Boston Baby!

I have arrived in Boston for the International Assn of Chiefs of Police show. I decided to make some major changes for this trade show. In the past, I have delegated everything, and then found myself completely stressed and angry when I was either wondering if people were doing their jobs or when they failed at their jobs. This is a big and busy show for us, and everyone is a bit stressed when we are here. And I think I have had near meltdowns at each IACP show. Taking all of that into consideration, I made some major changes for this show. I'm doing it all myself. I still need some help with a few things as far as booth work goes, but for the most part, I'm doing it all myself. All the guys have to do is show up and sell. I'm doing the rest myself. So far this is working for me. I'm not mad because someone isn't pitching in and everything is getting done the way I want it! It also helps considerably that I chose to fly up here a day before the rest of the team so I could get a few things ready. For the first time, I feel a step ahead of the game, and not like I am getting blindsided or playing catch up.


For the most part everything looks great and is going smoothly. We've had 2 unexpected personnel issues, but we are prepared to work around that. And then there was the major problem we didn't see coming. I have a double decker booth with really cool graphics on the outside walls. In the past my booth has always been a peninsula or on the back aisle, so we never had to worry about the outside back wall. But today we realized we are on a walking aisle and our back wall is ugly. We weighed some options, and I had a little freaking out over it, and then at 4 pm, I made the decision to just pull the wall down. It wasn't a load bearing wall, and it eliminated my problems, so we just did it. Or rather, my fabulous and wonderful and flexible exhibit design and construction company did it. I spent a few hours a little worried about making such a major change on the fly like that, but I think it will work out for us.


In other fun events, I also am suddenly soft launching 3 products at this show. Do we have have marketing materials, advertising, pricing, availability, or test models available? No. But heaven forbid that stop us from launching!


All in all, I'm happy to be here. I'll be even happier when I wake up on Wednesday morning and this is all over. We have some fun dinners and activities planned for this week. I'm happy to be here and eating at all the great seafood places!