a chance to connect with several people in the DC area that have been on our trips or that we've already been in contact with... and to meet people like Keith and Jim. I liked that a lot.

I'm very interested in doing another show next year. LA would be good for us, as we have had lots of travelers from there, and we could work with Shannon again. But we want to get a better sense of what happens as a result of this first show. And it may take some time to know. Some people are thinking about a trip for this year and some people are looking much longer term.

 

[ellen]

Kathy, are you using a lot of social media to locate potential clients? I don't mean to get into your business and I understand if you don't want to share that information, but I am curious. I put together fund raising trips for non-profits and I've been studying social media but haven't yet made the plunge although it's clear to me that I should. Even among "older" Americans (my primary market) use of Facebook and Twitter, in particular, is growing.

Some of the things that have worked for me at trade shows have been truly "one-off". I've learned that give aways don't have to be expensive but they do need to capture people's imagination and/or relate to their lives in some way. Early in my corporate career we gave away stuffed cows that moo-ed when you turned them over to promote a new line of margarine. To a man the sales force management group was appalled and embarrassed until they saw hundreds of brokers (everyone of them male) waving their cows over their heads at the launch meeting and asking for extras, because everyone of them was a father, or grandfather, or uncle. Usually these guys got some kind of paper weight or clock or some item meant to sit in their office and remind them of the product (along with dozens of other gifts from other product launches). Those inexpensive cows were talked about for years while the "more professional" paperweights got tossed.

On another occasion my primary goal was to build a mailing list at a show. My product line at the time was paint, not something you can hand out to people. We came up with the idea of a custom made dollhouse and painted it with that year's top colors, then had attendees fill out cards to win the dollhouse. By the end of the day we had thousands of new names and it only cost us about $150 for the dollhouse. We were actually lucky because they were late opening the doors for the show and people were lined up outside, so two of my associates ran outside with the entry cards and went down the line handing them out, inviting people to come see the dollhouse and drop off their entries.

One observation that I've made at trade shows time and again is companies that spend a fortune on booths but try to save money on personnel when the metrics should be the other way around. A less expensive booth but plenty of people to talk with potential customers is what is needed, yet so many consistently mess this up. They send too few salespeople and work them too hard, so they are either overwhelmed in the booth or simply too tired to bring the needed energy to the conversation. This is less of an issue for a small business but underscores the importance of leveraging whatever human assets you have, and of giving those folks some time off from the booth during the show so they can recharge their batteries. It's a lot harder than it looks to stand on a concrete floor and be upbeat for ten or twelve hours.

 

[Shannon]

-It's a lot harder than it looks to stand on a concrete floor and be upbeat for ten or twelve hours.-

After a while, your brain stops working.

Keith - the Armenians, along with the Georgians, say they have been making wine the longest - 6000 years. They have a tradition of using clay amphorae which is now all the rage in Spain and Portugal. The guy I had the meeting with gave me chocolate (excellent) and brandy (haven't tried it yet.) I can't even begin to think about adding Armenia to my research schedule, but if I do, it will be in 2019 or 2020.