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2021 Is Here! Homestretch?

No one could have predicted what we would be experiencing now in January 2021, if you would have asked me that question when this whole pandemic thing started. I’m sure we all thought that this would have been long over by now. And as if we all didn’t have enough on our plates, we had a summer of unrest, a contentious election and an insurrection at the Capitol. That’s more than enough excitement for one year. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but man, I cannot wait to get back to VEGAS!

But 2021 has come in with some uncertainty and that makes it difficult for us in the trade show world to plan. But plan we must. While vaccinations are not being administered as quickly as we all would like, the hope is that the current plan would get more vaccine into more Americans sooner. NOW, if they just handed over all of the logistics to the professionals in the trade show industry, we’d not only be far ahead of where we are currently, but the balance of the work to be done would be done, dare I say, before the next show is scheduled to move in. That’s right, from the show managers to the show vendors, we are all accustomed to moving a lot of people, equipment and resources, both in and out of a large multitude of events every day. AND, in tight time frames and deadlines? Hmmmm. Sound familiar?

100 Million doses of vaccine in the next 100 days? What are we going to do with the other 90 days we have left? When you look at it, convention centers were already used in various cities as temporary hospitals. Guess who helped build those giant facilities inside those convention centers. That’s right, convention labor. We probably would have gotten it done even quicker had we been in charge of everything. Considering our ability to build whole convention centers with large extravagant exhibits, we probably would have been more efficient too. Why build the whole center out when all of those beds weren’t needed? If you were confident in your ability to construct more, as needed, when needed, then less expense would be incurred by providing more bed space than was necessary. (As it was, a total of only 33 people used the McCormick Place temporary hospital last year at a total cost of 81.1 Million including staffing, but boy what a great photo op) I’m thinking we also would have gotten it all completed more economically as well. (unless someone decided to charge drayage……) But I digress.

With that for your thoughtful consideration, it’s also interesting that the convention and trade show industry hasn’t received any specific or individual assistance. It’s not for lobbying and proving the facts as to why we are more than deserving. Our industry has, but it seems that more of the fringe industries tied to our work are recognized. I wrote to my state Senators and House Representatives to advise them that if they really wanted to assist the airlines, the hotels and the restaurants, then instead of pouring money in assistance solely to those entities, they should consider helping the trade show industry and allow us to run reduced factor events safely. If you can go to a Costco or a Home Depot on the weekend and see hundreds if not thousands of people shopping without consideration for social distancing, then why cannot trade shows operate? You want to fix the airlines and hotels? Let us get back to work at our tradeshows and we’ll fill them up.

I’ve been to a few shows this Covid season in Florida and have read of others where show organizers take attendee temps of everyone entering the floor. Shows have wider one-way aisles, reduced carpet, reduced amenities, stinky hand sanitizers everywhere, extra face masks available and an overwhelming compliance by those in attendance as well as booth staff to take simple and effective precautions. I felt safe in the show hotel and the cleanliness was far greater than any time in the last 30 years I’ve been traveling to shows. I’m not about to open a discussion on which states have contained the infections and which ones are having difficulty. Clearly, it’s not due to trade shows. Florida and Texas have opened up events. We haven’t heard any reports of super spreaders coming from any of these shows. I just believe that our industry can produce safe and effective face to face events that apparently everyone is craving.

All of us here at ELITeXPO are craving to get back to work too. We’ve begun to see more activity ramping up as companies look to get a jump on assuring that their exhibits are ready for those first events that they will plan on using when their show season returns. They are reviewing their inventory and getting orders in now for show materials that they are learning they are needing. We are calling on shows as the Official Carrier as early as next month in February. We have scheduled more shows in March and customers are planning events for April and May. Our largest Official event of the year has moved to August and robust planning is proceeding now to assure that we’re ready.

We all know that events out of our control can sidetrack these plans. But isn’t that the life of a trade show professional anyway? ELITeXPO lives in the plan B side of the trade show world when called upon to make the impossible happen with little or no time to make it happen in. Of course, we are always happy when called upon to smoothly handle all the Plan A plans for our customers events. But I have a sneaky feeling, that our return to business and our ultimate ramp up to getting back to work is going to full of Plan B activities. We’re ready.

We’re here, working every day and ready to help. We’re excited to see our world of trade shows returning to some semblance of normal. What the new normal will be, remains to be seen, but as long as there are shows to attend, with friends and colleagues to see and collaborate with, we’ll figure out the rest. It’s what we do. We’re tradeshow strong!

Looking forward to seeing you on the road soon.

Dave

David Mihalik – President ELITeXPO

Message from David Mihalik

Happy Holiday Greetings from ELITeXPO

Happy Holiday Greetings from your friends at ELITeXPO. Each year at this time we normally share the gift of music with you, our best customers as a thank you for the business that you have provided to us throughout the year. For the Trade Show and Live Events industry, the music stopped in March. We all believed that we’d be back to work by this time, but we’re starting to see the light.  We all hope that we will soon be listening to the music and seeing each other at Face to Face Marketing events soon. This holiday season, we have a better reason to be hopeful. With the incredible creation of a vaccine already being administered as I write this, we look forward to more progress and improvements in the coming months. Hope springs eternal.

Today, we count our blessings. As a company, through diligent work, preparation, and the efforts of some of the best employees in the world, ELITeXPO continues to survive and thrive. We thank those companies that have continued to support us through these difficult times with other business opportunities that we would not normally become involved with. When confronted with the governmental restrictions placed on large group gatherings, ELITeXPO shifted gears quickly, to offer our customers products and services most relevant to the times we were facing. We’ve been able to deliver PPE products, hand sanitizers stations, office safety dividers, wall mounted LED backlit graphics, non-trade show freight shipping services and Virtual Exhibit Production among just a few of the wide variety of products and services our customers have asked us for. We were fortunate that a few years ago, ELITeXPO expanded our trade show service offerings and purchased a second warehouse to provide full asset management inventory/storage services for our customers. An overwhelming majority of you have kept us busy with inventory work and shipping throughout this time. We’ve utilized this down time, when we have it, to tighten up all of our inventory data and physical storage in our warehouse. One of the benefits of having more time is that we are able to rapidly improve our processes and clear up lagging work that always seems to take more time, when we are always crazy busy during trade show season. When our industry has the opportunity to get back to work, we’ll be ready! We can’t wait to see you again soon.

We also must count the personal blessings I believe we have all learned or should I say, re-learned to enjoy, during these past months. I can tell you this much. Staying at home brought me back to enjoying the simple things that I had been too busy to notice. I’ve spent more time out on our deck this past Spring/Summer/Fall, enjoying the view, having nice conversations with my wife, a cold beer (or two) and watching the sunset. You see, where I live in the suburbs, you really begin to notice when the white noise of airplanes and trains and heavy traffic subside. We really looked forward to 5:00, when we had our own version of Happy Hour before we made another home cooked meal, instead of eating out because we were working too long and getting home too late. We’ll always want to work our hardest, but now, I think we’ll just try to become more efficient with our time.

We are starting to see a resurgence of activity as the positive news of a vaccine is making the return of trade shows a more viable reality. Clients are beginning in earnest to prepare for their events that are planned with emphasis on a sharp increase in show activity by Spring and hopefully will continue as planned in the Summer. Please know that the ELITeXPO Team is here to assist and if we can help you stay ahead of the curve and the inevitable rush to get exhibit properties planned for in person events, don’t hesitate to call. We’re here answering the phones every day and we’d greatly appreciate the opportunity to get back to work for you.

While we may not get the opportunity to gather together with extended family this holiday, we’ll keep them all in our thoughts and prayers, both those with us and those who have passed before. We’ll be thankful that our families are safe and healthy and pray for those who are recuperating. We’ll also keep all of you in our thoughts and prayers that you be safe and healthy and have a joyous holiday season.

Best Holiday Wishes, from our ELITeXPO family to yours.

David Mihalik

ELITeXPO

President

Updated Covid-19 Statement

From: David Mihalik

ELITeXPO President, CEO

ELITeXPO is currently available and operating to serve all of our customers and future customers who are interested in preparing for the eventual re-opening of more trade shows in the near future. While we all are praying that the current vaccine in Phase 3 Human Trials proves to be successful, our trade show industry is moving ahead to show that trade shows can be produced safely. This has been evidenced by the recent Together Again Expo which ran at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on July 24th. Over 4600 guests were registered and more attended for the one-day event which was represented by over 3600 organizations. It proved to be a great success and attendees stated that they felt safer on the show floor than they did walking through a retail store in Florida, at the time. That’s great news for our industry, as we can prove that we can safely get back to work and contribute to getting our economy rolling again. ELITeXPO was present at that event and can share with you our experience.

As we head through our 6th month of altered normalcy and anticipation that things will continue to be reduced into the 4th quarter of 2020, ELITeXPO has pivoted its product and service offerings to continue to be of value to our current and new customers who are also navigating this new normal until we all get a better understanding of when we will be getting back to face-to-face meetings. Our industry suppliers and manufacturers have quickly changed their manufacturing capabilities to provide safety products that are in much demand today. Also, as the shutdown of events lingers, more and more companies are evaluating a virtual exhibit space. ELITeXPO is here to help. We are currently producing 3D virtual exhibit spaces for our customers that we believe, will also be a part of their trade show pre and post show promotions long after physical exhibits return. Some of the current new product and service offerings that ELITeXPO is now offering include;

  • 3D Virtual Exhibit Programming – You NEED to evaluate this option!
  • Hand Sanitizer Stations – (Floor and Wall mounts) Sturdy & Made in the USA!
  • Sneeze Guards, Safety Barriers, Partition Dividers & Shields – Custom Fitted
  • Exterior Signage – Custom branded signage
  • Infrared Thermal Temperature Scanners (High Quality and No Touch)
  • Back Lit LED Large Formal Wall Mount Graphics (For office, residential and retail)

AND, we’re still working at what we have done for the past 33 years and will continue to do moving forward.

  • NON – Trade show Shipping Services – ELITeXPO moves freight of ALL kinds, PPE equipment, product freight, medical equipment and devices, materials for company events, Truck Loads, Less than truck loads, ground and air, domestic and international.
  • Complete Asset Management for any kind of inventory, long or short term

We’d like to thank all of our customers and friends who have supported us through this difficult time. Together we will make it through!