ATLANTA (USTCNS) -- Denny Edwards has a favorite story about managing the exhibits for MTMC’s Training Symposium.
It was 1996, and the symposium was in Louisville, Ky.
Arriving on Saturday to begin coordinating the military and industry exhibits, Edwards found the exposition center consisted of a partially built new office building!
"It was an unfinished building," said Edwards, marketing director, of the National Defense Transportation Association. "It was located next to the street from the symposium hotel.
"There was no heat and no lights. There were gaping holes in the walls."
Edwards joined a hastily assembled task force to bring order to the chaos.
"We got plumbers and carpenters and went to work," said Edwards. "We spent untold amounts of money to make it look presentable."
Fire marshals were stationed in the building during show hours because an automatic sprinkler system was not working.
Playing a key role in the effort was the George E. Fern Co., of Louisville, a firm that specializes in special events.
It is no wonder the company is back working at the 2000 symposium in Atlanta.
"Another record year," muses Edwards, as workmen assembled a multitude of exhibit booths in linear rows across the room.
In the 10 years Edwards has managed the show, it has grown each year.
This year the event consisted of 125 exhibits – approximately 25 representing government agencies.
The first year Edwards managed the show in Phoenix, Ariz., there were 18 exhibits.
Edwards is proud of the effort.
The association manages the show at no charge and uses industry exhibit fees to pay for a range of related expenses including live entertainment, food and beverages, printing and advertising. Government exhibits are displayed at no cost.
This year, Edwards is particularly proud of two brand-new corporate exhibits – Landstar Trucking and SATO Travel.
The set up of so many exhibits is a blur of sound and motion on the April 3 set-up day. Edwards is right at home.
For him – it is a labor of love.
"This is the best example that I know of industry-government coming together in the same room and achieving communication, networking and common goals," said Edwards.
His boss, retired Lt. Gen. Ed Honor agrees.
"What a tremendous event," said Honor.
National Defense Transportation Association began working with MTMC’s exposition set-up over a decade ago when MTMC’s old Eastern Area and Western Area had their own workshops in alternating years.
As a non-profit organization, the association was able to solicit industry participation, develop an agenda of speakers and organize exhibit displays.
The exhibit coordination is of great assistance to MTMC, said Jennie Bell Winslow, symposium coordinator.
"It is a great partnership," said Winslow. "Working as a team, we get the job done and no expense to our symposium."
Meanwhile, in the exposition hall, the empty space is being rapidly transformed as individual exhibits begin to form a small community of diverse presentations.
Hard at work is Steve Garth, government account representative for Roadway Express, Inc., of Akron, Ohio.
"The great benefit of the show is you meet a lot of people beside your normal contacts," said Garth.
"There are new contacts here and new installations where you have not done business."
Roadway has benefited – the firm’s government-military business increased 25 percent in 1999. The firm is a worldwide carrier of less-than-truckload general commodity cargoes.
Garth says his primary marketing target at the symposium is the 100 individual contacts he will meet in the three two-hour exhibit sessions.
The many sizes and shapes of the exhibits brings special challenges to the George E. Fern Co. personnel.
A favorite moment for Marty Usher, show decorator, was in Denver in 1998.
Usher’s firm had to move two automobiles into the hotel exhibit area.
"They just barely fit into the freight elevator," said Usher. "The big problem was getting them down three-flights of stairs into the exposition area."
Usher said rolls of carpet were used to cushion the movement of the brand-new cars up-and-down the stairs.
"That was true problem solving," said Usher.
