Comments on: What it’s like to exhibit at MAGIC

By: The Emperor's Dresser

The Emperor's Dresser — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:30:43 +0000

Pool in February was terrible, slowest ever! Only to be told with phony happy emails that it was their best ever. The management there was terrible. There was no effort made to connect new lines with buyers, it was one big party for a few lines. Though the set up was great, it was a huge waste of effort, research, time and money. It is one thing if you line is met with resistance, but when there are hollow halls for 3 days straight, and you did your part of the work, there are other folks to “blame.” Trade shows seem to be slower than ever…somethings gotta give. But for the price and hype, I could have travelled to numerous cities on my own and gotten more contacts and sales.
Not to mention that all I got out of Pool was a bunch of people trying to sell me stuff! Why don’t those people have to get a booth, why should they be able to shop around their stickers, their manufacturing services for free.

Pool needs to truly work on their customer service – they have one job to do, and it is questionable if it is being done.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:56:08 +0000

Speaking of information on exhibiting at a trade show, I found this list of over 70 articles. Wow! I did a search on the author (Jim Lynn). Apparently he died in 2003. He did write a book called Trade Show Gymnastics... Jumping through Hoops Without Getting Hurt. In addition, I found several books on this page with advice on exhibiting at trade shows.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:23:44 +0000

I can’t wait to read the actual reports. I am thinking of showing in August and I want to know more!!

By: Oxanna

Oxanna — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:44:34 +0000

Thank you (and the people at this company) very much for the info! I could easily see myself making exactly the same mistakes had I not read this.

I guess as a DE you learn by experience, good and bad…

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 19:30:58 +0000

I got this comment in an email and I didn’t get permission to print it but I don’t think it’ll be a problem if I don’t mention who sent it. I think it bears repeating since it’s a repeat of what I’m always saying, you have to do things the established way to get in the door. If you don’t, you can’t get in and ever be in a position to change things.
——————

Regarding MAGIC, I think that a lot of us smaller vendors complain about them like they’re the big bad wolf. But the reality is that MAGIC is one of the largest trade shows in the world and they’re not really set-up or run for the benefit of DEs. I found that if I did things the way they suggested, I would save myself both money and hassles. It was EXACTLY the same way when I was selling Bloomingdale’s. If I handled my shipments exactly the way they told me to, everything worked perfectly. If I tried to suggest a different way to do something or cut corners to save myself some money, it created a huge problem. It’s not that Bloomingdale’s is bad, they are just a big company that does an amazing job of managing an enormous amount of inventory. If you’re not ready to meet their requirements, you shouldn’t be selling them. They don’t have an obligation to make life easier for a few tiny vendors that will account for a insignificant percentage of their sales.

The end result of these type of hassles is that for most DE’s attendance at corporate shows like MAGIC and working with big corporate customers like Federated, is probably cost-prohibitive and not worthwhile. DEs should probably focus on selling independent retailers and attending the regional shows, (of which there are several fine ones in the men’s industry) or the ‘non-corporate’ counter-shows (like Project used to be). MAGIC will take anyone’s money who wants to show, but the whole make-up of the show is oriented to corporate buyers and big corporate vendors, so the entire structure doesn’t favor DEs. Again, this is NOT a complaint against MAGIC, they do what they do very well. but what they offer is not really what DEs need, in my opinion.

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:24:57 +0000

I think you guys are being too tough on MAGIC. I showed there twice — shipped my goods in via the freight forwarders recommended in the show guide — cost maybe $250 total. They came to my house, picked up the boxes, palletized them, took care of everything. The samples were at my booth when I got to Vegas. At the end of the show I boxed them up, the teamsters took them away and they arrived at home safely. I never had a problem or had an overcharge.

I think the situation was that they figured they had to drive down anyway (the de owns a van) and eliminated the possibility (assuming they read that) thinking why should they pay someone to transport it when they had the means to move it themselves and save $250? Things can be counterintuitive. It’s rough having to figure things out the hard way, that the higher up front cost is the method of higher savings and problem avoidance. Like I said, counterintuitive until you know better.

By: Alisa Trombley

Alisa Trombley — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:56:55 +0000

Well, I went to Magic last August for Swim. It was OK. I also got excessive traffic that had nothing to do with buyers! It was really expensive for what accounts I did get. I think I will skip it this year, and just go to the Swimshow in Miami, and maybe next year try it again. But, yes you have to do your research!!!
-On shipping, your model, having the booth made, cleaning service, you name it – even your hotel and air.
And, be ready to maximize everyone who comes to your booth. I noticed when we had one person showing interest, and talking to us – a crowd would start watching, and more would want in on the action.
Alisa

By: Thomas Cuningham

Thomas Cuningham — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 02:04:20 +0000

The only thing that I felt was unfair was that they hard-sell you to purchase a one-time show insurance coverage. I bought it first time, then my insurance agent told me I was covered under my existing liability policy. So that was money wasted.

But as a VERY small company, I had no problem working with MAGIC. If you don’t have the time to read the show catalog and take their suggestions, you should probably stick with the smaller non-corporate shows.

By: Georgina

Georgina — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:40:12 +0000

I exhibited at MAGIC last year. I paid for a hard-wall booth. Included in the fee was a table, some chairs, a sign, and some racks. At the show I asked for two additional racks and they charged me about $200 for them.
I went with two helpers and each of us rolled in a suitcase full of our samples. This is allowed. We did not have to pay anybody to help us. We also brought and returned the iron from our hotel room. If you rent an iron at MAGIC it costs you about $50. A steamer is more.

I did not like MAGIC in that there was alot of random traffic. A lot of people taking my expensive postcards and wanting line sheets that were not buyers. Towards the end of the first day we got wise to this and only gave out literature to probable customers. There were alot of contractors, factors, printers, etc. It seemed like there were more of these types of people than actual quality buyers. This last go-around we showed at WINN at the Rio and we did much better.

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:59:59 +0000

We are going to exhibit at ABC Kids Expo in LV this fall. I’m terrified of screwing up and having the Teamsters come after me. I really really want to do everything correctly and I KNOW there are going to be some things that we mess up, some overcharges, some things that will require large quanitities of vodka to deal with.

The pallet-ing, is that par for the course across all shows? Even non-apparel shows? Anyone with experience at ABC or JPMA who knows?