How can your exhibition help it’s industry’s youngest players survive and prosper?

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How can your exhibition help it’s industry’s youngest players survive and prosper?

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Blogger: Stephanie Selesnick, President of International Trade Information, Inc.

CTA™ – the owners of CES International, the largest exhibition in the United States and UFI member, is known for doing innovative things – one of which directly answers the above question. They have a mentor program offered as a free benefit of association membership. “For small business owners and entrepreneurs, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Mentor Program pairs you with a mentor company who can give advice to help guide your company or improve your business acumen.”

CTA is very clear throughout the application process that this program is set up to help CTA members clear a hurdle – not to pitch the mentors during their allotted half hour confidential session. On the application, mentees are asked to explain the general issue or concern they need help with.

The way the Mentor Program works is pretty simple. After applications are received, they are disseminated to all of the mentors who have expertise in solving whatever problem or issue the mentee has. Those mentor(s) who decide they can help, either contact the mentee directly or the association provides the mentee with the mentor’s contact information and bio.

This program is great because it helps take new and fledgling companies – or companies experiencing growth pains – solve problems and grow with free advice they probably could not/cannot afford.

As we all know, most exhibition growth comes from new and up-and-coming companies. They are the ones who, as they grow, take more space and buy sponsorships. With a few exceptions, smaller entrepreneurial companies are the drivers of innovation and change within all of our industries.

Many UFI members are not associations, but are industry leaders. How can your organization help nurture its next generation?

 

 

 

By | 2017-12-10T11:55:26+01:00 December 12th, 2016|All, Americas, Education|0 Comments

About the Author:

Stephanie Selesnick, President of Las Vegas-based International Trade Information, Inc. works with exhibition organizers to internationalize their shows, one expo at a time. They recently introduced the International Exhibitor Representation Program are the long time North American representatives for SNIEC, the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in China. A second-generation former show organizer, Stephanie blogs for UFI, the Global Association for the Exhibition Industry and Exhibition World, and enjoys sharing knowledge online and in person. She is a founding member of the Exhibitions Think Tank, Women in Exhibitions Network North America, serves on the faculty of UFI’s Exhibition Management School and is a Virtual Events Institute Subject Matter Expert.

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