EMT #53 with Stephanie Selesnick - Trade show trends you only see from the floor

Trade shows are evolving — not just in scale, but in structure, sponsorship models, attendee behavior, and global execution.

In Episode 53 of Event Marketer’s Toolbox, hosts Chris Dunn and Dana Esposito sit down with international trade show consultant Stephanie Selesnick, President of International Trade Information, for a wide-ranging conversation on what she’s seeing across major global shows — from CES and World of Concrete to Shanghai and Dubai.

With more than 30 years in the industry (and starting at age 10), Stephanie brings a global, second-generation perspective to how expos are shifting — and what organizers and exhibitors must rethink to stay relevant.

1️⃣ Multinationals Are Building Innovation Ecosystems — Not Just Booths

At CES, major brands like Canon, LG, and Samsung are creating proprietary pavilions within startup areas like Eureka Park. Instead of simply exhibiting, they’re:

• Partnering with emerging startups
• Incubating innovation
• Creating R&D ecosystems inside the show

This signals a shift: large exhibitors are using trade shows not just to sell — but to invest, scout, and build future partnerships.

2️⃣ The Show Floor Must Serve the Attendee First

Stephanie emphasized a recurring lens:

“What’s in it for me?”

Attendees today:

• Arrive with a plan
• Have limited attention spans
• Expect engagement, not passive browsing

Organizers must rethink:

• Floor layout
• Sponsorship models
• Education formats
• Appointment-setting technology

If your show still relies on “they’ll walk the aisles and discover things,” you may already be behind.

3️⃣ Sponsorship Needs to Evolve Beyond Banners

The traditional:

• Gold / Silver / Platinum tiers
• Static signage
• Generic activations

…are losing impact.

Stephanie urges organizers to shift toward consultative sponsorship models:

• Ask exhibitors what success looks like
• Design activations around their goals
• Facilitate one-on-one meetings
• Use technology to enable matchmaking

4️⃣ One-on-One Meetings Are the Future

From Money 20/20’s “speed dating” sessions to UFI matchmaking formats, structured meetings are becoming central to ROI.

Shows that invest in:

• Appointment-setting tech
• Curated matchmaking
• Attendee-to-attendee meetings

…will differentiate themselves.

The expectation is no longer browsing — it’s precision networking.

This episode reinforces a simple but powerful idea: Trade shows cannot rely on tradition.

They must:

• Evolve sponsorship models
• Invest in smarter technology
• Design for intentional engagement
• Rethink layouts
• And prioritize real connection

The shows that adapt will thrive. The ones that don’t may struggle to justify their value.

👉🏼 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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Transcript

0:00:01

(Chris Dunn)

Hey, hello, and welcome to the Event Marketers Toolbox. 

0:00:04

(Chris Dunn)

Welcome, everybody. I'm Chris Dunn. I'm with Bluehive Exhibits, and we're super happy to have you here. I've got some friends with me, one that you'll recognize right off because she's been a co -host for almost a whole year, and her name is Dana Esposito. She is our EVP of creative and strategy, and we've got a friend as well. So, Dana, Who are you? 

0:00:27

(Chris Dunn)

Give a little bit more background and then kick it over to Stephanie. Let her give a little explanation on who she is. 

0:00:32

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Sure. 

0:00:32

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So I've been in the industry 30 years. Exhibit designer is my foundation, but also a creative director, creative leadership, corporate strategy, and also a client advocate, and also do a lot of things with the EDPA to protect the future of our industry, including future workforce, basically students and other people coming into our industry. So it's pretty exciting. 

0:00:57

(Speaker 25)

That's the maternal side of me that I don't have at home. 

0:01:01

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So, but no, I work - You have a fur baby. I do have a fur baby. But I work with Chris at Blue Hive and I'm very excited to talk to Stephanie today. 

0:01:09

(Speaker 16)

So Stephanie, do you want to introduce yourself? 

0:01:12

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Yeah. 

0:01:12

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Good morning or good afternoon, depending on where you're listening to this, or good evening. if you're in Europe. My name is Stephanie Sleznik. I'm president of International Trade Information. I am second generation in the trade show business. So what I do is I help internationalize trade shows is my core business. 

0:01:28

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And then I blog for Exhibition World magazine and have blogged for several other publications in the past. I've been in the industry 30 plus years. I worked my first trade show when I was 10. my first international show when I was 14. And I put on about 75 to 100 ,000 miles a year going around the world, either teaching about exhibitions, being at exhibitions, selling exhibitions, and generally being a troublemaker at large. 

0:01:56

(Speaker 13)

So it's a lot of fun. 

0:01:57

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's a lot of fun. 

0:01:58

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You would just want to live with children. And you were telling us your mom is actually the person, you're a second generation, but your mom was kind of a glass ceiling person, right? 

0:02:09

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Like that's awesome. She was a publisher and in the apparel industry, not for clothing, for the machinery side. And her largest competitor had a publication and a very large trade show in Atlanta. at the time for many years. And she figured if he could do it, it couldn't be that hard. He wasn't that smart in her head. 

0:02:29

(Chris Dunn)

She just decided to do a show and she ended up with a really great account manager from Greyhound Exhibitions, which then morphed into GES. 

0:02:42

(Speaker 24)

Oh boy, this is a new one. 

0:02:44

(Stephanie Selesnick)

This is new. 

0:02:46

(Stephanie Selesnick)

No one's sorry. You know, when you live in a high rise, things happen. Um, and so, uh, and then she launched her first trade show in Mexico. She went down with IAE on a trade mission, fell in love with Mexico and ended up deciding to, uh, do her show in Mexico and start up Mexican publication for the apparel industry at the time. This was long before NAFTA. There were no trade shows. 

0:03:15

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Absolutely no, you know, there were no trade shows really. There were no, there were no venues. There was one little venue. We ended up doing the first apparel, uh, the first show in Mexico was done in the Camino Real hotel parking lot in Mexico city. There was no venue and, uh, several of course. And, um, and they brought in generators and when the wind blew the wrong way, it was not good, but people were still interested. 

0:03:41

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know, if you think about what we do, we're, we're the second oldest profession, right? 

0:03:45

(Dana Esposito)

The marketplace. 

0:03:46

(Stephanie Selesnick)

That's right. 

0:03:47

(Speaker 16)

We are. 

0:03:48

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Yeah. So, yeah. So that was, yeah, I was 14 at the time when we did our first show in Mexico. So you can say, you know, and I'll my siblings also, when you were 10, you got to stay in the hotel and then you would be in charge of putting out the publications. Uh, one year, um, I guess her staff went out, the staff went out and got a little buzz the night before and everybody was late to work. 

0:04:09

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And at the time we had to type in registration. 

0:04:11

(Speaker 23)

And so it, I was a kid typing registration badges until they showed up hungover. 

0:04:18

(Stephanie Selesnick)

on. 

0:04:19

(Chris Dunn)

Not that anybody in th done that. No, never, nev first time for everything a lively group in the comm to see. Um, we, uh, we 'v folks checking in here. S you. Nice to see you. She She said she started in th 14. 

0:04:41

(Chris Dunn)

So 10 did beat her. Um so Kate Holly, if you can because we're live. And Zadia, so our super listener from New Jersey. Hey, Zadia, how's it going, girl? Nice and sunny in my background here. It's over there. 

0:05:02

(Chris Dunn)

Just like your smiley sun face. So before we jump into the meat and potatoes, Uh, this is a live show. So we'd love the comments. Uh, keep them coming. If you've got a good question you want to kind of put in there, we'll try to work it into our, our commentary. We do have a little bit of an agenda, but you know, you guys know how it is. 

0:05:22

(Chris Dunn)

We kind of roll with it. We keep it loose and, uh, we're here to just have a really great, uh, organic conversation. Um, and hopefully turn over some, you know, some stones and, and Stephanie has a lens. of somebody who travels the world and goes to events all over the place. Oh, and we just lost Dana. Look at this. 

0:05:41

(Speaker 19)

This is going to be an interesting day. 

0:05:44

(Speaker 22)

Hey, Dana. 

0:05:45

(Speaker 16)

How are you? 

0:05:46

(Speaker 21)

Oh, my God. 

0:05:46

(Speaker 20)

Where'd you go? 

0:05:48

(Chris Dunn)

Surprise. All right, at some point I'll disappear, I guess. I think it's just a thing. It's restreams having a day. All right, so let me get into our sponsors, right? Because without our sponsors, we don't have a show and then we wouldn't have all this great, wonderful conversations and content that we create here. 

0:06:04

(Chris Dunn)

So I work for Blue Hive, Dana works for Blue Hive. So Blue Hive, a year and a half ago said, you know what? Chris, you've been bangin while. We do want to go a let's have conversations with event people who talk about things that other event people want to talk about and learn from. So it was a fairly simple premise. We're trying to build a community here of people from really all sides of the event forum, as it were, who can kind of lift each other up, help each other out, make recommendations, expose them to new ideas that maybe they don't get to see on a regular basis. 

0:06:44

(Chris Dunn)

I know when I'm here in my office working at my desk, my vision is so limited. And when you go out to the trade show floor, whether it be here in the US or overseas or wherever, right, it just, it opens up everything because you're like, oh, wow, like there's things happening that I was not even thinking about. So, so that's super cool. So anyways, Blue Hive has given us the ability to do this. Here's the God's honest truth. I tried to do it along with an original partner, the podcast, the live show, and get it off the ground and failed miserably. 

0:07:19

(Chris Dunn)

I couldn't get all of the things done. even though it's, it's not rocket science, but it's just like, how do you do a full -time job and try to do this and understand and learn the business all at once? And my, our fortunes changed when we, when we partnered with the agency Fist Bump, who is actually running the show right now. So they do all the heavy lifting, and they, and they allow a combination of like blue hive to kind of come on have the conversations. You know, we're responsible for for obviously, you know, showing up and and and participating, but they do the heavy lifting, they help us kind of curate all that content. 

0:07:59

(Chris Dunn)

that helps us get found, right? So if you're an organization out there, and you're thinking about how do we, how do we use a medium like this, Fistbump is actually, or is, I'm sorry, absolutely a great resource to have. So now that we got that out of the way, I'm going to kick it back to Dana and Stephanie. And they're going to start us off with a little talk about like, what you guys came for, right? 

0:08:20

(Speaker 16)

What are you seeing on the floor, like everywhere, all over the world? 

0:08:24

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Yeah. So, Stephanie, specifically like CES, World of Concrete or some of the other larger shows you've been to more recently, what are you seeing? 

0:08:33

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Like I'm thinking from the creative side when people want to know, like, what's some of the more current trends out there on the show hall floor? One of the trends that I saw, started seeing last year at CES and then was really multiplied was this idea of, of course, everybody goes to a trade show to see what's new. 

0:08:52

(Speaker 9)

Number one reason. 

0:08:54

(Stephanie Selesnick)

all over the world. Number two is to network, but number one is still to see what's new. And Eureka Park is a prime example of that. It is the busiest part of CES. There's 1 ,500 companies. There are country pavilions. 

0:09:08

(Stephanie Selesnick)

There are all different kinds of organizations. But what I thought was interesting was that Canon, LG, and some of the larger exhibitors at CES have their own proprietary pavilions in Eureka Park. with startups that they have partnered with. Samsung, for example, has a couple of different ways. They have employees who have come to them with ideas and self -develop. Some of those companies actually get launched and remain in the Samsung family, but are separately 

0:09:39

(Stephanie Selesnick)

owned. Some are entrepreneurs who come in. So it's all very interesting. But what they're doing is supplying a place for R &D. Their R &D is now innovation. And they're bringing in new companies because in some ways it's cheaper and less expensive to buy into a new company, help them with the things that they need to launch and own part of the company, and then either buy it outright or allow it to go on their own and still stay friendly. 

0:10:07

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So I've started to really see that in different places, and it's great. So instead of just country pavilions, the other thing were universities. Universities with alumni in their booths who have started new products and services. So it's very interesting. It really still is pretty an interesting idea. And I think for organizers especially, start looking at your big, big exhibitors and say, hey, are you doing this with any companies? 

0:10:36

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Why don't we put you in a pavilion? So if they say they've maxed out on their budget, what a great way to bring them in and a whole new light, you know, bring in, bring in some extra revenue at the same time while providing, you know, it's a win win. And I think that we really have to create our, that's how our relationships need to be. We need to thank people that pay our salaries, that pay our mortgages. They're not the enemy. And I think too often at trade shows, we see an adversarial relationship where, you know, maybe younger people and middle management and sometimes upper management, think that, oh, they're just always going to be in our show. 

0:11:15

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Nothing is in stone. 

0:11:16

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And if anything has taught us since COVID, really, no, we have to reprove ourselves year in and year out on the value of what we do and be accommodating and say, thank you. Yeah. 

0:11:29

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I like that idea of the little guys getting together and supporting, you know, it's a nice sense of community and never know what something so small, you know, can really go, it can go anywhere. And then something else that we would do with our shows in Mexico for many years, my mom was the first North American to do shows in Mexico long before NAFTA. So as I mentioned, so what we would do is, US companies would come in to the shows, they would find distributors, Right. Because they would need distributors to get out there. And then what we would do is we would say, OK, great. 

0:12:03

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Why don't you get some subsidies from the companies that you're showing and take a bigger booth? Then they can send down one rep to sell the product, be the subject matter expert. and they would get bigger stands, they would get bigger booths. So it's another way to do things. So if you're bringing in international people, say to your US show and they're finding distributors here, right? Why not talk to the distributors about co -locating, you know, and getting more, getting some buy -in from the lines that they represent from overseas and getting bigger space with more stuff. 

0:12:38

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Another thing that we see is, you know, pre -sell equipment. If you've got equipment, who doesn't want to kick the tires? You know, it's very interesting. You know, we've got ConExpo, ConAg coming to town. And I mean, the machinery is humongous. Same thing at World of Concrete. 

0:12:53

(Stephanie Selesnick)

People want to kick the tires. Well, it can be pretty expensive, depending on the city, to get your stuff in. Well, why not resell it? Split and splits the shipping costs. 

0:13:04

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So you, you know, the manufacturer pays for it to go overseas or to, or to show site. And then the buyer picks it up and transports it away. 

0:13:12

(Chris Dunn)

Yeah. large equipment or large product in general, I mean, that is such a benefit for on both sides that it, you know, it's great, great, something great to take advantage of. Yeah, we see that a lot at, at auction. with some of the large equipment, especially coming over from Germany. There's a lot of German manufacturers that are building these really intricate CNC cutting machines, material removal, and all of that stuff. And that's exactly what they'll do, right? 

0:13:43

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Because why bother sending it over if we certainly don't want to send it back? So everybody wins and something like that. It really does. 

0:13:51

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And especially the attendees win, because they get to see the equipment. And they really get to see it. Stephanie, what have you seen, I mean, each show is a little bit different, and some shows like CES, they don't have to sort of be as creative coming up with different ways to be interactive with their audience, because oftentimes their products tend to be interactive all of their own volition. 

0:14:14

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But what have you seen, maybe some trends or just things that are different in the way of people trying to get attendees into their space or to help them learn something or communicate to them or draw them in. And I mean, like beyond some of like a prize wheel, you know, some of the old school, I hate to say gimmicky because I know sometimes that's not a good word, but just what have you seen that's maybe just a little bit more unusual or surprised you? I've seen, and World of Concrete, by the way, is one of my absolute favorite shows in the entire world. It is just the biggest celebration of community. People get married there. They sell swag. 

0:14:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

They have trucks with swag. It's unbelievable. They have competitions and that that are sponsored. They have a bricklaying competition that I think the final package prize. They do regional events to bring people in. People show up with their T -shirts on to support their teams. 

0:15:10

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Quarter million dollars in prizes. Wow. Oh, my God. Life changing, right? Who knew? All kinds of competitions. 

0:15:19

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So I'm going to take a couple of examples from there. They have an outside area. some of the exhibitors hold competitions where they have people doing things with the equipment, using it. Everybody wants to get their hands on it. If you have an industrial show, take advantage of it. Use that. 

0:15:37

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Now, on the other side of the coin, we've got shows like Money 2020, Health, InsureTech, Connect, which are on a completely different model. My friend Julius Solaris from Bulletpush talks about the high street model. of show organization where you have different areas, pavilions, you have an anchor, you have an activation of some kind, and then you have smaller kiosks around, and then you have one -on -one meetings. Those are hugely popular. You also have a stage per area. So these are all different areas and ways to get things accomplished. 

0:16:12

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Another one is education in the booth. If you've got a 20 by 20, if you've got a 36 -meter square booth, essentially the same size, a couple inches difference. But if you have one of those, You can make a small, you can make a small area. Don't do infomercials. Give real, give real, you know, find out what is the pain point from your clients, right? Let's, let's work with our exhibitors to do the education on the show floor because you see it everywhere. 

0:16:41

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Even at IMAX, you see some, you see some really good education happening. I mean, they do a ton of education. They do like 150 sessions a year, you know, per show. And they think that was the latest number. So, but other, Other exhibitors, you know, some of the exhibitors do their own as well. They bring in speakers, they sponsor things. 

0:17:01

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So think about it from the perspective of what is in it for me? What is going to enrich the attendees experience? What's going to make them want to stop in that two seconds that they have to walk by? You know, saying we solve problems is useless. You've got to be specific. And that's something that as organizers, we 

0:17:20

(Stephanie Selesnick)

to teach our clients how to do, you know, I mean, right for you guys, you know, as, as exhibits, right. It's an exhibit house. The more successful your clients are at a show, the more money they're going to have to spend, the more they're going to want to do the bigger, the win -win situation. So it's, it behooves all of us in the industry to help our clients be better. Also, on the other hand, with attendees, we have to help them. If you've never been to a trade show before, it can be a very scary experience. 

0:17:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You're there. There's thousands of people. Where do I go? What do I do? 

0:17:56

(Chris Dunn)

And so for organizers, we really need to think about how are we going to do that? How are we going to make that happen? So again, it's about, you know, what's in it for me, for everybody's perspective, not the organizers. Yeah. Yeah. Stephanie, just, and this is, you can go in a whole bunch of different directions, but your lens, and I've been to a lot of shows, you know, in the, in North America, let's say, fewer in Europe and I've never actually been over to APAC. 

0:18:26

(Chris Dunn)

or down under or South America, like when, and paint, and I'm asking you to kind of paint with a pretty broad brush, but when you think about North American shows, and then you think about some of the things that they do internationally, maybe in the Middle East, right? 

0:18:39

(Stephanie Selesnick)

That's picked things in Dubai and so forth are really picking up. They're getting very popular. What are some things that, that us as North American exhibitors who might want to go overseas and exhibit, what are some of the things that we need to think about? Like, how are things different? And how do we get the ROI? You need to understand the culture, right? 

0:19:00

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You need to understand the culture. You need to understand how does the sales process work in that country? Because every country is different. Are you selling direct? Do you need to find distribution? How are you doing it? 

0:19:12

(Stephanie Selesnick)

How do you hand over a business card? Do you have alcohol in the stand? A lot of places do. They don't use pipe and drape anywhere. It's no, there are no display guidelines and rules and regulations. There is no drage. 

0:19:28

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Your freight forwarder is the one who does it. They bring in the freight. So you don't have any of the same things. So on the other side of the coin, when you have internationals coming to your show, it's a completely different experience and they are, they are flabbergasted. as to what we do. They are. 

0:19:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

They are because we just run shows differently. The numbers. So when you're in APAC and you're in the Middle East, the sheer numbers of people at the shows will blow your mind. You know, here, what we have 148 ,000 came to the last CES and they do actually audit. They're one of the few in the United States that do. Um, so they actually do a third party auditing system. 

0:20:14

(Stephanie Selesnick)

If they've done for at least the last 10 or 15 years, they went to it very early on. Um, and I'm a fav I'm in favor of it. I think, you know, let's, let's call a spade a spade. You know, if you have 2000 people, it's a lot different look than 6 ,000 than 10 ,000. Don't want people can see it on the show. I said, I think, um, you need to really concentrate on how is, what is the sales process? 

0:20:37

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know, if you're looking for district distribution, put a sign out. Have somebody in your booth who speaks the language if you do not. We always assume somebody's going to speak English. They may not. They may not. It's their country. 

0:20:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

They don't have to. Right. So I want to take advantage of that. Do you need a AAA certified interpreter? No. Should you make a list of the vocabulary that whoever's going to be in your booth doing the interpreting, not translating, interpreting. 

0:21:07

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Translation is word for word for word. It doesn't make sense. Interpreting is taking the meaning and intent and translating it from that way. So there is a difference. And especially if you're doing anything in multiple languages, you want to have somebody who's a native speaker look at it first before you ever publish it anywhere. So be aware of the selling process is different. 

0:21:32

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Internationally, people want to get to know you. They want to know about your business. They want to know about the history of the business. They want to know about the management of the business. They want to know that you're serious about staying. Even when things get rough, you need to understand about arbitrage. 

0:21:49

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You need to understand about currencies. And so these are these are things that are really, really important. So I think that we have to be aware of those that stuff. In China, for example, you will see five million people behind the reg counter. You don't need five million, but they have one person has one job. the next job, the next job, the next job. 

0:22:10

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You will see thousands of people on the show floor. One of our clients, I represent and work with the Shanghai New International Expo Center. It's the only Western owned and run venue in China. And it's with three German messes in partnership with the people who built the Shanghai Tower. It's three million square feet, two million plus of halls. and some outside temporary buildings that have air conditioning. 

0:22:37

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So they're not that temporary. And then, uh, and it's built in a triangle. And one of the shows we have pet fair Asia, 500 ,000 people, right? What they do is that they, they brought this in and this is another trend we're starting to see in a lot of places. It's a five day show, which you would hope with something that huge. And it takes over the entire venue. 

0:23:00

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's really 300 ,000 square meters. So for 3 million, you know, it's a big, big show. And they have two and a half days of private trade where you have to be trade to get in. And what they do in some of the buildings, they just have people interested in trade. Those buildings close and then it's open to the public and they get a gate. And so we're seeing a lot of that going on around the world where you're having B2B becomes B2C and the line is being brightened. 

0:23:34

(Stephanie Selesnick)

A lot of industries are being impacted by online sales, your Amazons, your Alibabas, whoever it is. I'm seeing organizers partnering with them because you can go onto Amazon and, okay, well, I'm looking for a specific brand. 

0:23:51

(Chris Dunn)

That's how they're selling into their shows now. That's how they're differentiating themselves. 

0:23:56

(Speaker 12)

Yes, we're available on all the line and we're available in brick and mortar. 

0:24:00

(Chris Dunn)

What a great thing for exhibitors. It's a different way of looking at it and it's something that we have to start presenting, especially for retail shows that are having issues. And for clients, yours, and everybody else that's out there, what can we do to partner and make them stand out as well as online, which is a different way of thinking about things completely. I'm going to try to jump in here. There's been, there's a ton of great networking and questions happening here in the chat, which is awesome, but I'm looking at, and I kind of don't know what's directed at us and what's directed at other people, but I do. Yeah. 

0:24:39

(Chris Dunn)

So Mark LaDuke, who was a guest last week, our last show that we had two weeks ago, asked the question about, what do you think about integrated job fairs on the exhibit floor? And I think that ties into, it has a similarity to what you were talking about, where there's a B2B component and which becomes a B2C component, which, by the way, I love that. because we think about, you know, you've got a three -day show, like we did NRF, it was a month ago, it was in New York. The amount of effort, and this is a great show, right? It's fairly sizable, it's not 500 ,000 people. I don't know, 40, 50 ,000 attendees, whatever, it's a lot. 

0:25:18

(Chris Dunn)

But there's so much effort, there's so much money spent to get all the stuff there and to do the setup and all the things that need, like, What if there were a way to extend the show another couple of days? It doesn't take any more money to basically make all that stuff happen. But if you can add value, figure out different ways to bring in different attendees who maybe need different things. But I like the thinking around that because it's become it's becoming so expensive to do these events like we have to we have to figure out how to deliver the value, the ROI to the to the exhibiting companies who are ponying up all the dollars. to make it worthwhile so that they continue to do that, right? So getting creative around, like, how do we rethink the trade show floor? 

0:25:58

(Chris Dunn)

How do we think about different ways to bring in crowds or whatever those things are? 

0:26:02

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I think the job fair thing plays in nicely. I know one of our veterinarian clients does that as well. 

0:26:08

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And they are two separate halls. But it's like, we got all these people here already. A lot of them are looking for opportunities. Roll it all together. Do some of the auto shows do that? They're open just for the trade, but then they open one day for public, you know? 

0:26:27

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Absolutely. 

0:26:28

(Speaker 19)

The mobility auto show in LA does it. 

0:26:31

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Detroit does it. 

0:26:32

(Speaker 9)

I'm not sure about Chicago, but yeah, they do it well. 

0:26:36

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So let's go back to job fairs for a second. Cause you just threw a whole lot at me, Chris. So yes, one word. Yes. You have to put it somewhere separate because people, if they're looking for jobs, they don't want their bosses to know. They're looking for jobs. 

0:26:53

(Stephanie Selesnick)

They don't want their bosses to know. So you have to create a different safe space for those to happen. Um, if you're an association or even if you're for profit, if your industry is really needing people, figure it out and don't try to make a profit. Don't make this a line, you know, just look at it as a loss leader because you're helping your industry. You're helping the future of your industry and you're helping everybody else. Um, if you want to charge a nominal sum, not for the people going to look for the jobs, but for the people who are looking to employ new people, definitely I would say go for it. 

0:27:29

(Stephanie Selesnick)

There was years ago I worked on a show and it was for animators and some of the biggest video companies in the country would actually, part of what they did is they would look at the books and do interviews and book interviews and spend the whole show looking at nothing but artists portfolios and hire based on that. So how can you do that? And I think it's a service to your industry. If your exhibition is serving an industry, then serve it. Make it accessible. A lot of shows here and other places make students come the last day, which is typically the quietest. 

0:28:13

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So they bring the students through, do job fairs. 

0:28:17

(Chris Dunn)

You can do all of those things on the last day of the show. You don't necessarily have to, when things quiet down, do it in the afternoon. have, but you know, make sure that you've got it set up ahead of time and make it easy. Do a little bit of vetting because you want to make sure you don't just have looky -loos coming in. Right. But it's definitely a way to make that happen. 

0:28:36

(Chris Dunn)

So I think it's, it's good for the industry and it doesn't have to be that hard. She's speaking your love language there, Dana. I know. 

0:28:44

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So Dana is really involved with the future workforce through EDPA. And she also kind of does mentorship with a lot of design students. And I know at Exhibitor Live, which is coming up in about six weeks or so. And actually, we're going to have the owner of that show on in a couple of weeks, Mark Johnson. So Dana, tell us a little bit about, so you can speak personally to how you guys at the EDPA have figured out a lot of the things that Stephanie has just mentioned. 

0:29:13

(Stephanie Selesnick)

how are you guys using that as a benefit for all sides of the industry? So with the EDPA, the Experiential Designers and Producers Association, basically member companies, whether you're someone like Bluehive or you're a system provider like Octanome or Bmatrix or Alluvision or EMAG, we all come together and we support the industry. So one of those things is at Exhibitor Live, there are some companies like Octonorm that sponsor a booth that is specifically for students. And the students that get to use this exhibit are from two long -term colleges that we have a relationship with, BSU up in Minnesota and FIT in New York City. They have been cultivating exhibit designers over the years that have been coming into our workforce, but also graphic designers. They're starting to do digital content creators, even some project managers, account managers. 

0:30:13

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Some BSU grads have gone on to become salespeople. There are some that are now company owners. just because maybe they start in design doesn't mean they stay in design, right? Everyone's brains and passion are very different. 

0:30:27

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But that's a perfect example how we do use that show for, you know, developing future workforce, making connections. And there are a lot of people in the industry involved in different committees in EVPA who make all that happen, who donate time to different things. It may be their time, maybe their treasure, maybe their talent. And then that show, as you guys both know, is all about education and CTSM as well. And so we're always trying to offer that audience really good benefits beyond just networking. 

0:31:01

(Stephanie Selesnick)

We want them to feel very supported, whether they're new to the industry or veterans getting additional knowledge. You know, CES does something and, you know, I'm going to correct you. They work so hard on killing the sacred cows. And how can we be better? And how can we bring in more? And and they do it. 

0:31:22

(Stephanie Selesnick)

That is something that they consciously do. How can we make the experience better? So, well, they had an entire creative and they've done this the last several years. They have a creator area. NAB does the same thing. They've got a creator area with a focus on creators. 

0:31:37

(Stephanie Selesnick)

How can you be better at it? What is the new technology that's out there? How can we do these things? And again, it's about using our using what we have to grow the business, grow the industry. So, you know, in Europe, education is kind of a secondary thing. And in Asia, not always, not always. 

0:31:57

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I don't want to get yelled at by anybody, but we do in the U . S. primarily because we're over 65 percent of the trade shows here are association owned. So there is that. So we've always had a tradition here of providing education along with paid entry. Education on the show floor or elsewhere, you know a day before day after whatever it may be There's a thirst for knowledge that you can't get and so we're starting to see that trend go But there's a there's a term for it called convex Convention, you know and Expo, right? 

0:32:34

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's a normal thing for a trade show to have education, right? It's a normal part of what we do, you know, for CEUs or it's just, you know, making the industry grow. So we will see, you know, you do see a lot of paid, which is great, you know, but there's also free education on the show floor. So I think that's something to be aware of. 

0:32:57

(Chris Dunn)

You know, one thing though, you know, if you can do it on Zoom, don't do it in the room, just done, done. If you're offering education, make it workshop style. Don't just, you know, make it interactive. Really work with your instructors, work with people. Nobody just wants to sit and listen to a panel for 45 minutes or an hour and 15, just asking, answering the same questions over and over and over again for any industry, doesn't matter. Try to really think about how long can you sit and listen to people and absorb? 

0:33:28

(Chris Dunn)

Design it that way, because now we all have the patience of a nap. That's so true. I had that before. 

0:33:36

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And now it's even worse. We've already really kind of touched on this, but our kind of next segment of conversation per se was like, How does an organizer need to kind of shift their mindset? And I know you touched a lot upon the educational piece, which is great. And thank you for sharing that with us, because I assumed that the way that we did shows was similar everywhere with regards to that educational component being baked into the overall show. 

0:34:04

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So that's really interesting that that's actually kind of a forward thinking situation that's not necessarily practiced all around the world, but it's gaining popularity. 

0:34:15

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So there's that, but beyond that, like other ways that organizers are kind of rethinking the way that they either go to market or that they're rolling these shows out. Can you kind of shine a light on that for us a little bit? I think, you know, let's talk about sponsorships and activations, right? I went to South by Southwest after COVID. I went to multi -million dollar activations. When I walked out, I could not remember who the company was or what they did. 

0:34:46

(Stephanie Selesnick)

What they were trying to say, like what was the connection? I have no idea. I mean, I know what Porsche is. The Porsche did, cars. I mean, you know, that was easy. I also used to drive them. 

0:34:59

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So that was my little mental thing. But it's, It's one of those things where, you know, with an activation, make it meaningful. You know, if you're doing partnerships, the whole ABC, gold, silver, platinum, get rid of them, get rid of them, have consultative conversations with your exhibitors and talk about what is it that they want, you know, or do they want thought leadership? So they want to have somebody on stage. Don't let that be an infomercial. And sometimes the top person who wants to be on stage is the worst speaker that they could possibly have. 

0:35:30

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know, you got to learn how to work with that. You've got to massage the egos. What can you do? 

0:35:36

(Speaker 18)

Or can they bring five clients to meet the keynote speaker if you have a keynote, if you're still doing that antiquated thing of having a keynote? 

0:35:44

(Stephanie Selesnick)

What is it that you can do? Do they want one -on -one meetings? In a perfect world, what would their sponsorship gain them? And then, shush, let them tell you. Let them tell you. Banners? 

0:36:00

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Why? What's the point? OK, well, that's great. But what does it do? Is there any call to action on the banner? Probably not. 

0:36:11

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So what you really want to do is rethink your activations and your sponsorships and your show floor. 

0:36:15

(Speaker 12)

How can we maximize and how can we help our clients meet the people that they most want to meet? 

0:36:21

(Stephanie Selesnick)

The technology is out there and it's getting better and better. If you're not investing in that technology, you're not going to be around because people want to meet. We have a whole younger generation who are not going to walk up and down the aisles and just look at stuff like we all did. They want to be engaged. They've already had a plan before they walked in. They know who they want to see. 

0:36:42

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Mm hmm. That clutter or how are you going to entice them to come and see the other clients that they have? So the technology is there. You need to invest in it. And if you say it's not the budget, you need to figure it out. But I think, you know, again, it's speaking with your clients. 

0:36:57

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Find out what is their goal. They may not want a bunch of stuff that would actually cost you money. They want you. They want they want something else that maybe, you know, you can make a nice profit from. But I think really engaging with your clients and being consultative in that approach is huge. Also showing your exhibitors, you know, make it make it free for people to get leads. 

0:37:22

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know that the software, the apps read is doing a lot of work with that. They've got their own. maybe by making their own as well. Give exhibitors dashboards to do the stuff ahead of time, to reach out to people. 

0:37:36

(Dana Esposito)

I think with GDPR, we want to be compliant. 

0:37:39

(Chris Dunn)

We don't want to bomb everybody. Yes, everybody says they want to meet the president of, but it's the company that wants to meet the president of Walmart or a buyer from Walmart. Can they actually provide stuff in that quantity for that price? Maybe not. So we have to work with our exhibitors to say, you know, I know this is your wishlist, but let's really talk about what you can actually provide and do well with and make a client for life. So I think, you know, you have to look at, we have to look at things a little differently and there's a lot of work that goes into that, but the technology is there and it's getting better every day. 

0:38:17

(Chris Dunn)

Right. You know, the questions we had laid out are so intertwined. As you're talking about one thing, I keep thinking about something else. And I will continue to go back to Money 2020, because that's one of the, I have been there a few times, but I really love the format that they've created and how they kind of push the boundaries of what a show is and how it functions and so forth. And one of the areas that I know they have is kind of the speed dating. kind of circle like a big space, right? 

0:38:50

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's like there's room for, I don't know, a hundred tables with two or three people at each table. And literally like every five minutes, like get up, you move over. Um, so, you know, again, the shows are rethinking things. They're putting the attendee first, put myself in, in their, in, in their shoes. What am I here to get, you know, what am I here to achieve and then build pieces around that, that allow those things to happen, right? That's the end of the day. 

0:39:13

(Stephanie Selesnick)

That's kind of a lot, a lot of the same things that you're saying as well. You know, the tech is out there. InsureTech does the same thing with the one -on -one meetings, but the speed dating is great. UFI does that. UFI, which is the Global Association for the Exhibition Industry, they do it. And you show up, give your name, and they pair you with people. 

0:39:36

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And it's pretty interesting. I mean, sometimes I know the people that I'm meeting. Sometimes, a lot of times, I don't. And they are interesting, and we do find commonality. But that speed dating thing, and then is it worth having a conversation later? It's absolutely that. 

0:39:49

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Matchmaking, absolutely. With appointment setting, having it on the show floor, keep people on the show floor. Money 2020 is visually a really fun show. It is a fabulous show. I suggest you look on YouTube and Google it because they do some great things. One of the things they did this year, or well, in October, sorry, is they had a on the box, like on the record, off the record. 

0:40:14

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So it was an area on the show floor that looked like an old boom box with metal. and everything. And when you went in, depending, you were either on the record or off the record. If it was off the record, all the attendees had to give their phones back. They weren't allowed to bring in their phone. It was off the record. 

0:40:33

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Of course, they spent a lot of money on visuals. They do a really fabulous job. They do podcasting on the show floor. They had a beehive area where money was donated. and you could take pictures. A lot of Instagramable moments. 

0:40:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

There's so many of those, like G2E, which is the gaming show here in Las Vegas, big show. And it is like walking in on a casino on steroids. Yeah, they did a lot of that. So what is it that we can do to make the atmosphere fun? How creative can you be? Ask the younger people in your organizations. 

0:41:16

(Stephanie Selesnick)

What have you seen that was really cool? If they went to a festival, what was something that they saw that was super cool? How can we modify that for what we do? Being told the budget is no is not going to work anymore. If we're going to maintain and bring in people and have them come back year in and year out, money 2020, you walk in, there is an entrance. There is music playing. 

0:41:41

(Stephanie Selesnick)

We're in show business. 

0:41:43

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So we want to deliver that. 

0:41:45

(Speaker 17)

We want to deliver that. 

0:41:46

(Speaker 16)

And that's part of what you guys do as well, Chris and Dana, right? 

0:41:50

(Stephanie Selesnick)

That's part of what we're delivering is that experience. 

0:41:54

(Chris Dunn)

But if you can tie it into what it is that your client makes, or your exhibitors make, or what they do, that's how you know it's a successful activation to come back full circle. You can remember who the company was and what they made a day later, five minutes later, a day later, a month later. you have activation. Then those dollars are worth it. Yeah. Right. 

0:42:21

(Chris Dunn)

I agree. I went to last year. I went to not in San Francisco, but the year prior in Boston, I went to HubSpot's inbound and they they their floor, their entire experience looks an awful lot like Money 20, 20, just on a smaller scale, not that much smaller. Like this is their own show. But they've done a tremendous job of building a floor that no one ever needs to leave. Keynotes over here, activations are all throughout. 

0:42:49

(Chris Dunn)

The stages are everywhere. 

0:42:51

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And then the little, you know, the brand experience locations, the booths, which are primarily more turnkey kind of stuff, but they're all intersprinkled all throughout. So Other than going outside for the food trucks, people are just literally mingling around the entire time. There's no situation. And I guess maybe this is the downside of having education classes that have specific times connected to your event, where the trade show floor is busy from 12 to 2, and then everybody leaves because they're all going into the sessions. And then they come back at 4 for the happy hour. I mean, there's good and bad there. 

0:43:29

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But again, rethinking how that all works to keep people not only on the floor, but engaged and having fun and enjoying and bouncing around doing all these different things. EMS is like the Event Marketers Summit, their show, it's very much like that as well. It feels big and small at the same time, because everything in is one large space. And the speaking sessions are in the room kind of in the back. And they try to make them a little bit private and make it so you can still hear it. But the nice thing about Other than I just loved all the creativity that was around and all of the interactives, everything was very purposeful. 

0:44:03

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Like you were saying, Stephanie, like if you go and have an interactive, make sure it ties into what you do or what service that you sell. that it makes sense. It's part of the story and makes it memorable, right? And it's entertaining. 

0:44:15

(Dana Esposito)

Um, so it grabs people's attention because I have the attention span of a toddler. 

0:44:20

(Chris Dunn)

Like I've always been like that and now it's only getting worse, right? 

0:44:23

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So because everything is so quick, just like, you know, they think you can get a booth and a 20 by 20 new build in two seconds because they click on Amazon. 

0:44:31

(Chris Dunn)

It's like, no, it doesn't work that way. But that was a show that does really well, kind of like the inbound and the EMS. They're small enough that everything can be in that one space. So you feel like a community, whether you're interacting with a traditional exhibit experience or you're learning from one of the sessions. Truly. Hey, I want to jump in because we've got a... 

0:44:53

(Chris Dunn)

Sorry folks. Yes, it's all good. Yeah, our video and audio is not necessarily lining up but hopefully everybody's enjoying. We got so much activity in the, in the chat here. So Mark also asked big discussion on LinkedIn was bathroom sponsorship. and how that was done. 

0:45:12

(Speaker 13)

So I've seen a few different applications of that. 

0:45:15

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I know Liz from Ichi shared something. I saw some things at Photonics West where it wasn't so much a full bathroom sponsorship, but there was really kind of kitschy signs over the men's urinal, you know, does size really matter? So, I mean, you know, know who you're talking to and where you're at, you know, so that was kind of amusing. But we've got about 10 minutes left, so we're going to go Real quick on that. Any thoughts on bathroom sponsorship? I think it used to be a little bit of a faux pas, but is it something people are leaning into now? 

0:45:45

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Oh my God. 

0:45:46

(Speaker 16)

PCMA Montreal took over the women's bathroom. 

0:45:49

(Stephanie Selesnick)

The main one. They brought in flowers, they brought in music, they brought in smells. They did a great job. Phenomenal job because most of the people that go to that show are women. So that's where they, they branded it. 

0:46:05

(Speaker 15)

Exactly. 

0:46:06

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Perfect. Used to have a sponsorship for the men's urinals as well. You know, screens and yeah. So, you know, you have a captive audience, right? Right. 

0:46:21

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know, you can sell any spot on a show floor, right. And, uh, and she would say, you know, if you're near the, if you're near the restrooms, get people on the way out, not on the way. Absolutely. You know, nothing, if you do it right, you do it, you know, some people may get offended, but you know, kitschy is okay. It's, and is it memorable? You know, does it relate to what your audience, what your product does? 

0:46:52

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But absolutely. 

0:46:53

(Dana Esposito)

I think that, you know, the more creative you can be and sell, why not? 

0:46:56

(Chris Dunn)

Yeah. I'm going to tell you things that are clever, that are witty, like live in my brain, rent free when I see them, like, I love it. Right. 

0:47:05

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So they can tie it into what they who they are, what they do and communicate to me quickly something that surprises me. I'm in like I pay attention to it. I notice it. I laugh to myself. Love it all day long. Absolutely. Right on. 

0:47:21

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Alright, we got a few minutes left Dana, why don't we talk, why don't we move over to the wisdom for for next generation and again I know that's near and dear to you based on your involvement with the future workforce, but Stephanie and Dana when we chop it up a little bit around, like what would you tell your, you know, your former self or as new people are coming into the industry What are our, what are the, we've all got over 30 years of experience a piece, right? That's almost a hundred years of experience in general. Like what's the message that we're going to put out there to these kids who are just getting involved now? Well, I do some guest teaching at universities. I do some guest teaching at universities. here in Las Vegas. 

0:48:02

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I've done teaching there. I've done teaching at the junior college and their speech and debate, their speech department and their communications department. So first of all, we don't tell people how much fun our industry is. We are terrible at marketing ourselves. We have a really fun industry. Yes, you're working long hours, but you know what? 

0:48:23

(Stephanie Selesnick)

No day is the same. And there's a certain kind of person that thrives off of no day being the same. It's not for everybody. We've all met people who are in it for one show and gone, or they're in it for life. And then it goes to another level, to CEOs that could retire, and they're coming back in, because they love it. They absolutely love it. 

0:48:48

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So that's one of the things that we do. The other thing is that we're a team. Everybody putting on the show is a team. I remember working on a show, and they had a younger I don't know, the people working on the show, the more junior people or mid management, they said, well, the exhibitor office, I said, where's your, why is your door not open? They're like, because it's for us. I said, that's called a staff office. 

0:49:10

(Stephanie Selesnick)

If we're open for exhibitors, they, you know, could somebody leave, you know, when I was doing shows in Mexico and we would build from the ground up and it was hard wall, I would just have my, my office would be built first on the show floor and everybody working, you know, that, that were coming in the freight forwarders to, you know, the folks putting together registration, whatever it was. Here, just put your stuff in my office and here's some, you know, there's some, you know, I brought some cigarette bars and some other stuff. Help yourself. It's a team. We don't work in a vacuum. Treat everybody with respect because these are the people that are making you look good and making you look bad. 

0:49:50

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You know, and that includes your union folks. It includes everybody. It takes a village to build a city. 

0:49:58

(Stephanie Selesnick)

And if you think about what we do, we create a city that exists for two, three, four, five days, goes away, never to be the same again, ever the same again. 

0:50:10

(Chris Dunn)

So enjoy that process and understand that. And after a show, when people haven't done it for a long time, there's an emotional attachment. 

0:50:22

(Speaker 14)

It's like the bride, right? 

0:50:23

(Chris Dunn)

After planning all the time for the wedding and then the wedding's over, then there's a huge letdown. 

0:50:27

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's an emotional experience. Address it with your team. 

0:50:31

(Speaker 13)

Definitely address it. 

0:50:33

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So I think doing that, that was something. Uh -oh, it's us again. Well, you know, there we go. She'll be back. There she is. She was here, now she's over here. 

0:50:48

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But I think advice to my younger self is a little more patience. a little more patience. I think that's for all of us. 

0:50:55

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It should happen now. 

0:50:58

(Stephanie Selesnick)

But I think that the biggest thing for younger people is that don't pigeonhole yourself. If you're enjoying the industry, but you don't like your job particularly, there's a lot of other jobs out there. There's a lot of other roles that you can do and be successful. Not everybody wants to be the president of a company. 

0:51:16

(Chris Dunn)

They're perfectly happy where they are. Allow that. 

0:51:20

(Speaker 6)

Celebrate it. 

0:51:21

(Chris Dunn)

Celebrate longevity. Absolutely. Don't be afraid of change. Just because we used to do stuff all the time doesn't mean we need to. So don't be afraid of change. And as you've been entrenched in the business, sometimes we forget that lens of when we were new and saw it differently. 

0:51:41

(Chris Dunn)

You know, before I joined Bluehive, which 21 years ago now, I was contemplating a change. Do I change industries or look for something a little differently? And I wise friend of mine also in the business said, don't take for granted how fun this industry is. And you're not going to find that elsewhere. You're going to go work for some other agency, even if it's like a creative agency or something like that. 

0:52:01

(Stephanie Selesnick)

It's just different. Don't take it for granted how fun this is. And you're absolutely right. We have to do a better job of marketing that. 

0:52:08

(Speaker 10)

to bring people in who are looking for that kind of environment. 

0:52:12

(Speaker 12)

Yes, stressful, but also really fun, really rewarding to see bare concrete one day. 

0:52:17

(Chris Dunn)

And three days later you built this thing. Like how cool is that? 

0:52:21

(Speaker 11)

Like that's, I get so much juice from that. 

0:52:24

(Chris Dunn)

We all still do. We all still do. Or if you're doing an event, same thing, you know, you're working, it's a conference, it's everything else. It's fantastic when you see people connecting and forming relationships and you've helped in that process. Yeah. I did this. 

0:52:44

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Partially responsible for that. Right on. All right. Well, listen, this has been such a cool conversation, Stephanie. We can't thank you enough for coming on. This has been some technical glitches, but I mean, this is the industry and we just got to roll with it, right? 

0:52:56

(Stephanie Selesnick)

This is how it goes. So before you go, Two things. One is, and I know we keep putting, uh, keep putting your LinkedIn connection up there, but if people want to reach out, is that the best way to get ahold of you through LinkedIn? Um, on the Instagram, I always forget to go on, but I'm at Steph Selesnick and I'm a one cause I got hacked and Instagram has no humans to talk to when that happens. 

0:53:20

(Speaker 10)

And, um, or on the X, on the old Twitter, it's Jeff Selesnick. 

0:53:26

(Speaker 9)

But LinkedIn is the best way. 

0:53:28

(Chris Dunn)

You can also catch me on Exhibition World, and then I have my own newsletter called The Global Glimpse, and you can follow me there as well. I put out stuff about once a month -ish. I should probably be a little more consistent, but once a month -ish, depending on what it is. And, um, I love to connect. 

0:53:48

(Stephanie Selesnick)

I love, I love our business. I love meeting people. Awesome. And this has been a blast. Excellent, excellent. So on the toolbox here, we like to help people sharpen their tools and or put a new tool in their toolbox. 

0:54:03

(Stephanie Selesnick)

So if you could leave our guests and folks who are going to listen to this podcast in the future with maybe one or two little nuggets. Is it something we've already said you want to come back to it or something maybe we didn't get a chance to say? What do you have as a little golden nugget exit prize? Okay, number one, if you've had the same floor plan year after year after year, change it, change it, mix it up. Don't wait till you move cities. It's boring for the attendees. 

0:54:32

(Stephanie Selesnick)

Think about the attendee experience. It's boring. Move things back. Some friends that have the gear and something else show, I wrote about it for Exhibition World and I just spaced on the name. They talk to all of their exhibitors, their big exhibitors and move them to the back of the home and put all the small companies in front to change because everybody was going to go see the big guys anyway. floor plan and feel of the show. 

0:54:56

(Speaker 8)

So seriously, really re -examine breaking it up. 

0:54:59

(Dana Esposito)

I know we've spent years getting people involved and loving their real estate. 

0:55:04

(Chris Dunn)

We have to stop doing that. We have to change it up. 

0:55:07

(Stephanie Selesnick)

You want to have exploration and discovery as part of your expo. And then the other trend that I think is going to stick, and we need to figure it out, is one -on -one meetings. Attendee to attendee and attendee to exhibitor. And communicating all of these different things. 

0:55:24

(Speaker 6)

take advantage of it, take advantage of the technology and what's out there, and make it worthwhile for everybody to be there. 

0:55:33

(Chris Dunn)

Awesome. There you go. We got gold nuggets here right at the end. That's why it's important to stay the entire show through. and just get you all tuned in. If you're looking at it on post. 

0:55:45

(Chris Dunn)

Thanks so much. Really appreciate it. Awesome. We had a great day in the chat. So Dana, we're going to start advertising. This show is a great place to come and network and meet people in the, in the chat. 

0:55:54

(Chris Dunn)

So Zadia, Eric, Erica, Jay, Mark, These guys were super active today chitchatting and I hope you guys have connected and and Kate and uh, you know Take it taking it to an all -new level. So thanks everybody for being really active They're great to see a lot of banter happening there and you guys connecting, uh, you know one -on -one again This is what we've done, right? We're we're one too many and one -on -one. We're helping to pull it all together We're facilitating that here on the toolbox All right, we're wrapping it up. 

0:56:24

(Speaker 5)

Thank you, everybody, for attending. 

0:56:26

(Chris Dunn)

This is going to go out as a podcast. It's on all of your favorite podcast areas. 

0:56:32

(Speaker 4)

And it's also live here forever. We're going to look like this forever, which is nice. And on YouTube, LinkedIn, YouTube, video, and then on all the podcast channels. So say thank you and goodbye. And everybody, happy eventing. And have a great weekend. 

0:56:48

Cheers. Thanks. Bye -bye. Bye.