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My trade show exhibit experience began at an early age around the dinner table. My father, Joseph LoCascio, would get back each night with fascinating stories about designing and building displays and exhibits at various New york exhibit houses where that he worked as graphic artist.

When the projects he worked on were completed he would take the household into Nyc and show us the outcome of his artistic handiwork, which often included IBM's Madison Avenue window displays, Crane's display of new bathroom/kitchen fixtures, Allied Chemical's lobby displays, and various displays at the Nyc Stock exchange and the World Trade Center. A number of other Sell Gold Irvine CA of his would be on display at trade events at the New york Coliseum, Waldorf Astoria, or the brand new York Hilton.

My admiration for my father's artistic talents started when I'd be invited to join him for his local freelance focus on weekends. I'd help him load the automobile along with his art supplies and then watch in amazement as he laid out and hand-lettered a bank's new window sign in gold leaf, or a company's name on a truck door, or a new sign for a local church.

The exhibit building business was cyclical, and there were occasions when work was scarce and some shop workers had to be let go for some weeks. Other times there was an excessive amount of work, Cash For Gold Irvine CA which called for hiring more people and working overtime and weekends to complete exhibits.

My possiblity to work with my dad at Exhibit Craft, Inc. in Long Island City, came when the shop was on a full-time working arrangements, including weekends, to accomplish multiple exhibits with time for the National Hardware Show in Chicago.

I jumped at his offer and was excited to not only be making $1. 50 one hour at the age of 14, but also to get to assist my father and begin learning the exhibit building business from the ground up. My work that first week-end - and many more that followed - included cleaning silk screens and squeegees, resurfacing art tables with new paper, sweeping the ground, carefully peeling frisketed graphic panels, and mixing paints.

I knew right then and there that the exhibit business was where I desired to invest my career. During high school and after military service I worked at Exhibit Craft, Inc. working my way up the ladder, which included Silk Screen Production, Assistant Production Manager, Shipping and Receiving Clerk, and Assistant to the Purchasing Manager.

A major career transition came when ECI won the new Olivetti Underwood account and needed a merchant account executive to manage their multiple product exhibits for more than 40 trade shows annually. I applied, interviewed, and got the work. To my amazement, I soon found myself in planning meetings at Olivetti's corporate headquarters at 1 Park Avenue in New york.

At 22, I was enjoying a dream job, learning the the inner workings of being an exhibit account executive and looking to Gold Buyers Irvine CA the long run when, unsuspectingly, ECI was sold to IVEL, which is today a part of Exhibit Group. IVEL then moved the ECI plant to Brooklyn, Ny. For me, it had been unreasonable to work in and travel to Brooklyn as i still enjoyed living an very nearly carefree and independent lifestyle within my parents' home in Bergenfield, Nj, where I grew up. But if moving out for a job was absolutely essential, I thought moving to California might be a far greater choice.

Having an eye for adventure, travel, and an urge to begin fresh, I sent a resume out to Stewart Sauter, an exhibit builder and show decorator in Bay area. I was hired after a great interview. I had contracted Stewart Sauter often times before to set up and dismantle Olivetti Underwood's exhibits and had established a great working relationship with Mr. Tony Panacci, who I might work with. My job was supervising the setup, servicing, and dismantling of exhibits provided for Stewart Sauter from exhibit houses from throughout the country.

My tenure in Bay area was short-lived, however, because while setting up exhibits at the Fall Joint Computer Conference at Brooks Hall, I met Mr. Del Kennedy, Advertising Manager at UNIVAC Division of Sperry Rand. He ended up offering me a job as their Corporate Trade Show Exhibits Coordinator in Bluebell, Pennsylvania.

Having the opportunity to jump from the vendor side of the business to the client side was a dream I had developed as i watched the entire staff at Exhibit Craft organize and clean up the shop in preparation for starters of its client's visits. 1 day I said to myself, "Someday I do want to be the client. "

UNIVAC built and sold computers. Their trade show exhibit philosophy was to utilize live theatrical presentations, developed by the highly talented Hardman and Associates from Pittsburgh, PA, to show just what computers could do. Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, creators of the cult film "Night of the Living Dead, " developed scripts, scenery, and AV materials, and hired and trained actors and a complete professional production crew to effortlessly present UNIVAC's computer presentations. We staged the presentations on an hourly schedule in a theater with seating for about 60 visitors. When the presentation ended, the doors would open and visitors would walk via a display area where salespeople, managers and technical support professionals made personal product presentations, answered questions, and completed sales lead forms for more information or sales calls.

UNIVAC's marketing experts understood early on that in reality a computer was only a machine and that it was the energy of its various applications that made the absolute most sense to booth visitors. In the usually cacophonous trade show exhibit environment, getting attention and making prospects and customers comfortable while sharing complicated and sometimes esoteric information required total control of the exhibit environment.

A year later I accepted employment with Memorex (which stood for Memory and Excellence) in Santa Clara, California, as their Corporate Manager of Trade shows and Exhibits. This included supporting their Video Tape, Computer Media, Office Products and services, and Computer Peripheral business units. Immediately after arriving, Memorex decided to launch new audiotape products and services and I began working on their introduction at the Electronic devices Show in Chicago.

The marketing strategy with this important first trade show exhibit was to facilitate a dynamic live demonstration presenting the audible differences between new Memorex cassettes and what was then on the market. We needed to show prospects how Memorex cassettes would outperform recorded music when comparing to reel-to-reel 3M and BASF audiotape, which at the time dominated the worldwide audiotape market.