Take Your Show On The Road

Tim Schooley, BusinessJournal.com

In 2001, Kathy Molnar watched as the site of nearly all her company's business disappeared in a mist of dust and construction activity next to the Allegheny River. While the full reinvention of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center had been billed as an expansion, North Side-based Stetson Convention Services Inc. realized the limits of that description when the former center was in fact razed in order to be replaced. Suddenly, the convention center that had stood where Stetson had established a growing business of building trade show booths and exhibits, was gone, not to be replaced for two years. "We knew that there was a plan in the works for the new convention center," said Molnar, who as national sales manager helps run the business with her brother-in-law Bill Sandherr, the company president, and sister Chris, the vice president. "But it was a bit of a shock to know that they would tear down the old building before the new one was put in place." The result has been a nonstop road show for Stetson ever since. After being almost completely bound to working shows in the former Pittsburgh convention center, Stetson had to try to serve clients at convention centers elsewhere. Now serving trade shows throughout the country, Stetson has seen its revenue grow from only about $350,000 as a homebound Pittsburgh business to $3.5 million last year. To start, Stetson had to bid low to win over clients who weren't convinced a firm of only 10 to 15 people could move all their equipment and supplies across the country, hire new labor and do a good job. "We had to prove that we could do on the road what we could do in Pittsburgh," said Mollnar. By and large, Molnar said most of the firms that work nationally are much larger companies, typically with multiple offices in different cities. Since Stetson was a smaller firm, trade show professionals knew they would likely be working with the same people at the company, unlike with a larger firm that would have different managers leading branch offices. Those qualities and others have led Vicky Carr, who helps organize the annual trade show of the Massachussetts-based National AfterSchool Association, to work exclusively with Stetson. The key for Carr: a strong relationship with Stetson she couldn't find elsewhere, in which the company had learned how to predict her needs. "I think a lot of businesses have to be built on relationships," said Carr, adding that Stetson's shift to serving clients nationwide increased the value of its services. "That moved them from being a commodity-type of provider more to being a relationship-type of provider." Today, Stetson remains open to the idea of again building trade show exhibits at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, where the business started. But Molnar knows better than to depend on Stetson basing most of its business on Pittsburgh trade shows in a convention industry that is always changing. "That really was a turning point in our business," recalled Molnar. "You kind of figure out how to deal with a major blow like that."

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At Smash Hit Displays, we go out of our way to provide you with full service. In addition to our full line of portable trade show exhibits, the highlights of our service includes:
• An in-house graphic design department to serve your needs.
• Tracking software that tracks your orders from beginning to end.
• Partnerships with major trade exhibit manufacturers who have products in stock and can ship quickly.
• Partnerships with nationwide printers to provide you with high-quality printing & graphics.

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