The European arm of a very large tradeshow company here in the USA has called me several times in the last few weeks to chat. I’m not naming them at this point simply because I am not sure what to make of this right now. Although they identified themselves right away, the questions they were asking made me a bit uncomfortable. “How many exhibitors do you have?” and “How many attendees do you think you’ll have?” and “What kind of response are you getting from exhibitors?” and the last really odd one: “Can you send us your Exhibitor Sales material?”

The last one pushed me way beyond my comfort level and I politely declined to do so, reminding them that they are a tradeshow company as well and that perhaps down the road they could be a competitor. So a few days ago I received an NDA by email to sign noting that perhaps a partnership for a European version of the Portable Media Expo would be an interesting discussion. I agree, but it’s an NDA, not a partnership agreement and enforcing something like this for me would be nearly impossible.

Chances are they may do a show similar to mine with or without me so it’s a discussion worth having. But the question everyone asks themselves when these types of things come up is screaming at me: what if I tell them the details about my show and they decide to do it without our company involvement? Like all partnerships, at some point you simply have to protect yourself as best you can and then jump.

Then there is the little issue of working on a European version of a show you haven’t even had yet in the US - somehow my gut says I need to prove the idea here first before I even consider partnering with someone to do it internationally. On the other hand, “striking while the iron is hot” proponents might argue to do it all now….

These are the kinds of decisions that could keep a tradeshow entrepreneur up all night…and I have enough of those nights already!