Postpartum tradeshow departed

Our largest tradeshow of the year is over. I should be clicking my heels in the air, but I too tired.

For the event I'm the shirt buyer, event coordinator, produce buyer, travel agent, social director, exhibit installer, and exhibit break downer. I do it all with a lot of advanced planning and a lot of help. I'll take volunteers but I'm not afraid to hire as need be.

And I'm not talking a 10' x 10' booth. Our booth is 20'x30'.

I'm stuck with a booth my predecessor had made. It's eye catchingness is completely offset by its uncompromising girth in shipping and required feats of brawn in installing. To ship, it takes up an entire 18 wheeler with no room to spare. To install it takes an entire 8 hour day.

My shipper threatens annually not to ship it again. Luckily a year tends to soften his memory and he still shows up to help crowbar it back into his truck. My installers change every year with the location of the show. Apparently there's no virtual water cooler with the exhibit installers. They, the unknowing, show up wiser by the day's end.

When I started with the firm, I thought I knew tradeshows. It turns out I only knew how to show up. Every year I learn more. Every year I learn more questions to ask.

It's over for now. I wonder what I'll learn next year.