(from an old post but the strategy is still sound)
Fastener Show Preparation
Are you getting ready for the Las Vegas Fastener Show? Do you have strategy? No, I’m not talking about which bar you are going to end up at by the end of the night (although, that too is a strategy – and it should be the Bourbon Room). I’m talking about what networking you are going to do. Do you have meetings already set up? Are you going with a stack of prints? Or are you on a search for a new supplier of some type of fastener product? If you aren’t thinking ahead, you lose. There is not a better place or a better vehicle to make business contacts than at the Vegas show. You’ve got to do a little thinking before you get there.
My strategy? I find a nice, comfortable seat right on the hallway that leads to the show entrance. I get to the show about an hour before it opens, sit down with a coffee and wait for the steady stream of suppliers and distributors to enter the show. I get there about 8:00 and stay till about 9:10 and then I enter the show and work through it. In that time period I have the opportunity to run into at least 100 people that I do business with, work with or want to do business with. Heck, I could work that one hour and the whole show would be worth it. I have made more contacts in that half hour before the show starts than a lot of people make throughout the whole show.