With SMX West behind us, I thought it would be interesting to reflect back on something that we hadn't ever done at any other conference: operate a booth. I have to say that attending a conference when you have a booth is an entirely different experience than attending without one. Below I'll provide my input, Rand's thoughts, and some helpful tips from a cranky Irishman who's had plenty of experience being a booth bum. :)

Rebecca's Thoughts on Running a Booth

I have to be honest with you all: previously, the exhibit hall was always my least favorite part of conferences. I would always casually stroll up and down the booth aisles, glancing at various setups and politely declining offers of free XL t-shirts, yo-yos, pens, and other random crap I don't need and can't fit into my carry-on. I've never entered a drawing to win an iPod or a car, nor have I had a desire to try free demos, get discounts on products, or hear people's spiels. To me, the value of conferences has always been to attend sessions and network.

Having a booth, however, completely changed my perspective of the Exhibit Hall. On the first day of the conference I went there to check on the spot where our booth was going to be, and I was shocked. It looked like the warehouse full of crates at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark--row upon row of boxes seated upon a cold, concrete floor. A couple guys were struggling on top of a lift, struggling to hang up a gigantic Microsoft sign. Everything looked in disarray, and I wondered how the hell this pit was going to transform into the Exhibit Hall I'm so familiar with come this time tomorrow morning.

Well, it happens. Each exhibitor has a special team of magic elves (ours is named "Jeff," and he also happens to be our CTO) to come along and lay down carpet tiles, fake grass, and rugs, to set up banners and backdrops, to arrange couches and chairs, to hook up monitors and demos, to neatly fold t-shirts and fan out flyers, and to stand there with grins on their faces and business cards in their hands. It's surreal, almost magical, that this cavernous dump of a room can be transformed literally overnight.

Being at the booth was a surreal experience, as well. At previous conferences, people would politely ask me, "Who do you work for?", I'd answer "SEOmoz," and they'd either nod or politely ask what that was, prompting me to respond with the same one-sentence remark that we are a "search engine optimization and consulting company that also provides education for search marketers...and we're based in Seattle, WA." Then that's it, conversation over, thankyouverymuch. Not so in the Exhibit Hall. Here people stroll up to your booth and genuinely want to hear who the hell you are, where the hell you work, and what the hell you're doing with a fancy pants booth at SMX. I was surprised every time I'd speak with someone for upwards of ten minutes about me, SEOmoz, our tools, our PRO memberships, our SEO Analytics, recommendations for their businesses, and so on and so forth. Can these people really be that interested in us? Why yes, yes they can!

Overall, I'd have to say that I was surprised to have really enjoyed our first experience with a booth. Sure, organizing it was a huge, stressful pain in the ass, and I learned a few things right off the bat (let people approach you rather than you pestering people who stroll by, folks like to take flyers containing more information...which we didn't think to print up, etc), but overall, I was really pleased with the connections I made, the people I (hopefully) educated about SEOmoz, and the entire booth experience in general. I have a newfound level of respect for all exhibitors--it's a lot of hard work and money to put together a booth, which I didn't learn until last week.

Oh, and free t-shirts do help. ;)

Rand's Booth Manifesto

• Running a booth felt like an obligation I was dreading, up until I got there. I instantly felt at home - there were tons of people around us at all times, I was constantly demo-ing, doing whiteboard videos, interacting with members and non-members alike. I think it made me feel more accessible - everyone at the show knew where they could find me, and that meant a lot of people that I otherwise might have missed came by and spent some time with me.
• High energy - oh my God. The massive social interactions and constant stream of multiple people meant that I was always explaining something to 3 people while winking at two others who mouthed "I'll be back later." It took a lot of work to balance between different people and different demos and tasks.
• Seeing other mozzers! What a new experience that was - normally at a conference, I never see my team until we get home - maybe once at a dinner, if I'm lucky, but this way, we got to spend much more time around each other. It was really inspiring to see how excited and interested everyone at SEOmoz was about contributing to the booth effort and helping people with their SEO.
• Being busier than anyone else - I felt a bit bad about it, but I tried to refer some business to NetConcepts, whose booth was next to ours and to the guys across from us at Acquisio, which worked out well, since I know very little about paid search and they're experts. I think someone from the Google booth commented that we were busier than they were (which wasn't true, it's just with their bigger, more-spread-out booth, they looked less overwhelmed).
• Booth ROI - it's tough, because it's very expensive to fly 6 people to a show and have equipment and pay the booth rental price, etc. The next two weeks will tell us how we did from a strictly financial standpoint, but the value in branding and in learning what people liked about the service and wanted was really valuable too - it's almost a usability and functional testing environment, which is cool :)
• Prepping a booth = nightmare. So damn hard.
• My Flash demo was a hit! Yay! https://moz.rankious.com/_moz/user_files/2007/smx/seomoz-pro-demo.html - see how much I can get done when Mystery Guest is gone :-( sniff, sniff...
• Overall, I think this one of the best conference experiences. The quality of material at the sessions was, with a few exceptions, higher than anything I've seen/heard about to date - many commented that it was more "advanced" than SMX Advanced last summer, which is pretty impressive, though it sets the bar high for Advanced this year.
  
• Booth - I think it really brought the mozzers together at the show (and focused around work), and honestly, that might be my favorite part about it.

Some tips from Naoise Osborne, booth bum for Acquisio, a PPC campaign management software company in Montreal, Quebec, that exhibits at many search conferences. Though Naoise wasn't at SMX West, he offered to share his wise words of wisdom from the perspective of a veteran booth bum:

1. Look everybody in the eye. Everybody hates that. Except people with money; for some reason they get off on it. And really (this is the actual tip, so pay attention), you're only here to meet people with money.
2. Never ask "Who's manning the booth over lunch?" The politically correct phrase would be "Who's peopling the booth over lunch," even if your booth staff are 100% male and all chauvinist pigs. Don't look like a sexist ass. (How many of you read that as "sexiest ass"? You're obviously the ones calling it "manning" - for shame.)
3. You need at least three people peopling a booth at once. At any point in time one of your peoplers (poople?) may be in need of a smoke, and one will undoubtedly be in need of executing a bodily function (poople!) inappropriate to the confines of your booth (depending on what type of trade show you're attending, ahem) It's strikingly similar to the sock drawer dilemma (okay, no it isn't but watch me not care): If there are 102 white socks in a drawer, and 82 black socks in the same drawer, how many socks do you need to pull out of that drawer to guarantee a matching pair? (Hint: if you don't know the correct answer to the socks question, have someone other than you people your booth.)
4. Bring water. Sorry, water is not a topic worthy of sarcasm. It's a concern, a serious concern. 
5. Pay extra for the tall stools as opposed to regular chairs. No, really. Especially if you're short like me and Rebecca (mostly Rebecca; I'm only being self-deprecating to make you feel better, but you knew that, because I just typed it out). [From Rebecca: Hey! I'm average height!] Tall stools allow you to get off of your feet for a few seconds without taking yourself out of the eye-level action (see tip 1). You can stay almost at eye-to-eye with your visitors, and step up without breaking that eye contact for a handshake. Sitting down completely into a chair takes you right out of the action, makes you look ineffectual, and will place you in a far more comfortable position than you deserve to be. Slacker.
6. Wear comfortable shoes. What? Which of those words did you not understand?
7. If your company is inherently boring, or your product isn't reeeeeally ready yet, or your staff are all kinda ugly, get yourself a novelty hook! Be it a completely unrelated game (whack-a-mole, mindball, drink the beer, etc) or the equally distracting "expletive on a t-shirt" approach, you'll be a winner with the community at large!

There you have it, booth perspectives from two Mozzers and an Irishman. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on expo halls, booth manning (er, I mean "peopling"), and more in the comments below. :)