UngCrosby763
My trade show exhibit experience began at an early age around the dining room table. My dad, Joseph LoCascio, would get home each night with fascinating stories about designing and building displays and exhibits at various New york exhibit houses where he worked as graphic artist.
When the projects he done were completed however take the household into New York City and show us the results of his artistic handiwork, which frequently included IBM's Madison Avenue window displays, Crane's display of new bathroom/kitchen fixtures, Allied Chemical's lobby displays, and different displays at the New York Stock market and the World Trade Center. Many other Sell Gold Irvine CA of his would be on display at industry events at the New York Coliseum, Waldorf Astoria, or the new York Hilton.
My admiration for my father's artistic talents started when I would be invited to join him for his local freelance work on weekends. I'd help him load the car with his art supplies and then watch in amazement as he laid out and hand-lettered a bank's new window sign in gold leaf, or perhaps a company's name on a truck door, or perhaps a new sign for a local church.
The exhibit building business was cyclical, and there were instances when work was scarce and some shop workers had to be laid off for a few weeks. Other times there was too much work, Cash For Gold Irvine CA which called for hiring more people and working overtime and weekends to perform exhibits.
My possiblity to work with my dad at Exhibit Craft, Inc. in Long Island City, came when the shop was on a full-time time-table, including weekends, to complete multiple exhibits with time for the National Hardware Show in Chicago.
I jumped at his offer and was excited never to only be making $1. 50 an hour at the age of 14, but also to make it to use my dad and commence learning the exhibit building business from the ground up. Might work that first week-end - and many more that followed - included cleaning silk screens and squeegees, resurfacing art tables with new paper, sweeping the floor, watchfully peeling frisketed graphic panels, and mixing paints.
I knew immediately that the exhibit business was where I wanted to spend my career. During high school and after military service I worked at Exhibit Craft, Inc. working my way up the ladder, which included Silk Screen Production, Assistant Production Manager, Shipping and Receiving Clerk, and Assistant to the Purchasing Manager.
An important career transition came when ECI won the new Olivetti Underwood account and needed an account executive to manage their multiple product exhibits for more than 40 trade events per year. I applied, interviewed, and got the task. To my amazement, I soon found myself in planning meetings at Olivetti's corporate headquarters at 1 Park Avenue in New york.
At 22, I was enjoying a dream job, learning the the inner workings of being an exhibit account executive and looking to Gold Buyers Irvine CA the future when, unsuspectingly, ECI was sold to IVEL, which is today a part of Exhibit Group. IVEL then moved the ECI plant to Brooklyn, New york. For me, it had been unreasonable to work in and go Brooklyn when i still enjoyed living an almost carefree and independent lifestyle at my parents' home in Bergenfield, Nj-new jersey, where I spent my youth. But if moving out for a job was absolutely essential, I thought moving to California could be a much better choice.
With an eye for adventure, travel, and an urge to start out fresh, I sent a resume out to Stewart Sauter, an exhibit builder and show decorator in San Francisco. I was hired after having a great interview. I had contracted Stewart Sauter many times in the past to setup and dismantle Olivetti Underwood's exhibits and had established a fantastic working relationship with Mr. Tony Panacci, who I might work for. My job was supervising the setup, servicing, and dismantling of most exhibits delivered to Stewart Sauter from exhibit houses from throughout the country.
My tenure in Bay area was short-lived, however , because while setting up exhibits at the Fall Joint Computer Conference at Brooks Hall, I met Mr. Del Kennedy, Advertising Manager at UNIVAC Division of Sperry Rand. He ended up offering me employment as their Corporate Trade Show Exhibits Coordinator in Bluebell, Pennsylvania.
Obtaining the possibility to jump from the vendor side of the business to the client side was a dream I had developed as i watched the whole staff at Exhibit Craft organize and clean up the shop in preparation for just one of its client's visits. One day I thought to myself, "Someday I wish to be the client. "
UNIVAC built and sold computers. Their trade show exhibit philosophy was to use live theatrical presentations, developed by the highly talented Hardman and Associates from Pittsburgh, PA, showing precisely what computers could do. Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, creators of the cult film "Night of the Living Dead, " developed scripts, scenery, and AV materials, and hired and trained actors and a complete professional production crew to effortlessly present UNIVAC's computer presentations. We staged the presentations on an hourly schedule in a theater with seating for around 60 visitors. Once the presentation ended, the doors would open and visitors would walk through a display area where salespeople, managers and tech support team professionals made personal product presentations, answered questions, and filled out sales lead forms for more information or sales calls.
UNIVAC's marketing experts understood early on that in reality some type of computer was just a machine and that it was the energy of its various computer programs that made the most sense to booth visitors. In the frequently cacophonous trade show exhibit environment, getting attention and making prospects and customers comfortable while sharing complicated and frequently esoteric information required total control of the exhibit environment.
A year later I accepted a job with Memorex (which stood for Memory and Excellence) in Santa Clara, California, as their Corporate Manager of Trade events and Exhibits. This included supporting their Video Tape, Computer Media, Office Products, and Computer Peripheral sections. Soon after arriving, Memorex chose to launch new audiotape products and services and I began working on their introduction at The Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
The marketing strategy because of this important first trade show exhibit was to facilitate a dynamic live demonstration presenting the audible differences between new Memorex cassettes and what was then in the marketplace. We had a need to show prospects how Memorex cassettes would outperform recorded music when compared to reel-to-reel 3M and BASF audiotape, which at that time dominated the global audiotape market.
