351: Trade Show Overload--Finding Value Beyond the Booth

0:00Great. Greetings from the middle of the map here in Kansas City. This is Renee Benson at AB Renee Casey. You are listening to and watching the AB Life. Hi, Brady Johnson here coming to you from Cincinnati, Ohio. You are watching and listening to the AB Life. Hey there, it's Nancy Blanchard with screenbeam here out of San Jose, California with a heat wave coming through. It is hot. You are listening to and watching the AB Life. Hey, hey, welcome to the Hyatt AB podcast. I'm showing you Chris Netto right now, but you know, that's not who this is about. This is about me. Everything is always about me. And I'm Joe away. I am not your host. I am not anything except the fact I got to be crew member even after the

1:06shenanigans I pulled last time. Here I am. I'm just checking to see how many shenanigans I can pull before I'm back to guest. Oh, by the way, I think you're all right. And I'm your host, Tim Van Wart, come and ask you for the great statement. Hold on, hold on, hold on. See now I'll just put myself back because I know well, you know what, I'm going to keep going. Here we go. It's going to be me's yelling at me already. Okay. I'm going to get me all right. So anyway, we're just moving things around. All right. You know what? You're watching the listening to the AB Life. Thank you. All right. I'm your host, Tim Van Wart, coming out here for the great state of New Jersey. And I have somebody here as our guest here tonight to confirm that we are the great state of New Jersey. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not even going to, I'm probably going to wait because you're watching and listening to the AB Life. Mr. Chris Netto, welcome back to the show, Chris.

2:06Double already got the Mr. Abaka was back. Oh, yeah. The audio kicked. I don't know. Chris talks. Oh, wait. There you are. There you are. There you are. Where are you? That on the shore? I'm back again. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm going to have to talk very fast. Thank you for having me. I lose my, till I lose my robot voice or keep my robot voice back. Don't know what's going on. I think I have like three streamers going on in my house right now. Yeah. Between me and my both my kids are probably streaming at the very moment. So Starling Jersey Internet is taking a hit right now. Yeah. Oh, so it's your fault. It's your fault. I should have what? Well, there's one easy way. You see that scene in Christmas vacation where he turns on his Christmas lights and the nuclear generator have to like the nuclear plant have to raise the hats with someone right now. Yeah. That's exactly what's going on right now at PSCNG. They're like, wait a minute. The nettles are all got their computer. I'm never on it this hour. At least streaming on this. So yeah. Yeah. They just have to be doing some for.

3:09One easy way to say time out. I do to my boys. I'm like, don't anybody talk? Don't anybody slam a fridge door? I'm on the podcast. All right. Well, I mean, so Chris, thank you for having me. Well, I'm glad to have you back here. And I know this. So our topic here tonight. We're just going to jump right into it because I know we only have you for a little bit here. Chris, we're just, uh, CDA just wrapped up as we're having this conversation. It's going to be a little bit longer by the time this episode comes out next week. Sure. But numbers were down for CDA from my understanding and a year over year and even from going back in New and Renee. We're having a conversation regarding, I mean, where are we at like national versus regional shows and things like that? So what are your, what are your thoughts about that right now? Like we're,

4:11what are you thinking? Like, because I mean, InfoCom kind of sees these weird numbers. Like, we rebounded after COVID, but you know, it's like, we still have it quite hit those numbers from pre-COVID. Yep. Um, as somebody who tends a lot of different things, whether they're big national shows or small regional shows, road shows, whatever it is that I've been to lately. This all comes back and this is, there's a bigger problem going on right now with trade shows in general. And that is, um, we came out of a pandemic five years ago with a need for to get together. And then everybody not only got together, but decided, you know what, let's just keep on, keep on keeping on. And you get, you go from an InfoCom a week later, there's a road show, a week later, there's something else. There are weeks that there's two, three things happening at the same time, right? This past week, when I was at CDA, I left Atlanta because I was at Forte,

5:17a Forte event. So Forte did a Forte live, which is exclusive to their customers, but it's still an event. And for the manufacturers, they are attending. So manufacturers are trying to be everywhere, anywhere and everywhere at the same time. And in some cases have two, three and in the manufacturers, people that are here that represent manufacturers will tell you there's two, three road kits out at at any given period traveling crisscrossing across the country. Um, we've had to even decide when we do our road show for midwitch. You know, are we taking a date where there is going to be kit available for our manufacturers because they may be clear across the country and we're in Minneapolis or we're going to be in California and, you know, they're coming out of a show that's coming out of, you know, in Atlanta for all I know. So we got to be cognizant of that. The schedules are really big. And the fact is, is that not only are we, you know, looking to, as an industry to show our goods,

6:19we want to be out there. We want to be able to show the material, but the trade shows are getting difficult to be at the big ones. And those are the ones that you want to be at. And the rumblings of people pulling out, last minute, people pulling, you know, debating whether they're going to go. And I'm talking about manufacturers on the trade show floor as opposed to people going. As you know, the social economic conditions currently in this country are all over the place. You got people getting laid off, you get people getting hired, right? But as quickly as somebody's hired five people, a leko, it's such an imbalance. And I don't know who to believe, right? We stopped hearing about the economic reports out of VIXA because those were consistently coming out and they were saying things were great. Meanwhile, the next day, everybody lit up on my LinkedIn with Open for Network. So you question, you know, where's this information coming from? Because there was a lot of people that were silently being leko because companies weren't reporting it, especially some of the more private or works. And it is. It's part of business. It's what you do,

7:22right? You grow, you add, you subtract, you mean, that's just part of what you do and you accept some of that. But lately, since we've come back, there's been a lot of craziness, right? First we come back and then parts can't be found. Things can't get found, right? And there's always now the threat of, oh my god, we're going into some sort of trade issues and tariffs then came into play and then that became a thing. And then now we're hearing rumors of chips later on in the year. If not this year, early part of next, that's been rumored since last year. So you don't know where to go. And money has to be well spent. And the smart ones are trying to put all their money in a basket in the right basket. The others are just saying, we're going to hedge our bets and we're just going to hunker down and wait until this all normalizes. Meanwhile, I spend more time on the road than I do at any point because my job is to get in front of customers, whether that's integrators or end users,

8:24and find out what is happening. And then come back and do my report and bring it back to Midwitch. One of the things that you guys don't see on my LinkedIn, you see all the selfies and the pictures and all that. And I'm out there and I meet with the brands and I meet with our integrators. But a lot of this coming back and going, you know what? How was the show? What are we looking at? There's been a couple really positive things that's happened in the first half of this year as far as trade shows go. I'm not going to say that the InfoCom show was up or down. That's not my business to report. But I can only go by what I'm seeing. A positive, for example, NAB this year. More AV companies were there with purpose. It wasn't just me running into an integrator in the hallway or seeing one kind of hanging out at a center bar and at Resorts World. It was companies that were there with a purpose, having parties, integrators have an appartee. I didn't see that three years ago

9:26when I first started really writing the reports about broadcast enterprise to Midwitch. So you had an integrator showing up in force and making a sense. So Chris, one quick thing though. So NAB I think is the outlier. NAB is the one who has brought in more other verticals because not just AV. They've also now have the Cisco's and the Microsoft's. So they're the ones who are all your university buddies are there. They're all doing this. And it's not just the sports guys anymore. That's what it was. Now it's everybody. But let's go back to something you said early. When was the last time I saw you? When I ordered for you a double, double animal style at the in and out food truck at a VISDL vibe, right? Correct. Just a few weeks ago. And then you then you made me ice cream after that. You got little guy. I cannot like to send all right. That would have been a pretty

10:30stupid double, double animal style. Okay. But here's the thing is you said something about, okay, you have forte, you have ABS building, you have HEDMA doing road shows. Like we were the first to do road shows four years ago. Now everyone's doing them. So now we're fighting with how do we get people to show up? Because now you have so and so doing this. And you have so and I'm going, I've got four of them. I can go to it and I guarantee you on my calendar, I have four of them in the next two weeks. I can't show up to all of them. Right? So I've heard, right, and I've been hearing, I've been hearing rumors that there are more in like from other manufacturers. They're they're trying to contemplate about running them. Are we going to, are we in like a weird like, and I'm sorry, I use. Well, it's about all the version, but are we going to, are we going to pop?

11:31Like are we like in this like, like are we going to get to a point where there's just too much. And like, you know, like, no, no, but it may seem that way. But this is why we're in New Jersey, Joe's in in California, right? Even Nancy's in California. KC doesn't get enough love from road shows. Ohio doesn't get enough love from road shows. I guarantee you that Charlotte doesn't get enough love from road shows. There are cities and you can pick whether it's an NFL city or an MLS city or an NHL city, you pick and choose which one you want. It's part of my job as a business developer is to understand where the markets are and where they're getting. Okay, I'm going to go against that because even our trauma road show, we had people signed up who didn't come because they're with our Toronto, I mean Buffalo Buffalo. Because there were things in Toronto the next week. Two rather integrators had something in Toronto that was an hour away. And it's like, well, they

12:32got to pick. And so if I'm an end user, because you said, I want to go where my end users are, weren't end user organization. But you know, so my end user is two steps removed from me as a distributor. Me, it's it's integrators, right? They are, I mean, if you want to put it, they're my end user. I'm sorry, that's my terminology. So I have to be I have to clarify that. But we can also say we're in house integrators too. So there's we are, we are an end user, but we're not an end user. Right. There is there is a lot of there's a lot. Joe, I'm not going to argue, dude, it is 100% there's a thousand road shows out there. And this time of year, it is what is in. There is nothing more in than a road show in the fall in the world of AV. Everybody comes out of out of summer break and they are pumped and they want to get on the road and do this. I haven't stopped since July, but it's dude, it's how do I how do I put this? There is a need to get in front of your

13:33customers, right? When we're all trying to def, def, differentiate ourselves, right? There's 100 projectors, there's 100 cameras, there's 100 sound bars. How are you going to differentiate? Temperature, differentiate, differentiate yourself. And that's where I'm watching this all come into play because this is where customer service, the people, your network, all this really, the only way you're going to separate yourself is by being there, right? You know, I have ultimately like I was chatting with a higher ed, ultimate end user when I was down in Atlanta. The man loves using local integration. But he will go and check out the products at a vibe, or he'll go to a forte, but he's going to hire his local guys because he likes working with smaller companies. I'm not there as a distributor. I'm not there to change that, right? I'm not there to do that. But yes, I am working closely with our nationals, but it's ultimately on that

14:33sense. I don't touch the end user. I'm not there to influence that. I'm there to say, hey, you should be looking at PTZ Optics cameras. If you want to check out a camera, that is what I distribute. That's my job. But I'm not there to say, hey, pick this guy, that guy or the other guy, because there's a hundred different ways you can go. But when it comes to these shows, man, I just think that we all need to kind of understand what's going on. The bigger shows are struggling because it costs a lot of money, put them on. Not that the road shows don't. I don't. And I'll add Midwitch's Tech Connect to the new show conversation. And we're taking our Tech Connect info from what Midwitch back in the UK is telling us where they have two road shows a year, which is their Tech Expo. That's where I'll be in October. So I fly over to London to go do that show. But they do too. And they want to see us do here. Do the same thing here because they found success in their road shows. But that's two. My competitors are out on the road. They put a print schedule.

15:35There's a schedule of my competitor from the distribution side that gets printed in January. And you can see where they're going. And they alternate cities. Yeah. So it's, I don't know if we're ever going to get out of it. But man, there is a desire to be out there right now. But the crowds are getting exhausting. They're getting exhausted like you said, Joe. There's people that are traveling an hour to go to Toronto. They are looking at this is where it becomes really important. What are you doing? What's the hook? Do you have a brand showing up that is going to that hasn't been a, you know, you have something there. Do you have a, you know, somebody that mattered a bit. You have to have that hook in the conversation. I mean, man, Tim was up at our Boston Roadshow for Tech Connect. And we had a charismatic cover band that alone. You know, you throw past against the wall and you hope some sticks to find out if it's done. But you just, sorry, that's forgetting. Don't throw me. That's just abuse. That's pasta.

16:36That is exactly it. But yeah, I did I keep going for an hour on this stuff. And I'd see what's good and bad. But it's not, I'm not there to judge. All I know is that I have an opportunity. I got to see you, Joe. That was the best way I get to see you. And I get to try to end now the proper way. I mean, I sat there one, one night inside the lobby of the high, which three years ago when we first started going to the show, you, you couldn't get through that show that, that lobby without knowing somebody or stopping somebody, somebody stopping me or anybody. Because there was a lot of commercial people there. There was a lot of people there. There was a lot less, lot less people at the show this year from a commercial perspective. Because we owned our little corner inside that lobby. It was very much the, hey, look, those are the commercial AV people versus the, the rezzi side of the business. But rezzi is doing a lot of like commercial people. And I think that's the best way to do it. So I think that's why we're starting to see a blur now. Like, you know, there's, it's not just, you know, commercial.

17:52We're starting to see a blur now. Like, you know, there's, it's not just, you know, commercial. We're having that like kind of happen. Like, I know some of the, some of the guys I used to work with when I was in a private university, you know, one of the integrators I used, he's a small veteran owned, you know, and he does a lot of rezzi, but he would do the higher ed as well. Just because like, it pays the bills too, you know, it's like, you know, by putting a projector and screen back in the day was a way to do it. And some, some companies didn't want to touch something like that. Right. Yeah, hanging back, hanging back, the old hanging back. Right. That was, that was it for some people. They were past that. But you got a lot of hungry, you know, like commercial rezzi guys that are working on bigger projects. And not necessarily just regular hanging banks anymore, both Renee and I were at the awards. And we saw a company like logic integration, who does a lot of high and rezzi step in and win awards on the commercial side for what they did on the commercial work.

18:57Yeah. Right. So you have, you know, you're starting to see the lines blurring have been happening for years with the IT companies getting into AV and then the AV companies kind of just not just being just strictly AV. Right. That's why I brought up the NAV conversation because that show was very much a broadcast show. Yeah, it was very much a network of people would go to that show. The movie companies would go to that show that AV companies weren't looking at installs. Right. But we're doing a lot. We and the meaning the integrators that I'm selling to are doing a lot of studios. They're doing a lot of things that were once just considered a video conference room. Now it's a step up. But it's not a full blown, you know, ESPN, you know, broadcasts, it's kind of something in between. And now you're watching. And I know because I've seen it and you've seen it on college campuses. You know, you have fortune 500s that are that are building studios within just because they're starting to push the message and that money for those things are now starting to come from places that we have not heard before.

20:07So you're starting to see HR get involved because they want to do more videos. So they're building studios for HR because the messaging to the 20 somethings is video versus an email. Yeah, right. They don't do emails very well. They hate emails. It's not a snapchat. It's there's their their born and raised and in in 30 second video. You know, short reels and snap and that's the influence that social media has kind of done. But it's changing the way we do business on what you visual side. It's pushing networks to not just be a VPN anymore. Like everybody wants everything on the same network. And when to do that and Joe was a big proponent of that, you know, putting everything on one network, not running the VPNs, you got to build out that network. That's our IT people that are really good at that. Man, have at it, have fun with that. We still have to put better lighting into places. We need to do better acoustics into places. These are things that the IT guys are not touching right because it's not enough to show product. So we have a we have a role.

21:08And I think we have a role in AI and I don't know that you know the dresses that I've done that AI is dependent on our audio. And it's a problem kind of conversation. But if you go into the cold. They want to know that Nancy sitting at the front right hand side of the grenade is sitting in the third seat from the left and the brandy sitting in center center back with the table right because it won't I once identify it because at the end of the day. And the corporate and their end user wants after all the conversations with AI that can be had. And I had Microsoft come at me with this because I was like, they want more than that. I'm like, they want to base things very mass logs needs of higher needs. They basically just want transcription and translation and it comes out of it like. I don't know what the Italian guy said and they want to copy what they said and eliminate everybody else's opposition. That's the core. And I don't know if I got down to what that was just audio. So he is an industry is good.

22:14I think that's you're going to get that same microphone that you get plugged into your computer and the computers. And it's not like that's the thing that's not going to be a lot of pain because the computers are still that one build that everybody gets. Nobody gets a better, you know, your corporate issued laptop is not going to have the horsepower to do some really cool things. Right. So I think ten years ago. Right. That's all right. Before we get too far away from the shows and all that's the brandy, Verne Nancy. From the main. You're our three manufacturer. Is Chris like accurate with what he's been seeing like is that like are you? Are you all seeing your ROI like is that like because I know that we talk about that all the time like we do. And we hear it. We hear it for the headma road shows as well as that you know our sponsors want to make sure that they're getting that. For you know all the stops that the we're making so like. Yeah, upper management is really big on that big time with with the ROI like because of being a smaller company we.

23:17We only have so much in terms of marketing budget. So like I have to submit forms, but I have to also say well who's going to be there. You know like what's the expectation in our day. Yeah. And then afterwards then you have to prove it by like okay what leads did you get what what actual business is coming out of it. I think that's what's kick for us the the regional shows is that you know I can go to an info calm which we're talking about shows getting expensive and all that we were at dinner and we were hearing somebody talk about you know an info calm it's 20 or 25,000 to hang your the name you know the Sony name up there to hang it up. It's ridiculous. I mean it's getting to point like they're these venues are pricing us out right to be. To be fair it's not necessarily just an info calm it could be union related it could be. And you know that's what yeah but like I can do a road show here in Kansas City where midwitch is probably never bringing their tech expo and almo is never bringing an e4 i'm going to get it.

24:22I don't say never I know. But if I bring one in you know which thing I when I started here I'm like I have to have a show in Kansas City I promise you there's business here we are a flyover that estates that people forget but we do spend money and you know but for me I can do it at one of my consultants offices. And I can bring in lunch I can bring in a happy hour I can bring in I can I can have 100 really great conversations over a two day period. And how do I put that ROI into a bucket and then go well but an info calm I talk to X amount of people but what did that translate for the ROI for me here in the Midwest so you know and then oh by the way what did you pay to send me to the show. I'm not going to buy customers didn't have to get a hotel or they came and got a free meal or a free drink or whatever and so to me it's like the regional ones is where I'm getting a lot of a lot of good out of it right so.

25:26Now info calm is always great but I feel like my customers that used to bring six or eight people are now bringing two or three or maybe they're only bringing one or two or consultants that are you know there's eight people in the AV group were sending one you know and so I've seen that. I've seen that trickle down CD was a prime example I had two of my two of my major integrators in the Denver area come some of them that are in the Denver area didn't even come to the downtown to see to the show right so I'm like I'm even losing my audience and a third a third of our booth is commercial and I'm not going to lie it felt very weird to talk to these guys that are mostly resi but they're also doing commercial and tell me about a project and I'm like now now why are you doing you know this studio but it's just weird but you know I think that coming out of COVID a lot of people started doing that right like Joe said he was the first one to start doing shows no they've been doing shows but they were fewer and far between and they were Dallas and L.A. and New York it was those three cities and that was just always it now that had my road show became.

26:38Oh now that was my point bring it to the people like what are the most popular road shows Phoenix those secondary markets right not like as everyone oh we're into a road show oh wait you mean you're going to do something at your experience center that you have three of in the country right that's not a road show if you're just bringing people to your experience center. right not the people who did it great to start with was LaGron and they took the truck and they drove drove the the trailer around the country and just stopped that it bars all over the country. that's what Joe has high standards for that was it that was one of the inspirations for us because it was like oh crap they're stopping anywhere there's a customer yeah it was like okay now we can't do 35 stop but we can do eight you know and the worst show we did was mine L.A. was the single worst show we did.

27:44traffic traffic. Well so it's a record because there's 25 shows in L.A. every other week and well and it doesn't matter right like I said I have four invites just for next week for road shows I have probably 20 on my calendar in the next six weeks between all the two weeks and I have to I have to I have to chase them. I have to chase them. That's different to me in your joke. You do kidding me I got a knock on doors and can I commit your party please. I have to have that again I also have live between live events digital signage you know commercial like. We're not we're not even scratching the surface of all the other verticals and all the other road shows that they're doing. The digital signage ones are out there and I can't I can't attend half of those right you have experiential stuff going on with T.E.A. and that I go to one and that's the I.A.P.A. one down in Florida.

28:44I'll be there and I found a V.P.A. and I take people around for that because there I can the people that are working on the experiential side I. They're doing very crazy stuff and I may have a product in my in my bag of tricks that works for that crazy project they're working on epic universe or they're working on. So here's a question for some some project in Dubai I'm. I got to figure it out and if they don't have to be on like right back to my brain. I might may or may not on a consultant company in Dubai so if you would like to a project in Dubai as Chris said you may reach out to me I'm happy to help you out there. But but here's the thing so what's the answer quit doing because if I were a salesperson right like and I made or by the way I guess I'm. This is something for Brandy Renee Nancy to answer. You can take a day off to go stand behind a table and talk to anywhere between 10 and 40 people and you probably already know three quarters of a many way.

29:53Right that's not the best use of your day must be honest right. It might be now granted it does there are things that facilitate the relationship so I don't want to take away from that there are times where you do the whole thing and then you have the drinks after and that goes okay so but. And then it has one and then so and so has one and so and so has one so and so has one. So your prime example of what you're saying I had a I had a conversation with you a couple years ago at info comm or at ISC and then I come to visit you in California and that led to a conversation which led to other things right. The show that we just went to in that I was at in Denver that will double animal style. So the Denver show the it all came down to two things me going to the award show and discovering that there were people there that I needed to see anyway and I happen to be in the same place at the same time awesome and then dinner which by the way happy birthday Renee.

31:05We are not going there so you know you a lot of times the show is is the background for me it has to be because when it comes to the tech I can talk to tech right the same way that I can take a person to go see brandy's. And then I can get that person to a dinner and pick out what their idea is then they can tell me about their project then I can figure out all right you're looking at something a little bit more involved because that five minute conversation where I take them to a booth is one thing they'll look at the gear wow this is awesome give me an hour with that person where I can get their attention and I can figure out what it is that they're looking to do with their project and maybe it's evolved. Beyond just a simple USB camera now we're looking at PTZ cameras versus you know what they would they were envisioning now they need to maybe maybe I can influence that maybe I can tell them that you know that situation requires something a little bit more heavy duty of a camera than just a standard us.

32:10So I know you're you're given the quality over quantity or 100 times all day and night. Is it the same thing it's just the same people you see everywhere or you can you get what I'm saying but you know what though like I think there's not sorry I'm jumping in on this but like I feel like you're. Yeah it's my show so yeah you can pretend it's your show. Oh by the way ladies and gentlemen Murphy Daly is here with us. Hi Murphy and at some point I'd like to answer Joe's question. Yeah sorry. Yeah actually you know what Brad I'm really tired it's because I was just going to keep expanding so Brandy I'm going to let you go and then I'll see if I could bring mine back in because mine was as nearly as important I'm sure. So to answer your question Joe like at you know in my role I am very strategic in the show the shows that I choose to go to and might said my team to. I'm not going we're not going to every road check we're not going to everything we're being very strategic on the ones that we go to and the values that they're going to bring us.

33:15And we are actually doing in person visits and you know we're going to and use our appointments and we're doing those types of things because we find more value in that. Longer time that you give with somebody. And the reason you're on the golf course you can't lie to me for four hours on the golf course right right it's bending the time and getting the quality time and the smaller road shows are I do feel are more valuable because you. People don't feel as rushed to get through the booths because there's not as many things to see. And then you do a lot more you know kind of congregating at the bar after and like so there's a lot more of that personal time at the smaller road show than there is at the large ones. People rushing they're like I want to see what you've got to follow up and steal this away from Tim because I have to that at least once.

34:15What is your advice first and event like so we have to plan these things months and advance right. And then you go okay how what is your advice because you just said well I have to pick and choose I don't know this well. You do that at the beginning of the year that's why I'm not out of the road maybe we have something but the A.V.I.S.D.L. or the 4.T. has something two three weeks from us you have to pick one or the other because you can't take that sales person away for that time and you got to pick one or the other right. I can tell you the best thing is like in for me because I am challenged okay we all know that I'm an operational nightmare. So for me I need an email these are going to be the dates of our rojas for this year and I need that early. Like because I'm in my decisions and my budgets are getting done in November and December. There is a distributor that I've done nothing with because they did not give me a marketing plan until like June.

35:19So they did they're not getting crap the earlier you get me dates and I can put it on my calendar and I can strategically plan for my team. Okay and then also here's another thing like I'm going to throw Nancy because I think Nancy needs to talk next. If you want to talk about like she was at the Buffalo Road show. Yeah. Literally just like today man may I out you Nancy. Can I get a clip of our recording and it's already out there and using opportunities based on okay where there is many people you want to show up. No. But talk about a company that said we're going to do the best we could with where we and then now you got your putting stuff out you're doing this we leverage this you like. Is there also a sense of making the like I don't say making the best like is there responsibility to the person who's there to leverage West there as well.

36:26Is that makes sense that the person that is there at the like Nancy is a good. Like you that we just did that today. Yeah. Can I get a clip of our thing and I sent it to you and it was posted like two hours later. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've got to take that opportunity to take charging. That's what I tell my team all the time. Yeah, I was going to talk about that. I don't know what I need to like start post and like show what you're show where you're at show what you're doing and get excitement around it. Can you engage and tag the people that you're with and engage with them. But also, and this is. Yeah, but sort of engage people because someone. Exactly. We have to create your baby. Here don't you. When he's on the show. I'm not the great dude. I am not the creator, but I did take a selfie with one of the creators at at CD. I think he was there.

37:31Okay. Johnny moll was like Johnny moll was at CD. He was one of the founders of that. Yeah. Well, like I was saying is that people like even on my team all they do is they'll just repost and it's like no. You got to have some type of message along with it so that it stands out. That's your opposite direction of that. I will not post what I'm there for. I will post all the wonderful things about what I saw. What I. Who I'm there with and who I'm got to see. But I will not because what I bring back the information I bring back is specific to what I write in the report that I hand over to midwitch. So I don't necessarily will will give that report out on LinkedIn. So I'm going to do a job on the LinkedIn posts are to basically I am random awareness for midwitch. If I'm somewhere I am attached to midwitch being there. And that's how it's seen. And that's what matters is that I am up against other people that are much bigger than me. There's companies that are much bigger as a distributor than me. And that's just the fact that the way it is.

38:35It's a small college versus a large college right. So every time I'm out every person I see everybody I get to take a selfie with. You know it's it's putting midwitch in places that you know we maybe weren't a year ago. And that's part of it when we don't have a budget for brand awareness and there's not a real big. A brand awareness push you don't see which commercial. So that's kind of like. That's kind of a side hustle role for me for them. Yeah, same for small manufacturers too. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it is just being there and showing that you're part of the conversation. Yeah. More so. That's that's equally important. You have to have a marketing cap when you're dealing with you know with some smaller. Some smaller companies like. Staren was just a Midwest Indiana company, you know for many many years. And when I first got there you know to post on social media was new to them they weren't really doing that. So to have a presence to to kind of say hey we're going to be at.

39:38You know the ABSPL National Sales Meeting and take pictures that I was there. Or my own national sales meeting we used to have that in the warehouse of you know inside Staren. And this year we took it to New Orleans brand he was there and one of the things that I did was. We had all manufacturers there they were doing a show like kind of like a mini road show for us because our whole team was there. Because I was in New Orleans I called the buddy of mine that worked for the Saints has said come down and take a look. And now there's conversations about us you know if we're going to have a national sales meeting in our in our. The manufacturers that we carry are going to be there for a day or two. Let's bring in some some of our customers which are the integrators and let them bring in their customers. And that's also very specific when you're talking about forte lives and an EVIS PL 5 those are very specific. Invite only for their folks so you're if you are a brand or manufacturer at those you're going to be visited by a. A SPL salesperson who is going to bring their customers to your booth so your conversations are very different than.

40:42And an info com where you're just hey look at all my stuff the your your cognizant of who the people are Joe was at A. The ISPL's vibe in California obviously that made it it was close to Joe Joe was there I told Joe is going to be there and we did the we got some in and out. What else I went there with a purpose to go there and then I met with more cocks in the next day and got to go have some dinti phone and then some with him and chat about conversations about XCG projects that he's working on and where they're at. Then we got there we you know at a great meal but we also do is to catch up and find out where they're at because that's an entirely different group within a VIS PL that operates together but different so understanding dynamics a lot of times that conversation Joe you know understanding where you're at with your team and where we're where you see a is and doing all that's also that's part of my job is to know where you guys at because every integrator that's going to be going there and and pitching to you you know. I want them to carry our products and and be able to confidently say that but if I know that Joe is not the market for something it makes it easy for me at least I'm not sweating bullets wondering what's going on.

41:53So going back I mean it's Chris I mean it sounds like you were going towards saying that like even though it's the same people you're seeing there is still value in it because like in my case in my case like I so I always go to the A. V. I. T. summit when it comes here to New York it's a great little it's a great little show which I don't because that's very much if you're not a sponsor you can't go right that's that's their own like structure with that whole thing and there are there that's been a like a dissuading thing for for for people and you know but I still get to see like I and I get to see some of the A. V. people I need to see but this year I brought my two other guys along with me so it's not going to be a lot of things. So it shows are great for that right that's all kudos to you for doing that because not everybody has a budget to take people to Vegas Orlando right and using the road shows to take your folks there to get them into the conversations is 100 it's so valuable because if somebody's having an issue with a particular you know if you over IP issue they may find somebody and get a name in a face to with the company that's so important especially as on-site technical people.

43:06Because after like years after years these guys have like never had that face to face interaction so it's like that was my goal coming in was to get them into our into our world you know so that way can I ask you a question now Tim sure even though it's my show but yeah you can ask me so we know so we were in the side room we had we had the VIP room right. Did your people so to us and sorry oh crap I know we sorry VIP summit it was a little bear in the back room it's called yeah though I agree I was not ideal you know it was bear in the back room. So as us we go there for promotion we're there to work right we are just like everybody else on this call when you are head my leadership you're there to work that's the truth right.

44:07It was you know we didn't get the traffic everybody in the front room got. Yeah I can a lot that's the truth right and by the way I apologize to a thing you know what a better booth location next year might be nice. I put it in my I put it in my survey my. So that to say what did your people because we you and I look at it different because everyone here on the call is looking at this differently than the attendee just because we go my sales force only got so much doesn't mean the attendee didn't get more. Yeah and that's why we have really so Joe that's hard to play an answer behind it is like Tim what if you're two people think they had a great time and they got to they got some great ideas from the manufacturers that were there even ones that we don't do regular business with or like you know and that's the other thing too like I give it to Panasonic you know and you know they are a mevics you know they you know it's.

45:19Name of the day most name of the day name of the day. They you know I have a great relationship with with the team over there and we just don't do that much business with them but we're constantly talking like it but you know sharing ideas and like you know they're checking with me see how how I'm doing and my guys went by and they talked to them because they were there and they talk to Sony was there and you know so they got a lot out of it and I let them have free reign with where they went and they came in like there were a couple times they came back to me Joe like while we were you know being bored in the back room. Yeah reporting back with this is like oh this is really great we saw this is like we should get this to demo this and like so okay by the way I'm going to do this right now the two people you have had go there when you please have an email me because I want them on my podcast.

46:20Okay here's the thing here's the thing we and maybe all the listeners of this podcast in my five we talk from a point of I'm going to call it point of privilege our point of view is not our listeners point of view either yeah yeah right we we have you know five thousand listeners and we're talking oh well this well there was like no we actually don't know the point of view of those. Actually 10 right and Joel I would say yeah no and Joel is a is a literal rookie to the AV industry he we just hired him like July 1st so he is walking to be the next and he has he had middle minimal AV experience and that's what kind of what I was looking for I was looking for somebody who. Who had an understanding like he's a comp-si major so he already like had the technical background I just want somebody that we can get into this role to expand.

47:28But and let's not lose what I just said because I'm a genius but well you are the doctor is now yes it does say but here's a thing we're on this podcast as people who I know the listeners are listening to us. As the experts right they they came to Corey Moss years ago listening to this random rag tag people but the fact is we're speaking from our point of getting in anywhere anywhere we want and we have a very different point of view. What do our actual listeners what do the attendees actually feel where I'm sitting here going okay Nancy well yeah we didn't have the attendance at Buffalo because there were two Toronto shows next week right and we were going to get the Toronto people driving down because they had two shows to pick from the following week.

48:31And then and I had guys drive four and five and six hours from South Dakota and North Dakota to Omaha because we don't get any shows in the Midwest so. Exactly go. So there's but and that that's the but like so this show and my show. So I always are we just speaking to each like where is the voice of the people like what what are actual customers is what goes right back to none who was talking about you shows up his time is better spent spending two hours at dinner. Then the one hour of the show except for the hour right got you in and out and you all you can. What's I mean I think that's what everybody's been saying about the quality of time of and you get that time where they're sitting down at a meal or having a drink or whatever you're doing and you're building that relationship you're building that trust you okay well I feel like telling you here's what we're working on in the future Chris right or you know what have you versus any other boots.

49:33I'm going to go out to my next book tour in 10 minutes you know well how do you break down that barrier and like so Murphy is on the call to so Murphy welcome yeah. Show but here's things so you better projects. Yes the whole thing is when you're dealing with like how do you get the voice so if anyone doesn't have a voice is the project people you notice that. Yeah yeah but how do you get the voice of the person who isn't the boy like the like if you're sitting in a project meeting the people with the voice the CTO the finance guy. The Joe the president right but not the people who actually needs a voice they're not the ones they're too afraid to speak up. How do we bring those people up how do we make those people have the meetings with everyone else on this call. Because like Tim I'll go back to Murphy you can answer in a minute but in a second like same Tim.

50:34You need to have your two people have their voice brought up to this low. You know that what I'm saying yeah no I agree I think I think yet there are and I know I've put the call out before but I think we need to. Be more active you'd actually answer anything now goes back to Murphy all right five. Go ahead Murphy rules. A lot of rules. Working inside of an integrator a larger integrator some of the vendors will come by and by lunch and train people right that's pretty common I believe so. I still have an any seed blanket from from one of those demonstrations so I got to meet the vendors that way I got to meet people that way but. That's an everybody and and everybody situation that's that's very local to find a way for.

51:39The project managers for the. The extra that's the work in the project managers the people behind the scenes they're the ones who are doing the schedules are doing this the ones aren't seen but the ones that make everything happen how do you make those people have the voice to everybody else they have to be well well they have to be solicited right so the designers can. Or do they need to learn to stand up. Just throw it out there so you're saying that it would be a possibility for a project manager to say I want to go to info calm I want to go to. What is it that's where what hunter goes my project manager goes all the time because you said I need to be there that's higher ed higher ed actually invests in their people way more than the actual integrators do integrators I mean I don't know integrators my last one of the things I used to say I don't know if it's still true but I can't imagine it isn't that it's a parade of which shirt is it going to be now people will get a vacation when they quit because they're overwhelmed with too much work and they go.

52:51I can't do it anymore they quit they take a little bit of a break and then they get their next job where they're completely overwhelmed again until they can't bear it and then and so it's a parade of shirts which sure today that my Nancy has a smile Nancy has something to say on this yes excellent here yeah. No it's just funny because we always say that you know like you'll see people and it just has to do with the different logos but it's the same the same person you know that you deal with and that's why I was just laughing is because I think about that many times I know people. That in particular I think it's true so project managers and the different expertise on the project teams are like that too so that is to say they're so that's the same characters and they're so freaking busy they are not set free to go get trained so that's why they have to be solicited like a bring me lunch have a coffee come and have a stay in your office while you're managing the calls and doing the things on the software you can have an hour to maybe join the call.

53:58It's not it's not easy for people that like myself who recently moved into sales in the last two years maybe simply I was more on the. I was more in the technical side in the past or I was in the on the marketing side for a sales person to maintain their CTS is so difficult I literally just went for absent training to get absent certified so I can get some credits there. But I get more sales training which aren't CTS training you know and I'm on the road how am I supposed to do this so I got to sit and do the half hour you know the one hour trainings for a point five credit to get my CTS renewal training. So what I do is show up to the head my education summit at a VIX at info comm and you get 12 are used every year which make sure that you get all 30 you need within all three years.

54:58So there you go. Yeah always be closing. Always be closing. Always be always all right. Well so but but that's the thing I mean if you're talking about how to joke you're talking about how to get the people who are underserved from the trade shows. I don't see a way except to maybe do a people sitting. Through a video training if you're lucky and have something that people really want to know this is something that I. I have on my list of things to do. I think do you think there's also the opportunity that like as shows evolve that there becomes more value in like project managers getting involved because like like edge calls is this is like actually a great example of that because like that used to be like you had more like the IT side people or like more of the teaching with teaching with technology like learning management type people. That was that show but now it's growing into like more of an AV show or it's adding in the AV people to go along with that.

56:07Do we think like as it goes like that might be something like that you a PM could have. Maybe you feel the PM's are like very overwhelmed because of their workload and if you take them out of that workload when I did the training like taking them to a show like actually makes that even worse right it compiles because they've missed a day now now you and I have spent some time in Focon Brandy and rest of you all we said hi and I'm an extremely extroverted person I love going out there I'm energized but when I'm there. I have to keep doing the work right I'm not at the show see you later I'm still taking calls going over to take a meeting making sure I get up at whatever time to do that and I still got to catch it up in the evening so that's reality. But if I can challenge you on that Murphy yes. That's all this like like doesn't stop at our show like if you look at my October coming up I'm going to be in Denver then I go to Dubai and then I come home for safe and then I go in Focon American Latina that I'm home for two days then I go back to Dubai like I still have a full time job them to work in the middle of the night.

57:29That's what we are that's what we sign up for. So it comes back to the now granted the people who are the daily people aren't that right I get that many of us on the call here are the knowns well actually I take it back. I'm not a nancy brandy merchant like you Chris you have sales people are doing exactly the same as you right like quotes are still getting done everybody right if you're in sales but the end users I don't know like so. I just I just sit here and wonder how much of our industry is built around. I'm doing a philosophical moment here this is this is this is a spear chat GPT when Chris Kelly cuts this for his social media take this moment and make it social media not just kidding.

58:32I think the term is let that's a clip or let's clip that is that it is that's the AI will do it for us. So yeah that's a clip all right so no but the thing is is as we go here and go okay I'm talking from our end user point of view we're all talking from sales point of view we're all here but the fact is 95% of the listeners of this podcast are not the people we're talking to or from our point of view. Listening because they're going up but there it's let me phrase it it's not their daily life. Murphy you are right there with with okay our project managers have these things like like but we're talking from oh I don't have this I don't have that and here is who's showing like but our people they're the ones that are showing up every day doing the work maybe or maybe not even get a day off to go to the end of the day.

59:33Off to go to the road show. Yeah right like we're talking about we're sitting here talking about who's going to show up to info comm I see as you cause in a lot and then you got the second okay then there's road shows and we just we came into the show assuming that if you couldn't go to any of those then you got to go to a road show. That is not the case. You maybe even you couldn't even get to a head my road show even if you worked at the college we hosted it at yeah because you still have to serve the classes that we're going on yeah and if you even look at consultants their hours are billable so it's not like they can easily be able to go to events and things. So what's the answer everybody else stops all their road shows and every vendor just supports the head my road show. I'm all sponsor us. All right Tim. Instead of road shows that the answer we all agreed on now it's time to drop him out.

1:00:37Yeah just to have a big train just a big train of road show cars just just a big. I'm going to have my heck of a bus my argument is you need to have them on the west coast and you need to have them in western Canada so when's that happening yes absolutely. Western well Western can well I thought Vancouver was happening. We're working on it with just trying to get the piece and what about San Jose or. San Jose will happen. Okay. You got to let me know give me a heads up no work please coming well it's not San Jose but Berkeley's oh Berkeley Matt yeah yeah that's that is in the works so. Okay let's let's give some final thoughts here before we we cut out because we're we're at. We're already at an hour here Joe this was a great conversation and I I can't I don't I don't need this to be a.

1:01:37I don't need this to be a quarry to part episode so we'll. Yes you did and Tim did again yeah Chris thank you so much for happening here with us today I know we kept you probably a little longer than you were anticipating but your presence was very much welcome as always. Thank you and to wrap up the conversation on shows you make what you can add to show us right and you do you can't have that out of your shows there are been there there's time I go into places where I'm using a show. As my as the reason to be there and I'm going to see you know handful of customers but then I'm staying the extra day because I'm going to prospect the area or I am going because. Before I can actually meet with Joe because Joe is not out of road show or not on the golf course so I can have conversation with Joe and I have in in and out at proper in and out place not a rolling in and out right where I can celebrate birthdays with Renee three months after her birthday passes feature the finer things about Asian food.

1:02:45Which is fun but you know those things are serendipitous like those type of moments Tim that's what you hope for right and you never know I have to cast a wide net and what I do whether it's being at one you know major you know trade show and then a handful of smaller road shows and then doing the integrator shows I work the same way as the manufacturers do right where I got to be there and I got it in front of customers. You know I'm a one man shop so when it comes to that parents others and I'm on the road typically most of time by myself and when I do have partners is because they're it's their sales territory right so if I have somebody in the Colorado area I'll be with them and they'll be at the show with me. But I'm flying in with that purpose and typically it's you know there is a purpose to do it and it's not just to go take a selfie which my LinkedIn portrays but yeah I mean that's that's part of it. But I wish everybody you know the I wish that everybody can go out and experience as many as those shows as possible not just from technology to go see what's out there because the technology does change it's not always the same.

1:03:55We need we need a new thing not just the AV selfie we need the A.V. behind behind the AV selfie talk a little bit about it right yeah. Yeah well some of those things you can't talk about right. You know you may end up dancing on a bar at the end of the night you never know what may happen. You would want to talk about that exactly so you know about that. We did it that's not true. Listen I've never seen that happen and I cannot say that I've ever witnessed that either but you know and I'll say Joe way has has you know I he's always kept his feet on the ground never on top of the bar. That's why well okay so maybe I did why Joe admit to that sort of stuff so you know I forget who I'm dealing with thank you so much for having me I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks Chris take care have a good one and Jim let me know when it when it airs will do Monday Monday. Yeah take it. Bye Chris thanks for being here. Hi Chris.

1:04:55This is number 14. All right folks. I think you have to be said. For a moment Joe has the con. Yeah I do and here's why I don't know I don't know if that was the right one. It was it was almost exactly. I don't know if that was the right one. I don't know if that was the right one. Oh my six seven years ago that I met Tim Benwar in person for the first time. Oh wow seven years ago. Yeah because my Facebook told me so. Yeah and I just want to say how awesome this journey has been. Thanks Joe and I would have. I'm like when we first met seven years ago like I couldn't imagine that this is where we are right now like. We were just talking about that like at that point like I was kind of at the office getting involved with Corey with the podcast and everything like that but I would have never envisioned.

1:06:04Being the host and keeping things going for all these years later. And you know it's thanks to you Joe like this is so yeah I appreciate that you know. And like Renee Renee you've been with us the next logist and we brought in Murphy and Nancy and Brandy and this the show is. This is this is what Corey would have wanted you know like this is how he still would have seen the show and he always. That same core group and actually we were always outnumbered by the ladies even back then too because usually me and him. It was usually me and him or like me him and Spence and then it was Kim and Mara and Renee and like so it was. And Gina and Gina would pop in and then yeah we have all sorts of other folks that would hang out and so we're carrying on a. Oh geez I mean. I'm sorry.

1:07:04I'm sorry. Thank you Joe and like I said it wouldn't we wouldn't be here without you sir so thank you. And now you can now you can be your closing now you know you would all Joe we do not trust you Dr. Joe I think he's trying I think he's just trying to keep his crew crew position for another week so. But truly thank you to everybody all the crew here I appreciate you day in and or weekend and week out and with all that you do and how you support us for for what we try to do it for all of our listeners. You know whether it's five or five thousand that are are chiming in here we appreciate that you're listening to us and we hope you get something out of it every week and we hope you just keep coming back for more. We are moving full steam ahead into September. We're moving full steam ahead of a golf class in his coming up September 28th I believe there's still space Joe there is bring a hundred of your close friends there you go party to place out.

1:08:09Exactly not everyone can golf if you bring a hundred of your closest friends but we would have a great time if you did that's true you would just line every three. I'm sure we can find space for everybody. So all right well we'll close up shop here and there's lots of others head my dot org higher at a V dot com all the socials go and find us and listen to us like subscribe follow the whole nine yards and as always until our next adventure.