We all love going to parties, don’t we? New Year’s, anniversaries, birthdays, Stanley Cup playoffs—any opportunity to argue with a relative; anything to get together. Well, here’s a TIAC invitation to a different kind of party that is actually a trade show.
As an integral part of the TIAC marketing approach to “Raising the Awareness of Mechanical Insulation,” we have for the past four years focused on bringing our message to the delegates attending trade shows. Through trial and error, we have narrowed our participation to associations we determined would return the biggest bang for the buck, and that is where the potential for mechanical insulation retrofit and upgrades exists.
The focus is on the healthcare industry and secondary education facilities throughout Canada. Next year, we will have a booth at a trade show dedicated to the mining industry. Other opportunities are available and we will be looking at those. We welcome suggestions from TIAC members. All of this activity points to the growing acceptance of mechanical insulation as a recognized means of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Our approach to trade shows now includes a professionally designed booth, and giveaways in the form of high-end stainless steel travel mugs that are super-insulated to keep a liquid hot for at least three hours. It really does! I tested the performance in the secret underground lab I share with Batman. As evidence of the popularity of these travel mugs, I’ll cite one example that happened this past fall at a trade show.
A delegate came by asking for a travel mug because his wife “borrowed” the one he had from the year before and she refused to give it back. What’s a guy to do? We helped him out, but more importantly we cemented a relationship with a high level of potential business for a TIAC contractor member.
It’s traditional for trade show participants to have a door prize available to give away at the end of the event, and TIAC is front and centre with a bottle of Crown Royal (sometimes Maple, sometimes Northern Harvest). Delegates are asked to drop off a business card for a chance to win the prize. This give-away is a proven attraction for the trade show delegates. In fact, some delegates come by multiple times and others have brought colleagues.
But wait; there’s more.
We’re able to engage delegates in conversation, and that is the draw. It’s the high level of expertise we’re able to demonstrate, that we are able to answer immediate questions and follow up on requests for resolution of site-specific problems.
In past trade shows, the traffic at our booth has been surprisingly heavy. We have definitely put together a presentation that attracts visitors. What we are ultimately after are qualified leads representing anyone from site superintendents to maintenance personnel and management. We want to talk to the very people who see the deficiencies on a regular basis. We want to engage these people in a conversation that addresses energy saving, personnel protection, condensation control, water savings, and the contribution mechanical insulation makes in reducing the incidence of Legionella disease.
Let’s look at some numbers generated from the trade shows we attended (with two to go as of this article):
• Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES)
• CHES Manitoba-April 28, 2016: 48 delegates
• CHES Ontario-May 30, 2016: 131 delegates
• CHES British Columbia & National Conference-September 12 & 13, 2016: 140 delegates (projected)
• CHES Saskatchewan-October 24, 2016: 36 delegates (projected)
• Ontario Association of Physical Plant Administrators (OAPPA)
• OAPPA Ontario-June 2, 2016: 74 delegates.
When we participate in a trade show, we ask for TIAC member volunteers from the area to help out in the TIAC booth. If the trade show is one day, we look for two volunteers to participate. If we’re in a two-day show, then we’d ask for four volunteers. This time obligation is about three to four hours in the morning and in the afternoon. We encourage member participation from all sectors; however, we don’t want our booth to be crowded with volunteers, so participation is on a “first come, first served” basis. Here’s the payoff for each volunteer contributing those few hours of work: it’s fun, you get to meet people, and most importantly, you get all the delegate contact details as well as copies of the business cards people leave behind for the Crown Royal draw.
From this point on, the rest is up to you to turn the leads into revenue-producing work. There are some delegates who want to see a TIAC member right away and other delegates are looking for general information. Regardless, the contacts have been established at a level that would under most circumstances take months of promotional work to establish.
Should a contractor be the first point of contact and he is then successful in obtaining work, the distributor he buys from benefits. The suppliers to this distributor also benefit when they produce a few more pounds of insulation or any number of widgets, or whatever.
Retrofit and upgrade work is where we believe the future lies. All healthcare and educational facilities, as well as government and office buildings and retail malls, are tasked with lowering energy costs. Benchmarking is now government mandated, and so is carbon reduction. TIAC has your back. We are available with a high level of expertise whether it is code, building a business case, developing calculations, or meeting with clients. We can, when required, add established and credible industry recognized solutions to any situation. We are just a call or an email away.
You’re invited to the party. Show up, participate, and here’s a promise—you’ll go home with a loot bag.
