How did you get started in the tradeshow business?

Transcripts

Bernard Ablola:

Hi guys, my name's Bernard Ablola, president of Think Strategy. We are a B2B sales and marketing firm located in Irvine, California. In my spare time I also sit on a nonprofit called the Holistic Life Foundation, who teach kids yoga and mindfulness in inner city schools, specifically in Baltimore City. I'm here interviewing the CEO and founder of Exhibit Potential, Ross. How's it going, Ross?

Ross Weitzberg:

Good, thanks.

Bernard Ablola:

Awesome. I'm glad to have you here.

Ross Weitzberg:

Thank you.

Bernard Ablola:

Ross is a 12-year veteran of trade shows and exhibits. He's also a consultant and a strategic partner, bringing companies to exhibit halls and trade shows. He's also a Spartan racer and a CrossFitter. Awesome. How'd you get started?

Ross Weitzberg:

I met a girl actually. Age old thing. I met a girl who was a designer and she basically introduced me to trade show booths. We went to go to the auto show and she was like, "I'd love to go with you. I design booths." I was like, "What do you mean, you design booths? She ended up getting a project six months or so later and I saw what she did and basically, people paid her to create a structure that there were going to build here and then ship it to Florida, basically, for the CTIA show, which I a cellular technology show. It's like a CES for cell towers

Ross Weitzberg:

But yeah, we did that, I went with her. I saw the process, how it worked and everything. It was amazing. People pay to do this. This is great and I was looking for something to transition into. I have a background in film production and event planning. At the time, I was actually working as a recruiter in the hospitality industry because I thought it would be fun to learn about. So I went with her and did that and ended up quitting my job to do this full time and we got another client for a wind power show and we were like, "Yeah, we should just do this."

Ross Weitzberg:

Started designing booths and we would outsource it. We would get the jobs and everything and have other vendors build it for us, then we found that it didn't really work so well back then doing that. Nowadays, it's a good business model. We ended up getting introduced to this Exhibit system that would be a good modular system for us to build all of our booths out of. I'd never worked at a trade show company before so I really didn't know anything about trade shows, other than just diving into it and doing it.

Ross Weitzberg:

We bought the Exhibit system, I was like, "Wow, I have a 500 square foot office." I'm like, "I have six crates of Exhibit equipment coming," and I had no place to put it. We rushed out, I got a warehouse, I got an office. Got a forklift, just literally became an Exhibit house at the snap of a finger. I work in the office during the say and build booths at night and hire my friends and just built a business around that. Yeah, literally did shows in Canada. I did a show in China before a couple of times. We can go worldwide and do this type of business.

Ross Weitzberg:

I work in all these different industries, from renewable energy to fashion, to construction. I mean, every industry has a trade show and you get to learn about these unique products each of the times. Every time I work with a client, I learn about something that I never knew existed or where it came from. It's a pretty amazing business, actually.

Bernard Ablola:

That's awesome. I'm a big fan of this unique ability. I think that each one of us has a superpower and bringing it out to the world is what we're looking for, as entrepreneurs. Talking to you beforehand, I can tell that that's our superpower, is you brought this film and production and also this creativity to a show, which is a booth. We talked about it before. Almost like you're on a stage, you're bringing the business to a platform and it is a show. That's an awesome story.

Ross Weitzberg:

Yeah, I like being behind the scenes and making my clients look good. That's kind of what I do. I don't take any of the limelight. It doesn't matter who we are. It just matters who they are and what they're accomplishing.Bernard Ablola:Why are trade shows still important today?

Back To Videos