You planned for weeks or even months, you rehearsed with your staff on how to man your trade show displays, and you created fabulous marketing hand-outs; then everything seemed to go wrong on the floor. Does this sound like a familiar scenario? If so, you know how devastating it can be when the best laid plans go awry. To make sure disasters don’t ruin your carefully crafted marketing plans or destroy your trade show displays, come up with a few back-up plans to keep things running smoothly.
Don’t Let Late Arrival Mark Your Company As Unprofessional
Prepare well in advance to get your trade show displays shipped to the venue with time to spare. Although it may be tempting to use standard shipping, it might be a mistake, particularly if the shipper can only give you an estimated delivery time and date. A delivery estimate such as “five to seven days” is usually an approximation, not be a guarantee. If the shipper gets delayed, it could leave you with an empty space where your booth should be. Opt for a specific, guaranteed delivery date and track your shipment every step of the way.
If you have portable displays you use for local events or smaller venues, consider bringing your portable display with you to larger expos. That way, if a delivery is delayed, you’ll at least have a table top display and some banner stands to work with until your larger unit arrives.
Lost or Misdirected Handouts and Giveaways Can Leave You Empty-Handed
Brochures with details about your company, pricing and inventory sheets, and even your giveaways can get lost en route, while you’re setting up, or left behind at the airport if you brought a case of paper supplies with you to the trade show. No matter how great your exhibit looks, if everyone walks away empty-handed, they will remember you as the exhibitor who didn’t deliver. Always bring a CD-ROM containing your brochure and flyer templates with you. If yours are lost, someone on your staff can run the disk to a professional printer or copy store and have a rush order put together. It may cost you some extra money for the quick turnaround, but it’s far better than having nothing to give. If your giveaways don’t make it to the conference center, be sure to take names and addresses so you can mail them to attendees after the conference is over. Again, it’s going to cost you some extra postage, but people will appreciate your thoughtfulness and you’ll actually be gaining some additional exposure when those people receive your branded gift.
Salvaging A Damaged Trade Show Display
Some trade show displays arrive on the conference floor with damaged parts at every event. It’s almost inevitable that you’ll open up your cases to find bent frames, torn graphics, or shattered light bulbs at some point in your career. In some cases, you’ll need to revert to the portable displays mentioned earlier, but if the damage is relatively minor, you can do some quick repairs that will keep your trade show display open and inviting until you have time for professional repair or replacement.
If you don’t have portable displays to use as back-up, at least have a repair kit with you. It’s amazing what a bit of super glue can do for a broken stand, and duct tape continues to be the simplest way to temporarily repair a tear or a hole in a banner or fabric display. It will hold well enough to get you through the event, but be sure to order replacements as soon as possible so your trade show displays will be in top form for the next convention. If you ordered your materials from a national distributor, give them a call and ask about an emergency replacement. In many situations, they will be able to ship a rush order for the damaged portions of your booth elements.
Staffing Emergencies
You’ve trained a team of six people to man your trade show display in two sets of three, an excellent plan. Then, the night before the event, one of your employees calls in sick or gets an emergency call from home and has to leave. Now you’re a man (or woman) short. To avoid this scenario, train several teams how to properly man trade show displays throughout the year. If you need a replacement, you can get a trained, confident staffer on the next plane.
Planning ahead for the worst case scenario is the best way to ensure your trade show displays always look their best, perform exceptionally, and are staffed by helpful, knowledgeable individuals who will knock the socks off potential clients.

New Jersey is a very weird place where very weird things happen. The most recent oddity in The Garden State is that after 30 years as the Mecca of harness racing, the trotting horses are about to get their walking papers owing in part to budgetary constraints being enforced by Governor Chris Christie.
Ironically, despite its weirdness and joke target-ability, New Jersey is often seen by outsiders as uninteresting place that somehow manages to inspire a lot of interest.
No writers have ever had an easier time thinking up a title for a book than the two men who penned the popular coffee table book, “Weird New Jersey.”
The Meadowlands Racetrack was not spared from this weirdness, and it all began on the very first night.
Back in September of 1976, then Governor Brendan Byrne tried to make a speech as he cut the ceremonial ribbon crossing the finish line. Unfortunately for Byrne, he was booed into oblivion and the speech never came off as planned. Byrne barely managed to clip the ribbon before his people hustled him away from the venomous crowd.
Seems that Governor Byrne ran for office on a strict platform of “No State Income Tax” but as soon as his victory streamers stopped falling on election night, he initialized one of the most expensive state income taxes in the nation — but wait, it gets weirder.
Despite the hatred spewed at him by those 50,000+ opening nighters, Byrne was reelected to a second term.
Could the reason be that the people who go to the races, just happen to be representative of the people who don’t vote? No, that would be too easy an explanation and nothing that happens in New Jersey can be explained easily — but I’ll try.
What if the answer is that weird New Jerseyans have elected a governor who is perhaps not corrupt and is doing exactly what he promised to do during his campaign? Were any of the horse people listening to his campaign promises? Maybe they were, but they all seem to have the nave notion that everybody cares about harness racing. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Horsemen wanted an honest politician? Well maybe they just got one. It’s an old case of be careful what you wish for because prior to the election, Chris Christie made no secret of the fact that he thought horse racing was a bad bleed. Why have such contempt for a man who is keeping his campaign promises?
The truth is that your garden variety, weird New Jersey folks do not care about harness racing and they’ve been proving that more and more for over a decade. They proved it by not going to the track because they simply are not interested, and the reason they’re not interested is because what little they do know about harness racing in The Garden State is dipped in tales of horse doping and race fixing.
Scandals in Atlantic City are a different animal. They are corporate things, and the average person neither reads about these incidents nor do they care about them. Nobody has ever uncovered a rigged roulette wheel or a hot set of dice down there — harness racing can’t make the same claim.
New Jerseyans simply aren’t interested in the sport that their state and The Meadowlands practically put on the map — ergo, weird New Jersey.
Sure there are breeders and training facilities that have been supporting the state’s agriculture for nearly a century, but those days are long gone. To claim racehorses as an agricultural commodity seems very disingenuous and downright silly.
A 300 acre racehorse farm doesn’t contribute anywhere near as much in tax dollars as would the 300 luxury homes that could be built there, and a lot of these horsemen who bemoan the fall of the farm, are themselves guilty of selling off land to developers for big money. Central and southwestern New Jersey are full of developments that used to be breeding and training farms back when the trotting game was good — but the real estate market was better.
The truth hurts and the simple fact is that New Jersey did not cling to harness racing as it’s own unique brand because that kind of heartfelt commitment would have required deep thinking and foresighted leadership. There never was any of that in New Jersey racing despite claims to the contrary.
A governor’s job is the toughest and most unlovable job of any in politics and despite the fact that some people in New Jersey love harness racing, the truth is that pretty much everyone else does not, and if it’s draining money from the state, then measures must be taken to fix that drain.

Placing a relative in a nursing home is a hard choice to make as a family. If you make the decision to do so, then you want to choose the right facility. On the other hand, a nursing home is a last resort for families today. You can consider other options when an elderly family member is no longer able to live in their New Jersey home alone. One such option is licensed home health care. Home health agencies assist families by providing a qualified caregiver to stay with an elderly loved one in their own home.
The home health aide you select needs to be professional and qualified to provide skilled services to your loved one. Some folks may attempt to find a skilled caregiver on their own, without any help from an agency. In my professional opinion, you will save time and frustration and are better served using an agency that provides pre-qualified, certified NJ live in or hourly home health aides.
One of the primary benefits of using a home care agency is that they perform a detailed background check on your caregiver. First, the agency will make sure that the caregiver does not have a criminal history. They also do a DMV check regarding driving record. The agency only hires caregivers with clean criminal and driving records to provide skilled home care services to its clients.
Secondly, the agency will find a home health aide that is state certified to provide a specific service to your relative. For example, if you have a family member dealing with Alzheimer’s then the agency will provide a NJ certified home health aide that has experience with this debilitating disease.
Another major benefit of using an agency is that you do not have to worry about state, federal and local taxes, salary requirements, employee benefits, insurances and other legalities. The agency will handle all employment taxes, licensing issues and insurance requirements related to hiring a professional caregiver.
Essentially, the conveniences and benefits of using an agency put a family in a better position to make good decisions for an aging or sick relative. Moreover, since the agency manages and supervises the whole process, the family can focus solely on spending quality time with their loved one.

Cringe when it comes time to buy gifts for the man in your life who has everything? Been there. Done that! The half-hearted looks on his face are not exactly the highlight of your day. So, what can you do? Well, let’s look at some ideas that might do the trick.
Golf. Can’t stand it myself, but many a man enjoys getting out on the greens and blasting a little white ball to and fro with no apparent direction. If the man in your life has the golf bug, than the eCaddy might be a hit as a gift. It is an electrical gadget [always good!] that keeps track of his performance on up to 10 different golf courses. He can keep a record of his play and compare different days on each course to each other to see how he is improving or at least identify which holes he needs to lie about! You can find the eCaddy online for about $50.
Ever consider giving him plants as a gift? Okay, I can imagine you rolling your eyes and well you should. In this case, however, I am not talking about just any old plants. No, we need a group of plants with a male twist to them. Yes, I am talking about carnivorous plants. The type that eat bugs and such. The set is called “The Little Desktop of Horrors”. It comes with seeds for Venus Fly Trap, Yellow Trumpet, Hooded Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant, Pale Trumpet, Temperate Sundew Plants, and Cobra Lillies. All are meat eaters. The set costs a very affordable $25 and will make an absolutely great gift for any man. Imagine the conversations!
Now we get to the old slam dunk gift, the gift that never goes wrong. Your man loves sports. so much. He knows this. So, you can surprise him with a gift that he’ll absolutely loves – a jacket or jersey of his favorite team and/or player. This gift is a double winner for two reasons. First, he loves it because he loves the team or player. Second, he knows you don’t, so he will consider it a sacrifice of sorts on your part, a much appreciated one! That makes it a perfect gift.

In spite of the tough economy, seat tickets to Broadway plays continue to be big sellers. Musicals like “Spiderman”,”The Jersey Boys”, or “The Lion King” continue to sell out despite relatively long runs in the New York City theaters. While many of the bigger Broadway theater shows have touring companies that perform in leading U.S. Cities, however for many individuals, a trip to New York simply isn’t complete without a trip to see the musical on Broadway.
Unfortunately, you usually cannot approach the box office window on the day of the program and buy a ticket. Shows sell out weeks and even months beforehand, and unless you’re fortunate enough to locate a seat from somebody who has canceled, you’ll have to purchase your seat beforehand.
If you don’t reside in The Big Apple, which would permit you to buy your ticket at the theater itself, you’ll likely have to purchase your seat online. Here are several of the choices readily available to you for buying online Broadway tickets:
Craigslist – Craigslist is a Website that allows people to put small classified advertisements online at no cost. Cragislist features a variety of smaller websites for big cities, so that you can search the ads nationally or browse the ads nearer your home. People who have tickets to shows who find they’re not going to be able to attend regularly list them for sale on Craigslist. The benefit of purchasing Broadway seats on Craigslist is that you may find a great price, as many people who place tickets for sale there are eager sellers who simply need to get rid of their tickets as quickly as possible. A primary drawback is that you have no consumer protection and have no way of figuring out if the owner is honest or if they even have the tickets in hand.
eBay – The internet auction website eBay has a big section for buying and selling show tickets, and Broadway seats can be found there along with tickets to live shows, NFL games and all kinds of other events. Sellers may include the same kinds of people who sell on Craigslist, together with people who sell for a living. Even though there are some dishonest vendors on eBay, you’re less likely to get “ripped off” when buying from eBay. Keep in mind that with auctions, prices can occasionally escalate quickly, especially for Broadway shows with greater demand.
Online ticket corporations – There are various of online ticket companies that have huge stocks of seats available that offer them directly to the general public. These corporations have tickets for Broadway shows, football games, NASCAR races, rock concerts and just about anything else. Not only that, but they have easy to use search engines and secure ordering systems. Many of these companies have inventories of tickets for sold out shows, too. If you reside outside of New York, finding an online ticket company may be your best bet.
Broadway shows are exciting to see and lots of fun. As a result of the Web, it is easier than ever to purchase tickets to a show that will make your New York vacation an unforgettable one.

If you ask most people, they will tell you that they are always looking for ways to save money. Of course, spending money isn’t usually in a person’s plans if they want to save it. Unfortunately, purchasing energy efficient home improvements can be one of the best ways to save a bundle in the long run. One great example: window treatments. Not only can they add value and cosmetic enhancement to your home, they can actually wind up saving you a great deal of money on your electric bill.
Shades that block out the light can help keep your house cool, in addition to adding to your privacy. Window treatments that reflect the light on the outside and absorb it on the opposite side can make a huge difference when it comes to how much you have to run your central heat and air. Not only that, but they can completely darken a room, which can make watching movies or television during the day a special treat. Of course, you can-and will probably want to-opt for those shades that can be opened and closed so you can enjoy the sunlight at those times when you want it.
If shades are not your style, you can always get some window treatments in the form of traditional blinds. They come in both horizontal and vertical varieties, and that is just scratching the surface of the available options. You can get blinds that are either wooden or plastic, depending on your needs and how much you want to spend. They are easy to open and close. The only disadvantage is the horizontal plastic blinds often break easily, especially if you own a cat.
Of course, don’t overlook the power of a good set of screens. If you live in Florida or other places where bugs like to swarm, screens are not a luxury-they are a necessity! Even if you don’t have a lot of bugs where you live, screens can make a big difference when it comes to diffusing the light from the sun, which can cut down on the heat in your home. Will they save you a lot of money on your energy bill? Probably not. Are they worth putting up? Definitely.
If you are interested in these or any other window treatments, contact a specialty installer near you and ask them what kinds of options are available. Get a price quote and you’ll be well on your way to a cooler, more energy efficient home.

Foodies who go on Jersey holidays are certainly in for a treat as there are so many great places to eat and drink dotted across the island.
However, sometimes it takes a little local know-how to find the best restaurants in Jersey, so why not book a guided tour with a gourmet theme?
This way you will have the benefit of an islander’s expertise to ensure that you are able to hunt out the establishments serving the most mouth-watering fare.
Best of all, walking in Jersey makes for an incredibly popular holiday in itself, with many visitors to the area ensuring they spend time exploring on two feet.
Although it is the largest of the Channel Islands, Jersey still measures just nine miles by five and its differing terrain means that it is ideally suited for people of all abilities.
Breathing in lungfuls of fresh, sea air and admiring the gorgeous views out across the English Channel, you are sure to work up a healthy appetite for lunch – which is what makes a gourmet tour such an appealing option.
If you want something traditional then make sure you book a tour that includes a Jersey cream tea. Seafood is another of the local specialities that you are sure to want to try, whether it is a Jersey crab or some grilled sea bass.
Should you opt for a walk where you are led by a guide you can expect to go to some of the best – but perhaps not very well-known – places to eat.
One of these is Plemont Cafe in the bay of the same name, where not only is there something on the menu to suit every palette, but you will also be able to admire gorgeous sea views as you dine.
If you’re feeling hungry then have a hearty English or American-style breakfast, while for a light bite you could tuck into a simple but delicious burger or wrap accompanied by some chutney from Jersey’s Chilli Kitchen. Make sure you wash it all down with a glass of Liberation Ale.
On other tours you can expect to go to great gems that are off the beaten track, like the restaurant at Ransom’s Garden Centre in St Martin.
Chef and patissier Sarah Ransom offers a great menu packed with everything from light lunches to a la carte, but whatever you have make sure you leave room for dessert.
Indeed, her banoffee pie is so good it even got a mention by a Los Angeles Times journalist who visited the establishment.
Another great option is the AA Rosette-winning Greenhills Country Restaurant, where you can dine on the terrace and admire the beautiful gardens.
If you prefer to explore at your own pace and would rather go it alone than with a guide then you will still be able to discover some of the eateries that are a well-kept secret among the locals.
You can arm yourself with maps and routes that are tailored towards the island’s culinary delights and use these as you explore. One particularly popular option centres on the parish of Grouville where much of the Jersey’s food is produced.
As you stroll around, you will be able to pop into farm shops or sample the mussels and oysters.
Alternatively, you could choose a walk where you will be able to enjoy glasses of local wine or beer, or visit some of the most popular pubs.
Indeed, when it comes to keeping foodies happy, Jersey can certainly cater to you.

It’s no secret that marketing events and promotional conferences provide a plethora of advertorial opportunities for businesses looking to see and be seen as an industry contender. Held in large venues grand enough to house the participating masses, a promotional seminar can deliver a major marketing wallop with large crowds of potential clientele. In short, when it comes to traditional marketing tactics, many organizations rely heavily on their trade show exhibits as a major resource in their promotional tool bag of tricks.
Recognizing The Rookie Trade Show Exhibit Participant
However, for first time trade show stand participants, understanding the most effective techniques to employ during their first year of marketing functions can prove challenging. When it comes to setting-up a display and participating in the events themselves, newbies can futilely spin wheels in various directions without seeing a solid return on investment. Luckily, this doesn’t have to always be the case. For rookie members of the expo circuit, there are several tried and true tactics that can be implemented at each event. Understanding the Marketing 101 basics can help ensure your company’s overall success.
Basic Tips To Employ To Optimize Trade Show Stand Success
The first thing to consider when strategizing for trade show exhibit success relies on the exhibit itself. If your organization is designing a new booth to display, it’s critical to partner with a reputable vendor. Source a booth designer with a solid performance history who can deliver a final look that complements your current brand message and other promotional material. This will help your company present a solid, uniform appearance to the attendees of the function and let your competition know that you truly mean business.
Booth setup can also play an important role in a company’s promotional seminar success. Some displays, while infinitely informative and compelling to passersby, can prove tricky to set up, particularly when considering that each event brings with it an entirely new venue floor plan. As a newbie to the scene, outsourcing the entire setup process may prove a wise choice. Inquire directly with the vendor that designed your booth, as many also offer setup services as well.
Selecting the best staff members to man the trade show stand during the event is also a critical component to success. Many companies mistakenly believe that only salespeople should work the conference. However, this simply isn’t true. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what department the employee works in as long each person in the booth can effectively engage with visiting attendees and articulately discuss the company history, vision, goals and products.
Finally, the most important component to trade show exhibit success is a post-event analysis. Convene with the team to strategize how to best leverage gathered leads. Converting leads into revenue is the ultimate mark of achievement for any promotional event. Methodically working through all newly gathered data maximizes your company’s chance of this and ensures that no money is left on the table.