Not every job is for everyone.
Right? That’s what we’re supposed to believe. Not everyone can or wants to be an Accountant, they’re just not good with numbers. Not everyone can be a Firefighter, they’re not strong or brave enough. Not everyone can be a doctor because, well, who has another handful of years and a few extra hundred thousand dollars for the additional schooling required?
So what does a me-from-20-years-ago do with his life when all he wants to do is go to Comic Con with his free time? Well, the assumption is for that kid to find a way to go work for Comic Con. After all, who doesn’t want to be held up in a convention center that’s filled with Pop Culture shopping and celebrity guest appearances? Sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, to get in with Comic Con, you have to be willing to travel wherever the show goes, and those events happen constantly all over the country so to “work for Comic Con” is to never be home. Unless you stay home and just work the local events, which don’t come around often enough to provide a full-time job.
In college, I got a little lucky. There was an internship where I got to travel the country helping this company host their own internal B2B conferences where other companies got to attend and hear about all the great things our company was doing. Six months, 13 cities across the US and Canada, assisting with the execution of events. It was almost the perfect job… except, I was in college. Traveling is great when you’re young, not so much when you’re older and have more a life that’s rooted in wherever you live. I still travel a little now for work but twice a month?! That almost seems crazy to me now.
B2B internal conferences? Not exactly the most stimulating stuff but, hey, I was young and traveling and got to get some events experience. I couldn’t help but think there had to be another way to participate in events, have those events be more exciting than talking about the new software program updates, and not be banished to the road. Well, at the time, I didn’t know any better and that was as good as it was going to get.
It’s not until after college that you realize the way the world and professional working world work aren’t exactly what you expect. I didn’t want to stay in Boston for that job, so I came home to NJ. Comic Con didn’t pay enough or offer full time jobs at that time, so I kept looking elsewhere. I had spent all my years of college in the city, so I wanted to go back to suburbia; not the greatest idea if what you want is to work in events or at a convention center, which is usually located near a major city.
Ten years of looking – and working unfulfilling jobs – later, and I finally found it: trade show exhibit firms!
Through a friend of a friend, I found out about a company that designs and sells trade show booths. What’s a trade show? It’s basically Comic Con for businesses!
My internship was working for a company that traveled to cities to talk about their product to other companies. Trade Shows are sort of similar, but they’re not run by one business. Well, they are, but that business isn’t selling anything. A general contractor will manage a trade show, but then all the booths at that show are exhibitors that buy/sell whatever it is the theme of that show is. Want to know about Finance? Great, there’s a trade show that has 1,000 finance companies there to talk about what they offer. Want to know about animals? Hit up a pet convention, they’ll show you all the latest and greatest pet products! Want to know what those pharmaceutical reps do with all the money they make from all the pills they sell? Well, I’ll tell you, they spend it on big booths at big pharma shows where they all get together and talk about their industry!
Granted, if you’re not in finance, then who cares about finance? Pharma, really? Who wants to go to that show except the pharma crowd? Well, let me tell you something… don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Here’s the thing about conventions and trade shows – they are there to unify us. You don’t have to like something; if you don’t, don’t go to the show. However, as someone who was brought into this industry out of a love for Comic Con and celebrities, I can tell you that even something you’d expect to be boring and mundane like a trade show about medicine is fun and exciting.
These booths that companies buy and rent are not like the booths you see at your local town fair. This is not a table with a drape on it. There is not a cardboard sign behind the table with a company logo colored in crayons. These booths are basically tiny-homes, full-fledged structures with electric and A/V, with union labor teams being contracted to install and dismantle them, and teams of dozens of reps coming together for months to plan and execute just “one simple booth.”
Not only that, they know they’re there for one industry or theme, but the goal is to entice a broad crowd. Just because a show is all about banks doesn’t mean non-bankers wouldn’t enjoy it. Most booths have giveaway items, many have games with large prizes, several have food and beverages that they’re giving away for free just so you come say hi. Heck, at one show I saw a bank decorated their whole booth like a beach and had a big arcade game with two surfboards; the goal of the game was to collect coins while surfing. So, somehow, a boring bank at a boring finance show decided to come with an oversized custom arcade game. Really, who would have thought?!
I’ve been in this industry for almost three years now and no matter what show I go to, I am ALWAYS surprised?
Did you know there is a show that’s devoted entirely to candy products? Halloween has NOTHING on this trade show. I walked out of there with a duffle bag full of samples and a nasty headache from all the sugar I had already eaten along the journey.
Being a fan of Comic Con and autographs means that, yes, I also have a pinch of toy collector in me. After all, you need to have something for the celebrities to sign. Well, guess what Grapevine’s biggest show of the year is: ToyFair! And while Comic Con is more for “mom and pop” comic book shops in addition to the celebrity appearances, there are a handful of booths there that break out of the table-drape decorations and lean into traditional large-scale booth and, yes, some of them are even out clients! I’ve been to dozens of Comic Cons but never before did I get to witness the installation and dismantling of the show! What a gift to get to see behind the scenes.
So that original truth may still be the case – not every job is for everyone. However, I can tell you from first-hand experience that I found the kind of job that could be for anyone. There isn’t a show I won’t go to now, even if it’s in an industry I previously considered boring. There are some of the greatest people working in this industry and we’re all here for one reason – to put on a show that brings people together to celebrate whatever it is the focus is for that show.
You may not care about toys or finance or medicine or guns or whatever; you don’t have to. What we should all care about is people being happy, working hard and coming together, and I have never seen that happen like I have here in the trade show world. Heck, I went to a tattoo convention once and I thought I’d be bored silly. Well, people that make tattoos are also artists, and those artists use tattoo conventions to showcase their art. You can imagine my surprise when me, the superhero loving super-nerd that likes Comic Con, was able to go to a tattoo convention and find vendors selling superhero artwork. WHO KNEW?!
Is every day at work as exciting as being on a show floor, playing giant arcade surfing games or treasure hunting for unique purchasable goods? No, but no job is thrilling every day. Is every job for everyone? Certainly not, you’ll never find me working for or even being a patron of a skydiving company. Is the trade show industry the one place you’re most likely to find even a little something that entices you, or teach you something new about an industry you previously wrote off? You bet it is!
The only thing you should expect from a convention that you have prematurely stereotyped is that, really, you have NO idea what to expect.
Not from the booths anyway. From the crowds, you can expect thousands of happy people, all congregated in a convention hall together to talk about whatever the topic is that day. Not every show will be your dream show, but even those less-exciting events have something that’ll likely excite you.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an accountant, a sales rep, and engineer, a graphic designer or anything in between. The trade show industry needs all types to run smoothly. Just because you never considered the industry before doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for you in it. It’s not whether the industry wants you, it’s whether you want the industry. And just when you start to convince yourself that maybe trade shows aren’t for you, just remember: this job isn’t for everyone… but it certainly is for anyone.
— George Rose, Account Executive, Grapevine Visual Concepts