Background
Build-up-day at a big trade show in Germany. I am on my way from the airport straight to the exhibition hall. The stand builders team has been there since the early hours, so I grab a tray of coffee and head over to the allocated stand number.
I hand out the drinks and discuss how the build is going so far and what there is still to do.
In the meantime, the pallet that the exhibiting company has sent arrives and I can start unloading and sorting what goes where.
Products on the display walls, refreshments in the storage room, merchandise and give-aways in the lockable cupboard.
Challenge
A while later the stand builder comes over to inform me that they have finished the build, attached the graphics, hung the TV up and connected electricity as requested. He wants me to go over it to make sure everything is there.
I grab my file of designs and layouts and we start going through it bit by bit. Hang on…where is the bistro table and the four chairs?
The stand builder says as far as he is aware this wasn’t requested. I quickly find the email that clearly indicates that this particular stand design required a table with four chairs, but he shrugs and says they didn’t bring any other furniture.
Approach
45 minutes later, after talking to the event organisers office on site (where I also helped another desperate exhibitor by translating his very basic English to German, so the helpdesk can deliver what he wanted), I return to the stand with an order confirmation of one table and four chairs to be delivered by the next morning an hour before the show opens. The invoice was sent to the stand builder of course, who paid and sent his apologies.
Outcome
The next morning, I handed over the stand to the exhibiting company including chairs, table and coffee – ready for the first Sales Team shift.
