TEAMWORK

It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes teamwork to deliver a successful trade-show.  In brief, the formula for success in the tradeshow business goes something like this: gather the best companies possible; put them in a great show venue; expend the necessary resources for promotion; and engage all exhibitors to do their part in communicating their presence in the show to their customers and prospects.  Let's review how we are doing so far.

We have assembled an outstanding group of companies for PROCESS EXPO 2008.  For every food and beverage sector we represent, we have the best and the brightest.  We will be meeting in Chicago (great convention town), at McCormick Place (what a facility), in the new West Building (state of the art), and we are co-located with the best packaging show (PACK EXPO) in the Western Hemisphere (some could argue, the world). So far so good.

FPSA has launched an unprecedented marketing campaign for PROCESS EXPO 2008 that includes trade press ads (over 50 pages), a pre-show planner mailed to thousands of processors, electronic ads in trade e-newsletters, direct mail (over 100,000 pieces via e-mail and regular mail), and a VIP program offering free meeting rooms for processor companies who bring large groups to the show. That's three of the four parts of the winning formula.

The exhibitors will provide the final, and most critical, link in this marketing chain.

When asked why they attend tradeshows, one of the top responses by visitors is "I was invited by one of my suppliers."  This year we want every exhibitor to take an active role in driving traffic to their booth.  A pre-requisite in this process is that all exhibitors have a link on their website to the registration page of the PROCESS EXPO website.  Our show department will send you an e-mail reminder with easy directions of how to do this.

We know many of our exhibitors have an aggressive and sophisticated campaign to draw visitors to their booths at the show.  We also know that some do very little or nothing.  We aim to improve both the marketing and promotion campaigns of our most active exhibitors as well as initiate our less than active members into a program that is cost effective and will give them access to tools and contacts that will significantly improve their results at the show.  Our new Vice-President for Sales and Marketing, Randy Taussig, will be sending you information about this new suite of products.

The bottom-line...teamwork.  Together we will make PROCESS EXPO 2008 the best trade show experience possible for every one of our exhibitors.  We can do it…if we both do our part.