Showing Checkout at the Surf Expo
I was initially skeptical when I received an email from the Board Retailers Association, telling me about their annual trade show, Surf Expo, in Orlando. I’ve been to my fair share of shows, as both retailer and exhibitor, and a lot of the shows we’ve been invited to, for various reasons, don’t really pan out. Often, when we regroup after a show like this and go over the pros and cons of exhibiting, the feeling is that the time and effort wasn’t worth it. Surf Expo, however, is a different story.
The independent, mom-and-pop retail stores that attend these type of shows are a good fit for Checkout. Having a Mac on the store counter fits the image a lot of these stores are going for, and so does the ease of use and low price point. Even better, Surf Expo organizers identified a need for businesses such as ourselves - businesses that offer products and services to other small businesses - and carved out a dedicated section of the show floor for us called the Retail Center. The clincher? Booth space in this newly created Retail Center was going at a discount, and I’m a sucker for 50% off anything.
Having gone straight from Macworld to Surf Expo, there was a bit of culture shock. No rush of anxious attendees when the doors open, or buyers diligently searching each aisle from the get-go. The momentum built slowly, with steady traffic from noon until 4 PM when the Beer Garden opened and the band went on. It turned into a giant happy hour. Good times. People skate boarding down the aisles, women walking around in bikinis (and I’m talking about attendees, not the so-called “booth babes”).
Soon, attendees began to enter the Retail Center. Although a few had heard of Checkout, most were learning about it for the first time. One couple from Bolton Landing, NY, desperate for a Mac Point of Sale solution, were on their way to the Intuit booth to ask them to develop QuickBooks Point of Sale for Mac. When they visited our booth and saw what Checkout can do, they literally crossed Intuit off their list. That was cool.
After these shows we always do a postmortem, and the first question is usually “was it worth it?” In the case of Surf Expo, the answer is an unequivocal yes. We achieved the goal of reaching people and spreading the message that we’ve got a powerful, affordable and easy to use point of sale software application for the Mac. Ultimately, this show created a benchmark from which future trade shows can be measured, and we will be looking for similar off the beaten path opportunities to jump on in the future.
Glenn
