areas, they all agreed that traffi c seemed to be lower this year and that some of the traffi c that was there didn't really seem to be qualifi ed traffi c. People who weren't necessarily registered seemed to be getting in. They kind of just picked up the passes and went around to get the freebies. Johnson: Yes, I do. We deal with any end-user who's using the equipment. Of course, there are end-users and then there are also people out there promoting their own products, but in particular, we want to talk to the endusers. Beene: Yes, absolutely. For a networking equipment reseller, Interop is a great show because it is so networkingfocused. We see a vast majority of people who are interested in the actual infrastructure side of the house and looking for networking equipment.

Were you satisfi ed with your location and the traffi c at

that location?

Selberg: We picked our location for a couple reasons. One, it was right across from the Interop Theater. Our initial understanding was that this was going to be used for a few different sessions and that there would be some traffi c there. It was used for the Best of Interop Awards on the fi rst day, but then it didn't exist after that. It just became kind of a break area. There were very few of the 10 by 10 booths like ours. In the Vegas show, it seems like if you don't have a 20 by 20 booth with some really cool gimmick, you're not going to generate the traffi c. Johnson: Yes. We were in the security section. We've been there for a couple years and we continue to go back to the same spot. We feel that it sets us apart from some of the other retailers doing the same thing as we are. Beene: Yes.

Did you have any issues with setup / tear down, Internet access, electrical, or cleaning?

Selberg: We had requested an outlet run to our central podium, which wasn't there when we fi rst got there. We had to make a call into the resource center. They did come by and run it into there, but it was one of those additional charges. On the cleaning side, we did pay for the vacuuming of our booth. The booth next to us was empty, and it was clearly quite dirty from the installation process and moving all the booths in. And that was kind of an issue we had, because here's this empty booth next to ours and it kind of looks like it's part of ours. Because of the union regulations, they couldn't just vacuum the booth next to us when they vacuumed ours. We had to stand in line, wait to request it, and then because it wasn't our booth, they asked if we were going to pay for it. Finally, they did send someone to vacuum that fi rst day. Even though it wasn't our booth, it didn't refl ect well on us. The other thing that we noticed was that the Interop Theater, which had become a lunch area, didn't get cleaned up regularly. When we came in Thursday morning, there was garbage on the tables and half the tables didn't have tablecloths on them. Johnson: No, it all went fairly smoothly. Beene: In my experience, there are always issues, and we certainly had our fair share. Everything ultimately was taken care of, but our Internet access didn't work initially, so we had to have the guys come over and troubleshoot that. I think that's par for the course with trade shows.

So what's the payoff?

It depends on who you ask. While controllable factors like booth size and placement undoubtedly have an impact on the number and quality of visitors a reseller attracts, unpredictable economies and other factors that only Lady Luck controls make trade shows a bit of a gamble in the best of cases. As a wise man once said, "You pays your money and you takes your chances.? |PSO| June 2008 | PowerSourceOnline.com 234

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