Carnival of Wisdom (February 2006)

So what’s the big deal? Are they really worth the time and money (and time is money) I’ll spend? Can I afford to go this year? What’s in it for me, especially if I don’t think I’ll need any equipment this year? After all, I don’t need any new equipment this year, or do I?
A trade show is like the county fair for those in the stone industry. Remember the cool autumn nights and all of the shiny lights and funky sounds coming from the rides and games? And Aunt Mae over at the judging tent, receiving her blue ribbon for her “County Famous” apple pie?
OK, so the smells as you go through the halls in Las Vegas or Florida or wherever aren’t the same as a hot apple pie. But a show, like a good ol’ fair, has different parts that mean different things to different people. And if you have never gone to the fair – stone or otherwise – you don’t know what you’ve missed.
In one corner of the trade show, you of course have the midway, the draw to bring ‘em in with the booths. Some presenters offer gifts. Some will get you an autographed Makita Girl calendar or poster.
But who can resist admiring the shiny new machines, like the waterjet over here and a new suction-cup slab lifter over there? Where else on earth (or at least in North America) can you get all of the major suppliers under one roof showing off all of their cool toys?
And just like at the fair, you have someone offering chances to make it big. No, I’m not talking about somebody giving away the basketball net for three holes-in-one on a putting rug. I mean the all-new answer-to-everything products that promise great returns for little investment.
Now some people end up winning, while others just leave with a lighter wallet. It is up to you really. Each of us needs to decide if we can make money with a product and still hold our heads up – or not take the chance. And, either way, we always leave feeling contented that we got to see the show. (I, of course, always leave with enough free pens to get the family through the next year of writing and doodling.)
You may have thought, coming in to the show, that you didn’t need new equipment. After seeing something there that’ll save your company time and/or money, you go home with something.
That’s one of the awesome things about big, successful trade shows; you never know what’s out there if you don’t walk the floor. It’s a great time to look around (especially if you’re a vendor) to see what’s new in your sector of the marketplace. If your competitor gets everyone talking about new widgets, you’d better start working on a better one.
Over in another corner of the show, we have the judge’s tent, with the awards handed out for excellence in different areas. Some are for stone use and design, and some awards like this years Rocky Awards from the Marble Institute of America (MIA), are for commercial (as in advertising) ingenuity.
Either way, like Aunt Mae and her pie, it rewards those taking the lead in the industry, and gives the rest something to work on for next year. And who doesn’t like it when old ladies compete to make better pie? (After all, they need someone to eat it.) That same idea at shows just means better stone for everyone.
Then we have the seminars. Just like barn tours at the fair, these can entertain and educate all at once. Now, I may have grown up in a rural area, but I learn something new at the barn shows that my kids keep dragging me to every year. The same is true with the seminars at shows. Only when I learn something here, it makes me money (or saves me money)!
I have yet to attend a seminar where I didn’t learn something. Some seminars I would take every year just because the speaker was so entertaining and he never told it the same way twice; I always picked up something new. And, even if I’d heard it before, I may have forgotten some of the previous presentation, or I’d run into a certain problem between sessions and the answer didn’t stick with me the first time.
If someone says they didn’t learn anything at one of these seminars, then they were either sleeping through it (never in mine though), or had a closed mind when they entered.
Then there’s the beer tent. No, not the places where people get sloppy drunk, like Uncle Bo. I’m referring to the networking that is going on. When Clem asks Cletus at the old county fair why he plows in a circle instead of straight lines, it’s a way of helping each to grow and be better at what they do.
At the trade show/convention, Mark may tell Brian why a Binford 3440 Magnum is better than the Toolchest 52 because of the torque, and it’s the beginning of a back-and-forth where they share ideas. Sometimes this is done over a brew and sometimes over a red carpet.
If it weren’t for the annual pilgrimage to the MIA convention and trade show, for example, I never would’ve met my editor for this magazine, or the guy who taught me everything he knew. (It only took him five minutes). I wouldn’t enjoy friendships with several well-known individuals in the industry and become their peer.
And that’s a key word there. I wasn’t anointed as a peer; I became one. The definition of the term is, “a person who has equal standing with another or others;” I became a peer, along with my friends, because I would see them every year and share ideas. As they worked to better the industry, I was helping.
It’s hard for the leaders to notice you if you never get in the game. If you’re never out in the public eye looking to help, you can’t be seen as a leader. If you’re not where the leaders are, how can you work with them?
The question soon became not, “how could I afford to go?” but, “how can I afford not to go?” I can’t afford to stop bettering my company, my industry and myself. I saw that by attending every year, and I always came back with something. And, right now, you’ve got some work, because you have a trade show to plan for.
So until the red carpet calls me out again, keep your stick on the ice.
Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone Care, a Huron Park, Ontario-based stone-cleaning and -restoration company servicing all of southern Ontario. Tom also offers corporate and private consultation, serves as a trainer for the MIA, and is also on the organization’s board of directors.