TSEA Crash Course for the Green, Not-So-Green

Managing an exhibit marketing budget for the first time and don't know how much you should spend on your booth? Or, are you an old hand at exhibit management with lots of new staff and little time to train them? If you've got between $1,200 and $1,800, one place you could get a three-day crash course that promises to address these and other needs: the Trade Show Exhibitors Assn.'s Exhibit Marketing Institute.

This year's EMI will take place at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Providence, R.I. April 19-22. The price – which varies depending on TSEA membership status – includes 2 1/2 days of courses and workshops, along with lodging, lunches and a dinner on Wednesday, April 21.

Marc and Mim Goldberg, of exhibitor training firm Marketech, are the main presenters. Course topics cover factoring tradeshows into a company's marketing mix, budgeting, promotion, event planning, booth design, on-site logistics and performance measurement.

Janice Richardson, assistant manager of tradeshows and special events for Mannington, attended the last EMI and said she loved it. "I came away with tools that I was able to implement into our tradeshow program – one of which was the recent training of our sales force for tradeshow selling," Richardson commented.

The institute is offered annually and participants can earn continuing education units, counted toward TSEA's Certified Manager of Exhibits degree.