The Trade Show Director Never Saw It Coming

Ever wonder why a new trade show director’s hair goes gray by Day 3?

by Tony Compton

Johnny’s smartphone alarm rang precisely at 5:30 in the morning, but today he didn’t need it. He was already sitting in the drive-thru of his favorite fast food restaurant awaiting his routine cup of coffee. It was Johnny’s first day at work as the new trade show director for an up-and-coming software company in downtown Atlanta and he was too excited to sleep.

At just 27 years old, Johnny couldn’t believe his good fortune. He was hired by the VP of Marketing to lead the event efforts for a software company starting to make a name for itself. Even better, it was a software company that had just gone through a major round of funding. They had money, were willing to spend it, and the future looked awesome.

Johnny was hired at a most…