Trade Shows

Exhibiting at trade shows was a key way for high technology companies to get their products into the eyes of potential customers during the telephony “bubble times”. They were often an integral add-on to discussion forums on the latest developments in telephony technologies. Everyone attending these shows wanted to learn more about IP applications, and some of the biggest established and fastest growing firms would send their Chief Technology Officers, or CEOs to speak. It was the World Economic Forum of high-tech and it was generally held in Atlanta or Las Vegas. These were the locations with large enough facilities to accommodate the thousands of people who attended and the hundreds of firms that exhibited their products there.

The New Booth

No longer a fledgling start-up firm, it was now time for us to take the big step to the IP Forum in Atlanta. We hired an events company to build a new professional booth  – it was 20 feet by 20 feet and cost almost $30,000 – a huge expense for us at the time. It came complete with custom cabinetry, a small meeting room, and comfortable carpeting. Laptop computers ran looped power point presentations. Special lighting created a professional mood. No ordinary booth, this was our ticket to industry success.  

Since the booth would be set up by Atlanta’s professional installers (the “roadies” of the trade show set), all we really had to do was show up. So why spend big bucks on expensive accommodation? We chose a budget friendly motel, accessible, but not close to the convention centre.

Our Motel

Our motel turned out to be more than a bit disappointing. It was located between two noisy interstate highways. Co-founders Tim and Rick had always shared a room to reduce costs. They were assigned the larger “executive suite”, which oddly was surrounded by heavy chain link fencing with a padlock key entry. Looking out of my small dirty single-windowed room, I noticed a steep incline down to the interstate highway and also a high chain link fence just a few feet away from my window. I noticed as well that the other side of the property adjoining the second interstate highway also had heavy fencing. Indeed, the entire motel was fenced in. It felt like a prison annex.

Unfazed, we passed the night trading scotch-fueled strategies while battling the roar of the interstate traffic. None of us got much sleep, but in the morning Tim and Rick emerged ready and eager to go. I was merely vertical. I guess that the excitement of owning a successful growing business must have filled them with extra adrenaline and pushed them on. It was not infectious.

Before we left, we couldn’t help but notice the graffiti on the “executive suite” door – “Lucy” it said in bold block letters. It wasn’t there when we huddled in that room the previous evening. I half-joked that it was a cosmic nudge from Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. How did those graffiti artists get into the “executive suite” lair? And how did they do it without us knowing? Joking aside, the strange graffiti and the chain link fencing now seemed a little frightening.

That morning, Tim made a surprising but happily-accepted announcement. He had booked six individual rooms at a downtown hotel close to the show location. No shared rooms, no padlocks on the doors, comfy beds and soft pillows. After years of bootstrapping and saving money at low budget motels, something had shifted. “We are on the cusp of a rocket future”, said Tim. And I believed him.

Success

The second night was the end of the trade show. It had been a successful couple days for us. Despite the fact there were thousands of vendors, many people somehow found our new booth and were very interested in our product. The response was exciting. And when John Chambers of Cisco dropped by, it was spine tingling. This was a time of start-up buy-outs, something we all dreamed might happen. When Chambers appeared, we felt like we had just won the lottery. But hope and reality don’t often mix (see future article).

Blind Willie’s

This first show in Atlanta was memorable for another reason. For that event and every other time we attended a show there – and there were many times- the temperature was HOT! Atlanta temperatures were always high, and the humidity made it even more unbearable for Canadians. HOT-lanta we called it. It was always unbearably hot.

After this first HOT-lanta show ended Tim said we should stay over another night to celebrate and unwind. I quickly came to experience the company creed: “Work hard, Play hard”.

Rick was the Chief Entertainment Officer for “downtime”. Wearing his trademark glow-in-the-dark bowling shoes and Hawaiian shirt,Rick felt it necessary to introduce us to his favourite pastime – music. Not just any music, mind you. The Blues. According to Rick, HOT-lanta was a bubbling inferno for the blues.

We packed into a cab and Rick instructed the driver to go to Blind Willie’s, a small bar where people sat close together by the stage and listened to blues entertainers who played there every night. Ever-popular this bar, we had to stand in a line that snaked around the corner. Ever-enterprising, Rick charmed folks by buying the crowd Molson Golden (the Canadian beer). When the beer was being distributed, Rick discreetly slipped the door man a Ben Franklin bill. The two then slapped backs as if they had known one another for many years and we were enthusiastically ushered into the bar.

I’m not sure who the entertainers were that night, but they were fantastic. And even before we had consumed several scotch (yes, scotch in a blues bar), the place came alive with clapping, shuffling, and swaying. Rick couldn’t sit still – he loved the blues- and with every beat he was standing, moving his body and clapping til his hands were red. His eyes darted around the room and he noticed a woman sitting at a small table with her boyfriend. She was really into the music while her beau sat almost with his back to the stage. Rick yelled “I’ve got to dance” and he shuffled over to their table.

I don’t know what Rick said to the boyfriend, and honestly I was expecting an in-room brawl, but the two men smiled at one another and then the woman got up and danced with Rick. Rick then went around the room, pulling people from their chairs to dance. It was a dizzying display of showmanship. Before long, though, the scene resembled a dance-a-thon as people happily bumped into one another in the tiny room. With everyone up dancing, it was unclear who they were dancing with, but the mood was electrifying. Rick had become the King of Blind Willie’s.

Sometime after the fifth encore, I suddenly realized we were only four hours from airplane takeoff to Ottawa. Tim gestured to Rick that it was time to go.He found his doorman buddy and soon we were racing by cab back to the hotel.

What Had Happened?

While we managed to make it to the airport on-time and boarded our plane for home, there was something that stayed permanently with us. HOT-lanta wasn’t just a city with a tortuous climate, and Lucy wasn’t just some frightening graffiti art. It was a moment when we stopped being a scrappy startup company and started being a real industry player. We’d traded barb-wired fences for ballroom booths. And somewhere out there were Rick’s flickering bowling shoes, glowing in the dark, and rocketing us to the incredible highs of high tech success to come.