My First Medical Trade Show

I got booked for the AACC Medical Trade Show at the LA Convention Center in Downtown Los Angeles as a Crowd Gatherer for Abbott Diagnostics!  This was my first big Trade Show job and I didn't know what to expect!

Tuesday started my work week for Abbott and Amy, Amanda, Deb, and I were instructed to be at the LA Convention Center at 8:30 am to get our Badges for the show, in our business casual wear, and to report to the booth at 9 am sharp!  Because I was replacing my friend, Anne, for the Show I had a little trouble getting my Badge but thanks to an understanding employee I was on my way into the South Hall to find the Abbott Booth.  I did SEMA and PRI a couple years ago and while this show was huge, it was nothing even close to the enormousness of those Car Shows!  Abbott had one of the biggest booth's so it wasn't hard to find.  Our job duties for the day was to hand out copy's of their Science Book Magazine and try to get people gathered into the booth to check out the Presentations that were happening every half hour all day long.

The brunette's (Amy and I) took the back of the booth and pushed those magazine's out like they were going out of style.  We were getting people in the chairs for the presentations, helping people get information about the company, and chatting with clients and exhibitors.  Amy and I clicked right away, both of us being neat freaks, love football, have a passion for cooking, are similar in relationships, among our other talents we want to share with the world ;)  I took my Lunch at 1 pm and went to grab some food in the Cafe.  There were long lines at the different stations so I stuck with the grill and grabbed a Chicken and Chipotle Aoili on Ciabatta Bread.  There was no where to sit so I snagged a seat on some stairs and relaxed for an hour before getting back to work.  The rest of the day went back a little bit quicker but it was definitely  a long day!

At 5:05 pm all of us were on our way to the parking structure and thankfully traffic going West was moving so I made it into Palms pretty quickly.  I made a quick stop at the Library to get some new reading material, got home, got in a nice long work-out, and then went through my Castings.  By 11 pm I was exhausted and ready for bed.  

Amy & I working the Trade Show!

On Wednesday we didn't need to report to work until 9 am.  While all of us chatted until the Convention started at 9:30 am, Amy and I got split up, and while I was in the front she was working the back.  Today we got to use the Scanners, so anyone coming into the booth, we needed to scan their badges (we got to use those at the end of the day yesterday which is why our last half of the day went so much quicker than the first).  We really needed to come up with creative ways to get these badges scanned because people did not want to give them up.  By the time I was going to Lunch, I had scanned over 200 people, practically pick-pocketing them for the badges, telling them I was getting a pat on the back as incentive, or joking that I was using their information to buy new shoes or purses.  Hey, at least I was getting a laugh out of people :)  Amy and I took our Lunch together today and after hanging out for a little bit we got back to work scanning more badges.  I ended up scanning over 400 in the past 2 days which was awesome!

Wednesday was an even longer day for me because I needed to Host Karaoke that night so Thursday, even though we had a short day from 9 am until 2 pm was going to be a rough one. 

Thursday was our final day working for Abbott.  It was going to be the slowest day at the Convention and getting people in those seats for the presentations was really hard, especially because everyone had meetings on the last day.  Amy and I did our best, scanning any badges we hadn't gotten before, scanning some again for number's sake, and joking around with our fellow Abbott employee's.  One of my friend's, Dilon, from Winona was at the Convention from Dallas for work, so when I saw him on Wednesday he had made plans to stop by Karaoke but got caught up in meetings.  He stopped by the booth to let me know on Thursday and we grabbed lunch together.  It was so nice to catch up with him!!  By the time all of us were back from Lunch, there was really nothing for us to do, so we all got cut early at 1:15 pm.

Promo Girls for Abbott Diagnostics

The Trade Show was a success and a new and exciting job to work.  I'd love to work them more often, and a lot of the time there is travel involved and I love that!  Plus, being around all this technology I learned a ton, and made some great friends!