GUERRILLA MARKETING AT TRADESHOWS - INTERNAL EPISODE | E032 PODCAST
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ABOUT THE SHOW
Ideoli Group orchestrated a remarkable showcase for their clients during LEDucation, a prominent industry tradeshow held in New York City.
George Stroumboulis sits down with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen from Ideoli Group to explore the realm of guerrilla marketing and how Ideoli Group harnessed its power to illuminate their presence at LEDucation. Ideoli Group astounded attendees by commandeering an executive conference room at the Midtown Hilton Hotel. They ingeniously transformed the space into an immersive exhibit, welcoming designers, distributors, specifiers, architects, and clients to immerse themselves in their groundbreaking products.
Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen, divulge the strategic intricacies that underpinned this audacious endeavor. They illuminate Ideoli's unwavering commitment to excellence, always endeavoring to showcase the pinnacle of their offerings and team, setting themselves apart in a fiercely competitive industry landscape.
Throughout the episode, listeners gain invaluable insights into the artistry and precision required to execute a triumphant guerrilla marketing campaign. From captivating design installations to engaging interactions with attendees, Ideoli Group demonstrates an unparalleled dedication to making a lasting impression at events like LEDucation.
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George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
“But then you look at that side and it’s like not even a follow-up, not even, and like it’s not even the sales side. Now, it’s just the human aspect. ”
MEDIA RELATED TO THE EPISODE
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
Ideoli Group with the Genesis Lighting team from South Florida. Visiting us at our pop-up showroom during LEDucation in New York City.
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
George Stroumboulis sits down in Manhattan, New York with Chris Hartswick and Perry Karen at the annual lighting tradeshow called LEDucation on the Invigorate Your Business Podcast. Talking about tradeshows, guerrilla marketing, lighting, competitive tradeshows and so much more.
ABOUT THE “INVIGORATE YOUR BUSINESS” PODCAST
The Invigorate Your Business with George Stroumboulis podcast features casual conversations and personal interviews with business leaders in their respective fields of expertise. Crossing several industry types and personal backgrounds, George sits down with inspiring people to discuss their business, how they got into that business, their path to the top of their game and the trials and tribulations experienced along the way. We want you to get inspired, motivated, and then apply any advice to your personal and professional lives. If there is at least one piece of advice that resonates with you after listening, then this podcast is a success. New episodes weekly. Stream our show on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Amazon and all other platforms.
ABOUT GEORGE STROUMBOULIS
George Stroumboulis is an entrepreneur to the core, having launched several ventures across multiple industries and international markets. He has held senior-level positions at progressive companies and government institutions, both domestically and internationally, building an extensive portfolio of business know-how over the years and driving profit-generating results. George’s ability to drive real change has landed him in several media outlets, including the front page of the Wall Street Journal. George was born in Toronto, Canada to his Greek immigrant parents. Family first. Flying over 300,000 miles a year around the world puts into perspective how important family is to George’s mental and emotional development. With all this travel to global destinations, the longest he stays even in the most far-out destination is 3 days or less - a personal rule he lives by to make sure he is present and involved in family life with his wife and three daughters. To read about George’s global travels, stay connected with his blog section.
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FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
George Stroumboulis - Host: 00:00
Welcome to another episode of Invigorate your Business with George Stroumboulis. This episode comes from New York City. You can see the skyline behind me and it's just magical. I lived here for so many years and every opportunity I get to come back, I take advantage of it and just enjoy every second, every second, the minute you get out there. So in this episode we're going to talk about trade show marketing and sales cultivation.
00:26
My company, ideoli Group, took place in an industry the largest lighting show in the country called LEDucation. We created a pop-up showroom where we just showcased the latest and greatest in technology, that we're developing, product samples and we created this collaborative experience for our clients to come and see and feel and touch all our products, meet executive team members from my company and just be able to sit there and cultivate new relation and reinforce what we're doing. The future looks very bright. I'm joined in this episode by Chris Hartwick and Perry Karen and we're going to go over just everything what our industry is looking like, but it also applies to other industries as well. So take a listen, definitely give us your feedback as well in the comments and enjoy this episode. My name is George Stroumboulis and I'm extremely passionate about traveling the world, meeting new people and learning about new businesses. Join me as I sit down with other entrepreneurs to learn about their journeys. This episode of Invigorate your Business starts now. Okay, so we're going to jump into this. We're sitting in york with the lovely gentleman right here.
01:44
Thank you, chris and perry right hello and we're in between our trade show here in new york. Yeah, and we're literally in between, like ran to another hotel coming here filming some content, talking about some stuff, going back meetings, tear down all that stuff, um, but it's been an amazing two days, three days and several weeks of planning for this. But we're in New York. We did the LEDucation trade show, which has become the biggest lighting trade show in the country.
Perry Karen - Guest: 02:14
Would you agree? Yeah, absolutely.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 02:16
It's everyone's there. We had a blast, we saw all our partners, but I'd love to hear start with Perry Like what are your thoughts just being at this trade show in the heart of new york?
Perry Karen - Guest: 02:26
yeah, it's awesome.
02:28
Uh, I mean it. Like you said, it's become the biggest one in the industry and, uh, for good reason, right, so it brings everybody together in a fantastic city. You've got the design community that comes in, so it's always nice to see your partners and all that. But you get the whole really energy and breath of the industry that's there, and so it's exciting to see everyone, see what people are up to, see what the new products are going out there, some of the new things that companies are doing, and it's just great to really get a feel of where the industry is heading for the year, right, and it's just grown so much in the last two to three years that it's meaningful and the impact is not just immediate while you're at the show, but then coming in afterwards right, it gets you revved up to go. Right now We've got some new projects to think about and some new partners to talk to, and, uh, it's, it's a great way to do it and, yeah, early in the year, it just sets up the rest of the year for you.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 03:19
It really does Right. Entering the end of Q1, we got the rest of the year. We're going to talk about lighting shows in our industry, but let's hear your overall thoughts on the show.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 03:29
Yeah, I mean it's great, I think the thing for me that I don't want to say I take for granted.
03:36
But we have our solid partners that we always work with and our quality partners that are always bringing us new jobs, new opportunities, all of those things.
03:44
And you know our quality partners that are always bringing us new jobs, new opportunities, all of those things. But when we have a show like this, even somebody we work with essentially on a daily basis, when they see product we have displayed that we've done with somebody else, they still get drawn to something oh geez, of all the stuff you've done for us, especially as a custom manufacturer, right, of everything you've done, all the the customization. I never even thought that was possible, right, and everyone kind of has a different reaction to a different product. So no matter if it's somebody brand new that's just learning about us or a partner we've been working with for years, it's such a huge opportunity to allow us to really show this is the level of customization we can do. Maybe it's purely just mounting, maybe it's optical. Whatever it is it it I feel like it makes it so much clearer to our partners what we're truly able to do and then just immediately drums up new business, new ideas. It changes how they approach their thought absolutely with how they approach us right.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 04:39
So it's it's awesome to see yeah, and we get stuck in tunnel right like tunnel vision, because we do what we need to do, we make it, we go and certain things resonate with other partners that come in that we wouldn't have thought of. So it's always good. And then we've been in business now approaching a decade, but this is the first time we've done an actual proper trade show where we're displaying product. We've gone to industry events, yeah, yeah, we've done some little stuff where we're displaying product. We've gone to industry events. We've done some little stuff where we set up stuff. But this is the first time and it's like, well, why, why haven't we done it in eight years? The first one is we haven't been ready right, just ready from a standpoint, because we've had enough business and, based on our team and what we're doing, it was enough right, because we always want to impress our clients. Now we brought on senior executive business development needing to reinforce our brand out there. And, to Chris's point, we're working with partners now nearly a decade doing a lot of business right, millions of dollars. But even with them, if we're not at these events, we don't exist in their mind, out of sight, out of mind, and there's always other partners that are just waiting. So that's why this year you know Perry is pushing for it we need to be here. It makes sense, cost aside, like it makes total sense, like we're already booking for next year, looking at other events. So it's been, it's been amazing.
05:57
I want to talk about just marketing in general and like we had to get a little grassroots here. But before we do that, let's I don't know get a little controversial LEDucation trade show versus Lightfair trade show. So for people listening, wherever they're based around the world or in the states, our biggest show in the united states has always been Lightfair. Right, the last several years, all our partners, specifiers, distributors, whoever they're raving about this show LEDucation. So let's just talk about your thoughts from visiting Lightfair for the past. What? 15, 20 years, right? Not?
Perry Karen - Guest: 06:32
aging you Not quite, but almost.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 06:35
But almost, and Chris, you've gone probably last 12, 15 years to this show. Like, what are some of the pros and cons for the shows?
Perry Karen - Guest: 06:43
So so the evolution of lightfair compared to now, um, you know, it was the biggest show for a long time and it kept kind of going up and then over the last few years, you know of course a lot of things have changed with the pandemic as well, but you know it just kind of the way it was planned, set up, organization, the vendors that have come and gone, it's just not as dependable of a show from a strength point of view. Right, you can go and you can have a good time, you can see people, which is great, but it's not always really effective to get out to see everybody because there's a lot of people with the same stuff at something like Lightfare, whereas this is very design based and it's nice because everybody has a very similar sized booth. So it's very egalitarian that way, and so you're really able to focus on kind of the quality product. People have to pick and choose what they want to show with intention. And then now there's a lot of people from outside of New York that come.
07:38
That for a lot of years didn't, and now we're starting to see, you know, people from every state really, see agents from every state, see even designers and stuff from every state. So it's a good chance to still meet with your people face to face but then really see a show that's very specific in what it does and why you're there, and this is just really taken off as, frankly, a lot of the industry has been a little bit tired of light, fair, you know, and so it's a really nice there isn't that sort of lull of like what do we do and what's the right show to go to? I mean, it's already there and it's running. It's only getting bigger. You know the list of people that keep showing up or waitlisted to get waitlist.
08:16
We were on the waitlist now right it's just remarkable and that's really the strength and a testament to how well this show is run now yeah, absolutely.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 08:25
What are your thoughts?
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 08:26
sorry, can we pause? Real quick um armando just texted me he can't find the keys to the truck okay, yeah, do your thing.
Perry Karen - Guest: 08:35
Yeah, um, we'll still keep talking yeah, um, so if we just want one, well, I guess one of the sound bites I was gonna say he was here for I'll wait for him, so keep going yeah, and he could edit editor cut that last part, um, or just leave it.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 08:49
It's fucking life. Who? Cares yeah, uh, it's actually chris has to go to the restroom. Uh, for me, like I've been a light fair towards the end and I haven't gone in a few years, and now they just move to every other year yes, right, yeah, that was.
Perry Karen - Guest: 09:02
That was part of the thing, with it kind of falling a little bit, plus covet and some of the changes they wanted to do, right, so it's just that's what we're keeping now every other year and everything, and you know it's it's uh, yeah, it's not every year anymore as part of that yeah, light fair.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 09:16
We've exhibited once at our previous company and it was great. It was more of like just reinforcing with your existing partner everyone there. But the last few times, like people aren't showing up, there's more Asian suppliers coming direct and just too much. But I feel like education can easily become that.
Perry Karen - Guest: 09:34
Yeah, they wanted it to.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 09:36
I think so. Being product technical, you know, I don't want to say not marketing driven, but focused more on the product side. The reason I really like LEDucation over light fair is. Lightfair to me is more of like a party in a way, and what I mean by that is when you go to these booths. The booths are humongous, right. There's all this stuff going on. The ratio of the product to the booth is so small. It's, how do I get someone in my booth? How do I make my booth attractive? What kind of little event can I do? What kind of, you know, marketing thing can I do to bring somebody in and get them to stay here and have a meeting and this and that? And then the product is just such a little portion on the wall or wherever it is Right. Yeah, education from a purely product standpoint forces you to be efficient.
10:29
You only have this much space. Right, that's true.
10:31
If you want to put up a blank wall and a table and two chairs, then that's all you have room for. If you want to fill that with as much product, stand in front of it and then turn it into a product showcase, which is what I feel like more people do, because it is such a limited space. Yes, that makes it so much more valuable to the specifier, right? Because, yeah, okay, people want to go and have fun and have a good time, but education that seems to happen more after the fact, right During the day. It's hey, I got to go meet this guy, I want to see this new product, I want to meet this person. I can go 20 feet and get to five different manufacturers, versus Lightfair I go 50 feet and I'm still in the same booth.
Perry Karen - Guest: 11:09
You know what I mean.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 11:10
It's like so from a, I need to get the information. I need to learn something about whatever it is I'm looking for as a specifier. It seems so much better at LEDucation than at Lightfare.
Perry Karen - Guest: 11:24
Absolutely, and one of the nice things that LEDucation does to set up which for a specifier I think is fantastic is those rows are based on the rep agency, so you're walking somebody's line card, Whereas at Lightfare you have to be like, oh, who's your rep in this area? And blah, blah, blah. Like if you are a specifier or somebody from this area, you can look at anything that is interesting to you and then turn around and here's the rep. So now you have the face to go with it.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 11:50
Yeah.
Perry Karen - Guest: 11:52
So I think from their end it's brilliant. And then from the vendor end, something we're talking about, that I've done this for years, is one year when those rings got really big. Every vendor there had them and it was that ooh what if? And now, since then, every vendor has really been intentional with what they do and it's always different stuff for everybody to your point, so it even the vendor side. They've become very intelligent of what's the point of the show and how do I really get that out there.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 12:17
And it's, it's just a very good show for everybody from really every angle well, and also I, you know, to be completely blunt and honest a hundred percent selfishly as a smaller company. It's so much more value Like we get lost in light fare If we were to do a booth and then, even if it's not even in the same area, you know you have one of the behemoths that has a 60 by 60 booth right and it's basically they build a whole house or what?
12:45
And then we have a little 10 by 10 down in the corner. It's like we're going to get lost. You know, their sign is bigger than our booth, right, but at education it does level the playing field a little bit.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 12:56
I mean, you still have it's starting to veer towards like yeah, I mean, you have the behemoth that have, you know, 12 brands.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 13:04
So then they get one booth for every brand and sometimes they try to leak it in and they try to merge a couple of the. You know, if they can get them side by side, they'll try to merge the two together, but it's still it stops it from becoming. Hey, I now have a skyscraper next to me and I have my little house and I'm trying to get somebody to enter my house when there's this big, beautiful skyscraper.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 13:25
And we've said many times, we did the first education when they launched a show over 10 years ago, right, and we were part of the previous startup.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 13:33
Yeah, no money folding tables.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 13:36
It was a six foot table that you got and you got to decorate it and we were there with not even a budget like a negative budget, right, and we're next to this company that raised $200 million, and then Philips and G Sylvania, but it was an even playing field and we love that. Since then, fast forward 10, 12 years. It's still similar to that, but like, let's talk about like guerrilla marketing, right, cause we again, we're a smaller company when you're comparing to these multinational big type brands, but we've been trying to get into the show. On the show floor we couldn't get in. There's a waiting list of 100 plus manufacturers. So what do you do? You can't walk the floor because then, if you see your partner that's already giving you business, oh where are you guys? We're not here at all. Okay, like that doesn't look good, right. So we, okay, like that doesn't look good, right.
14:23
So we got crafty and in the hotel that they're having it, we we had to find a space. It couldn't be across the street because no one's coming across the street. So the one level right above the actual trade floor got this beautiful conference room like 20 by 40 right roughly, and massive space, and we're like, okay, our number one job is drive traffic up here and just create a cool environment. Cool, we set our targets on how many people we want to get in there. We got pretty close right In two full days. But what was awesome was having this clean plate, engaging our marketing team, engineer sales. And just what story are we trying to tell? Right, Cause this is the first time in a decade that we're able to tell a story, right down to the music you hear when you walk in. What's the first thing you want to see? What do we want to tell them about? Because we do everything.
15:14
And then we had messaging across and we'll put all the B-roll up on people to see the show. But I was so proud of what the team was able to pull together, absolutely Us right, like physically setting it up till three in the morning and everyone's like excited about this, like it was really cool, and then sitting there on curating. So when we did our first little reveal show it wasn't a trade show, but we did one we were scrapping together in the first one to two years of business to find samples to show, because we were so early on prototypes a couple, whatever and it was a very limited offering. Fast forward to now. It was literally pulling from hundreds of different products that we've brought to market and we have samples of. It was just cool seeing that.
15:59
And then the other thing I'll say before I pass it over is I was just so proud to see other people's reactions to the products that we develop.
16:07
Yeah, because we're all we get a spec package. We get to see their vision, their renders, prototypes, images, swatches. Chris, you're the mastermind of the actual product development and a lot of cases you're not in the actual environment in the end to see how it looks Right, but to be in a trade space where we brought together dozens of different products right Indoor out, all this stuff that we've designed, developed, brought to market. It's just so frigging cool seeing people like, wait, you did this and for who, and this and for who, and it was just this beautiful cross section of different, different types of swatches and finishes and materials. The story was fantastic and a lot of the big guys that go to the big manufacturers were commenting like man, this is a cool space. I just got to escape from the chaos and wait, you guys do this. I didn't know that, but we've been working together for 10 years, so I thought it was awesome.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 17:00
Thoughts. I mean absolutely. I think the biggest thing for me, that sort of sealed it right Cause you never know, or I say you never know, I've, I am never confident in how many people are just being nice right oh. Hey, it was really cool.
Perry Karen - Guest: 17:14
Right.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 17:15
And how many people are actually like oh shit, this is cool, right. The way I feel about this show in the last couple of days that sort of proved that to me is, I'd say at least half the people that came in would come in, walk around, say something like, oh, this is pretty sweet, this looks good. Within the next few hours they come back and they're bringing someone else with them. Yes, right.
Perry Karen - Guest: 17:36
That happened a lot, and that was like man.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 17:39
That's a great feeling.
Perry Karen - Guest: 17:41
Yes.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 17:41
Because, again, for the most part, people are nice, right. No one's going to come in and be like oh that's shit. So you never really know, like oh, did they actually like it? But when they're now bringing people back, and especially when our you know whether it's our rep partners or our distribution partners when they start bringing back end users, when they start bringing back their clients when they start bringing back designers and be like hey, you know what this made me think of this lighting designer?
18:07
I think they're here, I'm going to try to find them and then, even if they don't come back with them, but somebody all of a sudden shows up, we don't know, and they're like hey, I was just talking with x and they asked me to stop by here.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 18:17
It's like that's incredible well, sorry, to that point to lose your train of thought, perry brings back a client in Miami building this beautiful tower like beautiful, I can't wait till that probably won't name it, but and in real time. The guy had our shop drawing spec sheets there, consulting with Chris about where we're going to do this and do this for the lot. Like in real time. Yeah, like it's just. It's nice seeing that it wasn't just to your point. Yeah, you don't get more genuine than that. Like this is real business that we're doing.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 18:47
And then also, you know, from the structural standpoint of how are we going to lay out the show. What fixtures are we going to show? If you just flat out look at a still image, it's like Whoa, these guys are all over the place, right? But that was intentionally done, right, so we could show the full breadth of what we can do, whether that's materiality, size, you know, controls, integral, non-integral, just to really show we can touch every corner and the benefit there is when we have a client like that that shows up. We can actually then walk over to a fixture and, yeah, it's not the exact fixture, but there's some elements on there that are also on this new project.
Perry Karen - Guest: 19:23
Totally Right.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 19:24
So we can start saying well, here's an example of how we did in the past. This is how we were thinking about doing it for you. Oh, now that I see it, even though it's not my exact sample it makes a lot more sense and I can start to envision it better, right? So it just helps every step of the way to have something like that.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 19:40
Yeah, that's a great point. You had something to say.
Perry Karen - Guest: 19:42
Yeah, it was good, and actually you started to talk about it earlier when we were saying how it was nice to bring people around is, yeah, the icing on the cake was people bringing somebody else back. But you know, you send somebody a picture of something as we're working on a project and like, oh, that's cool. You don't really know to your point, like, how excited they are, Right To see somebody's genuine face of like enjoying it because we're so passionate about it. You know, to your point you get excited about something and everybody's like, oh, but to see somebody be equally excited when they see it justifies what we're doing for us and for them. Right, it really shows that and it's always exciting to see somebody be as passionate about something we created as us for creating it.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 20:22
Well, and let's be honest, whoever's listening, they're. They're it's not just lighting people, they're in their own industry, they're running their own businesses, absolutely Lighting Cause we're talking about this, it's commodity. Yeah, you, anything we do it's amazing, right, like we really make great product. You can find other manufacturers that can help you get there close there, whatever.
20:44
I know we're superior in a lot of ways, but it really comes down to confidence, relationships, trust, and when shit hits the fan because it always will at some point it's like what's our reaction? And we've talked about this many times in the past that you know you never want things to go wrong, but when it does, it's like cool, like let's step up. How are we going to resolve this, right? So that's one I want to talk about the actual marketing as well. So when we were talk to us just about the makeup of the product, so when people come in there and you see someone may say that's kind of a cluster. You got so many different things right. What was the thought process that went into the product side? And then we'll talk about the marketing side as well.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 21:22
Yeah, I mean, I think, similar to how we see within the development of like an active project. Right, we've always said we realized early on, the more physical prototypes we can get in the client's hand, the more successful the sale is, absolutely. Whether that's something as simple as hey, this is a swatch, this is actually what the finish is going to look like. Right, here's a little scaled prototype. Here's a piece, here's a corner, here's whatever. Here's a working final quality sample.
21:49
Going through all those rounds of prototyping, it just eliminates any potential of oh, I didn't think it was going to look that way. I didn't think it was going to function that way. It just makes the project so much more successful. So, from a marketing standpoint, function that way. Right, it just makes the project so much more successful.
22:05
So, from a marketing standpoint, especially with something like this, it's like, okay, let's physically try to show the products that can explain as much of our capabilities as possible, whether, again, whether that's materiality, whether it's function, whether it's control, whether it's type of fixture you know, pendant, surface floor lamp, table lamps, whatever it is let's try, whether it's type of fixture, you know, pendant, surface floor lamp, table lamps, whatever it is let's try to show a little bit of everything, something that touches on a little bit of everything. So that way, when we're walking somebody through the progression and just explaining all these products, it will hopefully spark something and let them realize oh okay, I didn't even think that was possible, or you could do that, or you can apply these two things together, right? So it is a flat out hodgepodge. If you just looked at a solid picture, or if nobody was in the room and somebody just walked in and was like what is going on in here they're going to be like did they just go to 30 different manufacturers and randomly pick fixtures that they thought looked good?
George Stroumboulis - Host: 23:03
Which not to name names. A lot of manufacturers just do that are sourcing a bunch of random crap and the other.
Perry Karen - Guest: 23:10
The other thing to it is a lot of these brands. When you look at their product offering, it feels like it's their brand and it's one thing. And it's like, okay, I get the idea of like what they can do. And it's this of somewhat narrow thing when you said, like to that hodgepodge, like you wouldn't know, and that's kind of our point right, that we can kind of do anything and do it well. So it's not like, oh, here's like a couple of things we know that's what they're known for and here's their couple of other attempts. It's like, look at all these things they can do that aren't like each other and are still at such a high quality.
23:42
So I think it also really shows that impact as well, of like we can do anything well, not just, oh, we're capable of it.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 23:50
And, honestly, I think that really speaks to our success, because we're not trying to force somebody to adopt our brands. Like you said, being a truly custom manufacturer, every product we make, if we can't make it to our client's brand and we work with such a wide variety of clients if we're not on their brand, why would they want to use it or why would they want to come back? Exactly so having the fixtures not look alike means they're made to the client's brand. Yep, right, which makes it that much more successful, because that's the goal, right. Yeah, it's not our style. We're trying to push. It's not our idea. We're trying to push it's theirs.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 24:26
Yeah, and when you can say that you create, develop and bring to market products for some of the strictest brand guidelines companies in the world yeah, nintendo's, aston Martin's, american Girls, like we're, it's all brand for them. Like we should be very proud that we're able to do that Right and to go through everything marketing wise now, right. So we had this beautiful setup from the marketing side. You know, obviously we're biased, but we have a strong brand and what that represents, right, physically, yep, looks sexy, all that stuff. But the marketing of this as well. You're here for the product, you're here for us, we as well. And you're here for the product. You're here for us, we're here for you. You know, we also had several other team members and it was just awesome having them there and getting to see that.
Perry Karen - Guest: 25:12
But the marketing side let Perry give me your thoughts on just like how we marketed it, you know, and yeah, I mean shout out to the team, right, they're fantastic at what they do and I think they put together some great stuff, not just from hey we're going to be at the show and because we're not really at the floor, how to get to us and what we're doing, all the way down to some of the great swag that we had. I mean, a little corner looked like we have our own retail store on the side right and it was all really well done.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 25:35
That was good stuff.
Perry Karen - Guest: 25:38
And you know, to really have that team put together some things that really showcase who we are and build that interest to come talk to us and see us, and a lot of it matches what we do. Right, we had a lot of people that came in that said they've seen us on linkedin and instagram and they wanted to see you know what we're all about. And so the marketing team drives that interest. So people come to us and then to know that when they came in, they they were happy about what they saw, they were excited about what they saw, means that that message and that brand intentionality is there and that the marketing team is really successful with it. Because people didn't come in and go like, oh man, I got the sense from your marketing, you're this and you're really that. It was like oh man, I mean you guys said you do custom.
26:19
I got the excitement out of it and look at it you know, matched it, and so I think it was really, really important for us and I think it was really successful as well.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 26:28
Yeah and go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, and I think, in addition to that, it's like the level of I don't know if this is a real term, but like functional marketing, right, it wasn't just oh, let's make a poster, slap some posters on the wall. It's well, if we do it in this way, this is going to pull people in. It's going to get people to interact with the space. It's going to sort of tell our story before they get to the product. Then, when they're at the product, they'll be able to get a visual summary, like just the whole planning specifically for the show of starting from outside of the room. How do we let people know we're here? How do we get them to the door? Once they're at the door, how do we sort of pique their interest to come in? And then, once they're in the space, how do we sort of let them know that there is a progression to what we're trying to do here? So let's follow it in this way, absolutely Just, phenomenally well thought out by the entire team.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 27:19
Yeah, absolutely, and even like the progression on. You know the the custom stickers on the floor with like fun tidbits about. You know what we produce, where we do it, who's the team guiding you? Uh, that that corner with all the marketing stuff and again you could get coffee mugs and everything everywhere, but just creating this thing where people thought it was just a display to showcase lighting, it's like no, no, what do you want custom pocket squares? Do you want Brandon material? Like it was just a cool aspect and like the show is only going to be successful with our follow-up, right.
27:49
So, uh, you know, kind of final segment, you know what's some advice like you would give if there's another product mastermind out there, and like how you, how, how would you want to showcase Like what's, what's some advice? Taking the ideology hat off, you know what I mean, like in general. Hey, you know when you're showcasing your product, because before we get to that, we walk the show, right, it's, it's a cluster, it's big, it's a lot of stuff going on. You walk it and I can name probably on one hand, out of how many vendors are there several hundred, right, how many stick out, and it's smaller space, just stuff thrown out there. You know, I think we did a great job standing out right. Physically we were out of the space, but we almost had an advantage. We had a bigger space. We're able to do more, but like displaying, I guess here's the question do people gravitate more to seeing a bunch of stuff, or do you think less is more in your opinion? I don't for me.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 28:47
I don't know if that's the right way to think about it. Actually, I think it's a matter of and obviously I won't name any names, but walking through the show, whether it was, you could clearly tell this is a very expensive booth, right? Or this is a very inexpensive way of approaching it, but to me that didn't draw me in it was. Is this just a cookie cutter presentation expensive or not? Or are they actually doing a good job at telling a story with how they're displaying whatever it is they're displaying, however many they're displaying, and I feel like again giving our marketing team credit of so much of the planning before we even started thinking about well, what fixtures are we going to show? It's well, what story are we telling? How are we going to try to grab somebody? Who are we actually trying to target?
29:39
Because there's a lot of people, there's specifiers, there's distributors, there's a lot of different types of people. Like I didn't really thinking that through and thinking how do we make this a valuable experience for whoever it is we're targeting? Right, if you truly answer all those questions first as a manufacturer, before you do any show, yeah, then you use that to develop your plan. Then you use that to develop? Okay now, what do we use that to develop? Okay, now, what do we want to show? Don't just be like let's go get all of our products and slam it on a wall, slam it, yeah, because it's going to look like you took all of your products and you slammed it on a wall.
30:13
Zero thought but if you actually figure out like, okay, let's walk them through, let's do it this way, let's really target this demographic in this show, and I think really doing that pre-planning is the best thing you can do to make a successful show.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 30:29
Yeah, we planned extensively, right Like, planned extensively on even the metal truss. How is that going to be displayed? The limitations that we had, and then, after the show, there's 20 different ways that we will improve on. I want to ask you business development sales. So for me, as much as you can like sticking to your word, do you know how many people that we do business with, or people that you think are industry friends, we're going to be there, we're coming, whatever, and then just total flakes.
30:59
Most people stuck to it, came and supported, supported and everything. But then you look at that side and it's like not even a follow-up, not even, and like it's not even the sales side. Now, it's just the human aspect. Right, like you were, you had several meetings set up with other partners on the floor. Right like, different components supply and you were just diligent. Like george, we got to go there. Like we have a two-hour window, chris, I got this meat. Like it wasn't all right, man, we're good, we'll call it Right, but to be on the receiving end, it makes it that much more important of like let's not be that person, let's not treat people like that. It's just, it's very discouraging for that small group of like just come on.
Perry Karen - Guest: 31:40
Yeah, yeah, um, you know. Actually, to Chris's point, I mean you're an engineer, not sales, right, because that was actually the perfect answer it was I say you work backwards, right. What's the story we want to tell when people leave our space? How do we want them to feel? What do we want them to remember? Right. And then you work backwards to what products and things like that, and I think we did a great job of that.
32:01
But to your point, yeah, I mean there's a human aspect, right, things come up or people always, you know, forget it's very overwhelming there or whatever. But just like anything else in life, you know, once you've experienced that it, it hurts, right. And so you, you don't want to be the other end of that. So to me, it's always been conscious of you know, kind of like how you try to get back to people right away, even if it's to say I need more time or I'm in the middle of something like to me, you want to get there, you. Or to shoot them an email hey, I got held up, I'm sorry I missed our meeting, whatever. But you know things happen and you just kind of roll with it.
32:33
But it also helps show the strength of a lot of your other partnerships right, it's between the lines thing, the guy that comes even though you know he's limping through the show and at the end of the show he's still willing to come up and say hi, or you get those people that you know don't really have a need to use us right now because maybe their role has changed, their company has changed. But they still want to come see us, they still want to see what we're doing, they want to touch base with everybody and you know those are your partners and in this industry you know that that can come back the back it.
33:00
The next day that person might end up in a new role and now they can use us again right and so it's always important for us to keep that you know level of quality and standard that we have with just the human interaction. You're going to come see us. We appreciate that. We want to make sure that you understand that.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 33:14
We appreciate that there's options.
Perry Karen - Guest: 33:16
Yeah, exactly and so to come to us is a great thing, and we always want to make sure that you know that when you schedule something with us, we will be there.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 33:24
Yeah, absolutely, you said it perfectly before, right? Like, the lighting industry is actually really great. There is a lot of good product out there, right, there's a lot of companies that just make phenomenal product and, as whoever you are involved in the industry specifier, salesperson, whoever you can do business with anybody, right? But it's, who do you actually want to do business with? Like, who do you? Or maybe the better way to say is, who do you like doing business with? Who do you enjoy doing business with? And it all comes down to that relationship, that service. Who can you trust their word on?
33:58
Whatever that means, I'm going to make you a good product. If there's a problem, I'm going to make you a good product. If there's a problem, I'm going to take care of it. If we have a meeting, I'm going to be there, right? Like, who can you depend on? Who do you enjoy being around, just as a person? Yep, yeah, that's who everybody really wants to do business with. Obviously, you need to have good product, but there's a lot of good product, right? So if you don't enjoy, if you can't depend on the person you're doing business with, then what's the point?
George Stroumboulis - Host: 34:22
You know what my benchmark is for that Like, if you really take the last couple of days and everybody that came through our room, six out of 10 were hug greetings, not handshakes were hugs.
34:33
Yeah, that's true, that's true. Think about that, like that's, you're not just hugging anyone and you're like, oh man, this guy or that guy or her, and that's a big deal, like I love that, yeah, right. And the ones that didn't want to hug, I forced them, no, right. And then the other thing is we had vendor, like competitors from italy, for example, that came in and they're kind of there and I saw a manufacturer and I know the brand and I'm like like what's up? Guys, you know, and you had to walk through a door to get into our beautiful space. Oh, you know, I know, I go. You're manufacturers, yeah, I go. Where are you from? Beautiful suits, like good looking Italian guy, oh, we know. I'm like, all right, come on in. Well, what do you want to see? Like, come on, there's enough sockets out there, there's enough space. Yeah, they come in, we're showing and, uh, I mean it's not bad, right, and it was a, it was a quiet gap in the day, have a conversation, whatever right, but but the opposite.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 35:29
That too is how many competitive manufacturers showed up that are actual friends in the industry and they're like hey, we just want to see what you guys are doing.
Perry Karen - Guest: 35:36
We're like yeah, come on totally and they're supportive.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 35:39
We're supportive of them. As we're walking the show, we're stopping at manufacturers that we know and we're being like oh guys, this is awesome, tell me about your new stuff. Absolutely, like you said, there's there's so much business out there. Yeah, right that it's like we can all be supportive of each other well, and towards what?
George Stroumboulis - Host: 35:55
just past lunchtime we had massive distributor sitting down eating some pizza together. Another massive distributor client comes in, introduced to the other guy that they've never met before, hi. And then it's kind of like whatever, have a seat, man, we're talking about shows, right. A third major distributor comes in at the same time, introduction, have a seat, even though they go to war and they've been talking about accounts that they're trying to get together. And then there was a fourth and it was just like cool, like but all laughing, yeah, but it starts with us to create that environment.
36:28
It's not like I'll come back. It's like just come on in, man, like we're not going to talk in detail I love that.
Perry Karen - Guest: 36:33
That gets me excited when it's just like cool man and that's a lot of kind of our natural element, I think, just the way we are mentally. But, like you know, we're humans first right, like yeah, we're going to go to war or we're just talking, we're all humans, sit down, relax, say hi, we want to know what you're doing. We want to know you're doing well, what is that? The rising tide rises all ships. I butchered that, but you know what I mean.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 37:00
We want everybody to do. Well, we'll fact check that. That was bullshit. I'm not a sailor, what?
Perry Karen - Guest: 37:04
can I do? We want everybody to do well, because at a human level it's just easier to do business with somebody who's not miserable and appreciates that you appreciate them in their time, but as people, not just business. So it's always nice to see that and to create that space. That's not happening everywhere, like you said that's something that we want to do.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 37:24
Yeah, absolutely and you know what, hiring right, you join the team, we hired you and it just it feels, feels natural. It's great working with partners that could support each other. Where it's like okay, he shines here, set it up there, chris has this mind. Where it's like product, but guess what, if you position him in the right position and ask the right questions, he's going to sell the hell out of it without him even knowing he's selling right, because you could speak to it and then they feel confident and just being able to do that like it's, it's really nice. And then the partners that you've brought on board nationally here from the country that coming in and they, they saw our product, they were impressed, but it was more like perry's, our guy, he's always been strong, right, like it's always been a good friendship, yeah, and then that's the basis. The rest is like yep, we to support and the fact that we're great at manufacturing product. That helps, but it's just, it was nice seeing that in person as well?
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 38:19
Yeah, well, and again, who do you like doing business with Right? Like, one of the main things that George and I loved about bringing you on board is personality wise, we're a great fit together, right. And then everybody that was brand new that you brought by the booth this year. They didn't come because you handed them a catalog and they're like, oh, that's cool product.
38:44
They came because it's like oh Perry's a cool dude, I have a great relationship with him, I like doing business with him. If he decided this was a good company to do business with for him, maybe I should check him out Right Again, it's relationships, who, who like minds and all that stuff Like who do you actually want to do business with? And it works Absolutely.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 39:04
To that point three things, like what's advice you would give on cultivating relationships, Like how were you able to do that?
Perry Karen - Guest: 39:10
Yeah, um, and it's really simple stuff, I think, and sometimes it's the little things that make a difference, right, but it's be there when something happens, right. Like I said, you can't shy away from issues. You have to be willing and upfront hey, something didn't go right to me. It doesn't matter why it didn't go right, let's fix it and let's make sure that everybody's happy at the end.
39:33
The second one is you know, I care, right, like not just from business wise A lot of these guys. I can't tell you what they do, but I can tell you they have dogs, their kids are doing sports and things like that, because that actually matters to me, again, being human about everything. And then the third thing for me, really, which is kind of that sort of sarcastic but true benchmark, is just not to suck as a person, right, like I don't want somebody to see my phone and be like, ah, shit, perry's calling me. This is going to be brutal. I want somebody to at least be like oh, all, right, yeah, I'll pick up.
40:06
For Perry it's cooler when they're like, hey, when they pick up, but to me it's, you know, and you see that over time, right, then hey, every time I talk to Perry, he cares, he asks about things because he genuinely cares and he wants to help, and I don't mind if it's something we can't do for some reason. It doesn't make sense for us or whatever. If I know how to help you or to connect you with somebody else, I want to Because, again, I don't want this to be miserable. There's plenty of nonsense in the world. I feel like dealing with people for business should not be that way, and so I think over the years, without really thinking about it at first, it's just kind of what's worked for me is you know, if you call me about something, I'm going to pick up, I'm going to do everything I can to help, even if we as a company can't help. I want to make sure that you feel like we've done everything we could to make something right and to help, and I think that's shown over time.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 40:57
Well, and it's great internally as well how you deal with the team right, work with them. They're supporting you, you bring this calm internally, right and you go out, versus a lot of times the sales side of it and the internal are combative. Right, because you already sold things that don't exist and they're trying like it's just natural. Yeah, but like creating that is really good. And then I've seen aggressive situations from the outside because it happens on there's issues or pricing or there's whatever's going on or lack of respect. Someone's on their phone the whole time. They're talking to you and you're just right, you log it in, but you don't react and that's that's really good, because it's easy to get emotional and do stupid shit yeah, yeah, the only thing I'll correct you on that is the inside, and that team is not supporting me.
Perry Karen - Guest: 41:43
I'm supporting them. I mean I I joke with you guys all the time, but it's true like I talk, right, hey, the all the important work is done from the people you know behind the curtain, but that's me supporting them, not the other way around. Um, and it's, it's great. We have a fantastic team and you know it's it's people I want to help, right, and I want to see succeed, not just for us, but for them. I think it's a lot easier to be rewarded when you come to work. Then I got to do another render today, or whatever it's. Hey, perry's excited, we're going to go do this render and we're going to show it and we're going to get put on something and we're going to go be proud of what we did. Like, you should be excited about that, and I want to make sure that they are, because it's better for all of us, absolutely.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 42:24
And I'm excited to see just as we continue to grow and like that trajectory is just skyrocketing, uh, and building a bigger team under you and being able to do that not just nationally but internationally. So it's just it's exciting stuff and the last 48 hours and being there and just seeing what we're doing and from skyscrapers to a one-off beautiful steakhouse and all this stuff, it's like I need it for myself to just like remind ourselves on like wow, we're doing some great stuff as a team. Yeah, you know, absolutely you're gonna say something.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 42:56
I I was just gonna say like related to advice and perry's sales approach. Like the thing I really like about it is you're not like the stereotypical used car salesman. You know you'll spit on your mother to make a dollar. Right, it's two dollars. Two dollars, yeah, but but like again from the inside standpoint too.
43:11
It's, it's, you know, you'll spit on your mother to make a dollar, right, it's $2. But like again, from the inside standpoint too, it's it's the true honesty, right We've worked with. I've worked with so many sales guys in the past that's like no matter what the client asks for, they're like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can do that.
Perry Karen - Guest: 43:25
We can do that.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 43:25
Yep, yep, yep, yep. And then they come in. They're like I already told them, yes, you got to figure it out. And it's like well, shit, yeah, like I don't know, you got to give me some time. No, no, I need it by tomorrow. And it's like oh, my God. And that's when you get the eye rolling, like seeing you out there being like you know what that's really cool. I have no idea. Let me go talk with the engineers. Yes, right, team. To be like hey, can we do this? Actually, you know what that's a cool idea. Let me go check it out. Now, all of a sudden, they're interested in the challenge rather than you being like you have to figure this out. My reputation's on the wall. It's the same approach or not the same approach? It's the same process, but it's a different approach. That just makes it better for everyone involved.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 44:10
Yeah, and to that point, I also find the type of people in any industry that are like yeah, yeah, we'll do, I'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah, like you slowly diminish your brand and your value with with your clients because they know, man, he's just saying yes, and three out of 10 times maybe he gets it. The balance, he does it Like that's not good, versus I don't know, like let's see what we can do. Let me talk to my experts inside. Right, you create that.
Perry Karen - Guest: 44:37
So that's, that's a valid point, that's one of the biggest pieces of advice I think I ever got when I started sales is it's incredibly hard to tell somebody I don't know, but to be honest about that and say I don't know, I have to go find that out. As long as you go find it out and let them know is infinitely better for everybody. So you said your credibility is there. They know you're not just saying yes, even if you can do it and you wanted to check. As long as you get back to them, they know hey, when I ask them something, I'm going to get the right answer, because they're not just going to go off the cuff, they're going to find out. And that's something that is hard but weirdly, I think always came naturally to me is just like what do I know? So let me go talk to somebody who knows more than I do about it and yeah, I'm glad that that's hasn't been a waste in my career.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 45:26
And then the honesty on when we can't do things right, not trying to lead anybody down a path or make excuses, it's just like, oh, you know what, we reviewed it and we're just not going to be able to do it. Oh, okay, right, like it almost reinforces the relationship that much more of well, this guy's not lying to me, he's not leading me on, he's not wasting my time yeah, it's just hey, I threw something at you, is it possible? I'm not really okay. Really appreciate the fast response you know it's like it works.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 45:54
Yeah, it's been great and then the collaboration aspect is amazing. In general, I I for me, like my motivation, my excitement is still all right, we got this project. They need to be here. We're here. Chris and his team are figuring out from a product standpoint, what can we do without sacrificing it. Yeah, we're talking about, okay, can we, can we do this? Is there more potential? Like that. That's exciting, just being able to do that. Absolutely Just the last quick thing.
46:21
Just New York, new York city. Talking about New York, we're here in the heart of it. Times Square, the show is in New York, which is just amazing. This is where we launched the company. Yeah, right, like just, my best memories in life are from new york. This is the best city in the world to have trade shows in, in our, in our space. Like, yeah, you could go to vegas and whatever, but like this is one where people there's always people coming through here and you see it, the people we're even meeting today. It's like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna run home and, you know, take a power nap, and then I'm going out. Or I just came from the office like it's just, it's such a cool place. More of a statement, it's not even a question, but from a trade show standpoint, like we just ran from that hotel to here in 10 minutes. Yeah, you know, it's just, it's so accessible and awesome yeah, I mean it's.
Perry Karen - Guest: 47:06
It's equally energizing to be at the show, be excited, and then walk out and have the buzz of the city which feels the same energy that it doesn't crash you or anything. You're like, all right, I'm ready to go. And then, when I step out, I'm still ready to go, I'm still excited about what we were doing. Um is a fun feeling, right? You don't get that in every city.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 47:25
Even cooler cities you go around to don't have that same energy as absolutely well, and it's also, I feel, like the the way the trade show well, the way the days for the trade show basically line up, are the stereotypical new york days. Right, starts early. You have a full, crazy long day of a lot of meetings, working your butt off, right. Then you're immediately going to party and have a fun time at night with all your buddies or your friends, but then you're right back there the next day to do another round of meeting. You know what I mean.
47:58
Yes, it's like completely different than if you go to any trade show in vegas. It's just like oh, I'm just going to have fun, right, I'm going to gamble, I'm going to drink my face off, I'm going to do whatever other stuff you want to do. It's like you. It's a different vibe, like the vibe of the trade show I feel like matches the city and that New York city work party vibe, balance, but you never let the one sacrifice that you know, it's just cool, yeah, and people will look like death at the show today.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 48:27
Who partied last night? But they're still there. They're still doing it, yeah.
Perry Karen - Guest: 48:31
I talked to somebody who could barely keep their eyes open. They were so exhausted. But they're like but we're here and we've got a few more meetings, we got a few more, oh yeah but and still having productive.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 48:39
Yeah, yeah, like suffering through it, but still being productive absolutely.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 48:43
I want to keep just doing this where we talk, talk about the business, talk about stuff that we're doing like we're getting awesome feedback from people and they're getting to learn about the business, about how we function. Um, the episode that's coming out on the Miami summit and just giving insight into the team. It's the ultimate marketing. We're giving insight. People that want to watch are learning more about us, why we're unique, the human aspect, and it only helps our sales as well, like we're seeing stuff like that. So just cool stuff that we need to keep doing. Absolutely, yeah, that's it, guys.
Chris Hartswick - Guest: 49:16
We got to get back to the show, yeah we do All right.
George Stroumboulis - Host: 49:19
Thanks for listening to this episode of Invigorate your Business with George Stroumboulis. Please hit the subscribe and like buttons and follow me on all the main podcast streaming channels. Also, please share your comments when you can. Also. Please share your comments when you can. I appreciate your help in expanding this network to a worldwide audience. Until next time, stay invigorated.
CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO
00:00:00 Trade Show Marketing and Sales Cultivation
00:03:00 Realizing How Important In-Person Meetings Are
00:04:45 Sales is Out of Sight, Out of Mind
00:06:00 Comparison of LightFair and LEDucation
00:17:19 Sharing Success Through Product Innovation
00:20:00 Everything is a Commodity, Be Different
00:21:10 Prototypes Drive More Sales
00:25:57 Effective Marketing Strategies for Trade Shows
00:28:00 Best Way to Display Products at a Show
00:34:03 When You Can Hug Your Clients
00:39:02 Building Relationships Through Honesty and Support
WHAT IS THE LEDUCATION TRADESHOW
The LEDucation Trade Show is an annual event focused on LED lighting technology and design. It brings together professionals from the lighting industry, including manufacturers, designers, architects, engineers, and specifiers, to showcase the latest innovations, products, and trends in LED lighting. LEDucation typically features seminars, workshops, product demonstrations, and networking opportunities aimed at advancing knowledge and understanding of LED technology and its applications in various settings such as commercial, residential, and architectural lighting. Website: LEDucation, Email: info(at)leducation.org, Phone: +1 (212) 297-2122, Address: LEDucation Trade Show, c/o The Designers Lighting Forum of New York, 75 Broad Street, Suite 630, New York, NY 10004, USA
WHAT ARE THE BEST WAYS TO ATTEND, EXHIBIT AND WIN AT TRADESHOW EVENTS
Attending, exhibiting, and winning at trade show events require careful planning and execution. Here are some of the best ways to succeed:
Attend as a Visitor:
Research: Understand the purpose and focus of the trade show. Identify key exhibitors, speakers, and sessions relevant to your industry.
Set Goals: Determine what you want to achieve from attending, whether it's networking, learning about new trends, or finding potential partners.
Network: Take advantage of networking opportunities to connect with industry professionals, potential clients, and partners.
Learn: Attend seminars, workshops, and presentations to gain insights into industry trends, best practices, and innovations.
Exhibit as a Vendor:
Plan Early: Start planning for the trade show well in advance. Set clear objectives, define your target audience, and determine your budget.
Stand Out: Design an eye-catching booth that reflects your brand and attracts attendees. Use engaging visuals, interactive displays, and product demonstrations to draw people in.
Promote: Market your participation before the event through social media, email campaigns, and targeted invitations. Offer incentives such as giveaways or exclusive discounts to encourage attendance.
Engage: Train your staff to engage with visitors effectively. Be approachable, knowledgeable about your products or services, and ready to answer questions.
Follow Up: Collect contact information from leads and follow up promptly after the event. Nurture relationships, provide additional information, and schedule follow-up meetings or demos.
Winning at Trade Shows:
Be Strategic: Focus on quality over quantity when it comes to leads. Prioritize prospects who are a good fit for your business and have genuine interest.
Showcase Benefits: Highlight the unique benefits and value propositions of your products or services. Clearly communicate how you can solve attendees' problems or meet their needs.
Offer Solutions: Position yourself as a solution provider rather than just a seller. Understand attendees' pain points and offer tailored solutions that address their challenges.
Demonstrate Expertise: Position yourself as a thought leader in your industry by sharing insights, case studies, and success stories. Establishing credibility can help build trust and confidence in your brand.
Measure Success: Track key metrics such as leads generated, sales closed, and return on investment (ROI). Evaluate what worked well and areas for improvement to refine your strategy for future events.
By following these strategies, you can maximize your impact at trade show events and increase your chances of success as an attendee or exhibitor.
WHO IS IDEOLI AND WHY ARE THEY CONSIDERED A LEADER IN CUSTOM DECORATIVE LIGHTING
Ideoli is a global leader in custom decorative lighting, known for its innovative designs, high-quality craftsmanship, and exceptional customer service. They have earned this reputation through several key factors:
Design Excellence: Ideoli takes pride in creating unique and visually stunning lighting solutions that exceed industry standards. Their team of talented designers and engineers collaborate to develop innovative designs that blend form and function seamlessly.
Customization: Ideoli specializes in creating custom lighting solutions tailored to the specific needs and preferences of their clients. Whether it's a unique fixture design, customized finishes, or bespoke lighting concepts, Ideoli works closely with clients to bring their vision to life.
Quality Craftsmanship: Each Ideoli lighting fixture is crafted with meticulous attention to detail and built to the highest quality standards. They use premium materials and cutting-edge manufacturing techniques to ensure durability, reliability, and longevity.
Technology Integration: Ideoli embraces the latest technologies and trends in lighting design, including energy-efficient LED technology, smart lighting systems, and sustainable materials. They continuously innovate to stay ahead of the curve and provide clients with cutting-edge solutions.
Exceptional Service: Ideoli is committed to providing exceptional customer service at every stage of the project, from initial concept development to final installation. Their dedicated team ensures clear communication, timely delivery, and seamless execution to exceed client expectations.
Overall, Ideoli's dedication to design innovation, customization, quality craftsmanship, technology integration, and exceptional service sets them apart as a leader in the field of custom decorative lighting. Their commitment to excellence and client satisfaction has earned them the trust and admiration of designers, architects, and industry professionals worldwide.
MORE ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Igniting Industry Connections: The Ideoli Group at New York's Leducation Trade Show
Sparking Success in the Competitive Terrain of Light Fairs
The Art of Engagement in Lighting Industry Exhibitions
Innovation and Interaction at a New York Lighting Spectacle
Trade Shows as Catalysts for Industry Relationships and Trends
Description:
Step into the vibrant heart of New York City's Leducation trade show where innovation meets inspiration, and hear firsthand from the Ideoli Group's team—Chris Hartwick and Perry Karen, alongside me—about the magnetic allure of hands-on product displays. We're not just lighting up the room; we're igniting conversations on the critical role trade shows play in solidifying client bonds and capturing the pulse of cutting-edge industry trends. Our strategic debut on the trade show circuit is more than a showcase; it's our launchpad to dazzle and extend our brand's influence.
Navigating the evolution of lighting industry events, we compare the stalwart Lightfair with newer contenders like Leducation, dissecting how the pandemic has reshaped the landscape and leveled the playing field for exhibitors. Discover the unexpected advantages of smaller, intentional exhibit spaces and how design-centric shows are not just changing the game but possibly leading the pack. With a finger on the pulse of the industry's heartbeat, we speculate on the future of trade shows and how they will continue to shape our business forays.
Finally, we unwrap the joys and challenges of innovation and relationship-building within the industry. Witness the tangible excitement as we recount the spontaneous connections sparked by our diverse display, explore effective post-show engagement tactics, and celebrate the indispensable role of honesty and support. This episode is a testament to the power of genuine connections, both with our clients and within our team, underscoring that success is not just about the products we create but the relationships we nurture. Join us for a narrative that's as enlightening as the technologies we champion.
Blog:
In the recent podcast episode featuring the Ideoli Group at New York's Leducation trade show, the intricate tapestry of industry connections comes to life, highlighting the significance of such events in the lighting industry. The episode is not merely an account of a trade show but an insightful narrative into the multifaceted aspects of business development, from strategic marketing to the art of fostering enduring client relationships.
The Leducation trade show emerges as a bustling hub where professionals from the lighting industry converge. It is an event where hands-on product displays are not just seen but experienced, allowing clients to physically interact with the latest innovations. This tactile engagement is crucial as it strengthens bonds with existing clients and sows the seeds for new ones. For the Ideoli Group, their participation in Leducation was a carefully timed move. Their objective was to make a splash on the trade show circuit and cement their brand's influence, which they accomplished by dazzling attendees with their technology and collaborative spirit.
An intriguing part of the podcast delves into the evolution of lighting industry events. A comparison between the stalwart Lightfair and the newer Leducation trade show reveals how the industry landscape is shifting. The discussion touches on the impact of the pandemic, which has not only reshaped the way these events are conducted but also democratized the space for exhibitors. The rise of design-centric shows, such as Leducation, brings into focus the advantage of smaller, more intentional exhibit spaces, which can often have a more significant impact than larger, less focused ones.
When it comes to innovation, nothing beats the excitement of seeing live reactions to new products. The Ideoli Group shares the exhilaration of attendees returning to their booth with others, a testament to the magnetic appeal of their display. The chapter on product innovation delves into the importance of showcasing a variety of prototypes, demonstrating expertise, and fostering clear communication with clients. It also underscores the crucial role that solid relationships and reliable customer service play in navigating business challenges.
Effective marketing strategies are vital for making a mark at trade shows. The podcast examines how Ideoli's marketing team succeeded in aligning their messaging with the customer experience, creating a cohesive narrative that resonated with visitors. From floor stickers to product displays, every element was meticulously planned to captivate and engage. The discussion emphasizes the significance of targeting specific demographics and the importance of post-show follow-ups in maintaining business commitments.
Finally, the podcast touches on the foundation of business: relationships. The Ideoli Group emphasizes the importance of being a dependable and supportive partner, both internally and externally. Honesty and support within the team contribute to a thriving business environment, where success is not measured solely by product quality but also by the strength of the connections made.
In conclusion, the podcast episode with the Ideoli Group at the Leducation trade show provides an enriching exploration of the various dimensions of business within the lighting industry. It showcases the importance of trade shows in fostering innovation, engagement, and long-lasting business relationships. This narrative serves as a beacon for professionals in the industry, illuminating the path to success through genuine connections and strategic business practices.
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