By Myrna Urbina
Two weeks ago I attended the Texas Music Educators Association’s convention at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. I joined the rest of my Picardy team in this opportunity to showcase our company and attract some new Picardy users. I’ll have to admit, I was somewhat apprehensive about throwing myself into this huge convention with thousands of other companies; let alone successfully selling Picardy to TMEA attendees. I was also worried it wasn’t going to be exactly how previous TMEA attendees explained it. It was going to be my first time attending TMEA, meeting my Picardy members in person, and pitching Picardy to potential clients. I must have looked through the Picardy site about a hundred times, briefing myself of the site and its inner workings. I hoped I wouldn’t be entirely useless when I showed up to the convention.
My expectations
I saw TMEA as a job fair setting, with minimal decorations and basic looking booths. I imagined it would be like my past experiences with job fairs — me sitting by the door watching the clock and hauling out of there as soon as I was released. My expectations of the convention were low and I was honestly worried I would not get an opportunity to hone in my Picardy pitch.
I pictured a scarce amount of people to mosey on by and scope out booths for free stuff. Even though I was trying to have a pitch somewhat in the works for TMEA, I was expecting to sit at the booth, bored, staring at the clock until it was time to go home.
Nearing the day of TMEA
I was asked to claim our booth and drop off some stuff for the opening of TMEA the following day. The drive to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center had my stomach in knots. I didn’t know what the convention was going to look like, where to go, or how it would turn out. I didn’t like that I didn’t know exactly how the convention was going to play out and previous TMEA attendees did not have sufficient enough advice to ease my knotted stomach.
Mistake number one.
When a layout or map is provided on the TMEA website, please read it. Being a TMEA novice, as well as being directionally-impaired, I didn’t think I could possibly miss the giant convention front entrance, but I did. I found the next best thing. I actually entered the convention from the back door.
too legit. too legit to quit.
The security woman was kind enough to notice my wide-eyed look of desperation and allowed me to walk through the convention and out the front entrance to properly register. Thankfully, the line was short and quick, I was given my badge and booth number and was on my way to complete my claiming mission.
Mistake number two.
When a layout or map is provided in the TMEA packet given to you when you register to help you find your booth, please read it. Again, as a directionally impaired TMEA novice, I thought I would walk straight up to the booth with ease — as if the booth would have a spotlight of some sort on it but no, instead I wandered around the 1800’s, hoping people were too busy to notice me and that the booth would somehow call out to me.
I still am not sure how I found the booth the first time, because when I finally did I had no idea how I got there. (The fact that when I came back on the actual opening day and noticed how easy it was to get to our booth, I decided to keep this from my team. However, if/when they read this they will have a good laugh, you’re welcome.)
Expectations never fit.
TMEA was absolutely nothing like a job fair. The conference center was enormous, I’m sure everyone burned tons of calories. It was an organized array of colleges, instruments and companies all here for music. Once I dropped off our banner at the booth, I walked around the center and saw so many booths being assembled. Watching people roll in these massive pianos and watching them being tuned was by far my favorite part of the day. There were so many pianos, I wished to take one home for free but I wasn’t so lucky.
The day of TMEA.
As I entered TMEA, feeling professional with my exhibitor badge, I was amazed at how alive the center became after just one day. There were crowds of people carrying bags of musical instruments, pamphlets, and food. People were actually looking for booths, listening to people’s pitches of the company’s product, and they were genuinely interested. I was satisfied at the fact that majority of the attendees wanted more than free stuff — they wanted information. Yet it did unsettle me a bit knowing I’d have to pitch Picardy to someone, soon.
Reality.
After the first few minutes of showing up to TMEA, my Picardy peeps were super friendly and helpful! This made the conference so much easier and fun. We would help each other out with demos of our site and helped bring people to the booth for more opportunities for Picardy users. After watching a few demos, I was no longer worried about giving one, myself. Each member was so clear and helpful that watching and learning what to do, what to say, and how to approach people, things didn’t seem too difficult. We had crowds of people coming up to the Picardy booth and often all 4 or 5 of us were talking to interested people and successfully getting contact information — it was glorious! Each day of TMEA was a great bonding experience with my fellow Picardy members, and I am so thankful that I work with such a hilarious and fun group of people.
Final Thoughts
TMEA was a valuable experience, and I no longer picture it as a job fair. It was filled with tons of hands-on booths, as well as booths giving away food, candy, money and, of course, business cards. This convention was a great opportunity for me to learn how to sell myself and Picardy to potential users. It was a memorable couple of days of getting to know the Picardy team and TMEA attendees.
(left to right) Paul, Myrna, Hermes, Cassie, Tucker, Josh
Follow me on Twitter @MyrnaCatMEOW or my company’s blog Picardy.