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Trade Show Day 1 Done. Mostly.
Mar. 8th, 2025 06:38 amPasadena Trade Show Travelog #5
At the hotel - Fri, 7 Mar 2025, 6pm
Today has been a long day. It's only 6pm and already I'm exhausted. I'm thinking of blowing off dinner with a colleague and going to bed early.
Today didn't have to be quite so long, but I woke up stupid early, at 4am, for no good reason. I'd gone to bed early the night before. My body was like, "Aight, that's 6.5 hours, you've had enough sleep." 😖
I tried going back to sleep for a bit but it was obvious my circadian rhythms were jolted into playing accompaniment with getting up and doing things. So I got up and puttered around online, doing personal stuff I skipped the night before when I went to bed early thinking I was doing Friday-me a favor. Then I showered, dressed, got breakfast downstairs, and came back up to start my workday.
Work today didn't mean just heading over to the trade show. No, I had 3-4 hours of other stuff to do first! I did that then headed over about 11:15.
Originally my plan had been to break for a quick lunch then get to the show at 12 to set up the booth prior to the 2pm opening of the vendor expo. Yes, I'm on booth setup duty this time, something I rarely have to do. But this show I'm Booth Captain. It's a duty I neither sought nor want. But there are no marketing staff traveling out here for this show, just a few sales people who are local to the LA area, plus me flying down from Silicon Valley.
I'm glad I got there at 11:15 because all the various setup stuff I needed to do took longer than I expected. Plus, when I arrived there at 11:15 there was already a person I did not recognize who'd opened our boxes and was rifling through our stuff. 😳
"Hi, can I help you?" I asked loudly. The guy said he was with my company and setting up. "Oh, when did you join the company?" I continued, still speaking much louder than strictly necessary for a 1:1. If this guy was a thief I wanted the vendors setting up booths next to me, and the staff circulating nearby, to be aware of what was happening.
It turns out the guy, Bas, is technically with my company but was in the wrong place. I've mentioned before that we sell a variety of enterprise software tools, one of which is based on a popular open source project. Bas was hired to work more on the open-source side of things... and he had the wrong booth, because the open source project has its own booth at this show! See, I paid attention during the pre-show briefing so I remember that detail.
With that sorted out, Bas still helped me set up my booth. It was a big help because the guy who was supposed to be there to help setup at 12, Shawn, didn't arrive until almost 1. We got all the setup done in time, though I didn't get an opportunity to duck out for lunch. Instead, fortunately, the convention center opened a hot food line just steps from our booth at 1:30. Shawn and I dodged over there for a quick lunch before attendees arrived. I got a couple slices of pretty disgusting pizza.
The afternoon show progressed fast at first. In 90 minutes we had over 70 scans. That was great because our goal for the whole show is, like, 100. But most of them were low-quality scans, from staff and attendees just looking to grab some swag. "If we hit 100 today dinner's at Fogo de Chão," I taunted the marketing manager who's managing this event from home in Boston.
For the next 90 minutes we kind of hit a slump. There was often no one visiting our booth, though booths closer to the front seemed to be busy.
Things picked up in the final hour. We had a few good conversations in the booth— conversations with people who weren't just swag hounds.
"Okay, that's it," Shawn announced at 5:55pm and started packing up. The show wasn't technically over until 6, but things had been slow for the last 15 minutes so I overlooked him usurping my rank as Booth Captain and joined in packing up. We walked out at 5:59. Might as well beat the rush! 😅
Five minutes later I was back at my room. I ❤️ these smaller trade shows where I don't have to walk a mile between the show floor and my room, like in Vegas. I kicked off my shoes, washed up, and flopped on the bed. Shawn and I had plans to meet for dinner at 7, but I've already texted him that I'm happy staying in for the night if he's not gung-ho about going out for dinner. He mentioned he was tired, too. We'll see what happens.
At the hotel - Fri, 7 Mar 2025, 6pm
Today has been a long day. It's only 6pm and already I'm exhausted. I'm thinking of blowing off dinner with a colleague and going to bed early.
Today didn't have to be quite so long, but I woke up stupid early, at 4am, for no good reason. I'd gone to bed early the night before. My body was like, "Aight, that's 6.5 hours, you've had enough sleep." 😖
I tried going back to sleep for a bit but it was obvious my circadian rhythms were jolted into playing accompaniment with getting up and doing things. So I got up and puttered around online, doing personal stuff I skipped the night before when I went to bed early thinking I was doing Friday-me a favor. Then I showered, dressed, got breakfast downstairs, and came back up to start my workday.
Work today didn't mean just heading over to the trade show. No, I had 3-4 hours of other stuff to do first! I did that then headed over about 11:15.
Originally my plan had been to break for a quick lunch then get to the show at 12 to set up the booth prior to the 2pm opening of the vendor expo. Yes, I'm on booth setup duty this time, something I rarely have to do. But this show I'm Booth Captain. It's a duty I neither sought nor want. But there are no marketing staff traveling out here for this show, just a few sales people who are local to the LA area, plus me flying down from Silicon Valley.
I'm glad I got there at 11:15 because all the various setup stuff I needed to do took longer than I expected. Plus, when I arrived there at 11:15 there was already a person I did not recognize who'd opened our boxes and was rifling through our stuff. 😳
"Hi, can I help you?" I asked loudly. The guy said he was with my company and setting up. "Oh, when did you join the company?" I continued, still speaking much louder than strictly necessary for a 1:1. If this guy was a thief I wanted the vendors setting up booths next to me, and the staff circulating nearby, to be aware of what was happening.
It turns out the guy, Bas, is technically with my company but was in the wrong place. I've mentioned before that we sell a variety of enterprise software tools, one of which is based on a popular open source project. Bas was hired to work more on the open-source side of things... and he had the wrong booth, because the open source project has its own booth at this show! See, I paid attention during the pre-show briefing so I remember that detail.
With that sorted out, Bas still helped me set up my booth. It was a big help because the guy who was supposed to be there to help setup at 12, Shawn, didn't arrive until almost 1. We got all the setup done in time, though I didn't get an opportunity to duck out for lunch. Instead, fortunately, the convention center opened a hot food line just steps from our booth at 1:30. Shawn and I dodged over there for a quick lunch before attendees arrived. I got a couple slices of pretty disgusting pizza.
The afternoon show progressed fast at first. In 90 minutes we had over 70 scans. That was great because our goal for the whole show is, like, 100. But most of them were low-quality scans, from staff and attendees just looking to grab some swag. "If we hit 100 today dinner's at Fogo de Chão," I taunted the marketing manager who's managing this event from home in Boston.
For the next 90 minutes we kind of hit a slump. There was often no one visiting our booth, though booths closer to the front seemed to be busy.
Things picked up in the final hour. We had a few good conversations in the booth— conversations with people who weren't just swag hounds.
"Okay, that's it," Shawn announced at 5:55pm and started packing up. The show wasn't technically over until 6, but things had been slow for the last 15 minutes so I overlooked him usurping my rank as Booth Captain and joined in packing up. We walked out at 5:59. Might as well beat the rush! 😅
Five minutes later I was back at my room. I ❤️ these smaller trade shows where I don't have to walk a mile between the show floor and my room, like in Vegas. I kicked off my shoes, washed up, and flopped on the bed. Shawn and I had plans to meet for dinner at 7, but I've already texted him that I'm happy staying in for the night if he's not gung-ho about going out for dinner. He mentioned he was tired, too. We'll see what happens.
