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Jay’s International Travel Tips: 5 tips for a smoother trip

Scalise Experiential Marketing CEO, Jay Scalise, has years of experience traveling abroad for trade shows. We recently sat down with him so he could share some tips for those of you who may be getting ready to make your first trip overseas for a show or just want a smoother trip.

1. Take a picture of the first page of your passport and store it on your phone and/or your computer-- just in case. This may never be an issue but better safe than sorry!

2. Making calls back home is expensive! So, use a system like Skype. The Skype app works very well on your phone—and it can access your contacts. This can also be used on your computer. You will need internet/wireless but your venue & hotel will typically have that. This tip can save you (or your company) a lot of money. Also pick up a prepaid calling card in case a call needs to be made, and you don’t have internet service. Calling cards can be used from a public phone, and it is best to use one with local access numbers.

3. Timing is everything which is especially true when you are overseas. This seems simple but you need to make sure to think about what time it is at home versus what time it is where you are. A pre-arranged call time with a colleague or family member can save you from making an enemy the middle of the night!

4. What is the best way to pay for things? Jay says pay by credit card if possible (Jay likes using American Express) because you get the best exchange rate & credit card companies offer protection against potential fraud issues. And always have a backup card—not everyone takes American Express. And let your credit companies know you are traveling abroad so your cards work when you get there!

What about cash? Jay’s advice is to exchange a small amount of money at the airport for things like tips. The exchange rate there is typical and the fees are nominal compared to doing it at your hotel or an ATM.

5. Sometimes it can seem easier to hail a taxi or hire a driver when in a foreign city but that can be expensive and make for longer travel times depending on traffic. Jay says to travel on metro trains when possible—they’re fast, inexpensive, direct and run frequently. Many go right into the exhibition center making for a stress free way to start and end your long day!

So, whether you are traveling abroad to a trade show for the first time or just looking for a few tips to make your next trip a little less hectic, use these tips and enjoy your trip!

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No Big Box Stores? No Problem!

Trade shows in foreign countries always present different challenges depending on what part of the world you are traveling to. In a recent blog we discussed one of our adventures in Mexico. Today we take you to Novokuznetsk, Siberia in Russia for a mining trade show.

Russian Customs are known for being very thorough especially with packages coming from the West. Most of our equipment came through intact however we had an overhead sign with an aluminum tubular frame, that after being pulled apart by customs agents, was re-packed without all of the pieces necessary to assemble it at the show.

Novokuznetsk is approximately 4,000 km east of Moscow and although it hosts a population of nearly 500,000 people, it does not have the many comforts that the U. S. offers like Lowe’s, Home Depot or even exhibit houses like the one we found in Mexico City. In other words, with a short timeframe to set up our client’s booth, there were no easy resources to tap to find matching tubing for our sign. We instead went in search of anything that may work inside and outside of the trade show venue. We finally found some flexible PVC tubing that our owner Jay eventually cut, braided and formed to match the correct diameter in order to assemble the frame using duct tape to hold it all together.

Once the frame was assembled the fabric sign slipped over it, covering any evidence that anything had been fastened from different materials.

Making do when you don’t have a lot to work with is a specialty of ours and we are always glad to help our clients in the most difficult situations!

www.scalise.co

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The Best Laid Plans...

They say that life is what happens when you are making other plans and this sentiment rings especially true in this week’s blog. This story comes from a trade show in Houston, Texas and a large, 60 x 80 booth with a 24 foot tower in the center took 6 days to set up with a 12 person crew. The center tower held all of the electricals as well as video screens and digital displays.

At 10am on the final day of setup, a pipe in the ceiling burst, and water began to pour in right over the center tower in the booth. Scalise President, Jay Scalise, yelled for the crew, who had just started to leave for a break. They rushed back and began to scramble to find barrels to catch the water and plastic to get everything covered as much as possible. Barrels were filling quickly and the crew needed to leave to get more but the convention center had been placed on lockdown and there was no way out. As water was pouring in, outside the convention center a shootout between mounted Houston police and a group of drug dealers had forced the lockdown.

Thankfully, the water flow slowed and eventually stopped. The crew now had the rest of the day and all night to get the booth back in working order while the convention center worked nonstop to stop the water from coming in. Luckily, none of the electrical was ruined and after pulling an all-nighter to get the booth back into show shape, it was ready to go by the following morning and no one could tell that anything had happened.

Afterwards everyone learned that there were meeting rooms above the trade show floor. That day attendees had been in meetings and when they got out of those, they used the restrooms and overtaxed the convention center’s system causing the deluge.

So go ahead, make those plans but realize that things happen sometimes that you could never see coming. Jay offers these wise words, “Even when you think you’re near the finish line, something could happen that could really set you back. There are always things that happen that you could never plan for.”  This is why it’s important to work with people that really know what they’re doing and are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure your booth is ready to go.

 www.scalise.co

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Customs, Deadlines and Chickens…Oh, My!

So, it’s almost time for a trade show in a foreign country and you believe you’ve dotted all your i’s and crossed all of your t’s. You’ve shipped your equipment and it should sail through customs, right? Well, if you regularly attend international trade shows, then you know that unfortunately the smallest issues can hold up the process and leave you with some big obstacles to face.

Our CEO, Jay Scalise, shared a story with us recently that we thought you would enjoy. Many years ago when Jay was working for STERIS, he was helping the local Mexico City office, located in their scientific market area, get ready for a trade show. He shipped the show items to the proper address and addressed them to the office manager there. Turns out, the office manager did not have all of the proper paperwork done and customs held most of the items.

As the trade show was quickly approaching, Jay flew to Mexico City to locate a company that could help build the necessary components. With the help of a translator, he found a company outside of the city in the mountains that could do the work. Upon arrival Jay was skeptical. The business was located on a cement patio covered by tarps and the property had chickens and other animals roaming freely while mud ran over everyone’s feet---certainly not a typical environment in the US but the company assured Jay that they could build the necessary components.

The morning of the load in went very smoothly. The company brought the display components in, assembled and painted them.  They also added some nice touches like flower boxes that really enhanced the displays. The style fit perfectly with that area and the other vendors at the show. With the replacement graphics that Jay had brought from his office and the one product item that had made it through customs, the booth looked great and Jay and the Corporate Office were very pleased.  What could have been a disaster turned out to be a great success!

www.scalise.co

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Above & Beyond

It’s the day before the big trade show opens. Your booth is setup, your materials are ready and your UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) has been hung above your booth to really set your booth apart from the others at this show. Perfect—time for lunch! So, what happens when that expensive drone crashes down causing serious damage to itself and you’ve got 12 hours to get it fixed? Jay Scalise, owner of Scalise Experiential Marketing, can answer this one, as he was working for a client when this exact scenario played out.

Several years ago at an Aerospace Industry trade show in Orlando, FL, Jay was subcontracted to help supervise the setup, as he often is. A separate company had been contracted to rig the functioning drone 20’ above the booth and all seemed to go as planned. The crew left for lunch but Jay stayed behind to finalize the setup when the fairly large UAV crashed down. Luckily, nothing and no one was hurt except the drone. It sustained some frame damage and the nose was smashed so with more than 30 years of experience in handling trade show crises’, Jay got right to work. He put together a list of items that he knew would allow him to make the necessary repairs and sent a crew member off to the local big box store.

Jay worked until midnight making the repairs. Early the next morning, the paint had dried and the drone was re-hung using a much stronger clamp system ensuring the UAV would stay safely elevated over the booth for the show. No one could tell that just 12 short hours ago, the UAV lay lifeless and damaged on the ground.

Many people would think this was above and beyond the call of duty that day but Jay took the incident in stride as he always does. “No matter what happens, you have to find a way to make it work. That’s our job.” And they make sure it is done right every time no matter what the scenario is.

 www.scalise.co