Staging shows in-house: mini trade shows offer chance to promote wares.

For Lyle Knudsen, staging trade shows is about building and cementing relationships.

"I sometimes shake my head when I walk through trade shows," says the vice-president of Equipment World. "You go through all the effort just to unfold a brief case and sit at a table. It just blows me away."

The Thunder Bay-based material handling, storage and packaging supplier considers themselves self-styled experts in staging their own in-house events.

"It's almost a culture for us," says Knudsen, one that is intended to not only promote the corporate side of the business and create product awareness, but create an ongoing rapport with vendors, customers and manufacturers.

Equipment World usually stages these events during the spring and fall, organizing a show to commemorate an anniversary in company history or to promote a new product line or a new selection of vendors. With 50 to 60 key manufacturers to deal with on a regular basis, there are plenty of opportunities.

The shows, which can lure in as many as 300 people, take various forms ranging from a boardroom presentation for a select few invited customers, to a grander 10-booth event pitched under a tent extending off their mare warehouse.

The responsibility for organizing a trade show depends on the geographic coverage area. A committee is struck from either their Thunder Bay headquarters or from their branch offices in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

It is their responsibility to co-ordinate suppliers and logistics.

Knudsen says the company devotes a lot of planning to these events.

"It's a big part of our business."

A key element in organizing or participating in a trade show, Knudsen says, is conveying a feeling of action.

"Never (have) a static booth," he says. "Generally we always try to have colourful and moving displays" such as featuring demonstrations of lift tables, operating forklifts and various types of material handling equipment.

Staff and invited manufacturers are dressed uniformly, sometimes with special-edition shirts, and name tags identify suppliers as "valued" members of the Equipment World team.

"We try to draw a lot of attention to our booths."

The in-house shows do not prevent the company from taking it on the road every year to participate in three or four regional and industry-specific shows, such as the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, and the Pulp and Paper Health and Safety Association.

Other than the usual trade show etiquette of not sitting stagnant in the booth, Knudsen prefers not to have a structured display, but an interactive one that is wide open and set up as a walk-through setting with aisleways to view the product displays.

"We spend a lot of money on signs, logos and banners, which are consistent. Image and consistency of signage is important."

Knudsen says the in-house shows also afford an opportunity for inside sales people, as well as parts and service staff to meet and greet customers or demonstrate their expertise with manufacturers at mini-training sessions.

"We get a lot of mileage out of these trade shows," says Knudsen. "We promote great friendships with our suppliers and trade shows do that.