Overheard on the Showfloor
By Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/1/2006
"Gary (Shapiro) is an independent show organizer masquerading as an association organizer. The only difference is the tax status."
–Galen Poss, Hanley Wood Exhibitions president and Society of Independent Show Organizers chairman, on the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Assn., during the SISO CEO Summit (Charlotte, N.C., April 2-5)
"It's not up to us to be the WTO (World Trade Organization). It is up to us to represent good marketplaces for buyers and sellers."
–Skip Farber, MCF & Associates president, on visa issue, at the SISO CEO Summit
"We lost about 10,000 square feet of Italian exhibitors and gained 100,000 sq. ft. of Asian exhibitors. We were willing to make that trade."
–Advanstar Communications' CEO Joe Loggia, on MAGIC Marketplace's European exhibitors being concerned about Asian exhibitors, at the SISO CEO Summit
"I went to my first tradeshow at the age of 16. I fell in love with pipe and drape."
–Jack Powers, in3.org director, at the SISO CEO Summit
"You go out of town, you hang out with people you don't know, and stupidity accelerates."
–Kevin Mellott, president of ERASE Enterprises, to a crowd of meeting planners at the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Assn. Intl. Affordable Meetings Mid-America general session (Chicago, March 29-30)
"They told me to come back another day."
–Todd Federman, of One World Natural Soaps, relaying a conversation he had with a security guard at an Anaheim Convention Center parking lot during Natural Products Expo West (Anaheim, March 24-26)
"I thought I knew where I was going, but I ended up at organic beef."
–Amanda Messen, of Flora, at Natural Products Expo West
"I'll take three of each, because I have cousins."
–Teenage girl, at Stretch Island Fruit Leather booth at Natural Products Expo West
"Europeans are not so crazy, like Americans."
–Global Pet Expo attendee Johan Deckx from Belgium, on the popularity of gourmet pet products in the United States (San Diego, March 23-25)
