Archive of the 'Show Floor Zingers' Category

After a couple of hours on the floor, it was time for a break. As luck would have it, McDonalds is right in McCormick Place – these folks think of everything. If you think – yeah right just another rude fast food place. Well you got that wrong. I met Otis today. He was manning the cash register and he had a smile and kind word for everyone in line. When it was my turn he took my order and chatted while it came up. I asked about the pace starting tomorrow - would it be hard on them. He smiled and said that after the Chicago Auto Show this would be very nice. It is good to kept things in perspective. Of course, I had ordered something that had to be made fresh. I guess I looked tired after dodging fork lifts and Otis told me to go sit down, he would bring me my order when it came up. It as great meeting this gentleman, he was making the Expo better one person at a time.

Wow, there are people everywhere. The boxes are opened and the parts are coming together. I talked with one exhibitor running past me. Everything he had shipped had arrived. Well, everything except one box. As Murphy would have it, the missing box was the important one and he had to find it. When you think of it, all parts are important, but the missing one is the attention grabber.

You really need to be careful on the floor today. Forklifts, golf carts, and all kinds of high lifts are racing in every direction. The drivers are all connected with radios, walkie-talkies, and cell phones. They have schedules to make and equipment to move.

The show floor is a like an ant hill that has been kicked over. You have never seen such activity. I stopped by the S&C exhibit and talked with my friend Steven Strand. He says it is all under control. The pieces are falling in place as we speak – confidence and planning.

I stopped by the PES booth at the Expo to check on activities and found Pat Ryan and John McDonald working on some ideas for the coming days. Like everyone else, they are excited with the pending Expo.

The first person I ran into was Tommy Mayne. He is everywhere and he is excited. I don’t see how one person can be in so many places. Tommy said the last time the PES Expo was in Chicago was in 1993. That Expo holds the PES record for the most attendees. I remember it, I was there and it was awesome, but the 2008 is poised to surpass that one. So far the pre-registration is over 11,000! Tommy said, if you count dogs, cats, and passing political folks it is going to be huge by any standards.