Want a Pen??

Another conference, another hotel, another plane ride.
We were attending PRSA08 in Detroit as exhibitors, which is an interesting exercise in time management.
You see,typically people attend these shows to participate in workshops, listen to speeches, eat and drink..... lots. Sometimes, although very rarely, these people are also interested in meeting with exhibitors; the rest of the people you talk to are mostly not at all interested in you or your products. You are there to provide a minimal level of distraction between sessions. The trick is being able to spot the time wasters from the interested folks.
We were fortunate that we have a product that is well respected and sought after by many companies. This allows us to avoid a habit that many exhibitors display time and time again in an effort to attract visitors to their booth; giveaways.
I have never understood why companies believe there is any value in the endless array of trinkets and trash they give at these shows. Do they really think it will make a potential customer remember them when they are in need of their service? Decide they need the service? Remember their name?
Even more interesting is the variety of items you see. Pens, sponge balls, book lamps,CD's, balloons; the list is endless as companies try to be creative in their approach. One booth was even giving away sapling trees in a tube. A unique gift to be sure, but a wisely spent marketing dollar? Not so much.
What makes this all worse is that for some people who attend these shows, the only interest beyond the sessions seems to be collecting as much free stuff as they can get their hands on, while committing as little time as possible engaging with any member of the company offering the items.
So, we were trinket-free, and concentrated on having good conversations with people genuinely interested in our social media monitoring tool. Oh, and we gave away a few laptop stickers.