Industry News: MAPPS Show Draws A Satisfied, Sizeable Crowd To North Texas


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Industry News: MAPPS Show Draws A Satisfied, Sizeable Crowd To North Texas

Issue: 2008aug

An impressive—and impressed—crowd turned out Monday for the Metroplex Area Promotional Products Show (MAPPS) sponsored by Carrollton, Texas-based business services provider SAGE|Quick Technologies, Inc. (UPIC: SAGE).

“What makes our show so great is that we take care of the exhibitors and the attendees, giving them a personal touch which most shows have lost,” says David Natinsky, SAGE president. “Since we exhibit at more than 90 shows a year, we know what it is like to exhibit and we have taken what we like and dislike and incorporated it into a package at MAPPS that everyone loves.”

The 19th annual MAPPS, held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center in Grapevine, Texas, overcame a sluggish economy with pleasing numbers and positive feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike.

“Its been a great show. I’ve seen a lot of the usual suspects but also new people. I've come the last six or seven years and I’ve always been pleased. What makes this so great is that I get to see local customers,” says Tom Carpenter, regional manager of Largo, Florida-based Adva-Lite Inc. (A Corvest Company) (UPIC: ADVALITE).

For Todd Schlueter with Oak Park, Michigan-based Schlueter Design & Exhibit Systems, Inc. (UPIC: Varylyte), it was his company’s first time to exhibit at MAPPS and has been pleased with the turnout.

“The last tradeshow we attended was The PPAI Expo 2009. We pulled back on our tradeshow attendance because it wasn’t in the budget,” says Schlueter. Attending MAPPS was crucial for business, though. “We’ve been trying to figure out how to survive and pick up our sales,” he says.

“This show has been better than we expected. We’ve been wanting to do it for a couple of years. We’ve been to the PPAI regional shows, but someone suggested we attend this one so we drove all the way down here just for this," Schlueter adds.

Distributor attendees who came to MAPPS to scout new items and make new connections or strengthen longtime ones weren’t disappointed, either. “The show’s been fantastic. I attend to see what products are coming down the line. I’ve been coming for years and I always find new things to show my clients,” says Taryn Rowton of Carrollton, Texas-based Exalt Printing Solutions.

Stona Spradlin with Dallas, Texas-based Davis & Stanton (UPIC: DAVI0002), agrees. “Many of the exhibitors at MAPPS are suppliers that come through my office all the time, but at the show I’m able to see things I’ve never seen before,” she says.

Despite the economy, David Espinosa, regional sales manager for supplier Bullet Line (UPIC: BULLET) was impressed with the show’s traffic. “This region is a little more diversified than other regions right now. Texas has several different industries so the economy is a little less affected than other areas,” he says.

John Kloster, vice president sales and marketing for Computer Incentives (UPIC: Comp2) was at the show displaying a table full of electronic incentives including a new pocket book-sized Acer notebook computer and solar-powered backpacks. “This is my third year at this show and traffic seems to be about the same. I had my greatest year ever last year and I’ve grown about 30 percent every year so this may be my first year of non-growth so far. We’ll see how the third and fourth quarter go,” he says.

“In a world of not so good shows, we pulled off an amazing show yesterday,” says Natinsky. “There have been too many shows this year that were down in exhibitors and attendance ... like 40 percent. We had almost the exact same number of exhibitors as we did in 2008 and we exceeded our attendance by 60 more attendees than last year ending up with just under 1000. I don’t think that there has been another show this year that has even come close to keeping or exceeding its numbers compared to last year.”

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