Blowing Your Top

Some trade show experiences run like clockwork. Everyone shows up when they're supposed to, the booth gets set up on schedule, and all of your presentations and demos go off without a hitch. No worries. Some shows, though, are nightmares with one bad thing piling on top of another. When that happens, you simply have to ride out the storm and then try to turn the tide in your favor.

As the global marketing communication manager for Celanese Emulsion Polymers, a business of Celanese Corp., I was busy planning my company's exhibit for the 2010 International Engineered Fabrics Conference and Expo at the Miami Beach Convention Center. For the expo, commonly known as the IDEA show, I arranged for a 10-by-20-foot exhibit staffed by a dozen co-workers including several of my European colleagues, all of whom would be arriving and leaving on a staggered schedule during the show.

All was going well until roughly two weeks before the show, when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted. Of course, I didn't think this blast from Mother Nature would affect my little exhibit. Unfortunately, a few days after the eruption, three of my European colleagues called to tell me that given the plume of ash over Europe, they might not be able to fly in for the show.

Since their absence would only bring my staff roster down from 12 to nine, I wasn't too worried. Sure, my delicate booth-duty schedule would need to be tweaked, and it would have been nice for those European folks to meet with clients at this big international event. But I marched on with my plans, telling my across-the-pond colleagues to let me know when European travel restrictions eased and they could catch a flight to the show.

By the time I arrived in Miami on Sunday for IDEA's Tuesday opening, I could see a ray of sunshine through the ash cloud. Two of my European pals had called to tell me they were able to elbow their way onto two flights that had been cleared for takeoff. My staff roster was back up to 11.

But when I arrived at the convention center for booth installation, I spotted trouble. Almost no work was being done on any exhibit in the hall, including mine. So I e-mailed my exhibit-house rep, who soon calmed my fears. Apparently, she didn't want me to pay for expensive Sunday labor, so she'd ordered the installation crew for Monday. While delays of any kind make me nervous, I accepted her answer and decided to call it a day.

At 9 a.m. Monday, I headed back to the show floor. One look at my exhibit space, though, told me I was in trouble. The labor still hadn't shown up. So I called the crew chief, whose number I'd gotten from my exhibit-house rep on Sunday, to see why my booth was still in its boxes. It seemed his wife was ill, and he wouldn't be coming to work that day, and with no supervisor, there'd be no crew either.

I immediately called my exhibit-house rep, who promised to find me a work crew right away. Since there was little I could do but wait, I decided to check on the rest of my exhibit staff, and that's when I had my second encounter with Mother Nature.

When I looked out the window at the convention center, I noticed rain pounding down so hard I could not see across the street. When I found out moments later that Miami International Airport was closed, I realized that with less than 24 hours until the show opened, I had no American booth staffers, no exhibit, and just a couple of European staffers en route. This string of bad luck needed to change, or I was going to blow my top.

As the texts and calls came in from my U.S. colleagues, I started keeping track of which booth staffers couldn't make it because of the weather and which of them had found later flights. A quick calculation told me that, at best, I'd have seven staffers.

Even those seven, though, would be worthless without a booth, so I made more pleading phone calls for a work crew. By 2 p.m., my begging finally paid off as I checked in at the convention center to find a group of laborers unpacking my crates. Even better, the crew chief had worked on my exhibit before, so setup would likely go smoothly.

Satisfied, I headed to my room to rewrite the booth-duty schedule for seven staffers. Since no one who had made it to the show could stay for the last day, I scheduled myself for day three. I also called the front desk to make room cancellations for the five missing staffers, and tack on a Wednesday-night stay for me. Next, I changed my flight so I could leave after manning the exhibit myself on Thursday. While I was not looking forward to going it alone in the booth on Thursday, I knew traffic would be down and attendees would understand a little wait time if necessary.

With my staffing schedule complete, I went back to the exhibit hall expecting to see a half-built exhibit. Instead, there was nothing but parts on the ground and the wrong graphics in the light boxes. While I quickly located and dug out the right graphics, which had been packed in another box, the crew chief told me we hadn't shipped all the necessary booth parts to the show. Fortunately, he had already called the exhibit house's local warehouse, and the missing pieces were being transported to the show as we spoke.

Given the down time, I headed out for a quick dinner, and then popped back into the hall once more later that evening. While my booth was still in pieces, progress was being made, and the new parts had arrived, so I decided to get some rest.

The next morning I snuck into the exhibit hall by 8 a.m. to find good luck was still not on my side. The lighting in the exhibit needed some adjusting, I was missing a table I'd ordered from show services, and a large pile of rubbish was plopped in the middle of my floor. Fortunately, my crew, which had been fixing my booth into the wee hours, was tired but ready to make that final push.

While half the labor crew hauled away the junk, I gave instructions on how to fix the lighting. Next, I contacted show services to inquire about my missing table, which arrived just before the show opened.

As it turned out, the show went surprisingly well considering I'd overcome an Icelandic volcano, a missing I&D crew, and a tropical thunderstorm. Yes, I had my share of bad luck at the IDEA show, but with dogged determination, I refused to get buried in the ash heap.

- Holly Seese, global marketing communication manager, Celanese Emulsion Polymers, a business of Celanese Corp., Dallas