Exhibitor badges / Veronica Tevelde - Season 1, Episode 1

Inaugural Podcast: Exhibitor badges and getting into a tradeshow with Robin Bell, Veronica Tevelde, Becky Jo Schwarz, Alexis Baize, Jennifer Canale. 

We brig you a “face-to-face” interview with tradeshow presenter, Veronica Tevelde where we discuss: how to get started as a tradeshow staffer, promoting yourself from staffer to live presenter, ear prompters and the secret of not having to memorize a script for every show, plus using your own contracts and getting paid directly by the exhibitor. 

Then, closing the show Robin Bell shares a real-life “face palm” moment where a selfish attendee has to do the chicken dance in an exhibitor’s theater…

Transcript

Veronica Tevelde  0:05  
Face the events from brand ambassadors and event stoppers to magicians and presenters, it's the one and

Robin Bell  0:12  
only podcast

Veronica Tevelde  0:14  
to introduce the faces in and around the tradeshow and

Robin Bell  0:17  
events industry. And here's our host Scott Tokar

Scott Tokar  0:25  
Hello and welcome to the very first podcast of face the event. My name is Scott Tokar. I'm your host your your tour guide through the world of trade show events and brand ambassador activations. The purpose of this podcast and the reason we call it face the event is to show you the faces the people the the personalities that are out there in the trade show events and brand ambassador world. Each one of our podcasts has three sections. The first section is our subject This will be a timely or important subject that's going to help you do your job, maybe get some tips out of out of the mouths of the people that are actually in the industry. The second part, the middle part of our podcast is our interview section. This is our face to face interview. This is where you get to know the people that work in the industry, kind of hear where they've been, where they're headed, and maybe get some tips out of their experience as well. And then we close out each week with a facepalm facepalm is that embarrassing story new that funny story that, you know, all the people in the industry tell each other when we let our hair down and kind of talk with one another. I can't believe this actually happened facepalm it could happen to you could happen around you. But these are the fun ways to close out the show. I hope you enjoy what we're headed for. Let's start the show with our very first subject. And this is an appropriate one exhibitor badge. How'd you get your badge? What are the tips? Here we go

Veronica Tevelde  2:05  
badges and check it, sometimes really easy, sometimes very lengthy check in can be really long or really short, depending on which line you go to. And I've been to the wrong line and waited. And then they say, Oh, just go down there.

Robin Bell  2:25  
So checking into the show and getting your exhibitor badge, it may go quickly, or you may have a huge line and it could be difficult to find where you do that. Always allow enough time. I can't stress that enough.

Veronica Tevelde  2:40  
If you're scheduled to go in for a rehearsal or first day, make sure you give yourself lots of time because the lines can be very long. Makes me think of long lines and standing in a long line, especially when you're expecting that it's going to be really short on the rehearsal day, waiting a long line and only to get to the front and they tell you Oh, we can't Find you or go over to that line.

Robin Bell  3:02  
So it is key that you plan to get there at least 30 minutes early, because you just don't know what you don't know. And it could take you 30 minutes by the time you've parked to get to location, find it, get in line, get through the line, and then find your booth. figure out exactly where you're going. What haul the show is in what hole the registration is in, because that might be a different one. You really can't allow enough time. Get there early. Ask if there is an exhibitor registration that is different than the attendee registration because normally you're either going to be in the wrong line, or the exhibitor registration will be shorter, and you'll be able to get your badge and get on the show floor before anyone else and always have your ID with you. Most shows now do require a photo ID. A lot of times pick up your badge at the airport. You're going to save yourself a lot of time by doing that.

Veronica Tevelde  4:04  
There's always a way if you can't get your badge or you're running late, just call one of your friends who's already in there. They borrow a badge from someone else in the booth, get you in and you go get your badge later if the lines too long, but, but make sure that you have a QR code if that's what the client is giving to you. Make sure you allow lots of time. If you're scheduled to go in for a rehearsal or first day make sure you give yourself lots of time because the lines can be very long.

Scott Tokar  4:29  
Well, thank you very much, Robin Bell, Veronica tivity, Becky Jo Schwartz, Alexis bays and Jennifer canali for sharing their tips on exhibitor badges. Our face for today's show started out as a brand ambassador, a hostess, a badge, scanner and event staffer, and she's advanced her career up the ladder into becoming one of the most recognized live presenters. One of the faces in scripted presentations that you're going to see on tradeshow floors all around the world working for companies in all types of verticals. Today, we're going to be discussing how she got started as a trade show staffer, and then how she promoted herself from being an event staffer to becoming a live presenter. And we're going to talk about your prompters the secret of not having to memorize a script for every single trade show or every single presentation that you do. And then we're going to be talking about using your own contracts and getting paid directly by the exhibitor as an independent contractor. Back when I started doing theater style presentations that is a scripted presentation with a seated audience as a magician. This guest was my magician's assistant. I saw her out working as a as a staffer, badge scanner, and she was effective at that, that she became part of my team. And today, we rarely work together. But we see each other on the trade show floors all the time, working in countries in cities all over the world, and working for many different vertical companies. Without any further ado, here's my good friend, Veronica tivity. All right, so my guest today is someone that I've known for a really long time. When we first met, she was predominantly doing hostessing badge scanning, working in trade shows in that capacity. And through the years, she's really become one of the eminent speakers on the trade show floor. She's one of the folks that you see gathering a crowd and talking about a product, that kind of thing. And I thought perhaps we would introduce to you a dear friend of mine, Veronica Tivoli. How are you today, Veronica? I'm good, Scott. All right. Welcome to face the event. Do you remember your very first trade show? I do.

Tell me about it. What happened on your very first trade show?

Veronica Tevelde  7:07  
Let's see. I really didn't know much about trade shows. I was a lot younger. I was hired through an agency. And I lived in California. So I drove to downtown LA parked when in and didn't know anything about who I was working for. I was just given the booth number. And it was Disney Interactive. And I got to work with Buzz Lightyear and Woody. And then Michael Eisner, who was the CEO at the time, was in the booth and came over and chatted with me and I had no idea who he was. I just convinced him to come into our booth. Well, that's that's funny. And and then after that, how did you get that gig? Did you get it through an agency or that was through an agent that I worked for in California, and then back in the day, they didn't call you you had a list of shows You could work and they would mail it to you, and you would circle the shows that you wanted to work and then mail it back to them. Hmm.

Scott Tokar  8:09  
Well, and and, and how did you find that agency to work with

Veronica Tevelde  8:14  
that agency? I had met a lady in the town that I lived in and was talking to somebody, I believe in a store. And she came over and introduced herself and gave me her business card and said, you know, give me a call if you're interested in doing some promotional type work.

Scott Tokar  8:33  
Somebody did. And was that were you looking for work predominantly that was close to home at that time, or were you looking to travel? What was what was the motivation?

Veronica Tevelde  8:43  
Well, at that time, I had two little boys so I didn't really want to travel a lot. What I did is I was able to have my home base and go to Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, places like that. Then I started getting into I'm going to Vegas because there's so much work there. Men, a little network of girls, and we would drive over there share a hotel room. It's a lot of fun.

Scott Tokar  9:09  
So, um, it really you kind of expanded where you were, and you kind of made a career out of it. I did. I did. But now you also had a secondary career going on at the same time. Were you a flight attendant at that time?

Veronica Tevelde  9:24  
Yes, I was not able to fly and have the benefits and it's real flexible. So mostly I was doing trade shows.

Scott Tokar  9:35  
But as a flight attendant, it really is easy to open up other locations to work to because often you can do something called flying non Rev. Hmm.

Veronica Tevelde  9:44  
You can however, it's frowned upon to do that. So I didn't do that. I either had the clients pay for my ticket, or I would buy on my own and know that if I went and worked for a client one time with my own expense that 99% of the time They would be happy and hire me back. And I'd say, I need all my expenses paid.

Scott Tokar  10:04  
That makes sense. But also, I guess the problem is that if you wanted to cheat the system and then fly non rev, there's always a possibility of not making it to your destination at the time that you weren't. Sure, sure. So that that wouldn't be the best thing, I guess.

Veronica Tevelde  10:20  
No, no. And it was something that I never would do, because I knew I needed to be somewhere sure there's like delays and things like that, which you can't help but I always made sure I could get there. Now obviously, when when we we first met

Scott Tokar  10:38  
I think I had hired you through an agency didn't Yeah, and and and then you had said that, hey, there was a possibility of helping me as a magician's assistant. And I said sometime later, we were able to, to make that happen and they and you were kind of my the girl that I cut in half for quite a while. Yep, and that was a

Veronica Tevelde  11:01  
lot of fun.

Scott Tokar  11:03  
It's still fun for me to do. But if ever you want to be cut in half I can I can help you out.

Veronica Tevelde  11:09  
You gave me a half sister.

Scott Tokar  11:12  
Yes. Yes. It's not. Not now you have two half sisters. That's right. That's right.

Veronica Tevelde  11:17  
That's right.

Scott Tokar  11:18  
So what do you like about the tradeshow world? What what? Is it something that you really love to do? Or is it just something that kind of gets you by?

Veronica Tevelde  11:28  
Well, at this point in time in life, I never expected it to be a career, which I keep thinking that it could end at any time. And luckily, I kept getting calls and getting rehired and friends would recommend me kind of became a little network. It's definitely when you say to somebody, you work at trade shows or conventions, they kind of get the idea that you're standing on a car in a swimming suit, but it's nothing like that. It's corporate. It's challenging. I've learned a ton About products that I didn't even know existed like excuse me like bingo chips in event for bingo something that's a little bit different all the way to machine tools a lot of the things I still have no idea what I talked about

Scott Tokar  12:19  
so you actually work the client that was selling bingo chips.

Veronica Tevelde  12:23  
Yeah it was a event for like gaming and they provided the little bingo chips right?

Scott Tokar  12:30  
Wow Wow, do that I should do a whole show just about the the craziest clients we've ever worked for in trade shows. Now, are you only doing trade shows Do you do other events other activations and things as well?

Veronica Tevelde  12:47  
activations meaning

Scott Tokar  12:49  
like have you ever done any brand ambassador work like representing a product like get us at a store or or out in the general public not not necessarily in the trade show?

Veronica Tevelde  13:01  
Ah, I have done things outside of the tradeshow event sales meetings and I got into the country music event scheme and did the Future Farmers association that kind of thing introducing their live events that are coming up kind of a little bit of a different catch also worked on the news which I got some experience of live TV which is kind of like live trade shows where you never know what's gonna happen and you just have to roll with it.

Scott Tokar  13:32  
So let's let's start at the beginning what were your what were your duties it was I want to get into the the the the fact that you're on on your often and doing you know the presenting part of it. But let's go back to the to the hostess and the badge scanning and all that kind of stuff. What were your duties back then and, and, and, you know, tell me about that life real quick. That

Veronica Tevelde  13:56  
life would be going up to anyone and every One that pretty much had a pulse and getting them to scan your badge. And I've realized over the years that you don't say, Can I scan your badge? You say, let me scan your badge, and it's a little bit softer. You know? And for every one or no 200 people that you scan, you may have five that No, no, but pretty much everybody's pretty agreeable. I would scan badges for you, one of my first clients, my job was to get everybody to sit down. And as I would say, butts and seats and make sure that everybody knows when it's going to start, what the prizes what the giveaway is, what they're going to be watching and why they want to sit down.

Scott Tokar  14:42  
And then obviously, you're a great I have to say that you are one of the best networking kind of people I've ever bumped into. I guess I guess the good thing about working with me in the past is that you know, I didn't mind if you're having Handing out your business card and getting connections with with people and that kind of thing. The agencies might frown upon that. But but because you were kind of in business for yourself, it kind of led you to build up your own clientele and and that kind of thing.

Veronica Tevelde  15:15  
Yep. Yeah. And like now 99%, well, maybe 96% of the clients that I work for are repeat clients, and a lot of them are just referrals from friends and the people that I know on the trade show floor for 20 plus years, they're really in demand. And so if they have a conflict, they'll recommend me and I have a certain group of people that I would recommend.

Scott Tokar  15:39  
Um, that's very true. I mean, you've probably seen from episode to episode of face the event that that we're kind of like a family out there on the trade show floors, and we really do know each other and when we see a newcomer, often we'll walk up to them and give them a little tip or something like that. But we can Get to know who's out there doing those shows over and over again. So when did you finally get into doing the speaking part of it?

Veronica Tevelde  16:08  
The speaking part of it kind of came naturally I was in speech in high school, and in college, and as my kids say, I was a nerd. But I learned how to stand in front of people and talk about products. Then from that my one of my first jobs was going to a big sporting goods chain, called sports chalet. And I went into all the buyers, sometimes I go to the Vegas show and pitch their clothing line for a company called marker. And I learned how to sell how to convince people to sit down and why they want to buy this jacket or these gloves. So I learned a lot about that. And then I noticed one time when I was at a trade show, and I was actually working as a hostess slash model. And there was a girl and she was standing there and she was rattling off. So And I was pretty impressed how she knew all that she was about my age. Then I learned about the ear prompter.

Scott Tokar  17:07  
Oh, yeah, that's a great segue because I wanted to ask you about the year what is an ear prompter? For those of us that aren't initiated in that.

Veronica Tevelde  17:16  
Like a lot of people have absolutely no idea what it is and what it is. I wish I had mine here to show you. But it's a I use a wired corded piece with a custom earpiece that fits into my ear. And then I put the cord down the back of my shirt. And nowadays everybody uses digital but back in the day when a lot of the dinosaurs as we say, as we started it was all on analog like a micro cassette recorder which they're next to impossible to find now and you just wear it on your belt. Or if you a lot of the guys would wear a suit, put it in their pocket. You can start it stop it. You recording your own voice and you No one has any idea that you're listening. So, two seconds ahead of me.

Scott Tokar  18:05  
Yeah. So so if you're familiar, every scene, a teleprompter, something that you'd look into the camera and read, that's telling you what to say. But an ear prompter or a voice prompter is not unlike the little earphone that I have in my ear. If you're watching us on YouTube right now, and I'm going to show when you mentioned this ear prompter, I'm going to I'm going to put up my ear prompter that I that I use often. I use I like the wired one too. Mine's actually I use the on camera audio clarifier it's normally made for what they call an infp is when you see the newscasters with that clear thing going around their ear. That's what I like to use because it's the clear, like a security guard. Yes. Yes again. There are ones four four gentlemen that are wireless. They are very tiny like like an ear like a like a hearing aids. And then you were in the inductive loop, or the more current ones are now using Bluetooth to get up into the ear. But technically speaking, you're already wearing a microphone up to your ear, you might as well put something else in your ear that the audience doesn't know any different. Why not? But it works. As you mentioned, in your own voice, so you kind of speak back if you've ever played that, that game in, in in grade school where you repeated something someone said, just a second behind them. It's playing that game, but but for real,

Veronica Tevelde  19:39  
right. And when I first started, someone had mentioned to me the best way to learn is when you're driving and you're in the car, and you're listening to the radio, just repeat back what you hear. So that was kind of a good trick,

Scott Tokar  19:50  
but it's a good trick and you know, there's you can you can practice and play with this even with an apple EarPods or, or a simple headphone Just do it for yourself, record yourself, read a paid couple pages from a book, and then play it back and sign your feet. See, because

Veronica Tevelde  20:09  
when I show people you know what the trick is, I don't do that often. But most of the time people are like, Oh, wait, no way. I could never do that. I could never do that. And it is it's really strange. But you know, we can walk around the tradeshow floor. And I know you can too. You can tell who's using the ear prompter, and who's not and who's maybe works for the company and is having a tough time getting out the words where ours are usually flawless.

Scott Tokar  20:36  
Yeah, the, for me, it's a very Zen like, situation when I'm on IR I, it requires a different kind of concentration. And then after about doing the script 10 times in the first day. It's not i'm not even thinking anymore. I can actually sit there and think about what I want to do later on that day and the words just come out of my mouth convincingly. Yeah,

Veronica Tevelde  21:00  
right. But the key is to not look robotic, so you can throw pieces in there.

Scott Tokar  21:05  
Yeah, exactly. Now, the reason you may not have heard about this is because it is kind of a secret. It's not something you want to necessarily tell your client about all the time, because they often think that we spend our time memorizing that script. And that means that we get the charge more because we have the skill, then you still have the skill with the ear prompter, but if I have a customer that asks for a script revision, I'll say, Well, I needed an hour to do that. You know, I could sit there and record it right away and probably get up on stage and do it right away.

Veronica Tevelde  21:40  
But you come back and they're like, wow, how did you learn that? Exactly. And Haven't you had a lot of people that work in the booth, you know, the sales reps and stuff come up to you, you know, especially like day two, and offer you a job in sales. Want to know what your background is? It's kind of kind of fun that they really believe that you know the product. Yeah,

Scott Tokar  22:01  
exactly, exactly. So well if you want to know more about the prompter again I'll put some pictures into the YouTube link and you can see it a little bit more about that maybe we'll do a whole show on just your prompter at some point in time. So tell me where have you you've obviously not just done this locally you are doing this all over the place where where are you going with this now? Are you traveling a lot

Veronica Tevelde  22:29  
right now because of Coronavirus. Oh,

Scott Tokar  22:32  
yeah, we're,

if you're listening to this, like a year after the Coronavirus thing. Do you remember that? Remember, we were all like locked down? Well, that's, that's why we're able to get so many of these interviews done right now. Right But, but typically, where have you been traveling and stuff?

Veronica Tevelde  22:50  
Well, like one of the very first times that I went to Europe, I went to Barcelona, and that's kind of a hard place to compare anywhere else. Most of the events I feel like that I've done Over the past few years are in Las Vegas. There's just so many events. It's really easy for me to get there, where I live, which is in Elkhorn, Nebraska, close to Omaha. It's pretty central can get to Chicago in an hour I can get to Houston or Dallas in two hours. I prefer to stay in the US just with all the travel and the going through customs. I like to go to Europe maybe a couple times a year, but most of the time I feel like I'm in Vegas or Chicago in Orlando is a big one as well.

Scott Tokar  23:32  
I Right. Right, right. So what when you when you're doing this are you charging for like a full day in order to go out or are you charging more like on an hourly kind of rate?

Veronica Tevelde  23:46  
Day rate because hourly that could be crazy. Over the years I've learned tricks that's in a contract, you'd say it's this amount up to eight hours. You also put in an hour lunch break and other Otherwise, if it was up to the clients, they'd have you there at 7am. And then have you leave after their networking event at 7pm, where they don't realize that you're talking nonstop. So I usually try to put a cap on it. And if I was going to travel to a show, I would always try if possible to leave in the morning early, get there, and then rehearse the same day, and then I would drop and then I would pay or charge, I should say, a full day rate for that day, which is traveling rehearsal for the rehearsal day.

Scott Tokar  24:33  
Yes. Now, are you are you also doing, like,

your own contracts and things?

Veronica Tevelde  24:41  
Yes, yes. Well, if I'm hired myself, and I'm an independent contractor, then I do my own contracts. And I kind of have a standard one that I use. Once in a while I'll work through a friend or an agent, and then they usually have their own set of contracts.

Scott Tokar  24:58  
So how do you how do you handle Getting paid. What do you what do you do is as far as that goes, I mean, are you taking credit cards? or What is that? How does that work?

Veronica Tevelde  25:10  
Well going in the past, I was set up as a vendor for some, like there was a company that I worked for. And I don't know if I can say the name or not, but I worked probably 10 1215 shows a year. So I was already in their system. So all I had to do is make an invoice and then they would pay me electronically into my checking account 30 days after the show, however, over the years, it seems like it makes a little more sense to ask for half upfront, because you are usually paying your own expenses and to put out all that money to travel and you know, credit card and sometimes you buy your own flights and they reimburse you. It seems to be a lot of companies are pretty agreeable to giving you a deposit up front. Credit cards. Yes, I tried to avoid credit cards because it seems like there's a pretty big fee and I've been able to charge back the fee. They insist on using a credit card.

Scott Tokar  26:02  
Well, I'll give you my secret right there right now I often I prefer credit card because a lot of times the tradeshow budget world, the tradeshow coordinator, or the the the person, that's the event, in charge of the event, they have like an American Express card that they can just like charge things like their carpet, or their carpet cleaning, or Hey, we suddenly need waters for the booth. And and if you can accept the credit card, you can get paid right then on the tradeshow floor, if you've got a Square Reader, they can run their credit card and you're paid before you leave the building. So in

Veronica Tevelde  26:40  
my bank to they can there's an option where they can hit it and you can do credit card or you can do automatic and it just goes into your account and now PayPal,

Scott Tokar  26:48  
right did you see right? And I just I just tell them, hey, it's gonna cost me 3%. So I'm just going to tag an extra 3% onto there. And they don't have a problem with that. No. So So when you look around you at the at how much money these tradeshow exhibitors are spending, just to be at the show just to have the carpet just to have an electrical line dropped into their booth. Right the cost of booth staffers, brand ambassadors magicians strugglers, all the hosts the hostess is all about it's so little in their price, they have no problems doing just a credit card. And I know if they get one good lead or one good contact pays for the whole thing for five years sometimes. Exactly, exactly. So, understand your value there and you you you can ask for proper money out there. Right. So, where do you see yourself in the future? Are you going to continue speaking and and you know, or I mean because you've been in the business we together have been in the business for a very long time. We have made a career out of this, we have Yeah, a lot of people think that maybe this is just a part time, hey, I'm in college, I'm gonna go be a hostess or a brand ambassador. And that's great too. I mean, it's great money. It's amazing how much money you can get paid legally to do something, you know,

Veronica Tevelde  28:18  
if you lived, say in Vegas, and you know, some of these younger girls are out of college, they're making a couple hundred dollars a day. And I always say the beauty of it is if you go and you work for a client, you don't like them. You don't ever have to work for them again.

Scott Tokar  28:32  
That's true. That's true. So, um, are you going to continue doing some of this? The speaking is that,

Veronica Tevelde  28:40  
yes, and then doing some marketing and, you know, our little network of friends that we're all giving each other ideas seems like zoom is really big right now, but you still don't have that personal touch. And with the events, I think it really makes a big deal. If you have the live talking head, there can be Parents, you somebody on a big screen. Yeah,

Scott Tokar  29:02  
live events aren't going anywhere, if you're if you're worried about that, or if you saw that there was a lot of zoom meeting stuff, there's digital fatigue, there's zoom fatigue, there's a lack of connection there. I mean, it works. It's better than nothing. But I guarantee you as much as you are dying to go to Disneyland or to the movies or to a bar, people are also looking forward to being in trade shows and live events again. So it's not just it's not just us in the industry, it's the people that are visiting that are want be there as well.

Veronica Tevelde  29:32  
I don't know if we'll be as aggressive because you can't just come right up to people to get them to scan your badge. I think people will be a little bit. I can't wait to listen to

Scott Tokar  29:43  
yours from now. Because we're gonna, it's we're gonna know what's on the other side of that two years from now, right. So if you could give a tip if you could look back at Veronica at the beginning of your career, and you have the knowledge that you have today. Is there something you'd want to like advice to yourself in that

Veronica Tevelde  30:06  
the knowledge that I have today and advice to myself any tips and tricks and he sure in the beginning, I was very agreeable. And a couple times that are few times, if you start out where they want you to do four presentations an hour, pretty much every 15 minutes and there is no break in between. and I would do it for four days. And at the end, I was exhausted knock on wood. I've never lost my voice. However, it's draining. It's you are a performer and it's mentally and physically draining. I think looking back, I would say, you know, if it's a 10 minute or under script, the max amount of times I can do it is if you want me to perform and be my best twice an hour.

Scott Tokar  30:54  
So that's really very good advice. I mean, you're you're the one that's in control of You are looked at as the expert, the the even if you're starting in this business if if you're This is the beginning of your of your path as a brand ambassador, a booth staffer, a host hostess, whatever. You probably, in many cases have more experience after doing three or four shows, then the people that are hiring you, so they will look to you and you can be the expert right away and let them know this is the best way to do it. This is the this is the way they handle it.

Veronica Tevelde  31:31  
Right or give a little bit of how would you say constructive criticism when they're expecting, you know, for an hour and they want the seats filled every single seat but yet they have 50 chairs. They're on opening day at 9am. And everybody is doing their first presentation at 9am. Yes, yeah.

915 or 930.

Scott Tokar  31:54  
So before we go, let me ask you, is there a place that you've been that that you will Love you, you know, you can't wait to get back to where have you? Where have you traveled to that, you know really made an impression on you.

Veronica Tevelde  32:09  
I mentioned earlier that first time I went to Europe was Barcelona. That's kind of a hard one to compare to. And I've probably been there 10 times it felt I feel like trade shows go on a cycle. Maybe go to Copenhagen a lot. And then the next, everything's in London, maybe everything's in Paris. I would say my favorite place was Barcelona. I would love to go back there. I also had a really good experience in Austria and Vienna, was like twist my arm. It was June it was beautiful. The weather was nice. You could stay out after the show. They had sand in the city where you're in the middle of the city and people have it like a beach right across from the convention center is wonderful.

Scott Tokar  32:52  
So you know, not only can you make a career out of this, but you could really have a whole lot of fun too. If you like travel if you are if you're a piece person. You know, there's more reasons than just the money to get into this career. Right, right. Well, Veronica, I would bring

Veronica Tevelde  33:09  
my family do something Oh, yeah,

Scott Tokar  33:11  
you can once in a while. Yeah. Especially if you're traveling a lot. You can you can have the the miles to, to put them on the plane with you and make you stay in the hotel while you're working. You paid for it? Why not? Exactly. Exactly. Or if you travel as much as I do, you can be a Southwest you can bring your companion with a companion

Veronica Tevelde  33:32  
pass. Yes.

Scott Tokar  33:34  
Yes, you can. So well. Anyhow, Veronica, thank you so much for taking time to chat with us today. It's it's good to hear some of the tips and tricks from the from the real pros that have made a career out of trade shows. And, and and certainly you're someone that I respect and love seeing out there on the trade show floor.

Veronica Tevelde  33:51  
Thank you. Thanks, Scott. Thanks.

Scott Tokar  33:54  
Now we like to end our show every week with what we like to call a facepalm facepalm is something that's embarrassing or uncomfortable or just something you couldn't believe that you saw out there in the events or trade show industry. Now this could happen to you personally or maybe it happened to somebody else. But it's a story that generally is told when you're out on the road talking to other staffers and saying I can't believe this happened. Today's facepalm is from our friend, Robin bell.

Robin Bell  34:28  
Okay, so for me, this was a one of many halls. This was years ago, I was working with another presenter at a show and we had a large audience seats on one side seats on the other aisle down the center, and there was a young gentleman in a wheelchair and he wanted to sit up front we had crowd The others are moved to the front room to one of the chairs out put him in the front up. At this particular show. During the presentation, we would throw out t shirts

You know, maybe 12 or 14 and then when we did a big drawing at the end, I threw out a T shirt to the gentleman in the wheelchair and he put it on Jimmy's, his wheelchair. And he was on the aisle. A guy comes down the aisle on his hands and knees, reaches under the wheelchair, pulls the T shirt out and attempts to leave and I said, Stop. Stop waiting. I said give you back his t shirt. I said, apparently, so cotton is more important to you than your dignity. I will give you a T shirt. If you come up here into the chicken deaths. He came up to the stage he did the chicken dance. I gave him a T shirt and I told him you're a very good story but you know hundred percent Patton will do sometimes very funny.

Baseball.

Scott Tokar  35:54  
Well, that about wraps up our show for this week or not. Your podcast is now in the bag. We've had a great time chatting with our friends and learning a little bit about the event and trade show industry. I hope that you're going to join us next week. Remember, you can see us on youtube or download our podcast anywhere podcasts are available. Please tell your friends hopefully you can build up a good the group then that really helps this podcast go along. But again, my name is Scott Tokar. Have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai