I’ve always talked about how not being from the tradeshow business helped me build my tradeshows because I was always looking at things without thinking of how they “should” be done. Some of my weird ideas about what would make tradeshows better have worked out surprisingly well. Others have resulted in me saying to myself, “Well, now I see why no one’s done it that way before…”

Granted, lots of people don’t really understand how tradeshows work (how many of you organizers out there have heard the question, “So what do you do the other 360 days of the year?”). But I’m always on the lookout for ideas from people who aren’t in the business because they always provide a fresh perspective. A blog post about the re-design of the standard conference badge is an interesting read for anyone who badges their attendees.

At 38, I think I’m getting old. Case in point - I get more annoyed these days by how people dress for business events. My uniform for tradeshows and conferences I attend or speak at is typically a suit but no tie. It’s professional but not too uptight. It also tends to fit in with whatever anyone else is wearing so that I don’t feel overdressed talking to an exhibitor, for example, who is wearing the logo collar shirt and khakis.

Now, I live in Southern California where we dress more casually anyway, but the picture below drives me nuts. Notice the guy in the green t-shirt and flip-flops.

Are you kidding me? This conference is one my friend Rafat Ali from PaidContent.org is producing today and the photo is from the reception last night. This conference has some of the biggest names in media attending with nearly all of the speakers at the CEO level. Now, I’m probably going to find out that the guy in the photo who looks like he should be at the pool is “so and so - who just got 8 million in VC funding for his Web 2.0, social networking for houseplants startup” but for crying out loud - put on a sports jacket once in a while.

We get about a half-dozen calls before our tradeshows where people are asking what they should wear and my answer is always the same - business casual at the minimum. Perhaps I’m old-fashioned, but I still like doing business with people who dress appropriately for the situation. I think it says something the pride they take in themselves and their business.

In the past week, I’ve probably lost two exhibitors because I wouldn’t make a speaking spot quid pro quo for taking a booth at the show. It’s a very difficult decision, especially for a small company like ours, because every penny in revenue counts. But my belief is that if we take the stand now, even if it causes us pain short-term, it will increase the value of the event for our attendees, for our exhibitors, and eventually for the company when we sell in twenty years.

When attendees say they only come to an event for the networking, and attend the conference only sporadically or not at all, that’s a problem. When exhibitors say they only speak at tradeshows because a booth doesn’t give them a return, that’s a problem.

The conference content should be a major reason for an attendee to come to the Expo. A booth should return enough value for an exhibitor that it’s worth doing even without speaking in the conference. That’s the way it is suppose to work and if it’s not then we are doing some wrong and changes need to be made to make it so.

In some sense this is a philosophical decision - I don’t want to be in a business where I am stuck producing lousy content that I don’t feel good about promoting and selling to my attendees. But I also believe it’s a good business decision that 10 years from now I know I’ll look back on and be glad I made it. But right now, it’s costing us dollars and it makes me nervous.

Quoting one of my favorite movies, Wall Street: “You can’t get a little pregnant, son”

I just returned from the NAB show in Las Vegas. On the first day I decided to run my own little unscientific experiment to see how many of the exhibitors who scanned my badge would follow up with me. Most articles say only about 20% of the leads actually get contacted after a show. I’ll let you know what my percentage turns out to be.

Every so often I check back in on “my baby” EndurancePlanet.com, the podcast I sold a few months ago, and I have to say the new owners are doing a fabulous job. Their passion and deep involvement in endurance sports shines through in each episode and I dare say, the show is much better now than when I was doing it.

I’m thrilled for the listeners and happy that the quality has been taken to the next level.

I’m going to expand this blog a bit to things I find interesting online - but that still have some relation to the events, tradeshow and new media space. Here is my first such post.

Two days ago I went on to Orbitz.com to search for flights from Orange County, CA (John Wayne Airport) to Sarasota, Florida for some meetings I have in May. Then today I was reading an article at the San Francisco Chronicle website and the two ads for Orbitz that popped up around the article mentioned special rates from Orange County to Sarasota.

I knew this technology existed, of course, with browser cookies and such, but this was the first time I had seen it work this way - a customized ad on a totally unrelated website based on information I had searched for on the advertiser’s website a few days earlier. It made me a bit uncomfortable, but at the same time, I’ve never been a big privacy hound and actually find it useful to know that the rates for the flight may have been updated.

It hit home for me big time today that my steps really are being tracked all over the Internet. It’s fascinating and unnerving at the same time.

My brother Emile sent me an instant message this morning. He spotted a post on Valleywag that caught his attention and in light of my recent post about unconferences, thought I’d be interested as well.

Seems Red Herring is producing a conference where the speakers are charged $2,500 for the privilege of presenting - same price as the attendees.

With conferences like these, no wonder folks think the conference business is just out for a buck. I guarantee any speaker that pays $2,500 is going to consider it a ticket to promote their company and give a sales pitch during their panel - a total disservice to the attendees. The funny thing is, it seems the higher the conference price these days, the more likely it is that attendees will get nothing but ridiculous sales-pitch-infested content.

Conferences like these make us (show organizers) all look bad and I’m embarrassed to be in the same industry as them.

There is something that nobody is saying, that needs to be said, so I’m going to say it. Lately, it seems that unconferences are looking more like regular conferences and it’s starting to bug me.

For those of you who may not know, “unconferences” (as I understand them - feel free to correct me in the comments if I’m wrong) are loosely organized events with no set agenda, speakers or topics. The overall theme is understood in advance (technology, blogging, podcasting, etc.) but the topics for discussion are chosen the day of the event by the participants and everyone who comes is expected to participate. Except for vendors or companies. They can contribute dollars or space or food/beverage but are NOT allowed to talk because as greedy profit-centric enterprises they cannot help themselves from pitching their product and would inevitably ruin any discussion in which they were allowed to give an opinion. (I disagree with the premise although I understand the logic.)

In essence, the unconference is suppose to be the antithesis of a regular conference - regular conferences where sponsors are given exposure and bore the attendees with uninspired PowerPoint slides and sales-pitch-infested panels. Here, the attendees choose the “discussion leaders” (remember - no speakers) rather than the conference organizer.

The problem is that events like Podcamp NYC these days seem to have everything else a “regular” conference has. But because it’s called an “unconference”, they get to say things on their website like, “Unlike a regular conference where speaking slots are allotted only to the highest bidder, Unconferences are by you, for you.”

Nonsense.

Podcamp NYC has 38 sponsors, a website that sure looks a heckuvalot like a regular conference website (sponsors, agendas, schedules, press/media pages, registration, etc.), speakers who are from vendors & sponsors, and even conference tracks. Hardly what Dave Winer describes as an unconference and 180 degrees from the first unconference I had heard ever heard of - Bloggercon (although I am sure there were variations of the idea before that).

Now, as someone who represents the evil empire of a regular tradeshow organizer, I can see the angst of attendees who pay $895 for a conference only to endure panelists who have nothing really unique to say and are there only to promote themselves and their company. I’ve said many times before that panels filled with sponsors are a disservice to the attendees.

But c’mon folks - lots of unconferences these days are regular conferences in disguise and need to come clean. I remember seeing one unconference offering an “overall event sponsorship” for $10,000!

I have no problem with having events around the country that promote podcasting - every one of them that gets the word out makes my job of explaining it to potential exhibitors a whole lot easier. And I’m not picking on Podcamps. In fact, we’re working on having an Podcamp the day before the Podcast and New Media Expo starts because I believe in the concept and want it to succeed.

But let’s call a duck a duck. Some of you are in the conference business and you need to admit it. I welcome you to the industry and I hope to see you at the Society for Independent Show Organizers meeting later this month in Miami and encourage you to become a member of the International Association of Exhibitions and Events.

Dan Rayburn has posted about his frustrations with speakers that get bent out of shape when they are not chosen to speak. I feel his pain.

Our deadline for speaker submissions is this Friday and we’ve already received about 650 requests for 85 spots. I’m not looking forward to telling those who are not chosen, “No thanks” but it’s something every organizer has to do.

I’ve received a small amount of flack from a few folks for the way we did the pricing on the conference for Podcast and New Media Expo this year. First, a little background. Our conference has always been a loss-leader for us. We provide excellent speakers and content to draw the audience in, and make up the difference in sponsorships and exhibit space. With pricing between $199 and $299, the conference ticket price is drastically lower than most other tech conferences.

I price it this way because our attendees are unique in the sense that about 50% are independent content creators and pay for their own airfare, hotel and conference ticket expenses. But after audio-visual, internet, electrical, room rental, food/beverage, registration, printing and advertising, and recording costs are factored in, we take in less than we spend to produce the sessions. That’s fine with me, because the goal is to make up the difference in sponsorships and exhibit space.

This being the 3rd Annual event, our attendees now trust that we are going to provide excellent instruction they can use immediately at a low price. This year we had our first pricing deadline, from $199 to $249, before we posted any of the session descriptions or speakers. My feeling was that if someone wanted the $199 price - it was there for the taking. If they wanted to wait for the session descriptions and speakers to be posted, that’s fine too and the price will be $249.

Fellow podcaster and friend Steve Holden sent me an email that he thought this was backwards and not the right way to do things. A few other people inquired with similar concerns - perhaps 2 or 3. But I still feel like $249 is a great value, and the folks that wanted the even better price of $199 are basically asked to trust us in exchange for the lower pricing.

I think it’s a fair trade.

P.S. Chris Pirillo does something similar with his Gnomedex event. He hasn’t posted a single session or speaker yet and it’s already 1/3 sold out because people trust Chris will “do them right.”