If The Pants Don't Fit...

When you’re an exhibit manager working with countless different suppliers for each and every show, you expect those suppliers to deliver on your requests. But at a recent show, my booth-uniform supplier actually over delivered, sending me pants with far more material than I needed. So when a minor exhibit snafu consumed my attention the day before the show, I had to think fast to avoid a last-minute fashion faux pas on the show floor.

When preparing for the December 2007 American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, I ordered some new uniforms for my booth staff, including a new pair of pants for myself. Since I had purchased uniforms from this particular company many times, I didn’t give proper sizing a second thought when I ordered my normal size and received the pants just days before leaving for the show. I was so unconcerned, in fact, that I put the pants into my travel bag without even trying them on.

All seemed to be going according to plan until the day before the show when I arrived at the convention center for setup. That’s when I found that the carpet and furnishings I’d ordered from show services had yet to arrive — which meant my installation crew could do nothing until the materials were delivered. I quickly fixed the problem by producing copies of my service-order forms for the folks at the service desk, who promptly delivered my stuff. But the mix-up meant that I’d spent the entire day and most of the evening working on my booth, and hadn’t had a chance to return to my hotel room and unpack my bags.

The next morning, I awoke thinking I’d handled my big hiccup at this show relatively well. I threw on some casual clothes — not wanting to spill any food on my booth uniform — and headed out for a hearty breakfast. By 8:15, I was back in my room with 45 minutes to go until the show opened, so I pulled out my booth uniform, including those new pants.

As I changed into my booth uniform, I discovered my real challenge for the show. The pants I had ordered from my usual supplier were too long. And not just an inch or two too long, I’m talking nearly half a foot. As I looked at my pant legs, I would have thrown up my arms in frustration if I wasn’t so worried about losing my balance and tripping on the excess material.

With the minutes counting down until the show opened, I needed some way to shorten my pants — and fast.

Needless to say, I was frustrated. I knew how to cut and hem pants, but I didn’t have a sewing kit, and there wasn’t a tailoring service at the hotel. And even if those resources were available, I only had 45 minutes until the show opened.

While I couldn’t sew up the pants, I figured I still might be able to find something, somewhere, that could affix the material inside the pant legs like a makeshift hem. So I took off the pants, turned them inside out, and rolled the material up to the right length. Then, as I sat down to consider my conundrum, I suddenly spotted a solution. Sitting on a table in my room were a bunch of the 5-by-8-inch “empty” labels typically attached to empty crates when they’re ready to be removed from the booth space and relocated to storage.

Desperate and with only 15 minutes to spare, I stuck a handful of those labels to the inside of the pants, right where a hem ought to be. Then I turned the legs right-side out, and put my pants on. Hoping the labels would hold, I rushed off to the show floor.

As it turned out, the labels not only held throughout that first day, they held all throughout the three-day show.

When the show ended, I finally got my pants altered, and I’ve been wearing them to shows ever since. My booth-couture crisis taught me a valuable lesson: No matter how much you trust your supplier, you’ve always got to try your pants on for size.

— Kate Guerrina, marketing director, Chroma Technology Corp., Rockingham, VT




Remember The Alamo

Considering how often booths are shipped across the country with no problem, I had little concern when I shipped my booth and graphics from Houston to San Antonio, a distance of only about 200 miles down Interstate 10. Unfortunately, this short trek gave me a bit of trouble when my graphics somehow got lost.

With the 2006 Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition set to open at 9 a.m. Monday, I had sent my 10-by-20-foot exhibit and collateral to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio in the middle of the previous week. Since I’d recently produced new graphics, I sent them separately on Thursday via DHL overnight delivery.

With everything shipped in time for the show, I fully expected to find both shipments in my booth space ready to go when I arrived at the convention center on Sunday. But as I started examining my freight, I discovered that my graphics were missing.

After a quick call to DHL, I received mixed news. The good news was that my graphics had been found and were on their way to San Antonio. The bad new was that they wouldn’t arrive until about three hours after the show began.

While three hours may not seem like a long time to deal with missing graphics, my boss was due to visit the booth on Monday, and I didn’t want him staring at blank walls in the exhibit. Furthermore, the whole point of the graphics was to attract attendees’ attention. Without any graphics, passersby would likely keep on passing by to other graphics-filled booths.

I decided I needed to get resourceful and find some other eye-catching visuals to replace my graphics. Fortunately, the convention center in San Antonio is within walking distance of the Alamo and several other tourist destinations. So I headed over to the tourist shops to see what would catch my eye — and hopefully that of passing attendees. After perusing a shop or two, I settled on five big posters that showed San Antonio sites such as the River Walk and the Alamo.

Back in the exhibit hall, I taped the posters to my bare walls. When the show opened, my boss dropped by and loved the exhibit, never seeming to notice the fact that our graphics were replaced with giant prints of San Antonio. Better still, the beautiful artwork of the host city seemed to draw in the attendees as well.

By the time my graphics arrived around noon, I almost regretted having to stow the posters. Still, as I put up the graphics for the remainder of the show, I knew I’d always remember the Alamo.

— Matt Beltz, senior marketing manager, Hart Energy Publishing LLP, Houston