Consolidation Challenge: Telcordia Technologies Inc. acquired a new company 12 days before a major show —
at which both companies were scheduled to exhibit.

Tactics: A one-hour luncheon was used to explain the transition, and Telcordia re-skinned the new exhibit on the show floor.

In May 2004, Telcordia Technologies Inc. was launching a cutting-edge product concept at the TeleManagement World OSS Expo Trade Show (TMW) in Nice, France. The network-systems provider based in Piscataway, NJ, hoped to use the show to create buzz about its new “elementive” philosophy. The approach meant that its new software systems could be integrated with software systems of other suppliers — and just as chemical elements can be combined to form compounds, Telcordia's products can be combined to form unique customer solutions.

For Telcordia's Alice Woychik, director of customer events, and Andrew Dudek, CMP, CME, Telcordia's trade show manger, getting the word out about this hard-to-explain elementive concept was difficult enough. But 12 days before the show, Telcordia purchased Granite Systems Inc., one of the best-known names in telecom inventory-management systems. Granite Systems and Telcordia were two of the largest exhibitors at TMW, and virtually no attendees at the show were aware of the merger. In fact, aside from a press release, Telcordia hadn't made a peep about it prior to the show.

Thus, Woychik and Dudek needed to not only push the elementive approach, but to broadcast the message that Granite Systems was a fully integrated part of Telcordia. To add to the problem, Granite Systems had its own 20-by-20 booth en route to the show, where it would be set up two aisles down from Telcordia.

While Woychik and Dudek had already leveraged everything from pre-show mailings to promotional gifts to launch the elementive strategy, they soon realized that with the merger, attendees would need more time and space to take it all in. In fact, they figured they'd need about an hour of key attendees' undivided time to adequately sell them on the approach and the merger.

Rather than attempting to lure attendees to the booth for an hour-long presentation, the pair launched a last-minute working lunch for targeted customers and industry leaders. Telcordia brought together a panel of Telcordia executives and tele-management industry leaders to network with and address the invited guests.

Telecordia whittled the list of roughly 4,000 attendees down to its top 109 potential and current European customers. Telcordia's sales staff made personal calls to invite them to the event, and followed up each call with a personal e-mail invitation. Ultimately, 87 targeted attendees — almost an 80-percent return — attended the working lunch.

During the buffet lunch, Telcordia staff were positioned strategically throughout the room to network with customers. A relaxed program included a welcome and introduction, followed by four mini-sessions about the elementive approach and the recent merger. A question-and-answer session completed the working lunch.

While Woychik and Dudek organized the lunch, they also called on Lorraine Lorenzini, director of international operations at Sparks Exhibits and Environments in Philadelphia, to help work out the “two-big-booths-on-the-same-floor” dilemma.

“Completing the install outside of the United States is always a challenge, but making significant design changes are almost impossible,” Dudek says. “The South of France just doesn't have the infrastructure and experience to deal with last-minute changes.”

With less than 12 days before the show opened, and Granite's exhibit en route from an exhibit house in the United Kingdom, the only thing Sparks could accomplish before the show was some break-neck planning and graphic creation. Granite's exhibit was branded with its company logo, messaging, and colors — and all of it had to be refitted on the show floor. As soon as the booth arrived at the show in France, everyone sprang into action.

The team brought in a French exhibit house to hang a Telcordia logo over the booth and paint and re-skin Granite's entire 20-by-20 booth with new graphics announcing the merger and promoting Telcordia's elementive approach.

he on-site makeover and working lunch worked like a charm. Telcordia brought in 187 qualified sales leads between the two booths, and held 47 private customer meetings in addition to the lunch — figures that are roughly double its efforts from the previous year. Telcordia spent more than an hour with almost 80 percent of its targeted European prospects and customers during its luncheon, and it successfully re-branded Granite's booth on the show floor — creating double the presence despite the last-minute notice.