You Exhibitionist

We are a backstage team. Hidden in the shadows we do our work so the stage glows.

But this the time we take over and exhibit our goods. Show the world what we got. It’s time for us to be Alice or Ali Baba or to be topical Aladdin (Which is playing in the City). Lost in this Wonderland Cave, stalked by Chalis Sellers and hoping for a Genie to show us the way to a profitable future.

Our Eyes Blindened with choice, Our Ears deafened by variety and our senses overwhelmed by the magical strides in projection and Visual technologies. We tap into that inner desi in all our characters that can only be at ease when we are surrounded by chaos and choices. We can slurp and sniff out the best deals - that’s what keeps our adrenalin pumping.

Good Luck to all of you. Hope you find the instruments that will see you through the next few seasons. Here’s a good time to remember the triumphs and mistakes of seasons past.

I also hope you have attended and benefitted from one or more of the many seminars and workshops that are held alongside. I have had the pleasure of listening to some of the world leaders in some aspect of our trade. I have found them approachable and genuinely excited to be in India.

They are amazed how their familiar craft is adapted and made to work in India at a fraction of investment in both inventory and manpower. That is one feature of our Indian scenario I sincerely hope will improve in the next few years. Not the inventory - the manpower.

Our guys usually are harder working, more enthusiastic and bring greater energy to most projects. Accomplished professionals are amazed with our ‘jugad’ and how we get to certain things done.

Sadly this same ‘jugad’ also leads many of us to cut corners in the implementation of the production and in the rehearsal schedules sometimes under the impossible schedules that are thrust onto so many of us.

I really hope we can find a balance with this jugad. That we don’t depend on it to carry us through with minimum effort, but use the skill to punch well above our weight category. Our shows can only improve.

I also hope that as you trudged down the exhibition aisles you stopped every once in a while and struck up conversations with people in allied businesses. Started or cemented lasting relationships with people up and down the food chain. Our business is mostly TIME based. We are judged for our ability to perform ‘on the day’. That day you may be loaded with a whole array of issues - both technical and personal. The true hero’s in our profession battle that and perform up to the mark on their worst days.

It’s on days like this that you truly value the ‘little bit of help from our friends and this is an opportunity to make these friends. Whether you need a particular connector at 2 am in Hyderabad or need a replacement unit driven down from the closest city six hours away.

I have been blessed by great friends who have smilingly done these seemingly small favours that went a long way to support my delivering the expected job. Like most things in our industry these efforts go widely unrecognised and remain under appreciated.

This is an opportunity to affirm who your friends are and strengthen bonds.

Now it’s time to look at the equipment.

The first thing I do is glance through the list and check out who is exhibiting for the first time. Why are they here? Is it an experiment to get a feel of the market? Or do they have an interesting new product or line that they wish to expand into our market.

A lot of the time they are overwhelmed and a little out of step. The vibe within our Indian exhibitions are definitely different from the energy of exhibitions around the world.

We have a huge number of eager fellows crammed in there just to look around. This is great and I encourage this attention. I believe it is one of the ways we can get newer and more people tapped into our world.

But to a guy out of Europe - dealing with so may smiling accents all asking ‘wise’ questions. We have more than our fair share of smart asses who get off on showing off their ‘knowledge’ to anybody who will listen. (Hey that’s great too!). But that poor first time exhibitor does not know how to measure his pitch to strike the balance between keeping things interesting and still keep everything moving at a manageable pace.

A touch of our Indian Hospitality goes a long way in making great friends and widening our networks. It has allowed me to learn a lot about how our industry functions across so many different markets around the world.

Finally let’s look at all the goodies you really came to explore. The new stuff.

Our world is moving so fast - new stuff hits us every day. But do you ever think every product is just an incremental change from the last time?

In my opinion, and I may be wrong, a huge number of us look at newer equipment only as a replacement of the old. To use the newer stuff to do the old stuff. May be in a more economic way. But basically - just old wine in new bottles.

I urge you to consider this. If that has been your mindset, work seriously on letting go of the past.

Some of the new equipment may lead you to completely re- think the way you set up shows. If you have a marketing team - go with them and see how you can use this new equipment to sell new ideas to clients who are always looking for ‘Never done before’ thrills.

Definitely more fun than trawling through YouTube clips looking for ideas to ‘be inspired from’.

Like last year I saw some smoke spirals that I could think of dozens of uses for - but sadly never seen being used in anything other than smoke plumes.

Come on Guys this is where your imagination will earn you the buck. Sure, we are dead without equipment. But remember - it’s our creativity in using that equipment that ultimately makes the difference on how successful we are in our jobs.

I urge you to put your deal making skills on hold for a while and fire up your creative side first. Identify how we will make our shows different from last years.

Different from every other vendor.

Then unleash your deal making skills to sign the dotted line.

Good Luck Guys. Have a super time Exhibiting yourselves.

Here’s wishing Much Success for all of us.

(The views expressed by the author are his own personal comments and the magazine does not subscribe to them).