Mind you, this was not a coy ploy to squeeze office supplies from vendors. We had business with a few integrated library system vendors, as well as with a federated search engine vendor. We sat through nearly two hours of talks about the brilliance of products. Everything started to look the same....
I came out of the exhibits loaded with goodies (beyond pens, I had many catalogs in which I buried my nose most of the weekend) and some words to the wise. Please take note, lest ye find thee at a large library exhibits function in the future:
1. Wear comfortable shoes. I cannot stress this enough. If it means that you must wear jeans so that your tennis shoes don't look tacky, do it. No one is looking at feet in an exhibits hall, anyway.
2. Take a big backpack with comfortable straps or a roll-along bag. The bags that are given out by vendors are cheap, hold very little, and generally have tiny strings that hurt shoulders. I took my backpack with wheels and had plenty of room for my goods plus easy access to other items.
3. Take along drinks & snacks. The vending machines outside of the exhibit hall sold soda and water for $3.00 (egads). Most vendors have candy, but after time that gets old.
4. Don't forget your business cards. I probably gave out 50.
5. Address labels are also useful. Yes, you'll get a nice ID card with a magnetic strip to swipe at most vendor kiosks, but not all vendors use it. You may also want to sign up for give aways or mailing lists, and writing out an address takes FOREVER.
6. Be prepared to be warm. Hundreds of people will be occupying the same space, and you'll be on the move most of the time.
7. Plan ahead. Use the conference website to identify key vendors that you HAVE to see, vendors that you WANT to see, and vendors from which you can get loot. Please note that author signings are scheduled at specific times, in case you want to hit those.
8. Save vendor visits until the last day of the conference. Most will be dying to give away pens, etc. on that day. Most of the book vendors we visited were also giving away books so that they didn't have to pack them up.
9. If you travel to a conference, prepare enough room in your bags to take the stuff back with you. The line to Fed Ex was unbelievable. You may want to consider the costs of mailing a box vs. paying for an extra suitcase/extra weight.
10. Keep notes on how the vendors treat you. The Hoovers rep barely looked up when we stopped at the booth. We had to swipe our own cards for further information, and she offered no information on resources or products. (This attitude is pretty typical of the service we currently receive from them, and we won't be subscribing again next year).
11. Visit exhibits with a friend (if possible) so that you can discuss the products that you reviewed with someone. Over drinks.
12. Be prepared for a deluge of e-mail and mailings from the vendors with which you swiped your card. You really didn't think it was JUST for the IPod, did you?
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