Beyond Transactions: Building Strong Vendor Relationships

[00:00:00.280] - Marlys Arnold

You're listening to The Trade Show Insights podcast, Season 19, Episode 8. I'm your host, and Exhibit Marketing Strategist, Marlys Arnold, bringing you tools to improve your Exhibit Results. On today's episode, brought to you by the Exhibit Marketers Cafe, we're talking about how to find and build relationships with trusted vendor partners. With over a decade of experience in the event industry, Evan Babins has established himself as a leader in both corporate and private event management worldwide. Currently serving as an event manager at Intuit Canada, he was recognized as one of EventTech's top 50 most influential event technology professionals in 2023. That's a mouthful. Evan's expertise spans the production of virtual, hybrid, and in-person, large-scale events across diverse industries such as pharma, automotive, and finance. He's known for his innovative approach to immersive brand marketing and event activations, consistently delivering exceptional experiences for cutting-edge global brands. A few other impressive accolades. He was recognized as a Bizaboo top 55 event experience leader in 2022. He was also featured on the BizBash Fresh Faces list and named one of the top 250 event pros in Canada in 2021. He's joining us today from Toronto, Canada. Welcome to Trade Show Insights, Evan.

[00:02:07.190] - Evan Babins

Thanks so much for having me.

[00:02:09.260] - Marlys Arnold

Well, I am excited to dive into this topic because this is something that I don't think I've ever done on Trade Show Insights. We're going to talk about building that whole vendor relationship. So it's important, whether you're an exhibitor or a show organizer, it's really important to have a good relationship and have some vendors that you can count on. But I think a lot of times, especially for exhibitors, they don't really know how to go about building that relationship. Let's start there. How do you, personally, how have you built some relationships with trusted vendors, and what are your recommendations?

[00:02:47.420] - Evan Babins

I think there's a couple of pieces for building out your vendor network and your partnerships. I think you want to look for, obviously, people who do a great job. That's bare minimum. You want to know that the person you're bringing on to work with you on that project or that trade show conference is reputable. They're not going to dash out at the last minute before the event. There's a lot of things you want to look for. So far, I've talked about all the red flags, so to say. But there's also good things you want to look for, too. You want to look at someone's experience, go on their website, see if they have case studies, see if they have video testimonials from clients. There's so many pieces of content that's out there these days that these vendors, these partners should have online that will give you a good insight as to who they are, what they've done, and at the end of the day, what they can deliver for you.

[00:03:41.780] - Marlys Arnold

Well, and you could also see that way, too. It's like you said, the case studies and examples on their website, you can see, do they tend to do a lot of work with companies like yours in your industry, your size and type of company or whatever, or do they deal with a completely different industry? Is Is it something where maybe you feel like they wouldn't be as good a fit for you and that thing?

[00:04:06.510] - Evan Babins

Exactly. I think, honestly, there's a really great piece there that you mentioned was like, and I look at it when I'm exhibiting at a conference and trade show, is I like to be one of one, not one of many. It's sometimes really unique to find a vendor partner or a supplier or someone you want to work with that maybe hasn't worked with people like you who this is a new a new exciting new industry for them to come into. There is this weird way about finding someone net new, whereas going against what I completely just said. But I think there is value as well sometimes in finding that new hot vendor and using them before anyone else has a chance to. I've always been what I call myself a trend-setting event professional in the world here in Toronto and Canada. And so I'm always looking for that new cool vendor, piece of swag, type of event tech that no one's used yet. And I want to be the first one to use it and bring it to market. And so there's definitely huge value in doing that as well, too.

[00:05:19.630] - Marlys Arnold

That's a good point. Yeah, because you're wanting to stand out. You're not wanting to be one of 16 exhibits at that show that that company worked on and they all look alike. But then there's also the flip side of the advantages, especially depending on what type of category of vendor you're looking for. But if they're going to already be at that show or be involved in that show, there might be some advantages to that as well. I'm thinking, especially if you're looking at a contractor to come in and actually do something on the show floor, helping with set up or providing you with temporary staffers or that thing, you're probably going to want somebody who's maybe already there because that's going to help with your expenses, correct?

[00:06:06.480] - Evan Babins

Yeah, and 100% of your expenses. Maybe you're not paying for the delivery, the removal, trucking, labor, and you can get some discounts on that. Also using vendors that are preferred vendors of the venue you're working at also is a huge advantage. Maybe you can save some money if they're a preferred vendor because you maybe don't have a landmark fee that you're paying or a patch-in fee, or if it's an EV company, let's say at the venue that they own the in-house equipment there, maybe you're paying less because they're in-house. There's definitely advantages of using vendors that are in the venue, in the system there are already going to be at that show, especially if it's a large show. Maybe they're doing 10 other booths, so you can tack on yours as well. There's definitely advantages to that, too, 100%.

[00:06:58.040] - Marlys Arnold

Well, I know we keep going in a lot of different directions here, but suppose you don't want to use the in-house vendor. Suppose you've got, say for AV, you've got an AV person that you work with that you really trust. But of course, the the venue is going to try to encourage you and sometimes almost demand that you use their in-house vendor. How do you deal with that situation if you if you aren't really tremendously comfortable with the in-house options?

[00:07:25.910] - Evan Babins

So a great rule of thumb, and I've used this over the years, is you want to develop relationships versus just making connections with vendors. Where that comes out in this case is if you have really great relationships with your AV team or your technical partners, and you're bringing them to a new venue with you because that's the show you want to be at, your clients are going to be there, it's right in the wheelhouse for your booth, maybe you talk to them and you're like, Hey, listen, it's a new venue. Let's try to get in there. Can you shave a bit of money off the quote for me because I'm paying the landmark fee or I'm paying the patching fee? If you would do well, maybe there's more opportunities. I think it's about leveraging your relationships to your advantage as a producer or show manager, whatever it is.

[00:08:14.800] - Marlys Arnold

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I want to back up just a little bit because you've used a couple of terms here. If we've got new exhibitors listening, you mentioned landmark and patch-in fees. Can you explain what those are for exhibitors who maybe haven't dealt with that before?

[00:08:28.840] - Evan Babins

Yeah. A landmark fee, typically you see landmark fee is on more of the food and beverage side of things. So a landmark fee, generally in Canada, especially, I'm sure in the US, it's very similar, and around the world, generally, it's about an 18% charge on If you're bringing an outside food and booze inside the venue, the why they have that is because the venue wants their kitchen, their chefs, their cooks to make the food. If you're bringing stuff outside that's taking away business from their kitchen, from their revenue, so they're trying to make up a piece of it. A patch-in fee where it's a little bit different, a patch-in fee typically is for the AV side of things. You're going into a banquet hall, a venue, a conference center, and you want to use their in-house sound and lighting. There's a cost for you to literally patch into the wall to their wall plate where you would be able to access the LDAV audio, lighting, video, everything else that's built into the ceiling or the walls of the venue.

[00:09:31.830] - Marlys Arnold

I think that's important for exhibitors to understand that sometimes you can choose to bring in your own vendor, but there's going to be additional cost to that beyond just your vendor cost. That's another consideration of weighing that between, do we want to use the in-house vendor or do we want to bring in our own preferred vendor?

[00:09:52.240] - Evan Babins

I think a lot of people forget about that stuff when they're making their initial event budgets and they say, Okay, we've got 500 grand to spend on this trade show booth. Let's say it's a massive booth, a big show. Then they get to the event, they do it, it's great. At the end of the event, they get their final bill, and that 500 grand is now up 18% for Landmark, 20% for a patch-in fee, potentially. You're looking at labor fees on the venue labor, and now your 500 grand is close to 6 or 6.25. It's a massive sticker shock. Believe me, I've been through it before. I've seen it before. There are ways that you can mitigate against that, obviously, by listening to this episode and other episodes, obviously, too. But a lot of people either don't know because they're new in the industry or even the people that have been around forever. You forget about these things sometimes because it's such passive work sometimes that you totally forget about it, especially if it's a venue that you've been at time and time again. Maybe it's been a few years since you've been there, but you were there 10 years ago, so you just assume they still do things the same way.

[00:11:01.830] - Marlys Arnold

Yeah. Especially coming post-pandemic, you don't know how things have changed. There may be some additional add-on fees that you weren't used to in the past.

[00:11:13.410] - Evan Babins

Exactly. Got to make up the revenue for that time period somehow.

[00:11:16.210] - Marlys Arnold

Yeah, exactly. Let's talk about... One thing I love, I've heard you mention before is, as the Exhibit, the Event Coordinator or the Exhibit Marketing Manager, you are like the quarterback. Talk a little bit about that. Because you're the one point of contact that's bringing all these other vendors in and bringing them together. How do you fill that role of quarterback?

[00:11:45.310] - Evan Babins

I love this analogy. I've used it many times over the years because I find it resonates with so many different people. The story goes, as the event manager, as the event producer, as the trade show manager, whatever title you want to call it, you are the quarterback of that game. Let's use a trade show, for example. You're bringing in and you're filling your front line, your offensive line. You've got your labor, you've got your branding company, you've got your AV team, you've got your food and beverage for your food stations that are going to be at the event, you've got your staging, all these different players that are on the field. What your job is as the event producer or the event manager is you're calling the plays. You're saying, Okay, I need the stage set up from 9:00 to 10:30 because I know that the branding that's got to go on the stage, there's a decal going on the stage, and that's got to be on by noon because we have rehearsals at 1:30. You're working all this in and out and back and forth. Then you get what happens most times, and I'll say most times on purpose, is something will go wrong.

[00:13:10.060] - Evan Babins

Very rarely do things go perfectly. I think I can count on half a hand in 12 years in this industry where things have gone perfectly.

[00:13:21.530] - Marlys Arnold

If it goes too perfectly, just hang on because the other shoes about ready to drop.

[00:13:27.330] - Evan Babins

It's coming. It's coming, exactly. What happens is when something goes wrong, you're now calling the audibles as the quarterback. You're changing the play, you're calling an audible, and you're saying, Okay, I know that my staging truck is delayed by 2 hours because there was traffic coming into the city. So can we do branding set up around the stage and everywhere else besides the stage? Maybe we shift the food and beverage set up earlier because it's in-house and the kitchen staff are there and the venue labor is there already. So we're going to swap the food stations from the stage and everything will still work out. But it's about recognizing what's happening, not just what's happening right in front of you in this moment, but it's about looking at step 10 and looking forward to what's happening in the fourth quarter that will help you in the game.

[00:14:24.600] - Marlys Arnold

Having that plan A, B, and C. I love how you talk about having that playbook and being ready to change things up on the fly because sometimes you have to. I know I've got a lot of stories I could tell as a speaker, even just speaking at different conferences. I remember one where my The event coordinator didn't want to cough up for a separate projector for each of the breakout rooms. So I'm all ready to go, and I'm trying to get my slides loaded up and stuff, and I have no projector. Luckily, it was a venue where I had contacts, and I knew the AV guy, and he explained to me, he's like, Yeah, here's the situation. So we've got to wait for the keynote to end, and we'll bring you the projector from there. But again, it goes back to that relationship. I had a relationship with them. They knew me, I knew them. They're like, Yeah, we're going to take good care of you. It was okay. But literally, people were coming in for my session as they were setting up the projector. Then I had another time where my mic went out in a ballroom of 300 people, and my mic just went dead.

[00:15:38.280] - Marlys Arnold

So trying to keep it going while they're trying to get their act together behind the scenes, get me another mic and all that. So, yeah, you got to learn to just go with the flow and figure out how to handle things on the fly. I know you have... It's probably a really sensitive story, but I've heard you tell it before about what happened to you with the event in Munich. Do you mind telling us that story? Yes.

[00:16:03.060] - Evan Babins

This is one of my favorite stories that I like to tell. It's like every time I tell it, it's still crazy and it blows my mind.

[00:16:14.340] - Marlys Arnold

Yeah.

[00:16:14.780] - Evan Babins

Then it happened. Then it really happened. Basically, the story goes is I was working at an event production agency many years ago. We had a pharmaceutical client and we did a lot of events for them, different events. This event was was in Germany. We had been working with our EV partner there for six months leading up to it. It was crazy. It was a huge show. While we were flying to Germany, I got an email that was like, We double-booked your show. We got another client that's giving us 10% more revenue. So we're dumping your show and we're picking up the other one. Basically, all the best. And so, thankfully, I had Wi-Fi on the plane going there. And so using my network, I reached out to a few people. I ended up getting another contact. And within 48 hours of the event happening, we were able to get a new tech team in place, get everything set up, cameras rolling, show delivered. We ended up signing on three more years with this client because of this one show.

[00:17:28.850] - Evan Babins

And the craziest The biggest part about the whole story, not that the last second they decided to take another event the same day as ours, and not that they didn't tell me last minute. All of that is crazy, but the biggest and horrible, so crazy. But the best part about it, and this is where the relationship stuff comes in and where the industry connections come in, is because of who connected me with this new company, they only charged me for the labor. They didn't charge me for the equipment. And so he was like, the guy who ended up doing it was like, Listen, because of the referral, it was a slow month. I didn't have a lot going on, which is why I could take on the show. So the labor, I'm going to charge you for the labor. The gear was sitting in my warehouse anyways, so I'll give you the gear. I'm not going to charge you for it. Just cover the cost of the labor. I was like, I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting a full bill, but because of who connected me and the relationship that those two people had, and then my relationship with who connected me, everything played together.

[00:18:38.620] - Evan Babins

We ended up netting out super profitable on the event because we were anticipating this massive AV bill and ended up being a lot less than we thought. So craziness, so nuts. I was in Germany for 39 hours or something for the event. It was literally fly in, fly out. I had actually just come back from vacation with my wife in Europe, two days before. Oh, no. So it was crazy. It was a whole crazy scenario. But yeah, that's one of the crazy stories over the years of not only the relationship side of it. But I also use it as when people are like, what's the crazy thing that's ever happened to you? That's definitely up there on the top of the list. But it's also on the benefit side, not just the negative.

[00:19:27.840] - Marlys Arnold

Right. Well, and I love that you mentioned So many pieces in there, like you said, the fact that you had the relationship with the person who was able to then refer you to another vendor to take over, because not everybody would have that. I mean, that's something you have to cultivate ahead of time to have a network of relationships. So that's one thing. The other thing is that the vendor that you found, they were so willing to work with you, and like you said, gave you a great discount, but they probably also did it not only because, like you said, it was a slow month, but they also were smart enough to see that if they won your business and they built that relationship with you, that then you would continue to work with them. I bet you never went back to Vendor A.

[00:20:17.410] - Evan Babins

No, never again.

[00:20:19.160] - Marlys Arnold

They're on the block list. I bet you tell everybody, Don't go back to Vendor A.

[00:20:22.970] - Evan Babins

They're on the do not call list for sure.

[00:20:25.870] - Marlys Arnold

Yes, exactly. That's the thing. That's what I never can understand why vendors can't see that, that if they burn that bridge with you, they're not only burning a bridge with one company, but they're burning a bridge with everybody you talk to. We are rather networked in this industry. I mean, people talk. When I heard you tell that story the first time, I was just like, I cannot imagine anybody having the nerve to do that 48 hours before an event. I mean, that's just mind boggling to me that anybody would have the nerve for that.

[00:21:06.730] - Evan Babins

It goes to show you this industry, as massive as it is, it's also so incredibly small, and you don't know who knows who, right? You don't know the reach that people have. I'm from Toronto, and Canada, by extension, is a smaller industry compared to the US, the UK, bigger markets of Asia, massive markets. But when I'm working with a vendor, they don't know who I know. They don't know who I have on my Rolodex, and they don't know that I've done events all over the world. We'll continue to do events all over the world. It's very interesting how people... Being in the industry a long time, You see really good vendors, you see really not great vendors, and you try to learn from the negative stuff that happens sometimes that you see in the market or you see other people going through. You try to take those as lessons and as learnings to not do it yourself and to maximize what you're doing.

[00:22:21.240] - Marlys Arnold

Right. Well, and it circles all the way back to what we talked about in the beginning of reviewing those testimonials and case studies and talking within your network and saying, Hey, we're looking for a new AV company. Who do you recommend? Who do you recommend we not work with? Sometimes that's as an important question to ask as anything is, Who do you recommend I stay away from?

[00:22:46.600] - Evan Babins

Especially going into a new market. If you're based in New York, Toronto, Miami, wherever you're based, and if you're going to work in a new space, a new city, a new country, and you don't have as many contacts, then There's a million ways you can find contacts and a million ways you can find vendors, but it's about finding the right people. Also, like you said, investigating and doing some research on who people have had bad experiences with because you don't want to have that happen to your event.

[00:23:17.070] - Marlys Arnold

Exactly. Well, one quick question before we end, do you have any apps or resources or tools that you recommend for exhibitors or show organizers as they're doing this vendor research?

[00:23:30.660] - Evan Babins

Yeah, I mean, there's tons of websites out there you can use. There's cool stuff like the Vendry that's out of New York. It's a resource base for different vendors and different kinds of companies. We have one up here. It's called Event Source. It's a Toronto-based one as well, too. Those are always great to use when you're doing net new research. I think on top of that, if you're part of event professional group, like Slack channels, I'm part of, I think, four or five of different Slack communities where there's There's thousands of people around the world that you can ask questions and get help and advice. Those have been an amazing source for me for research and finding out the good and the bad, obviously, because you have people from all over the world, so you have different regions that are inputting their information. Then as cheesy as it is to say, Google is your friend. I don't suggest you ask ChatGPT for this information.

[00:24:29.760] - Marlys Arnold

No.

[00:24:29.960] - Evan Babins

But I do suggest you look to our old friend Google, I feel at this time. I feel like Google is so past these days. But I think Google is still very, very relevant in researching vendors and getting those testimonials and seeing those videos. Unfortunately, ChatGPT doesn't have that information yet. Maybe soon it will.

[00:24:51.260] - Marlys Arnold

Well, and it still hallucinates a lot, too. The other day, I had it doing something for me and it made up my... I had just put in that I was the author of two books, and it made up the two titles.

[00:25:02.080] - Evan Babins

You got to be careful. The people who post, write up from ChatGPT, copy and paste, don't do that.

[00:25:09.090] - Marlys Arnold

No, do not do that. If you're planning an event in Canada, we know you can contact Evan for who to use and who not to use. Exactly. On that subject, Evan, what's the best way for people to reach you?

[00:25:21.820] - Evan Babins

I'm on all social platforms, LinkedIn, Instagram, I'm all over the place. I post a lot everywhere. I'm pretty active, so I'm always happy to chat with great people about events in any capacity.

[00:25:35.950] - Marlys Arnold

Great. Well, thank you so much for being here and giving us your viewpoint on that whole vendor relationship, because I think that that is something that is often overloaded So especially by exhibitors. They just, a lot of times, just go by default. And I think that there's a lot of thought process that really should be going into this. So thank you for giving us your perspective.

[00:25:58.930] - Evan Babins

Thanks so much for having me.

[00:26:05.190] - Marlys Arnold

Trade Show Insights has been nominated for a podcast award, but I need your help to win. So to learn more and get details on how to cast your vote, go to tradeshowinsights.com/vote-tsi. Thanks, and I'll keep you posted. If you enjoyed today's episode and would like more, you can subscribe to The Trade Show Insights podcast and automatically receive future episodes on your chosen device. Simply search for Trade Show Insights in Apple, Spotify, or virtually anywhere else that podcasts are found, then click the Subscribe button. Trade Show Insights is protected by the Creative Commons copyright license. You may feel free to share this recording with colleagues or embed it on your own blog as long as it's shared in its entirety and is not used for commercial purposes. To learn more, please see the link in the sidebar of the show notes at tradeshowinsights.com. Well, that's it for this episode of Trade Show Insights. Be sure to check out our show notes and archives at tradeshowinsights.com. You can also connect with me using the social media links or the contact page on the site. I'm Marlys Arnold. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us next time for more tools to improve your Exhibit Results.