Sometimes a sea of people can be overwhelming but other times, it can be exactly what you need for that quick adrenaline rush. In February, I got a little bit of both with my first ever tradeshow, held in London, England. It was one of the biggest tradeshows in the learning and technology industry, and our small company had a chance to make a big impact.

We were gathered in a massive convention centre with thousands of people around, ranging from employees, to guests, to other competitors, and to what we hoped would be, future customers.

Working in sales is never a walk in the park, but there’s also never a dull moment. I’m used to contacting our clients through the phone, on virtual platforms, and through email marketing and selling, so you can only imagine what it was like when I was thrown into the world of face-to-face sales.

At first it seemed overwhelming, but the minute you start talking to people you realize things aren’t all that different. We found ourselves still laughing, chatting about our products but also learning about our future customers, and being able to still find joy in the day-to-day job. What was there to be nervous about in the first place?

We left the small province of Nova Scotia for a week to visit the big city of London and host a booth in the heart of the convention centre where we knew very few people other than our competitors; piece of cake, nothing to worry about right? As it turns out, that proved to be the case and there really was nothing to worry about! Our Pre-Tradeshow training course and stories from our experienced trade show staffers really paid off! We were able to meet new people, learn what is up and coming in our industry (hint hint VR is getting big) and learn a little bit more about each other as well. Not only was this trip a new experience for me, but it ended up being a huge success that will no doubt launch more events to participate in.

 

 

Of course, a tradeshow can’t all be about work and no play when you’re miles and miles away from home and in a new country that some of you had never been to before. The tradeshow may have lasted two days but the vacation was still underway and it led us to many of the typical sights and tourist destinations you may think about when you think of London. There was no time to sit around and let the rest of the week pass us by, we were out and about, getting our exercise in and eating enough food to counter what we’d just worked off.

To finish it all off, you know it’s been a successful trip when all you have left is an iPhone with a maxed out memory card and hundreds of selfies to go along with it.