The Northwest, where I grew up, is an easy place to live for resourceful people. You can basically live off the land. Being Russian immigrants, my parents took advantage of that. Their obsession during my childhood was fishing. Fishing bored me, so I came up with my own version of what is now known as [...]

The event marketing industry is undergoing it’s own brand evolution. We are now increasingly one industry with face-to-face and digital experiences converging into on event marketing experience.   Branding is the sum of all points of contact your audience has with your event. It’s the wait, or lack of a wait in the registration line. [...]

The Market has changed. Everything has changed.   For starters, we are seeing a fundamental shift in human behavior. This is primarily being driven by the Internet, and more specifically, Web 2.0 technologies. These technology innovations, coupled with a generational shift are redefining how we engage—especially in groups. The ability to organize a group is simple [...]

As the economy has changed every aspect of our world and our decision making process, the face-to-face industry has not been immune to a new way to operate.   Shows have had to adapt and really push the envelope to make sure that they remain relevant, ahead of the curve and always a must-go-to event [...]

The Big Kahuna is my favorite movie about selling.  Starring Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito and Peter Facinelli, the story takes place the last night of a trade show, when two industrial lubricants sales-veterans and their young protégé host a reception in a hotel hospitality suite.  Released in 1999, the movie made little splash at the [...]

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    “There is the physical world and the digital world. Our customers live in both worlds. And in many ways it’s all one world.”     Virtual is The New Game The trade show industry is now what the sports industry used to be. In the ‘olden’ days – to see the game, the [...]

It’s no secret that our industry was hit hard during the recession. Although we had to make many tough decisions to adjust to the economic conditions, we never wavered in our belief in the value of face-to-face marketing, especially in a time when communication has become very impersonal.  Due to a strong strategy and incredible [...]

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One of the most impactful volunteer experiences I have had is serving on the United Way of Dallas grant review panel.  The objective of this panel is to recommend levels of funding for the non-profit agencies that have submitted requests to United Way.  The process required approximately 30-40 hours of time over an 8-week period [...]

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Recently I lost my purse while traveling and then found it, thankfully, but not before missing my plane.   I then had four hours to kill in the Tulsa airport waiting for the next flight. While in the airport, the man at the shoe shine stand started a conversation and wanted to know if I needed [...]

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As the baseball season begins, I start thinking about the tradition and long history of the sport – as much as the game changes it remains fundamentally the same. I love Yogi Berra as an icon of baseball and its culture.  His ‘Yogisms’ are legendary as he always makes it hard to tell if he [...]

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