I am a marketing and graphic design member of Hidden Tech. I'd like to encourage any members who want more exposure and more business to exhibit at Hidden Tech Connect in Holyoke. For those of you who think that you are too small, or too new, or your materials are not fancy enough for exhibiting - please be reassured that this is not the case! I have done a lot of exhibiting at similar "fairs" for many years for my husband's business (summer bike trips for teens). These summer opportunity fairs are much like the Hidden Tech event. The "exhibits" are all very low key, with many summer camps just laying out a bunch of photocopied sheets about their camp. Others add some photos, sometimes displayed on those cardboard trifold display boards that you can buy at Staples for a few dollars. About half of the camps have either a video running on a VCR/TV combo, or, increasingly, a slide show or demo running on a laptop. Very few camps have fancier display boards, and none of them have huge, elaborate displays that you'd see at commercial trade shows. Someone from the camp, dressed in very casual clothes, stands behind or near the table to answer questions. In spite of the homegrown nature of the displays, these camp fairs are packed with visitors. The people who come to these shows are interested in getting information. They don't care what your display looks like. Most of them go around from table to table and just pick up whatever information is on each table that remotely interests them. If your service or product is of interest to them, they will pick up your material. It doesn't matter how long you've been in business or how many employees you have or how slick your materials are. If you provide a service that they need, they will look at your material, whether it is a nice brochure or a photocopied sheet. The important thing is to have a piece of paper that people can take with them that describes, in 15 words or less at the top of the page, what you do. Under that simply list your services or products, describing them briefly in non-technical words that your target audience can understand. Add contact information at the bottom so they can reach you, and you'll then have an effective marketing tool. If you want to add photos, a computer demo, samples, portfolios, business cards, burn a CD that people can take with them, etc., that is fine. But not necessary. Just sign up for space and put your sheets out for people to take! You don't even have to get dressed up! So even if you're the only employee and you've just started doing business, you DO belong at this event. It is an incredible opportunity to get your business seen by people who can hire you. -- Bobbi Melville Publicity & Graphic Services Phone 413 369-8022 Cell 413 335-2141 Fax 413 369-4257 Mail PO Box 611, Conway, MA 01341-0611, USA FedEx, UPS address: 1356 Ashfield Road, Conway, MA 01341, USA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20050425/edfd6d1e/attachment-0005.html