Previously, I worked for a company that has different organic hair- and skin-care product lines – one for humans and one for pets. And while I represented both, we seldom exhibited both at the same trade show. That meant our exhibits were highly tailored to their particular markets, which was just about my undoing at one show in particular.

I made arrangements to have one of our 10-by-10-foot pop-up displays that featured graphics of women with flowing tresses sent to a beauty expo in Las Vegas. Since it was just a pop-up, one afternoon was all I needed for setup. But when I got to the venue and opened my crates for the beauty expo, my throat closed up in panic. I had the wrong booth.

Sitting in front of me was everything I needed for a pet-industry trade show, complete with a back wall filled with images of golden retrievers and Pomeranians and such. Oh, their hair looked shiny and beautiful, but the people at this show might be offended by a booth that seemed to shout, "Hey you bunch of dogs, here's some shampoo." My head was spinning.

I had been sent the correct product samples, but nothing else. The display, table covering, and literature was all targeted toward our pet line. A phone call to the office confirmed that somehow someone had handed the wrong crates to the shipper, and the ones I needed were sitting there.

With the show scheduled to start in less than 24 hours, I was on the verge of a total meltdown. It was a three-day show, so my colleague agreed to overnight the correct items to me. But I still had opening day to contend with, so I had him email PDFs of our literature and logo to me, and I started running.

My first stop was show services, to get a table linen and some pipe and drape. Then I beelined for the venue's business center where I printed our literature and a simple sign with our logo and name that I could hang from the drape.

Standing back and trying to picture what my sparse exhibit would look like, I came to an irrefutable conclusion: It was going to be ugly. So I figured as long as we'd already blown our budget, I might as well do a little something to pretty up the space a bit. I located a party-rental store and a flower shop, and I bought stems and vases to make two pretty, aromatic bouquets, and rented two waist-high pillars to set the vases on. It wasn't great, but it was going to have to be good enough.

I limped through the first day of the show, grateful when my overnighted crates showed up that afternoon. After the show floor closed I quickly swapped out the display.

These days I try to get to a show more than one day in advance to make sure I'm in good shape, because I figure it's cheaper in the long run than trying to fix a problem at the last minute. But when snafus do pop up, I still think spending money with an "in for a penny, in for a pound" approach is the best way to keep an exhibit from going to the dogs.

— Sandy White, Healing Herbals, Hartford, CT