Advent Blog

Our indus­try lives and breaths by dead­lines. If a trade show is sched­uled for a cer­tain date, they’re not going to move it just because our booth isn’t quite fin­ished. This absolute inflex­i­bil­ity is like fingernails-on-chalkboard in the world of the cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als who are tasked with get­ting the exhibit ready.

We see our cus­tomers han­dle this in two ways:

1. Kicking and Screaming: Any deci­sion that can be put off, is put off. Design changes are being made right until the last sec­ond (some­times after the last sec­ond). Rush charges abound. Every sup­plier is pushed and squeezed for more time, or for faster turn-around. Pieces and parts are drop-shipped directly to the show from all over the coun­try.  Everyone is amazed when it all actu­ally comes together, but it always does. It’s crazy, hec­tic, stress­ful (excit­ing, exhil­i­rat­ing, and addictive).
2. Embracing: Start with the end. Back into inter­me­di­ate dead­lines for all stages of pro­duc­tion. Add padding. Pay atten­tion to detail. Plan for cre­ative revi­sions. Look for bet­ter alter­na­tives. Make sure all the ele­ments come together for a pre­view sev­eral weeks before the show. Ship to the advance ware­house. Everyone is proud when the final result comes out exactly as planned. It is effi­cient, dis­ci­plined, inten­tional (peace­ful, effec­tive, and unstoppable).

I would LIKE to be able to say that the sec­ond group gets bet­ter results. But in fact, we see that cus­tomers of both types get great results. The ones in the sec­ond group will prob­a­bly live longer, though…