Hello ...!

The big thing in my back yard this week was putting up a new hammock. Yup. And it's the lightweight, packable kind that you can take backpacking to sleep in instead of a tent. Purchasing that type of hammock was somewhat inspired by my nephew Matt, who does a lot of backpacking. Earlier this month he was in Yosemite with a friend, and they backpacked about 100 miles in 4 days. 25 miles a day? Yes, they're experienced and young and in good shape. Matt showed me several photos from Yosemite, including one showing his hammock set up between two trees about 50 feet back from a 4,000 foot drop into Yosemite Valley.

"I hope you don't sleep walk," I told him.

This week I posted two longer-form articles on the blog that I've been thinking about and working on for a couple of weeks. I figured publishing them back-to-back would appropriate. Hope you enjoy them.

One of them goes fairly deep into how I got into this tradeshow world and founded a business, and one takes a longer look at how I am currently using social media for personal and business purposes.

And this week's TradeshowGuy Monday Morning Coffee is inspired by a San Fransisco Chronicle columnist from the days of yore. You'll have to listen or watch to get the skinny.

Soundtrack and inspiration for this week's newsletter comes from Vertical Horizon's Burning the Days album. I"m not all that familiar with the band, but I have the CD and it's pretty good. In doing a little research, I note that the great Rush drummer Neil Peart plays drums on a three tracks, and wrote the lyrics to one track. 

Embrace the Tradeshow Marketing Learning Curve. Inspired by Isaac Asimov.

"Why Do New Exhibits Cost So Much?" Where we take a deeper look at what goes into a new tradeshow exhibit - and what you get from that investment.