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Tip: With ALCA’s Green Industry Conference fast approaching, Eric Spalsbury, CLP, offers several timely tips for getting the most out of time spent at conferences and trade shows.

 

Want to make sure you get what you pay for when you attend a show or conference? Everybody does, right? The following are some trade show tips from Eric Spalsbury, CLP, at Heads Up Landscape Contractors in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

·         Do your homework. Decide in advance which sessions you think will be most beneficial. If you are attending the conference with coworkers, split up and cover more presentations. Take notes, get together, and share tidbits or high points from each of the sessions.

 

·         Show up on time. The keynote address and other popular presentations fill up quickly, and they are not nearly as enjoyable or beneficial when you are standing in the back of the room or sitting behind the projector. What your teacher used to say is true — up front is better. The further back you sit, the more distractions between you and the speaker.

 

·         Fill the gaps in the schedule with company planning sessions. Take advantage of your captive audience. Spend some time at the show reflecting on new ideas and planning how to implement them once you return home. Ideas and suggestions often flow more freely away from the office.

 

·         Two ways to walk away from the conference feeling the cost and time away from work were justified.

1. Network and take advantage of roundtable discussions, if available. Over the years, I have found that the cost of the conference is more than justified by the ideas I have gathered and the new friends I have made at roundtable discussions. The discussions may start out a bit slow, but with a good table facilitator, they can quickly turn into a unique, very open, and frank time for sharing best practices. GREAT STUFF!
2. Facility Tours — If the conference you are attending offers the opportunity to tour one of the leading local landscape companies, DO IT! These visits have never disappointed me, and I always walk away with a different or unique approach to doing the ordinary — oftentimes better and more efficiently! A simple idea or two learned here and implemented back home can, by itself, pay for the cost and time you took to attend the conference. Oh, and don’t forget to take your camera (be sure to get the facility’s permission before you shoot, though). As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words. Images are great reminders when you are trying to recall ideas.

 

By Eric Spalsbury, CLP

Heads Up Landscape Contractors

Albuquerque, New Mexico

espalsbury@hulc.com