At some point in the last year I'm convinced that all of the tradeshow freight companies got together and decided that they were going to double their prices while simultaniously dropping any sort of concept about customer service.
In my first year of doing trade shows - five years ago now! - I basically either carried all my tradeshow material with me or shipped it in advance to a friend. After that I got smart and started using tradeshow freight companies to get my products and setup to the various shows. It wasn't cheap but it was a worthwhile expense. Until this year...all of the sudden what last year cost me $300 is now looking like it will cost me upwards of $600. I say "looking like" because I seriously cannot get one tradeshow company to call me back without me first contacting them again and again to hassle them for a quote. And these are the people I'm counting on to get my stuff safe and sound to Las Vegas? They sure aren't exhibiting a whole lot of concern for me at this point!
After getting what to me is a series of obscenely high quotes and since I'm only going to one show this year I'm seriously thinking of just shipping the booth material directly to the show site. I did some rough calculations yesterday and I think with the help of my friends at Fedex, some careful packing (my booth theme might be "minimalist" this year), and the good folks at TheHotel business serivces office, I think I can make this entire thing work for less then $300. The one piece I'm worried about is making sure the business office is open late enough for me to pack up the booth and get it back to the business office before I scurry to the airport for my flight the evening the show closes. I'm still trying to work out the final details but if doing it myself can save me $300+ then it's worth the extra work in my mind.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It's hard isn't it when it's not just the booth design and your items that you're worried about for a trade show. A lot of people can get intimidated with the drayage costs for shipping their booth to trade shows. Another factor that people should take note of when computing drayage is how manageable they can track their items during shipping. A reliable trade freight company should also offer accessible exhibit property management that enables you to track your items.
Legacy
Post a Comment