INFORMATION FOR EXHIBITORS

I am so pleased you will be exhibiting at Confab 2010. You certainly are going to enrich the conference experience for those attending and I intend to make this an enriching experience for you as well. Let’s get down to business. Here is what we will be providing you:

• One full registration to all conference events and meals
• Discounts on up to two additional registrations to all conference events and meals
• Optional networking café table within the registration room Saturday afternoon
• Pipe and drape, electrical and WI-FI exhibit space throughout Sunday and Monday
• Half page advertisement in the Confab Directory that attendees take home
• Exposure on the Confab website beginning as soon as you give us the text and graphics
• Mention in various Confab promotional emails and social networking
• Access to Confab attendee registration list:
  • Before Confab: To invite attendees to your booth (no product promotion)
  • After Confab: To follow-up with product promotions (opt-out provision required)

And here is what we need you to provide us:

CONFAB REGISTRATION
Go to www.ConfabUSA.org and register your main man or woman now. Click on the [Register] button at the top left of the home page. Identify yourself as an “exhibitor-main registrant” and you will not be charged for all regular Confab events and meals, starting with our Saturday evening reception. If you have a second (or third) person have them register and identify themselves as “exhibitor-additional registrant.” The cost for additional registrants is only $400 per person. The reason we want you to register now rather than later is so we can list you with the delegates on the “Who’s Coming” page.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
A number of participants will be attending one of our two pre-conference workshops Saturday afternoon from 3:30 to 6:30. You may also register for these if you are interested. There is an extra charge for these workshops

HOTEL
As you can imagine, we are able to keep the conference costs down for attendees, thus enabling more to afford to come, by arranging with the hotel for a certain number of sleeping rooms. We’d appreciate your staying at the Silver Legacy Hotel during the conference. To obtain the special Confab rate, call reservations at 1-800-687-8733 and give them conference code “IMC10”

SATURDAY REGISTRATION
The Confab registration booth will be open at 2:00 pm Saturday afternoon in one of the Silver Barons. Please check in Saturday afternoon to pick up your name badge and then have your picture taken for the 2010 Confab Directory. This is one more way to reach your market. If the attendees don’t remember your name, they will surely remember your smile.

OPTIONAL NETWORKING CAFÉ TABLE
Saturday afternoon is when most people will register and wander around seeing colleagues and checking out the exhibitors. If you want us to set up a café table for you in the registration hall, let me know by emailing me at exhibit@ConfabUSA.org. You certainly want to be there for the Saturday arrivals cocktail party at 7:00 pm.

YOUR BOOTH
You will have an eight foot wide, six foot deep pipe and drape booth with three foot sides and an eight foot back. You will have a table and two chairs. Electricity will be supplied. Please confirm you are satisfied with your location.

You will also have access to our own Confab wireless internet throughout the exhibit area. Though the Silver Legacy offers their own property-wide Internet services, sometimes their wireless access in the Expo area has been inconsistent and Confab can not guarantee performance of the hotel’s wireless service.

SIGNAGE
Bring any signage you want. We will also have a universal sign 7 by 44 inches on the back drape for every booth. Tell us exactly the firm name you want printed on your sign. The shorter the name, the larger the font size.

SET-UP & TEAR-DOWN
Your booth will be ready for you by 7:00 am Sunday morning. I’ll be there waiting for you. The sooner you can set up, the sooner you can begin to showcase your company.

Confab concludes at 5:00 pm Monday. The last session begins at 3:45. We hope you will be able to stay until 3:45.. Since we take care of the booth tear-down, you will only have to pack up your equipment and materials. These must be out by 5:00 pm Monday. Please make your own arrangements for packing and shipping these out. The Silver Legacy Business Center can arrange shipping. Their number is (775) 325-7275. There is also a Kinko’s/Federal Express fairly close to the hotel.

BIZ TALK BLENDER
This year we moved the conference up a half day to Saturday afternoon through late Monday, instead of from Sunday morning through Tuesday afternoon. Our conference program begins with Sunday buffet breakfast at 7:00 am and the introductions of the exhibitors. The first session will be the BizTalk Blender networking session at 8:00 am. If your booth is set up by then you may find participating with the delegates in the BizTalk Blender gives you an early opportunity to understand our audience.

SHIPPING YOUR SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT
Since we are supplying the booths, that is one less item you have to ship. Let’s make sure your other cartons and containers find their way to you without creating anxiety. Send your shipment to arrive no later than Thursday, October 21 and address it to:

Silver Legacy Hotel
407 North Virginia Street
Reno, Nevada 89501
Attention: Confab Exhibitor Booth # [your booth number]
Your name and company name

Let me repeat: “Attention: Confab Exhibitor Booth #__”

Let me know how many containers or cartons you shipped, by what means and share any tracking numbers you can. Email me at exhibit@ConfabUSA.org.

The hotel does charge a ‘receiver fee’ for each box received, based upon weight and size. They will store your shipment in their Business Center. I will make arrangements for your shipment to be sent to the conference center Sunday morning, providing you let me know what you have shipped.

SECURITY
We will provide a secure storage area Sunday night for your items. The Exhibit Hall will be closed after hours, but you should properly insure your property anyway.

WEBSITE
We have a web page listing all exhibitors, but instead of just a splash of different logos, we want you to tell us about your product and how it is relevant to consultants. We post the first two sentences on the master listing and then include a “more…” link to an individual page just for you. This page will be on our website. The sooner you can get good copy to us, the sooner we can get your product in front of our web visitors. It’s up to you to get it to us. After you have given us your copy, check your page and make sure you are satisfied with it.

ADVERTISEMENT
You get a half page (4.75” x 7” landscape) B&W advertisement in the Confab Directory. But come on gang, put your marketing hats on when you design it. Half the ads in previous years didn’t say anything, or at least didn’t say why anyone would care about your product. We will be happy to help critique your ad if you want. Actually we’ll do it anyway, but you can ignore us. Ad copy needs to be a jpg file and in my hands by September 15 but why wait that long?

INVITATIONS TO OUR REGISTERED ATTENDEES
After the October 1 deadline is over for early bird registrations we will send an email to registered attendees . This will have your message inviting them to attend your booth. This is a marketing piece, to be sure, but it must not be a product promotion piece. Yes, that’s a fine line but we urge you not to cross it because it just might backfire with the attendees, and neither you nor I would want that to happen.

YOUR TWO MINUTES OF FAME
We want to recognize you in the Sunday morning breakfast where most everyone is present. We picked Sunday over Monday in order to get you visibility earlier in the conference. I will present your 2 minute message to the group, but you will write it for me. The earlier you get it to me (certainly before we get to Reno) the more masterful and convincing I can be. I’ll ask you to stand up, so make sure you plan to be presentable that early in the morning. I promise to do you proud.

BONUSES
If you have something you’d like to give away as a bonus—and we encourage you to do so—we’ll find time on the program somewhere most everyone is present to offer it. You need to plan this with me well in advance if we are to get any mileage out of it. As you know our program is always very full and time is tight, so we will have a large hook to pull you off stage if you get too carried away.

SELLING PRODUCTS OR MERCHANDISE
You are allowed to sell products or merchandise to our attendees during the conference, but only in the Expo Hall. Of course, you are responsible for all applicable sales taxes. If you have a book you want to bring we will sell it for you at our book table if you email books@ConfabUSA.org by October 4 with the title and price (rounded to the nearest $5).

FOLLOW-UP TO ATTENDEES
Naturally you will have the business cards of those you talked with during the conference, but in addition we will give you the email list of those who attended so you can follow-up directly to them. But promise us you will provide an opt-out clause and will manage it diligently.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S SOMETHING MORE! 
You can help us increase the number attending by letting your mailing list know about Confab 2010 and telling them you will be there. You can also help us by recommending Confab 2010 on your website, and if you do, let us know the link because we want to list your website on our appreciation page, http://www.confabusa.org/exhibitors-sponsors

THE FINE PRINT
Finally, though we certainly don’t expect any problems, you would expect us to be poor conservators of IMC if we didn’t have an agreement for you to sign. It will be at the registration desk to sign when you pick up your badge, or you could sign it now and get it back to me at 127 SW 186 Street, Normandy Park, WA 98166. It reads:

I agree on behalf of the Exhibitor to the terms and conditions set forth in the above document and confirm that I am authorized to sign this agreement. I agree that the Institute of Management Consultants USA and the Silver Legacy Hotel will be held harmless in the event that our exhibit property is lost, damaged or stolen. In addition, I will not sponsor any events for Confab attendees that will conflict with the published Confab schedule.

Agreed on this ________ day of __________2010

Signature ______________________________

My friends, you and I are going to have a great time making this a positive event for you. Please keep me posted on how you are coming along, and note again the deadlines in boldface above.

Michael Shays
206 242 5259
206 518 2236 (cell)
exhibit@ConfabUSA.org

Note: if you have not already been “white-listed” in my spam arrest account, please answer the spam challenge from me.