Business Opportunities Weblog

March 17, 2005 by Dane Carlson | 1 Comment

This is the first in a series of essays about my experience at the Franchise and Business Opportunities Show.

I had a ten foot by ten foot booth on what was later termed the “most rowdy aisle” of the convention. In the booth, my wife and I setup a table in the front, where we placed a large LCD monitor, a keyboard and a mouse connected to a laptop hidden under the table. On that, I opened up a downloaded copy of the website, that I had downloaded in case there were any network issues. Good thing I did, too, since WiFi access at the show was prohibitively expensive ($500 for two days).

Next to the monitor we placed some bookmark like pieces of card stock on which we’d printed some brief information about the weblog, and of course, the site’s url. We also placed a a fishbowl for business cards and contest entries (more on the contest later post) there, too.

In the rear of the booth, we setup another table. Id brought that table specifically to give us additional storage space for the boxes and bags that we’d used to carry in our — but it also ended up being a great place to store the collection of literature and fliers from the other exhibitors I picked up. Both of the tables were covered with rented table drapes that professionalized the booth and made the unmatched tables look like a pair.

On the curtain at the rear of the booth, hung a custom canvas banner from Sugar House Banners which included the site’s name and URL in big bold letters. Sugar House was a great company to work with — their layout guy and I exchanged emails back and forth until we arrived at what was the perfect banner for me. The banner is sturdy and came rolled up in a small cardboard box, perfect for traveling.

Although we had a very simple booth, I think it worked out very well.

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