Hi ,

 

Spring sunshine hit us here in Oregon for most of last week. People fled to the coast and parks and the countryside. Some of it ill-advised due to the efforts to contain the pandemic.  

 

But. Rainy Oregon Monday morning now. That's okay, we walked the dog for almost three miles before the rain really hit. But now stuck inside otherwise. Coffee shops and restaurants closed. Banks closed (mostly). You know the drill. 

 

I've heard talk that the lockdowns, the closures, will continue for a couple of months. Maybe many months. No way to know. So what are you doing to keep busy, to keep your business going? I'm still working it out, frankly. The tradeshow industry has cratered, and the various prospects and clients I've chatted with are putting everything on hold. Everyone is waiting to see how it all shakes out, and I suspect very few companies will decide to push through capital expenditures at this point.

 

Having said that, it's a good time to buy. Not quite like the stock market, where you can buy stocks for a fraction of what they would have cost just six weeks ago. But no doubt builders, designers and manufacturers will have a lot of space in their schedules. Which usually means there is some incentive to be had by buyers.

 

From our perspective at TradeshowGuy Exhibits, we've decided to offer free shipping on anything from our Exhibit Design Search at TradeshowBuy.com for the foreseeable future. Maybe through 2020, who knows? Shipping isn't necessarily expensive, and hey, maybe it's not the best discount in the world, but not having to pay for shipping, especially for a couple of large wooden crates on a new exhibit might be worth quite a bit. 

 

This week on the blog and here in the TradeshowGuy Newsletter, a Coronavirus COVID-19 playlist, an introduction to Symphony, and a podcast/vlog that examines the year that was last week.

 

Soundtrack for this week's issue - what I'm listening to while writing and assembling this newsletter: The Monkees' "The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees," a fun 1968 album that saw a couple of big hits, but really was the last gasp of the group's original hit-making run.

 

12 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Exhibiting at Another Tradeshow. Maybe not the most obvious questions, but questions designed to get you to think a little.

 

Using Video in Your Tradeshow Exhibit. Some pointers on how to best put together an AV presentation that draws people in and gets them to pay attention.