PPAI 2021 is just around the corner. Normally, Richardson Seating would be putting its booth together about now making sure we weren't missing any parts. Once we had it repaired, we would ship it off to Mandalay Bay for the PPAI Show. We have attended and showed for the last 15-20 years. The show went on last year, but this year it will be a virtual trade show. This will be the first time that Richardson Seating exhibits at a virtual trade show. I purchased a virtual booth and even some premium placement space. It was not as expensive as the in person trade shows. There was no electricity to rent. We didn't have to pay $1500 to Freeman to move our booth 20 feet from the dock to the show floor. I don't need to fly to Las Vegas. I don't need to get a room at Mandalay. No flights. No cabs. No lines for elevators. There are a lot of things I won't miss about the in person show.
What I will miss is seeing my clients and meeting new ones in person. I will miss shaking hands and saying hi. I am curious how well the trade show will go. Will this become the standard? Personally, I think trade shows will go back to live person pretty quickly. I am predicting that it is going to be hard to tell the quality of a lot of products without touching them. Our bar stools look similar to other company's products when you look at pictures online. When see them in person, touch them, lift them, and speak to us. You see why our product is superior to the competition.
PPAI 2021 will be one for the record books. It won't be the first virtual trade show, but it will be the largest virtual trade show in the industry. Our logo bar stools are used in trade show booths so now is the time to get new bar stools for your 2022 trade shows.
SAGE is partnering with PPAI on the PPAI 2021 Promotional Products Industry trade show. After I registered for the show, I received an email from SAGE asking me to login and see my virtual trade show booth location. I am so bad with logins and passwords that I wasn't able to login. I was on my phone so hopefully it will be much easier to reset my password once I am on a PC.
I am very excited to exhibit at my first virtual trade show for the PPAI 2021. I have been doing lots of Zoom the past 6 months. In addition to doing family Zoom calls, I have also done many vendor calls and I have been taking classes. I just completed a 3 month government contracting class through the local PTAC office. I am also about to take a leadership class virtually through Northwestern. Now may be a strange time for in person, but it is a great time to take advantage of the new virtual options. If this world remains partially virtual, having the skills to sell goods both live and virtual will separate the new winners and losers in the promotional products world.
What does everyone else think? Are you planning to exhibit or attend the PPAI 2021 virtual trade show?