EMT #24 with Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito - Looking Back to Move Forward: Recapping 23 Powerful EMT Episodes

In this special recap episode of Event Marketer’s Toolbox, hosts Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito review the learnings from the first 23 episodes of the podcast. With the benefit of having welcomed a variety of industry experts, they've uncovered key themes that have resonated throughout the show. This conversation touches on the biggest takeaways from past episodes, plus a deeper dive into common challenges faced by event professionals today, offering practical advice and solutions.

🔹 Setting Defined Goals for Event Success

One of the recurring themes in past episodes has been the importance of having clear, strategic goals for every event. As Chris Dunn emphasized, having a goal—whether it’s lead generation, brand recognition, or product launch—helps create a clear direction for the event. Dana Esposito added the importance of not just focusing on aesthetics but ensuring the booth design supports the broader goals.

🔹 Content Creation for Evergreen Engagement

Several experts, like Tyson Vasapoli and Brendon Hamlin, have discussed how to create content during events that will continue to serve the brand post-show. Chris explained how using live event content for social media and other marketing efforts after the event can create long-term value, thereby increasing ROI.

🔹 The Role of Sales Enablement and Effective Follow-Ups

The episode with Kayla Drake particularly focused on the crucial post-show follow-up and how sales teams can effectively engage with leads. Chris Dunn shared insights on the importance of knowing when to pass a lead to the sales team, ensuring that the handoff is done smoothly to close more deals. 

🔹The Power of Engagement and Storytelling in Exhibits

Dana Esposito brought up a vital point on the need for exhibits to be engaging, not just functional. Liz Lathan and Adam Centamore have shared how storytelling, interactivity, and even gamification are crucial to engaging booth visitors. Designing an exhibit with audience engagement in mind makes a lasting impact and creates a more memorable experience for potential clients.

🔹Strategies to Navigate the Challenges of Tight Budgets

Budgeting has been a recurring theme, with several guests like Jessica Sibila and Marlys Arnold emphasizing how to get creative with limited resources. Chris elaborated on optimizing trade show spending by strategically planning for multiple shows in a year, allowing for a more efficient use of resources.

👉🏼 Join us for more insightful discussions like this by tuning into 'Event Marketer's Toolbox,' where industry leaders share the tools, tactics, and trends driving success in the event world.

This Show is sponsored by Blue Hive

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Chapters

• 0:00 Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito kick off Episode 24 with a recap of key themes discussed over the last 23 episodes.
• 5:09 Setting Defined Goals for Event Success
• 10:39 Evergreen Content Creation
• 16:09 Sales Enablement and Follow-Up
• 21:39 Storytelling in Exhibits
• 26:54 Navigating Tight Budgets
• 32:39 Post-Pandemic Industry Shifts
• 38:39 Final Thoughts

Transcript

Chris Dunn: [00:00:00] Hello everybody and welcome to the Event Marketers Toolbox. I am Chris Dunn with BlueHive Exhibits. Thank you for joining us today. It's, uh, Thursday, I think we're in episode number 24. Super excited. It is just Dana and I today. Um, but uh, we're gonna do a little recap of, uh, of the last six months worth of shows and, uh, I don't know, see what we learn, we, what we've learned.

Chris Dunn: So my co-host over there, actually over there is Dana. Dana, who are you and why are you here? 

Dana Esposito: So, Dana Esposito and I have been in the exhibit industry almost 30 years now. Started off literally as the model builder for the other exhibit designers, but I, you know, I did go to school for design. Mm-hmm. And quickly, within less than a year, started working be as an exhibit designer, like on the computer.

Dana Esposito: Um, and worked on everything from, you know, rentals to hybrids, to new builds. Um, I've. Over the, as time has gone [00:01:00] by, because I kind of have both sides of the brain going, I am not only am exhibit design, um, I've moved into like creative leadership and corporate leadership and strategy. Um, because my brain is always going, what can we do next?

Dana Esposito: What can we do better? Um, and so I'm one of those people who believe in like, um, like constant education, like continuous education and, and continuous improvement. 

Chris Dunn: So, well, it sounds like you're a good person to have with me then. Keep me between the sticks, as it were. Yeah. Um, no, this is, this is great.

Chris Dunn: Certainly. Um, we're excited for this, uh, this episode. We're gonna talk a little bit about our journey, how we started off with the podcast, and kind of how we've gotten to, to where we are. Um, I'm not gonna let 

Dana Esposito: you go forward though, until you introduce yourself. 

Chris Dunn: I already did introduce myself. 

Dana Esposito: No, but like, how, how, how, how are you here?

Chris Dunn: Like, oh, the ba uh, the, oh, how am I here? Like, a little bit of background? A background, because we haven't done background 

Dana Esposito: this yet. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, that's, that's very true. Uh, I also have three decades worth of experience here. Um, I was [00:02:00] a, I was a design major in school. Uh, I started off, uh, got into the sign industry through a friend of a friend back in my hometown.

Chris Dunn: Um, things, uh, in the, in, uh, Northeast Massachusetts in the early nineties, economically were not, uh, great. So. Went seeking fame and fortune out in Colorado with, uh, with my girlfriend who turned into my wife. But, um, out in Colorado, I was in the signed business and I met a guy who had a, a business that was half, uh, exhibits and half signs, and he introduced me to the exhibit world and I was blown away.

Chris Dunn: I was like, oh my God, I think I know what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life. Um, eventually we moved back to Massachusetts. I worked, uh, for the first 10 years in this industry for a, uh, smaller kind of portable, modular company. And then 20 years ago, I joined this, uh, fresh young startup by the name of BlueHive.

Chris Dunn: Very strange name, um, with a great backstory. But hey, I've been here for 20 years, uh, most of those years, probably, you know, 15 or so pre COVID. I [00:03:00] was an individual contributor. And then coming outta COVID, um, I changed positions a little bit and I, I do still carry a book of business, uh, but I'm also leading the sales team.

Chris Dunn: Uh, and that, which just kind of led me into, you know, kind of being a bit of a brand ambassador and, uh, kind of the, the, a bit of a spokesperson for, you know, for BlueHive. Mm-hmm. 

Dana Esposito: How's that? Funny? I have, that's awesome. One of my first memories in the industry is when I went for my interview at the first company I've worked for.

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Because it's been, I think four over 30 years. I went in the wrong door because of the time they didn't have like the signage they have up now. And I went in the wrong door and I actually walked right into the shop. Okay. So I was hit immediately with that smell of fresh cut sawdust. Yeah. Which is like the best smell ever.

Dana Esposito: At least I've always loved it growing up around construction. Like I'm like, right, this is the place I'm, I need to be. And so even now, every time I leave my office, I walk on cut to the shop or go see something's out there. I still get hit that smell and I love it. Even though we use so many other materials too.

Dana Esposito: I just love 

Chris Dunn: that. [00:04:00] Right. Yeah. You know, it's, um, a good memory. This, this industry is so interesting in that it's a combination of so many different things. You know, as somebody who was involved in design, I specifically was an illustration major, but I loved the design aspect. Um, I loved, you know, building stuff and I loved kinda architecture and it was like, it was a marriage of all of these things.

Chris Dunn: In 1995, I went to the exhibitor show, uh, at the time it was at Bally's and I walked in and I was like. Oh my God. Like, this is it. Right? I've, uh, I've died and gone to heaven. Um, and here we are 30 years later. Yeah. Um, not every day is a great day, but, um, the industry is always fun and, and changing and interesting.

Chris Dunn: Um, so again, welcome. We have a live show here, so feel free to put, uh, questions and comments, uh, up here, and we'll try to get to everybody's, uh, everybody's comments. But, you know, Dana, I want to, because we both work for BlueHive, I wanted you to kind of shine a light on who we are. Like what's our differentiator.

Chris Dunn: To be honest, sometimes I have a hard time putting, you know, putting it [00:05:00] into a nice, concise, uh, sentence or two, you know? Mm-hmm. 32nd elevator pitch per se. Um, but you've got a fresh perspective of this. You're, you're newer to our company, so you have alternative lens that you've seen us from the outside and now from the inside.

Chris Dunn: And also, hey, you're also our EVP of strategy. So this is kind of your wheelhouse. Um, tell us some of the things about BlueHive that we, you know, maybe are a little bit different than some of the other companies that are out there. 

Dana Esposito: Sure. So, um, so first off, we are privately owned, debt-free. We are family owned, um, company.

Dana Esposito: This is third generation, um, which is great. You know, some companies are run by corporations or, or like a large group and investment groups. That's not the case, right? So this is a lot of passion, a lot of experience, and, you know, uh, a lot of weight on those, those individuals shoulders to make sure it's there for their, you know, children if they also choose to, to run it and be involved someday.

Dana Esposito: So they, there's a lot of care. [00:06:00] By that, that, that family, right? Mm-hmm. Um, and now at the helm is, is Caitlyn, who I always tell people she's why I came to work here. Um, I had already known of her and, and dealt with her, um, in some other capacities, and I knew she really had her act together. And I, I valued that.

Dana Esposito: I'm like, oh, she's, hmm. And so, um, where women owned and women led and so she's technically my first like girl boss and I love it. She's a girl boss around too. No fence to all the dudes out there, but I'm just saying it's, it's pretty awesome. Um, I also appreciate that we, you know, we we're growing, but it's a very slow, organic, healthy growth.

Dana Esposito: It's not like someone coming in and saying, we are gonna need to be X million by this date. It's, it's a very healthy, it's, like I said, it's organic. It's, it's when it's appropriate and makes sense for both the company and our clients that we're serving. Um, so our capabilities, like for instance, [00:07:00] like, uh, it was I think almost, almost two years ago we opened our Las Vegas facility, right?

Dana Esposito: So now we have East Coast and West Coast and some companies they have, and this is, no, I'm not, I'm not striking it on the company. I'm just describing BlueHive. 'cause you asked. So, um, some companies will have like satellite offices and that might. Be a sales office only, or it might be like just a small warehouse where our East coast and West Coast, uh, facilities are both full facilities.

Dana Esposito: So we have like, right, you know, we have staff, we have, uh, fabrication there. Um, and both of 'em are warehousing. All warehousing. So it's all the things right. Yeah. Um, let me see what else. Um, because we're able to do everything ourselves except for, uh, like mostly fabric, right? Uh, we usually sew that out to our trusted partners.

Dana Esposito: Um, we're able to have a lot of control and project management over the things that we are, um, creating. And our service is excellent. We're, we're known for our customer [00:08:00] service, which is hugely important. Um, yeah. And so just having that control without like additional layers, right? Every time you add another person or another partner or a company, it's like an opportunity to, either things take longer and time is money or an opportunity for an error to happen, just miscommunication or, or whatnot.

Dana Esposito: So, and other than that, I really love our diverse, um, the, the staff that we have, the talent that we have. We really have at this point, like all the generations under. Under the umbrella. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. And that brings not only an amazing amount of years of experience in the industry, like if you just add it up like it's hundreds of years of experience in the industry, right.

Dana Esposito: Might be thousands, but, but when you have all the other layers of generation, it keeps everyone really fresh and on the cusp of, of things that are new with technology. Like we have no choice. We're constantly learning new things, not just to keep up, but also to drive things, to [00:09:00] drive trends. Um. Mm-hmm.

Dana Esposito: Like I was just you talking to another high level like creative, we have literally came, that person came up with some. Really like new, like things that haven't actually been done yet. Like a lot of times we, we, you know, I say we meaning the industry, you know, a lot of trends are created in Europe, like where there's color, a lot of that's driven by the automotive industry and, and things like that, or the way things are done or systems.

Dana Esposito: And it all filters West that's very normal. Mm-hmm. Has kind of always been that way and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's also great to know that when you're at a company who isn't afraid to lead things as well. Yeah. So it, I that I'd say our people make a huge difference. Our, our people are a part of our differentiating factor.

Chris Dunn: That's really cool. And, you know, our, our friend, uh, Chris Griffin, who's the president of the EDPA, um, and will be a future guest, uh, he's, he's booked now for the end of July, which looking forward to that. Um, but he reminds us all the time that 50% of the people in the [00:10:00] industry, maybe a little bit more, are new since CO like COVID, you know, the whole pandemic thing.

Chris Dunn: The shutdown of all event industry. Anybody who's listening to this, who's been around for a little while understands that. Or maybe you're brand new as well. Um, but with those 50% being new, obviously that's across the board. That's on the client side, that's on our side, that's on the, uh, the contractor side like Freeman.

Chris Dunn: GES, uh, so forth. So, like you said, you know, we've got multi-generations, we've got people who have done different things in the past. They come in with different, um, you know, skill sets and different ideas and, uh, blending all those things together can be challenging. It's much like building, you know, a a pro sports team, baseball team.

Chris Dunn: You think of, uh, you gotta have the veterans and you gotta have the rookies as well, because the rookies provide the energy and the veterans provide the knowhow. 

Dana Esposito: Yep. 

Chris Dunn: Um, you know, so marrying all that stuff together is super important. Um, so listen on the toolbox here, we. We try not to make it a commercial for BlueHive.

Chris Dunn: So we're gonna move on from that. But, um, this, um, this is an exciting episode. We've done 23, uh, episodes in the past, and, [00:11:00] um, we're gonna talk a little bit about some of the things that we've learned, trends that we've seen. There's certainly been talking points which multiple guests have kind of hit up, hit upon, um, you know, and, and you di start diving into those.

Chris Dunn: And granted the conversations can go off in a bunch of different directions, but, um, it was really kind of nice. Our, our, uh, our agency fist bump that, um, actually produces this show, helps not only the production of it, but they're kind of doing the deep dive into the data, right? So they're able to look at all the transcripts, all the video, pull it all together and hand us a piece of paper, basically, Hey, here's a bunch of notes on exactly, you know, what's going on, who said what?

Chris Dunn: Um, we were able to identify some of those trends, so. Thank you fist bump. Appreciate that. Uh, Juana and Brandon and teams, and, um, you know, thanks for giving us the tools to survive, not just survive, but to thrive, I should say here on the toolbox. So we're gonna flip the format a little bit right here. And Dana, you're gonna kind of interview me as it were.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. I'll, I'll babble. No doubt. 

Dana Esposito: Okay. [00:12:00] So let's, let's look back a little bit on mm-hmm. Some of the topics or themes, um, around goal setting and storytelling and sales enablement. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. So, you know what I think, I don't know, out of 23 people, probably 15 or 18 had talked about setting goals. Uh, because if you don't start with setting goals and you're a designer by trade, you, you know this and you live it in discovery calls on a daily basis.

Chris Dunn: If you don't start with the proper goals, uh, then you never know, then you don't have any idea where you're gonna end up because there is no really roadmap. Right? So, you know, what are those, what do those goals look like? They're, they're everything from like, you know, what are you trying to achieve at this particular event or trade show?

Chris Dunn: Is it all about gathering leads? Is it about brand recognition? Are we launching a product? Are we here to, um, to, you know, uh, gain more pr? Uh, we have one client. Really, interestingly enough, um, they're in the veterinary emergency space and they're there to attract new doctors. They're then, [00:13:00] they're not there to make sales.

Chris Dunn: They're there to meet people who are looking for opportunities. So when we think about, um, designing a booth for somebody like that, it's a, we flip the script entirely. It's, uh, because it's not about leads, it's not about like, well, we gotta prove our ROI, they're proving ROI in a much different way. Um, so.

Chris Dunn: If you, if, if we as a, as an exhibit house comes to the table, the discovery meeting table, and we have all of these preconceived notions all the time of, well, everyone else out there wants more leads, so you must as well then we're, we're, we're not giving, um, you know, our, our clientele, uh, the fair chance to express why it is they're actually going.

Chris Dunn: And a lot of times we're, we're asking these questions and we're getting them to think maybe for the first time about why are we really doing this? Mm-hmm. Not just because we've always done it or, um, you know, Joe and, and, uh, you know, in the sales department said, I see a couple competitors at a show we should go to that, you know, that's not, that's not a strategy.

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Um, and there was one of our guests who [00:14:00] they were talking not just about ROI, but to your point mm-hmm. Depending on what their goals are. 'cause they, they might not be always about, you know, leads or things being signed that they should think about. If it suits their needs, return on engagement, you know, what, you know, what does that look like?

Dana Esposito: Are they looking for visibility in their specific industry? Like, what are they looking for? If it's not sales leads, just really help narrow down what those goals are because, you know, a company like, uh, like BlueHive, our competitors, we can help hit those goals if we know what they are better. Um, so 

Chris Dunn: yeah, exactly.

Chris Dunn: And, and, um, it was, uh, so Marli Arnold was on a couple weeks ago and, and she had some really great one-liners. Uh, hope is not a strategy, right? It's like that kind of sums it up, right. We're, we're, we're banging the drum on, on strategic, uh, planning ahead of time. Um. You know, and, and I think again, you'll as a [00:15:00] designer, feel free to kind of jump in, but, but building a beautiful booth also is not a strategy, right?

Chris Dunn: That's, we, we need the structure of the booth to be attractive, uh, hopefully to be a wow factor, to stop people to, to allow for functionality to happen within that space to create mm-hmm. Room for engagement and creation of, um, memorable, uh, you know, situations. Um, but the booth is the, just building a pretty booth is not gonna get it done either, you know?

Chris Dunn: Right. We've gotta, we, we've gotta be deeper than that. 

Dana Esposito: The booth should, the booth should, whether you wanna call it beautiful or slick or whatever the, the pretty adjective is, right? Mm-hmm. The booth should, that's like a no brainer. That's what it should be. Should be. Um, yeah. But it should also be so many other things that are more tangible.

Dana Esposito: Right. And what I mean by that is, like, a good way to explain it is people like, oh, you know, well. You know, the designer's gonna come up with something that, well, they're, they may be dipping into like some of their [00:16:00] art brain, right? Mm-hmm. But they're not. Mm-hmm. Coming up with something as an artist, like that's just what they want it to be like.

Dana Esposito: They're just expressing themselves. Yeah. They're almost invisible in the solution, right? They're just using their, I say just like it's a small thing. They're using their expertise and talent and knowledge, right? And everything that they've been exposed to, to come up with something that's very specific.

Dana Esposito: And it's not just to make sure it tells the story of who that company is and what they do, but what they can provide that specific audience. 'cause from show to show the audiences can change. It's gonna need to be within budget. If it is a complex program, um mm-hmm. Which are some of my favorite, you know, I love it when client's like, well, we don't need a booth.

Dana Esposito: We need booth. We have a, we have a 60 by 80 that also needs to work as a 50 by 50, and it needs to work as a 20 by 20, and we want our 10 by 20 to look like it has continuity and makes sense. But by the way, some of the 60 by 80 shows that we [00:17:00] go to the audience changes. So we need to change our messaging, or we need to change the engagement, you know, because the, the doctors are gonna in, uh, interact with it differently than the nurses.

Dana Esposito: Like, that's all strategy. So when a designer is saying to you, this is what I've come up with, they should also be able to tell you why. Right? And they're trying to be in budget. Which is extremely hard these days. So they might, they may say to you, well, this is what I can get in budget. I know these are a couple of things that you wanted that would push it over budget.

Dana Esposito: So, you know, I'm gonna show you the rendering maybe without it too, so you can decide what you wanna do. 'cause they're trying to be, you know, respectful, but they also wanna push things forward for you. Right? They, they don't want you to look, um, right. Like the, the comp their company isn't, um, you know, on the cusp of their own technology or services.

Dana Esposito: Right. Right. You gotta, 

Chris Dunn: your brand statement needs to, needs to fit who you are. Yeah. And, and I think we see it both ways, right? Sometimes we see these billion dollar corporations showing up, like, [00:18:00] you guys look like you put this together in your garage. Like, what are you, what are you doing here? Or it's an opportunity for, for small companies to show up and look big.

Chris Dunn: Oh, absolutely. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Yeah. And designers there, they're also, you can remember they're taking in consideration maybe what the client likes. And on the client side, there might be more than one stakeholder. Right. There may be, as a decision maker, the trade show. Yeah. Uh, marketer, there could be multiple levels.

Dana Esposito: If it's a big global program they're taking into maybe an agency or multiple agencies, of course their account executive internally, like the Chris Dun of the world might have be like, you know what would be nice, Dana? You know, as I take that agency too, to make Chris Dun. Yeah. Right. If it's a good idea, we'll, you know, absolutely.

Dana Esposito: Take in consideration. Um, so the designer's never like, oh, you know, it would be great based upon like an art thing. It's design, it's we design and are like become business and strategy. Yeah. So the exhibits are very specific. It's like the three dimensional version of a brand and a story. [00:19:00] 

Chris Dunn: Absolutely.

Chris Dunn: Alright, what's next? 

Dana Esposito: Okay, so, um, there were some episodes that really emphasized on the follow up is the RROI. Yeah. But like, let's talk about like, you know, at attribution change, uh, challenges lead drop off and solutions when it comes to those. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. I don't have to go back very far at all. Um, I have pages of notes and, and, um, and oh, by the way, we've had a couple of, you know, different co-hosts, uh, along the way.

Chris Dunn: So, uh, Brendan Hamlin of Hamlin Creative sat in the, uh, co-host de seat last week and we interviewed, uh, a woman by the name of, uh, uh, Kayla Drake. And, uh, she is just like a field marker extraordinaire. She dropped. So much, you know, great, so many great ideas and so much gold, um, with how really the, the playbook of how that should be done.

Chris Dunn: Um, and she talked about, you know, that that handoff post-show handoff, the show's over everybody, pat yourself [00:20:00] in the back. It was great. You know, glass of champagne, celebrate, alright, now the work begins again, right? So that, that handoff to the sales team isn't just like, Hey, here's, you know, a, a spreadsheet with a bunch of names in it.

Chris Dunn: Good luck on my job. Here is the event person or the field marketer's done. She works with them, uh, very specifically. Uh, so even before she'll hand the lead, the, the lead, uh, sheet off she's gonna go through, her team goes through, they vetted out who's, who are ICPs, um, are these leads real? Is there a specific need?

Chris Dunn: Is it hot? Is it cool? Is it, you know, warm? Where does it fall in along the way? And that way when they're handing this off, there's multi-layers, multi-levels. Um, to draw an analogy, when we, when we talk to a new exhibitor or a potential new client about their show schedule, we talk about a hierarchy of, of events, A level B level, C level 1, 2, 3, however you wanna break it down.

Chris Dunn: But there certain events are more important. On the flip side, same type of thing with leads, right? There's hot [00:21:00] leads that need to be addressed right away. Maybe there's a conversation that happened between a certain rep at the show and they're ready to go, right? Hey, listen, we're we're launching RFP next week.

Chris Dunn: We want you guys on it. Or we have some specific needs. We already discussed these, um, in depth on the show floor. I'm, I'm looking to start this off, but I don't need to start at step one. I've already done step one. I've already done step three. Um, and then there's other stuff that's, you know, you need to put people into a drip campaign 'cause they're just not ready.

Chris Dunn: But you have to retain that, that, that top of mind. Um, so it was just kind of a masterclass on, you know, how that is done. That post-show follow through, making sure that the salespeople are set up for success. Making sure that they, if they were on site, um, they, they were ready, they were trained, they were ready, they asked the right questions, they showed up, uh, good to go if they weren't on site.

Chris Dunn: Um, because maybe just either schedules wouldn't allow it or maybe their personality type is, uh, is really great with follow through, but face-to-face they're not as strong. Um, so she talked a little bit about, you know, choosing the right, building, the right team to take to the show as well. [00:22:00] Mm-hmm. Which is great.

Chris Dunn: And again, these are, these are, um, things that were echoed throughout, uh, you know, many different, um, episodes. That one happens to be super fresh 'cause it was just, you know, last week. 

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Follow up, follow up I think is, it's complex and, and it's, it's one of the most important. Parts of the whole, the whole reason we're for going and having those exhibits, so you know anything and you, and you can talk to your trade show provider for ideas with that to really have, you don't just think of your show, the exhibit, like those, whether it's three days or four days or whatever.

Dana Esposito: Think of it as the pre-show. The during show and the post show. Right, right. So it's got a full life cycle. Yeah. Three, 

Chris Dunn: three different pillars. Just, and just to kind of add to that, 'cause I was thinking in, um, in some of our, our earlier episodes we had back to back, we had Tyson Vasoli who works for BlueHive, and we had Brendan Hamlin, who was the guest on [00:23:00] the show, and then was so good as a guest.

Chris Dunn: We brought him back as a, as a guest host. But, uh, Tyson's, our digital strategist, he creates content for us, whether it be video or interactive whatnot. Um, on on Brendan's side, he runs a, a creative agency that's, that specializes in film and content creation around live events. And I'm thinking, you know, the messaging that came out of both of those events, although from slightly different lenses, was so similar.

Chris Dunn: It's like, plan ahead, uh, build a strategy, build kind of a, an idea of what we're gonna capture on site because that. Is a once in a lifetime opportunity to capture that, uh, that content and then be able to use it, um, you know, quick edit, shoot it out on social that same day or the night of, or whatever the case.

Chris Dunn: But then some really good ideas came from that was how do we use the content we've created as a post show follow up strategy as well. Uh, maybe it's a video of that actual person in the booth space. Like, Hey, remember you were in our space. You did that goof goofy engagement. You know, where you were whacking 'em all or, [00:24:00] or whatnot.

Chris Dunn: You were putting on the funny hat, um, that tied into the story of what we were telling. Here's either a picture or a, a small snippet of a video of you, Mr. Potential customer, um, you know, talk about making or creating a, a, a memorable connection, right? It's not like if, um, if you are, uh, an attendee at a show, you might visit 40 or 50 booths, and then you go home and, and a couple days later you start getting inundated with stuff and you're just like, I, I don't really reme.

Chris Dunn: Remember, everything's, everything's a, a mush. Mm-hmm. A a mashup of all of the different things that I visited. But if, if, uh, the exhibitor can go to that, um, that prospect with a specific, you re do recall when you were in the booth and the, the, the smell of the fresh baked cookies were getting everybody all riled up.

Chris Dunn: And we did that interactive game where you learned about X, Y, z, like that. Was such a memorable piece that we experienced on site. And then I'm gonna parlay that opportunity into the post show follow up. 

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. [00:25:00] Yeah. That makes you 

Chris Dunn: stand out Head and shoulders 

Dana Esposito: and, you know, you know, blue High, we do exhibits, we do events, we do lobby installations, we all, all sorts of things.

Dana Esposito: Um, but if you think of the exhibit itself as also an event, right? Yeah. There are some clients who will have, um, a live speaker, you know, in, in their theater, you know, and it's, it's set up. Uh, for certain times they'll already have scheduled meetings, um, inside their exhibit. But there are other things that you can do inside your exhibit that you can use beyond that three day show.

Dana Esposito: Um, and we've talked about how a lot of the digital content you might create for that show, if it's on a screen, and I'm not talking about the proprietary things that really, you know, those are separate, but things that are more like the big moving graphics or if there's something specific that was created to tell a story about your new product, you know, that can be used in other elements of marketing and other, and other platforms.

Dana Esposito: But you could also like interview [00:26:00] clients at the exhibit. You could take, uh, clips of things happening in the exhibit and not only use those as show, uh, social media, but then share them with more of your clients who maybe weren't able to go to the show or potential clients who weren't able to go to the show.

Dana Esposito: So now your show is living on beyond when that show slash event happened. Right? Right. Um, and then you can, it's, it's just, it's just a great opportunity to get more content and. Really add fire and longevity to the stories that you're trying to tell about why you're a company you want your customers would want to work with.

Dana Esposito: Yeah, 

Chris Dunn: yeah. So just to, if I could, if I could kind of put a bow on that, or at least add to it. Um, obviously it's super expensive to to do shows. It's very expensive to do them well. It's even more expensive to do them poorly. So everybody wants the ROI, what's, what's my return on investment? And when you have a content creation strategy that allows you to create that evergreen content [00:27:00] and, and use it for.

Chris Dunn: Post show follow through, uh, to, to use it for sales trainings or to use it as cold outreach, uh, to warm things up for, as you had just mentioned, to reaching out to other clients who maybe weren't at the event, Hey, here's some things I learned at, uh, the IMTS show. Um, or promote the next show, right? I've got this.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Great content that I've built. Um, we were at an event, it might not be the same event, but like, Hey, come see us. We had, we had an awesome time at x, y, z show. We did this. Just wait and see what we're gonna do at the next event. It's gonna be even better. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, so, so your dollar cost average on, on the benefits that you're getting from that event are driven downward.

Chris Dunn: Because I'm able to take these efforts that we've already made, we've already spent that money. Now I'm gonna leverage them forward, uh, and, and receive a whole bunch of benefits. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. And, and your exhibit partner can help you leverage ideas for that, you know, from, you know, it could be a podcast on show site.

Dana Esposito: I mean, it's, it's really endless. It really all depends on what your message is [00:28:00] and who your specific audience is. And your exhibit partner will be able to brainstorm and come up with ideas of how to, how to leverage, um, that time and those dollars spent. Yeah. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. And that's, I mean, when we sit in, when I sit in, you know, the, um, the, the discovery meetings with Dana or the other design team, that's, those are questions that they're asking right from the get go.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Um, you know, who the audience to understand the persona, like who are we talking to? It's so important. It's an easy thing to skip over, but, um mm-hmm. It's a good thing to, you know, focus on. 

Dana Esposito: Yep. All right. I'm gonna switch gears a little bit. Okay. I'm going to ask you to talk a little bit about, um, some feature stories where, um, you know, some, some marketers are really, you know, still killing it with these small and, uh, mid-size budgets.

Dana Esposito: Um, like what they're able to, to do. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. You know, one, one thing that's, and this is specific but not specific. Um, one of our recent guests, uh, Marissa Naski, who was also a, a Boston based event person, she talked about, um, [00:29:00] and I'll tie this in in a little bit to, uh, to what you mentioned earlier when you have a complex project, and she talked about the benefits of don't identify one event, you know, look at your entire year, look at, look at the, look at the show schedule, how does it map out what are all the sizes that I'm gonna need?

Chris Dunn: And I. You know, uh, build a plan around accomplishing all of those events. And again, not to try to boil the whole ocean per se, but have the foresight to understand that my biggest booth is a 40 50. Um, and I've got several that are gonna factor down from there. I got some 2030s, 2020s, and a bunch of linears or whatever the case is.

Chris Dunn: You identify what's my workhorse, right? What's the booth that's gonna go out more often than, than any other booth? Um, and, and when you are able to invest, uh, on the front end and buy more things, um, that fit and have modularity and have, uh, flexibility built into them than when you [00:30:00] dollar cost average out.

Chris Dunn: Over the entire year, you're way ahead of the game because you made, maybe it's a large capital investment on the front end or you've, you know, done some other things to kind of move some monies around, but you're, you're able to kind of pull that in, um, and accomplish, you know, uh, a lot of goals. So instead of every time you're looking at event, you're like, well, it's in Chicago.

Chris Dunn: I'm gonna go rent from a Chicago exhibit house and you're gonna drop a hundred grand. Versus, you know, if you have a little bit more strategic play on the front end, um, you choose, you know, a vendor that just works for you. 'cause you know that they, they're, they're a good fit. They're locations are, are, um, are, are working for you, whatever the case may be.

Chris Dunn: And you spend 300 with them, but then you get to do all those other shows and all there is is just operational costs and not like rental costs and, you know, production of graphics over and over again. Um, so I, I thought that was pretty neat. Um. And to kind of play off that just a little bit, this, and this is really our, our own story, but I, I know we're not [00:31:00] fully unique in doing so.

Chris Dunn: We have a client, uh, RedZone software and, uh. When, uh, when we designed their first booth three years ago, one of our great designers, Finn Yonkers, uh, who's on Dana's team, um, you know, had foresight and, and we were building a 20 by 20, but we knew at some point we're gonna need a 40 by 40 or something larger.

Chris Dunn: And we actually designed and built booth structure that looked similar, very similar to some of our rental inventory. And I'm not talking about just like a blocky cow counter, like really cool cabinets that have, you know, a space in between with lighting underneath. They had some interesting attributes, but we built structure and we built assets that had a super similar flavor to our, to our own rental, so that when they got to a point where they were ready to grow, we could take our rental inventory and plug it into their needs and help them expand and not miss a beat.

Chris Dunn: It looked like their booth. It looked like everything was custom built for them, but they had the ability [00:32:00] to kind of grow. Then shrink back down to just using their own stuff. They didn't have to buy all those extra things for a 40 by 40, that's once every two years. Mm-hmm. Um, so I thought that was a really interesting, you know, just kind of a, a well thought out strategic play.

Chris Dunn: Mm-hmm. Um, we, we aim to do that on the regular basis. This one happened to just map out, to, to really be a good illustration of that particular type of strategy. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Custom and mo custom modular are one of my favorites to work on, like, as a design brain, um, because it's super challenging. Um, but I, I love being able to say to a client, okay, if this is your largest configuration, this is all the stuff you own.

Dana Esposito: And when you go to your small configurations, you're just taking stuff away. Right? You don't have to build anything new unless you wanna change out your graphics from show to show. Um, because it really shows that. You know, we're looking out for their best interests. You know, we're making it worthwhile for the stuff for them to own.

Dana Esposito: And you know, they'll be, you know, pay storage on that. So we gotta make it worth it for them, [00:33:00] um, right. And be smart about it. And, and like, we'll always run locker on, you know, the client being protective of the client's dollars. Like they're our own personal bank account. You know, if someone says, uh, you know, we have a 20 by 20 for six shows and one show a year, we wanna spread those pieces out in a 40 by 40.

Dana Esposito: It's a really big show, but we wanna buy a deck. You're gonna either hit the designer or the account executive account manager, that's your very common core team, say to you, how often do you plan on using that deck? And if you say, well, just for that one show a year, they're likely gonna say to you, you can buy it if you want to, but we'd recommend that you rent it, because if it's just for one show, it's not gonna be worth your dollars.

Dana Esposito: You know, um, and, and, and it's also a very sustainable thing too. You know, it's, it's a beautiful structure. You're using something that already someone else is using. You don't have to pay storage on it. So, um, yeah, I love trying to figure those complex programs out instead of just the walk. You know, 

Chris Dunn: the other, the other thing I want to kind of shine a light in a slightly different direction as well.

Chris Dunn: So when [00:34:00] you're managing your budget, um, it's, and we mentioned this to start, right? It's not just about your, your exhibit, it's about the activation that you create within, or the experience that you're creating within. So we had a couple guests that stand out in my mind, um, that had some interesting takes on that first one was, uh, Adam sent more and, um, he, uh, he has a company where he does wine, chocolate and cheese tastings.

Chris Dunn: Super niche, super specific. But think about like, I don't have to build anything to create a space in my booth to create an experience, a memorable experience that gauges all the senses, smell and touch and taste. Um. You know, so he talked about the, the value of, of, uh, of creating those memorable experiences, uh, whether it be an event, whether it be in a booth space or, or whatnot.

Chris Dunn: And the other one that kind of stands out was John Selig. Uh, he's a, he's a, he's a tech sales guy and a comedian and a standup guy. And he's merged those two things together and. Conversing with him and chatting with him. You know, it's really interesting to kind of see how [00:35:00] all of that stuff, sales, um, the, some of the best salespeople are, are just great ad libbers.

Chris Dunn: They're, they're great, um, standup comedian per se, right? So, so John does a couple of different things in his business model. He will work with teams to kind of help them to write humorous anecdotes that are great icebreaker openers, uh, that to start you off so he can train your team to do that, but he'd also be present in your booth and kind of use some of that humor, you know, in order to kind of engage and get people talking, right?

Chris Dunn: So when you think about how do we take a budget and, and deliver the best bang for the buck, it's not always about, again, building architecture. Sometimes it's about the absence of architecture, leaving the space for that live engagement, that live interaction that can happen in the space. Um. And, uh, and moving the needle in that fashion.

Chris Dunn: Um, I know that when I first had gotten into exhibits back 30 years ago, like everybody had live presenters. That was the thing. Um, so there was people up on a stage. They were, you know, they were, maybe they [00:36:00] were magicians, maybe they were comedians, maybe they were just live presenters. Um, but I think with technology we've kind of gotten away from that to some extent.

Chris Dunn: And we've had some really specific conversations. Another one that comes to mind with Jam Panus, um, about going back, the pendulum's, swinging back the other way. We're also just overloaded with everything, digital and ai, and nothing's real anymore. And like, I want fricking. Real people and I wanna shake hands and give hugs and, and engage with, with real people.

Chris Dunn: So let's do that on the show floor. Let's bring real people back to the show floor to have those engaging conversations. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Um, and that, I love that you brought up engagement. 'cause of course that's right in my wheelhouse. That's where my brain, Liz. Right. So, you know, if you are, if you think of your exhibit as a stage, it's, it's a shell.

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. Which has a, it has a lot of jobs to do that shell, right? It's, yeah. Maybe it's custom module. A lot of programs, it's to be in budget. It has to, you know, be a place where your products or your services can, um, be seen. Maybe they need to be touched. Um, [00:37:00] uh, people need to understand them. The engagement part of that storytelling is how people remember and learn.

Dana Esposito: They're educated and if you can entertain them while they're being educated, that's the most important part about that. Um, and so. When you're thinking about your exhibit, I always say like, don't have your exhibit, like contingent upon what your entire activity is, because that, that might change next year at that same show, or it might change from show to show.

Dana Esposito: Right. Um, you know, so, but when thinking about what that engagement is, just make sure it has something very strongly tied into either the. The what, the story you're telling about either your company or your product or your service or the theme for that show. Like, make sure the engagement makes sense.

Dana Esposito: And if it's technology, make sure you're not using technology just for the sake of something shiny, right? There's so many different types of technology that absolutely use one, but make sure it's the right one, right? Get different ideas from your provider. Um, is it something hands-on and [00:38:00] tactile? I personally love those because you're engaging more senses.

Dana Esposito: It could be something that does both. It could be technology with something hands-on, tech, techno, um, with technology. So there's no wrong answer. And every year that goes by, we have more than more and more ideas and options. And a company, you know, you asked me what makes BlueHive different. We, we don't have all our eggs in one basket as far as the different industries that we serve.

Dana Esposito: So we're able to say if we're, if we're serving the pharmaceutical because we have a, you know, blue me division, if we're serving pharmaceutical clients, things that we do and learn from that audience, we might then like crosspollinate into our tech audience, uh, like clients going to Black Hat or r say, or the manufacturing audience going, you know, um, IMTS.

Dana Esposito: Um, so we're always, we're always taking the, the excellent pieces of nuggets from different industries and putting them into each other so they're never like, existing in silos. So we're able to do that in a really [00:39:00] beautiful, intelligent way for them. 

Chris Dunn: Awesome. We're getting some props from, uh, from Sylvia.

Chris Dunn: Uh, yes. Edutainment is the key. I always tell my student members that exhibitor booth is more like a stage than a mini store or office. Absolutely. Right. It's, it's a performance. It to some extent, um. You know, meant to be seen from a distance. The, the, as you mentioned, the, the booth has many jobs, one of which is to true.

Chris Dunn: You know, try to get people to stop and engage and then, and then it's up to your, you know, your, your folks who are working that space. Yeah. Um, you know, to kind of take over, um, I know it really wasn't part of the questioning, but as I'm saying that, I'm thinking of several times we talked about doing a good job training your staff, and that seems to be an area that, um, that a lot of folks are, are lacking on.

Chris Dunn: I think it goes back to, uh, we've got 50% of the industry is new again, right? So not everybody has been doing this forever. Um, sometimes. Uh, you know, I'll paint with a broad brush. I, again, I've been doing it for 30 years. I [00:40:00] probably show up and maybe don't, and there's been cases where I maybe hasn't, haven't done enough research, um, as I, as I should, because I'm like, I've been doing this for a long time.

Chris Dunn: I know, I know the drill. But what I also need to remember is that, that the buying has changed, my audience has changed. Um, you know, the bulk of the market right now is millennial and Gen Z. Um, I'm a Gen X guy, right? So the way that I did things 25, 30 years ago is different than the way people want to experience things.

Chris Dunn: Now we need to meet buyers where they are, right? We need to, we need to create a journey that they want to go on. Um, so if we build it for us and our grandparents, uh, the younger generations aren't gonna wanna participate in that same journey. 

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. Correct. All right. I'm going to ask you, um, from some of our other sessions, can you name a few things that we've talked about that our present day challenges.

Dana Esposito: Um, such as like tighter budget and things like that. And what were some of the, some of the, um, pieces of information that [00:41:00] came out of those topics? 

Chris Dunn: Yeah, absolutely. Um, certainly that's come up multiple times. Uh, I'm thinking of, um, of a recent, uh, episode with, uh, Jessica Sila of, uh, the exhibitor advocate.

Chris Dunn: Um, so not that this is an answer per se, but her organization is, I think, really one of the only, uh, nonprofit organizations within the trade show exhibit wor world or industry, um, that gives exhibitors a voice. Um, she said the number one problem, by and large, uh, across the board is pricing. And, and it's not the ability to understand the always fluctuating and very difficult to decipher pricing.

Chris Dunn: It's the pricing from the start. Um, exhibitors are being priced out of the market. They can no longer afford to go out and do shows. And, and again, I think it's primarily, maybe it's on the smaller, for smaller exhibitors, smaller companies perhaps, but even large enterprise organizations that have multimillion dollar [00:42:00] exhibit, you know, budgets per year, they have to rethink things because costs have gone up.

Chris Dunn: Right? So budgeting is a concern. H how do we kind of address that? We do it in a few different ways. Um. Again, we kind of sit down with our, our exhibitors. We are partners, you know, with them. And I think doing a, a show schedule review on the front end as early as possible is, is super important. Right? Well, let's look at everything that you're going to, um, asking them what's a level show?

Chris Dunn: What's B level, what's C level? Are there things that might drop off of this list because budgeting is challenging or because maybe your budget's flat from last year, they're asking you to do the same amount of shows, but you know that across the board, um, you know, costs are up. Right? I don't know exactly what the percentage is on show services, but over, since COVID, I know it's up 30 to 40%, maybe even more in some cities.

Chris Dunn: So that just. It makes it really difficult to, to substantiate that spend. Um, so if that's the case, we can do a couple different things. Do you want to do [00:43:00] more small shows or do you want to do fewer large shows? And I don't know that one is right and one is wrong. It really kind of comes back to what are the goals for the company, um, as.

Chris Dunn: As an exhibit company that likes to see a really well done exhibit, we are hoping for the latter, right? Like, let's maybe take some of the smaller events that didn't really do much for you and take that budget, put it towards doing a better job with a, not necessarily a larger booth, but putting more budget towards something that's really gonna be impactful.

Chris Dunn: Leave the impression, um, you know, with your ideal, you know, customers, um, and, and give you something to kind of really put a flag in the ground and, and build off of. 'cause as we mentioned, you can leverage those, the investments into that show in a number of different ways. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm reminded as I'm saying that reminded of, um, your ability to, let's, let's talk, uh, content creation on site.

Chris Dunn: Um, knowing that, uh, we're gonna check some boxes, maybe social media, we're [00:44:00] gonna check some boxes from the PR team. We're gonna check some boxes from, uh, new product development. Maybe we check some boxes, uh, with the advertising or marketing group, because we're gonna create content that can be used in all of those different areas.

Chris Dunn: So did they have some budget? Their buckets that they can put towards me, my show and the content that I'm gonna create. Um, allow me to bolster my budget here, produce something better, bring in the real deal team from Hamlin Creative or whatever, whoever your partner is, per se. Um, and create really epic stuff that you can leverage, you know, going forward.

Chris Dunn: So that's a different way to maybe find more money within your company, um, by repurposing and just allocating, you know, dipping into other people's budgets because what you're gonna create, you know, checks a lot of boxes across the board. Mm-hmm. Just nice. Um, so, so it's getting the most out of your shows.

Chris Dunn: It's, uh, it's good taking a better, a closer look at the events you're doing. Um, being more strategic and tact, tactile, [00:45:00] tactile, not tactile, uh, tactical. There's the word I'm looking for. Um, and not just doing a show because, oh, we've always done the show. Let's see how it goes. You know, there's, the data's everywhere.

Chris Dunn: Look at the data. If, if it's not working, then, then make a change. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. And I would say thinking from the cr, the creative side mm-hmm. I would echo absolutely. Try to determine what you can do at that show or with the content that show Right. In other, in other ways, other environments online. Is it, is it you're interviewing one of your own sales staff, really kind of giving someone a live demo of the product and that can be shown, uh, social media sent around, like, there's so many different ways that the content can be repurposed.

Dana Esposito: So every time you use that content again. Whatever it costs you to make it originally, it's almost like it goes down because you've used it so many times, right? Yeah. Your 

Chris Dunn: cost for, yeah. Dollar cost averaging just takes it down. 

Dana Esposito: I was, I gonna say I am losing my train of thought. Hmm. I, I [00:46:00] actually wanted lost my, it's gone.

Chris Dunn: Wanted to. No problem. Um, we, we really, one of the things we haven't talked that much about is pre-show promotion. Um, yep. And we had several guests on who not only mentioned it, but had some specific, uh, thoughts and ideas. I'm actually gonna grab a piece of mail here. Uh, Neil Rogers, um. Is with Roger's Marketing Group, and he talked about sending lumpy mail.

Chris Dunn: So this is a package that I got from another guest club. Ichi, uh, Liz Lathan. Thank you, Liz. Um, inside here is a small rubber chicken. It's gonna be a little hard to see, but there he is, right there. So, um, it, it's, it's quirky and it's goofy and it makes for lumpy mail, right? So something that's out of the ordinary, it's not an email, it gets stuck in your box.

Chris Dunn: Uh, it's, it's an actual physical piece that you've sent to somebody. Is it a hat? Is it a piece of swag? Is it a piece of a puzzle that I have to go to the booth to plug into the rest of the puzzle such that everything is making, uh, making sense, right? Mm-hmm. So there's that one thing, another, uh, episode that we had that was really great was, [00:47:00] uh, with Jen O'Hara and she, uh, is with Bella Box, and she creates these amazing, uh, total, you know, artisan crafted, um, gifts.

Chris Dunn: So, so the idea of a. Well thought out. Strategic gifting strategy, whether it's something that you're putting together and mailing out ahead of the show to attract people and get them to, to come to the show, or you create some pieces that you actually have at the show, you've custom curated them. I. Maybe the, maybe the prospect has to come in to claim it, or maybe it's something that's been built specifically for a customer comes in, they win, uh, they win, uh, a competition, edutainment, as Sylvia had mentioned.

Chris Dunn: Um, and then they're able to walk away with a really cool piece. So Dana, you, you know, we're the architect of a very similar thing that we did for ourselves at the Exhibitor live show. Um, we were in San Antonio and, uh, you know, being kind of in the, the southwest, you know, cowboy hats and so forth is kind of the, the [00:48:00] norm in that city.

Chris Dunn: And you had these really lovely, amazing, um, well-crafted hats that had a little bit of a BlueHive flavor with, with hexagon, you know, honeycomb and flowers and so forth. So you had these custom made hats. Um, and then folks who came and participated in our event were able to, you know, leave with that. So that wasn't so much a pre-show promotion, but we used.

Chris Dunn: What we were doing in the booth to reach out to clients ahead of time, uh, potential clients and clients ahead of time. Let them know what we're gonna be doing and create enough interest to make sure that we're on the short list of people you're gonna stop and see at the show. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. And, and there's something to be said.

Dana Esposito: We, you know, we've talked to people about giveaways and gifts and those were proper gifts. It wasn't BlueHive branded on the exterior. Right. So it's like they were high quality. Um. And proper branded. Yeah. Um, and at that show we were doing something, you know, a little different because it was a show for people in the trade show industry and we're always pushing the envelope a bit as it's our job to do.

Dana Esposito: [00:49:00] Um, and, and we did that with what our inter activities were. Um, but what I was gonna bring up before, and then you even reminded me when you were showing the lumpy mailer, which I love that term Yeah. Is, um, to, if clients, I would always suggest to not fear doing something different, like take creative risk.

Dana Esposito: And especially like, you don't have to wait till you feel like, oh, you know, our return, uh, we didn't have as many people stop at the booth that we thought, but there were a lot of people at the show like, why weren't they stopping at our exhibit? Um, you don't have to wait till you're in that spot before you feel brave enough to do something really different creatively.

Dana Esposito: I, because I would especially say, especially with the so many different generations now. It is very normal for people to see things that are unusual. So you almost have to be unusual to be noticed, you know, and I don't mean crazy weird, I mean just, just show up as, as your brand. Like don't break your brand, but don't be afraid to [00:50:00] push, push it how you show up and what your interactivity is.

Dana Esposito: Um, because you, in order to get people's, not only their attention, but I don't mean at first, but like their attention to come in and like park it there for a while and really listen to you so that they then go, oh my God, I need to do, I need to be doing business with you. I get you. I see what you're doing.

Dana Esposito: Like you are smart for me. Right? Yeah. Um, you have to kind of like maybe evoke a little bit sense of their curiosity. Curiosity, like poke their curiosity. Right. Maybe create a moment of wonder. Those are little elements and slivers in humans' lives that I. One hand we're surrounded by a din and noise of everything.

Dana Esposito: And on the other hand, we don't get a lot of, of those authentic moments of curiosity and, and wonder. So talk to your exhibit provider about that. Say, Hey, how do we say and do all this? But also really, you know, surprise people. Like, we want to, we wanna be not afraid. You might be surprised with how that works out for you.

Chris Dunn: Yeah. No, that's great. [00:51:00] Great. Uh, great comment. So I think here we are at 51 minutes. We're, um, yeah. We're gonna need to wrap up the toolbox today. 

Dana Esposito: Yep. Wrap it up. We, we 

Chris Dunn: get so much to talk about. We could probably do a whole nother episode and head on all the other things and talk about some of the folks who had, who were here with great episodes and left us with great ideas who we didn't even, um, get to talk about yet today.

Dana Esposito: Mm-hmm. 

Chris Dunn: Um, so go ahead. I'm, I'm sorry. I was just gonna say, at the, at the end of every toolbox, uh, we ask our guests typically for, uh, for three kind of takeaways. So we're gonna bounce this back and forth off of each other. But Dana, I'd like to ask you, you know, what is one of your key takeaways or suggestions for the folks out there who are, uh, in the realm, they're exhibitors?

Chris Dunn: Um, they're maybe wondering how to, how to move the needle, how to do something different, or how to help themselves. 

Dana Esposito: Um, I would say for, from the, on the client side, you know, if I, if I could talk to all clients, right? Uh, I would say don't, and you [00:52:00] can through this medium right here, right? Yeah. I'm sure they're all listening.

Dana Esposito: They're all here. Um, I, I would say don't be afraid to be different and stand out on the show hall floor. Definitely communicate with your trade show partner. You know, all the things, their whole program, right? Right. Try not to treat your booths as one-offs. You'll get more bang for your buck if you treat it as a program.

Dana Esposito: I think those are some of the most important things. Um, and whatever is important for your company, whether it's sustainability or you have a complex, uh, program with a lot of different configurations of sizes, communicate all of that to your, to your partner, uh, including the designer. Make sure the designer knows all that because designers are used to getting a long list of things that it needs to achieve.

Dana Esposito: And if we know them up front, we can. If we can't hit all of 'em, we can hit an awful lot of them. And everything that we're able to achieve, achieve strategically is going to be a better use of your dollar. 

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. Great. Um, you know, one other [00:53:00] thing, um, and, and feel free to kind of piggyback on this, but, uh, I, I have already mentioned, uh, one of our guests, Jessica Avila, uh, and she's with the exhibitor advocate, and this is a group.

Chris Dunn: So if you are, if you are on the exhibitor side, um, and you do shows, uh, reach out, find her, just Google, Google the company, they're a nonprofit and it's free to join. And they are becoming the voice, they are the voice of for exhibitors, right? So they're the ones that can help you go to the Freemans and the GSS and say, listen, what's happening here is not sustainable.

Chris Dunn: We cannot continue to pay more and more and more for the same thing. Um, I shipped a crate from, you know, Boston to San Francisco, and it cost me, you know, $2,000 to get one crate from here to there, and it cost me $5,000 to get it from the dock to the booth. Back, like mm-hmm. How is this, how is this working?

Chris Dunn: Right? So, um, that, that was, that's one of the things that I'd like [00:54:00] to add in for those three takeaways is that if you're an exhibitor, make sure and reach out, um, find, uh, find the exhibit exhibitor advocate online. Um, sign up, become a member, work with them. Um, yeah. And amplify all of our voices together because we're not gonna fix anything if all we're doing is just, you know, complaining into a, into a chasm of nothingness, right?

Chris Dunn: Yeah. Like our voices have to be heard. Um, and yes, things cost more money now than they used to. Um, that is a, a fact of life. But how do we, how do we collectively kind of pull our resources together to kind of make sure that, that this industry that we love and, and the benefits that we get from trade shows is, is a sustainable thing.

Dana Esposito: And I'm just gonna chime in on that. So I'm a big fan of the exhibitor advocate and from the design side, I'm always, you know, cautious with clients dollars, right? Yep. And even if I'm cautious on my side, we have no control of, uh, the shipping and the drayage and things that are costing on show site for services.[00:55:00] 

Dana Esposito: Um, right. So that, that is something like I could, we could complain all day long to the show organizer or the venue, it's not gonna matter. It's only gonna matter if it comes from the exhibitors themself because they are the end client. For those shows, or if, or if I'm like, look, our hands are always tied 'cause rules and regulations, not the safety ones, but the other rules and regulators are getting so severe that you're really tying exhibitors down with what they're able to do in that space and take advantage of like full cubic content and have a grandiose exhibit.

Dana Esposito: Again, they're not gonna listen to us, they're gonna listen to their clients. So I highly, um, advocate that, uh, trade show managers, um, become members of. Exhibit Advocate as well, um, support them, be in contact with them. Um, and I, I just can't speak highly enough about the organization. I really appreciate everything they're trying to do for the industry.

Dana Esposito: Great. Um, then you had also asked me before we hopped on the call, [00:56:00] if I were to give any advice to newer people in the industry, what would it be? Yes. So I would say please care. Okay. If you're newer to the industry, if you're on the trade show and event manager, like you're on the client side mm-hmm. I would absolutely recommend that you attend exhibitor live.

Dana Esposito: Usually happens in like February or March. Mm-hmm. It is a great show. They have sessions that are educational, they have sessions if you're trying to earn your CTSM, your certified trade show, um, marketer, um, so you can earn credits towards that. The show itself, we call it like a trade show for trade show people.

Dana Esposito: So you'd see people like BlueHive there, you know, 'cause we're a trade show provider, but there are other things there as well that, um, are resources for you to really help make sure that your program is successful as possible. The other event I would, um, have you go to would be Event Marketers Summit. Um.

Dana Esposito: And I wanna say, I think that was back in May, I [00:57:00] think. Um, but it's similar but different. It is, it still attracts a lot of trade show and event marketers, but it also tracks, uh, like maybe a little more agency side of clients. Again, they showcase a ton of new information for you. They also have sessions, um, and this, both of those shows are a wealth of knowledge to stay up to date with everything that's at your disposal so that your, um, your, your efforts are successful, um, and on the cusp of, of everything pushing forward.

Dana Esposito: And also I would follow both those, those, um, organizations online and you know, they both have online magazines. Um, with new information you can follow them on social media channels as well. Um, if you're in the industry, like on the trade show side, like Chris and I are, I would still recommend going to both of those shows.

Dana Esposito: But if, say you've been in the industry for a little bit. And you're like, I wanna get a little more involved in the industry. I would recommend looking up [00:58:00] edpa@edpa.com. It's the Experiential Designers and Producers Association. They have chapters all over the country, and you could go to some of the chapter events, the pillars that are important to EDPA.

Dana Esposito: It's a nonprofit that basically is here. It's all of us competitors who we, you know, we put down our swords and we join together and we get together for, um, uh, protecting the future of the industry. Um, finding future leaders in our industry, future workforce in our industry, which is very important. Um, we do, um, deeds of good, um, which essentially if someone's, uh, been stricken with an illness or what happy, we'll have, you know, fundraisers.

Dana Esposito: Um, and also the EDPA Foundation does a lot of stuff with scholarship. So I would go to EDPA and look up their chapters and see how you can go to some of those events. If you start going some of those events, you're like, this is pretty awesome. I really wanna get involved and I really wanna stay a part of this industry, become, um, you know, become part of a [00:59:00] chapter.

Dana Esposito: You know, find out who's in charge of each chapter and become a member. Um, the EDPA also has committees. If there's something you feel passionate about, there's education, there's sustainability, future workforce, future leaders, there's all sorts of things you could become a dedicated member of, uh, one of the committees.

Dana Esposito: There's also the EDPA Board of directors, which I'm on, um, as well as Chris Griffin, the current president. And I have learned a ton. I mean, I didn't start out there. I was already, you know, on the committees and chapters and eventually, you know, voted into the board of directors. But as a professional who's been committed to this industry, I've learned a lot because I'm sitting on a board with these high level professionals and owners from our competitors.

Dana Esposito: And we're not talking about things that we shouldn't, like, we're giving any secret sauce of each other, but like I've learned so much as a professional and it changed my way of thinking, um, beyond what I do at my desk, right? So it helps me be a better professional if I understand what people at other desks are doing, [01:00:00] you know, finance and, and just all that sorts of thing.

Dana Esposito: And, um. I, like I said, I'm a continuous improvement in education person, so it helps feed part of that brain for me. But I've learned so mu, so much, I feel extremely, um, grad, like I'm a lot of gratitude that I'm able to be exposed to that and, um, 

Chris Dunn: gives you, gives you a different lens instead of just being absolutely kind of in your own little tunnel vision.

Chris Dunn: Like, like you said at your desk. Yeah, I can see 

Dana Esposito: the, 

Chris Dunn: I could see the big picture. Um, and uh, and I get a sense of, you know, there's a whole industry out there, like billions and billions of dollars moved through this, this industry that we're involved in. 

Dana Esposito: Yeah. Um, 

Chris Dunn: up until late, no one knew who we were. You know?

Chris Dunn: Yeah. When, when, when COVID hit, um, you know, EDPA was, was part of the charge, you know, leading the charge, going to the government saying that this is, they did actually a large group of people. Yeah. They just, and they 

Dana Esposito: just, um, did their most recent legislative action day down in Washington, DC And if you are, if that's something again [01:01:00] that calls to you, yeah.

Dana Esposito: Um, you can reach out on the website and say, Hey, I'm interested in learning Mo more about that. And, uh, I'm just telling you like, as someone who started off in this industry thinking about design, and I wanted to be really good at that. Because I wanted to understand a client, right? And then I then, as I was a designer for a long time, I wanted to understand what other people in the company was doing.

Dana Esposito: 'cause I figured I'd be a better designer if I not only understood what the client needed, but what other departments needed. And then I began a show site and I'm like, oh, I'm a better designer now 'cause I can understand what labor needs on show site and what's gonna slow down product. You know, you know, something being installed.

Dana Esposito: And then I'm like, well now I understand how our company works. I understand how other companies work now I wanna send how the industry works. Like, um, like all of that is such valuable information when you're looking at something from someone else's perspective that you just become. Um, uh, better at your job and better rounded human.

Dana Esposito: Um, so if you wanna get involved with any of those things, uh, just to, just to feed your own brain and also [01:02:00] participate in the industry, those are some things that I would recommend. Also, if you're newer to the industry, follow ECN, that's Exhibit City News online. Um, they have online, um, social media and, and, um, newsletters, trade show, uh, news network.

Dana Esposito: Um, and then there's a lot of international ones like I kind of go on forever. Those are the highlight ones, but yeah, 

Chris Dunn: good stuff. Hey, listen, this is our longest episode ever. Um. So good, bad, or indifferent? We, uh, we had a lot to say. We've, we've got 23 episodes in the, in the can and we're gonna have some great guests on throughout the summer into the fall.

Chris Dunn: Um, we, oh, we have some really good 

Dana Esposito: guests coming up. Yeah, 

Chris Dunn: we got some, some great, some great folks. I kind of feel like 

Dana Esposito: more ha ha ha ha. Like some really, I'm like this close to telling you, but I can't No. Oh, so close. I can't 

Chris Dunn: just tease it. Nope. Just tease it. So, Nope. Um, you can watch. I don't wanna change, watch this very, this very, uh, broadcast here, which currently is live, but we'll be wrapping up in a hot second.

Chris Dunn: And it's available forever and [01:03:00] ever, uh, here on LinkedIn, on YouTube, and we're on all of the, uh, all of the podcast platforms as well. So this has been a super episode. We had a lot to, to say. We didn't get to all of it. Um, but I really hope that, um, that if you were live, and I know there's several folks that were in the, the, that were in the chat.

Chris Dunn: We didn't get to all the questions. Um. But appreciate your participation. Hopefully there's some great takeaways. Uh, and then, hey, we're just getting started, right? We're halfway through the year. We're committed, uh, to rolling out great guests and great conversations on a weekly basis for this community of like-minded, uh, event people.

Chris Dunn: Um, tell your friends, uh, your, your coworkers, your associates. Um, share what we're doing here and, uh, and hopefully, um, we'll keep on adding value to everybody out there in the industry. Boom. Alright, thanks Dana. This has been a fun conversation. Really appreciate you and, uh, we'll wrap it up. And everybody have a great rest of your, your day and your week.

Chris Dunn: [01:04:00] Cheers.