Thank you~ 3rd Annual Madison's Wish Golf Tournament

Hello All, I wanted to pass along a letter from Madison’s mother and father:

On behalf of our family, I would like to thank you from my heart to yours as I think of how blessed our family is to have such wonderful people in our lives. Your commitment to helping us is sincerely appreciated. Your generosity will make an immediate difference in the lives of Madison and her SMA friends.
For one thing, we are going to use your donations raised at the 3rd Annual Madison’s Wish Golf Tournament to fund a water therapy program over the summer so our SMA friends can receive 1 free day per week of water therapy in Madison’s new pool. Your generosity is going to help Madison buy her formula, supplements, respiratory services, all the therapies insurance does not cover, create a learning space for home schooling since she is to medically fragile to attend preschool and make an accessible bathroom for her. 
A portion of the proceeds also went to Chris Odgen’s funeral expenses. Chris recently lost his battle with SMA Type I on May 10, 2010 at the young age of 9.
Our goal, is to continue to make a difference in the SMA world and in Madison’s battle. With the help of donations from supporters such as you, we will continue to see improvements in both. The amount of money raised at the 3rd Annual Madison’s Wish Golf Tournament will also let us focus on doing fundraisers for raising money for research for a treatment for SMA and one day a cure.

Frankly, we could not do what we do without supporters such as you. We deeply appreciate your generosity. We look forward to seeing you all next year.

Thanks again for your kindness,
Jennifer and Aaron
www.madisonswish.com

See the pics of the event here!
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=d700b09fbdd29376&sid=8AcsXLJi1Yt3lQ

Here is what we raised!
Total Raised $38,281.00
Total Expenses $17,125.35
Total funds to go toward Madison’s care and other children with SMA $21,155.65

Thank you to our Sponsors:
Metropolitan Exposition Services PLATINUM SPONSOR
IUPAT Local 1175 GOLD SPONSOR
Agile Trade Show & Event Furnishing SILVER SPONSOR
Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services SILVER SPONSOR
Gardens America SILVER SPONSOR
Nerds Support SILVER SPONSOR
1-800-411-PAIN HOLE SPONSOR
Dr. Barry Raxenberg & Dr. Bruce Ossler Chiropractic HOLE SPONSOR
Peter Doran HOLE SPONSOR
Smiley Carrasco HOLE SPONSOR
SMT Solutions HOLE SPONSOR
Stephens Distribution for sponsoring the BEER!
Creative Manufacturing Group, LLC for sponsoring the SHIRTS!
Rick Case Automotive Group for sponsoring the Hole-In-One!

100 Trade Show Lead Generation Ideas
May 01, 2010 | Mike Thimmesch

For most exhibitors, lead generation is their #1 reason for exhibiting at trade shows. Exhibit marketers want leads to replenish their sales pipeline, bring in new and repeat customers, and generate sales revenue.

So to help stoke the lead generation fires, here are 100 ideas to get you more leads at your upcoming trade shows, divvied up among 5 main areas:

Get more trade show leads by how you select shows

Go to more trade shows outside your local region
Go to more trade shows, in your best vertical markets
Go to more trade shows, in foreign countries
Go to fewer trade shows, but put more effort into booth staff preparation and promotions for each remaining show
Exhibit at trade shows where your buyers are
Track leads to determine and expand in the shows with the best ROI
Evolve show selection to match changes in company’s best vertical markets
Get more trade show leads with your exhibit design

Get a bigger booth
Get a booth space closer to the hub of traffic, or by a bigger competitor
Get a corner booth space
Backlight your trade show display graphics
Design your exhibit to more boldly and clearly say why attendees will benefit from working with you
Put fewer elements on your exhibit, but make the remaining images and messages bigger and more concise
Use graphics with images and benefits that appeal more directly to attendees at your vertical market shows
Put benefit statements on your trade show exhibit graphics
Replace your tired old display with a new trade show exhibit
Make your exhibit architecture more inviting to enter
Pick more exciting colors on your exhibit
Bring fewer products, such as only your most popular products, to minimize clutter
Get a taller exhibit
Add more lighting
Put messages on your flooring
Avoid an exhibit that looks like everyone else
Keep your booth neat and clean throughout the show
Move interesting equipment and technology to the outside of the booth
Use a theme that gets attention and memorably ties into your competitive advantage or offering
Match your exhibit message to your other marketing materials
Get more trade show leads with pre-show promotions

Send an inexpensive postcard offering a free gift in your trade show booth
Run a banner ad on the show website
Send a pre-show email blast to your clients and top prospects located close to the show location
Put stickers with booth location and show info on all outgoing mail
Email invitation to a pre-show microsite with targeted messages and offers
Have your sales people invite their prospects to visit your booth and set up meetings in advance
Send an email invitation to the show’s pre-registered attendee list for this year, and the registered attendee list from last year
Use social media to reach more attendees
Send half of something of value to attendees before the show, and promise to give the other half in your booth
Contact your industry press and tell them about the innovative new product you will be introducing at the show
Put your booth number on all your pre-show promotions: email, mail, ads, website
Design more creative and compelling pre-show promotions to cut through the mailbox clutter
Invite top prospects to lunch or dinner at the show
Send a pre-show promotion offering a more valuable gift in the booth, but not to the entire list, but only to the subset of show attendees that match your target audience
Send free tickets to the trade show to clients and best prospects
Post your trade show schedule on your website with a link to sign up for appointments
Ask the show for additional promotional opportunities
Get more trade show leads with at-show promotions and activities

Introduce a new product at the trade show
Add motion to your exhibit
Offer food, especially if it smells good, like baking cookies
Offer drinks to your booth visitors
Give your attendees something entertaining and fun to do
Do an engaging demo in your booth
Get your client to hold your product
Go beyond sight to appeal to attendees’ sense of smell, sound, taste, and touch
Add interactivity
Run presentations or video loops on large video monitors
Offer healthy food, not just candy
Put out a candy or chocolate dish to slow down attendees long enough to engage them
Offer in-booth massages
Give a free sample of your product
Give a free sample of a product made with your product
Hire a celebrity for your booth, where the celebrity is popular with your target audience at the show
Hire a celebrity lookalike for your booth, where the celebrity is popular with your target audience at the show
Giveaway something useful to your target audience
Hire a performer, such as a magician, to attract attention to your booth
Have a raffle, sweepstakes, money machine or a game
Hold a press conference if you have newsworthy news
Sponsor something highly visible at the show
Have a contest for attendees in your booth
Get signage in the show hall promoting your booth presence
Offer a show special or discount
Get someone from your company to be a speaker at the show
Give presentations or educational sessions in your booth
Do door drops that target only show attendees at their hotel rooms
Pay to include an invite or a gift in the official show bag each attendee gets
Put an ad in the show book
Brand your staffers with outfits or similar attire
Offer one really big prize (worth thousands of dollars) to get more attention
Get more trade show leads with better booth staffing

Bring more booth staffers
Bring booth staffers who actually want to be there
Hold a contest to reward the staffers who take the highest quantity of qualified leads
Leave your wallflowers at home
Train your booth staff how to work a trade show booth
Communicate to your staff the company’s goals and your expectations of them in the booth
Don’t use booth staffing as a training ground for brand-new employees
Ask visitors open-ended questions and listen to their answers
Get faster at recording each lead by not writing down every visitor’s name and address, but instead using a badge scanner
Have enough badge scanners to avoid lines with your booth staffers in busy times
Bring crowd gatherers (not booth babes)
Smile
Keep your booth staffers fresh by giving them regular breaks
Learn to more quickly disengage with unqualified attendees
Thoroughly train your booth staffers on the new products you are introducing at the show or just introduced recently
Make friends with your neighboring exhibitors, and refer attendees back and forth
Bring your top management to booth staff, and tell attendees they will be there
Get staffers out of the bowels of your booth and out to the edge of the aisle
Don’t sit down in your booth, unless you are talking with visitors
Don’t hide behind tables
Instead of giving away literature, offer to mail it to attendees, and get their contact info
Prepare your booth staffers with several good engaging questions
Arm your booth staffers with answers to common objections
Train your booth staffers to know your products and how they solve your clients’ problems
Which of these 100 ideas will you choose? Perhaps you are already doing several yourselves. Some can be combined to be used simultaneously. It’s a long list, and there’s no way anyone can do all 100. Some of them even contradict each other.

Yet as Bob Milam advises, while knowing a lot of tactics is useful, knowing which tactics to use and when to use them is even more useful. Determine your strategy first, then choose among these trade show tactics the most appropriate ones to support your strategy and generate more leads.

Also, while I’ve listed many tactics to get more leads, of course you need to also strive for getting higher quality leads. And if you can do both, go to the head of the class.

While 100 is a big list, it’s certainly not everything. Please share your own tips for generating more leads at trade shows in the comment box below.

Madison's Wish 3rd Annual Charity Golf Tournament

Hello All,

I am reaching out to invite you to our 3rd Annual Madison’s Wish Charity Golf Tournament. Thank you so much for the support of last year’s golf tournament. We look forward to another outstanding event this year.
The tournament location is Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation, FL.

Here is the link fo rthe reg form: http://www.madisonswish.com/images/stories/MadisonsWish_golfreg_flyer2010_2.pdf
This is going to be one exciting tournament and we have some great items to win.

All the proceeds will go to help Madison fight heir battle with SMA and FSMA which will help other Families of SMA.
Madison was diagnosed with this life threatening disease just prior to her first birthday. Thanks to all the love and support, Madison is now 3 years old ad making great strides in her development.

To read her whole story please goes to www.madisonswish.com and click on the attached link that has her Channel 10 news story.

Click these links to view photos of last year’s event:

http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/detail.sfly?sid=8AcsXLJi1Yt3ew&imageIndex=0&fid=255b4af775bf1102

http://www3.snapfish.com/shareereg/p=838221243024809200/l=837471006/g=15668853/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=838221243024809200/l=837471006/g=15668853/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Madison is not only a special little girl but she is also my niece.
Thank you all and I look forward to see you all on June 5th.
Sincerely,
Rich Curran

2009: As Bad as It Gets for Exhibition Industry

Mar 24, 2010 2:23 PM, By Dave Kovaleski

The worst year for the exhibition industry in recent history—2009—ended with an overall decline of 12.5 percent, representing declines in attendance, number of exhibiting companies, net square footage of exhibit space booked, and revenues, according to the CEIR Index, published by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research.

The decline of 12.5 percent is four times greater than the previous worst year ever, 2008, when the industry fell 3 percent.

There was no avoiding the negative effects of the recession as all 11 sectors that CEIR tracks experienced overall declines last year. "The length, depth, and reach of this recession made resistance impossible," said Douglas Ducate, president and chief executive officer at CEIR, in a press release.

In the fourth quarter the industry dropped 9 percent compared to the same period the previous year, marking the seventh straight quarter that the index has shown an overall decline. The decline was not as steep as the third quarter, when the index fell 13.5 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Looking at the four metrics that the CEIR Index tracks, professional attendance performed the best, declining 4 percent in the fourth quarter. The number of exhibiting companies dropped 6 percent, while net square footage of exhibit space declined 12 percent, and revenues fell 13 percent. All four metrics were an improvement over the first three quarters, but were still down 15 to 30 percent from 2007 highs.

CEIR officials say the outlook for 2010 is much better. Anecdotal information from events held in January and February is encouraging, indicating that the recovery is under way. However, since the exhibition industry is a trailing indicator, it will take a robust economy before the industry experiences sustained growth.

The complete 2009 CEIR Indexwill be released at the Society of Independent Show Organizers CEO Conference, April 11-14, in Austin, Texas. For more information on the CEIR Index, go to www.ceir.org.

Related links

Exhibition Industry Declines 3.1 Percent in 2008

CEIR Index Falls in Third Quarter


Exhibition Industry: Bottom Hit?

Aids Walk Miami another success!

Expo Convention Contractors, Inc. assists Care Resource with the success of Aids Walk Miami. Expo also assists with the historic White Party Miami which also generates huge donations toward HIV/ Aids care.

16 Fun Things To Do At A Trade Show

16 Fun Things To Do At A Trade Show
February 12, 2010 | Mike Thimmesch

Trade shows are a serious marketing medium in which we invest billions of dollars. In our quest to achieve business results, we often talk about getting the highest ROI (Return on Investment) or ROO (Return on Objectives). But what about the greatest ROF (Return on Fun)?

Trade shows are about meeting people, those unpredictable, emotional beings. To be engaging, you need to be having some fun, because if you are bored or too serious, that puts up an invisible barrier. After a few days per show, and many shows per year, how can you keep yourself entertained (without going overboard at the clubs and the casinos)? Here are a few suggestions:

Look up on the show city’s Visitors and Convention Bureau website all the fun activities you can do outside of show hours (try indoor skydiving in Las Vegas, it’s a blast).

Go to dinner with the funniest sales person who is staffing the booth. Repeat nightly.

Count how many trade show booths you can walk by before a booth staffer tries to engage you.

Visit your competitors at the show and ask them what they don’t do well. Watch ’em squirm.

When you meet attendees in your booth, stop treating them like numbers on the sales chart, and treat them instead as if they are going to be your new best friend.

Drinking game: Walk down the trade show aisle carrying a bottle of water (unless you are at a European show). Whenever a booth staffer says, “Hi! How are you?” you reply, “Fine,” take a swig, and keep walking.

Pick up giveaways from your fellow exhibitors, and then give them back … to different exhibitors.

Go to lunch with the second-funniest sales person who is staffing the booth. Repeat daily.

Look up old friends you haven’t seen in ages that live in the show city, via Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media, and relive the glory days.

Create a fun activity in your booth that helps get your message across to visitors.

Walk into an island trade show exhibit and play with their products. Count how many seconds (minutes?) it takes for a booth staffer to engage you.

Smile at your booth visitors, even if they aren’t. Pretty soon you’ll both be smiling.

Have a contest with fellow staffers to see who can work specific obscure words into conversation when talking with booth visitors, such as “corollary,” “obtuse,” and “Sandra Day O’Connor.”

Walk the show with a colleague. Have a bet on who can count the most: booth staffers sitting down or booth staffers on the phone. A third friend can count booth staffers eating or drinking. (This is like counting states on license plates when on a long drive.) Loser buys lunch.

Have another bet: Before you hit the show floor, bet which trendy new color will be on the trade show displays. Then count the exhibits with that color. Loser buys drinks … that are the color they picked.

Thank everyone who has helped you with the show – your booth staffers, your exhibit house, your manager, the show owner, the show labor, and especially your booth visitors. You’d be surprised how much fun that can be.

SMA Fight Night Huge Success

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our event. It was a huge success raising more than $4000 to go toward Madison's care as well as other children with SMA.
I would like to thank our sponsors, Outback Steakhouse, Club KO, M Point Productions LLC, Smokey Bones and www.sofloradio.com.

Weigh In Face Off

The big boys made weight.




And the winner is.....Rich "Frank the Tank" Curran by submission choke.