Economy Class & Beyond

You are here: Home / Trips / Chicago and Hamburg / Two for the Price of One: Trade Show 101… or how I tried to cover an event

Two for the Price of One: Trade Show 101… or how I tried to cover an event

by

Two for the Price of One: Trade Show 101… or how I tried to cover Aircraft Interiors Expo.

Two for the price of one: Chicago and Hamburg Trip Report Header Image

In this epic…

Trade Show 101 – An attempt at Journalism

After enjoying the company of Gogo the night before – it was time to get my backside the Messe and do some writing, as well as understanding the new changes in the airline industry.

Except at 6am when I woke up I heard a very, very, very loud crack. I decided it didn’t sound electronic, so it must had been plastic.

Uh-oh.

There’s only one real thing that is made of plastic that I had on my bed… and that was my glasses.

I nervously turned over… and saw the results – the arm of the glasses had been clean broken off

The words that I was coming out with are not suitable for any language publication. Thankfully, the hotel had some scotch magic tape, and I’ve talked about the miracle of Scotch Magic tape.

Scotch Magic Tape with Glasses
Well – at least I could see. That would be helpful for the next three days.

So if I’m going to play journalist I need certain things to get me through the event.

  • A notepad – Thankfully, I have a Moleskine notebook for this sort of purpose. Perfect for jotting bad quotes and notes
  • Pens. Note the plural in that. You can never have too many pens. Even if it means swiping them from stands.
  • The 20,000mha battery pack – because power was going to be an issue that day.
  • A Camera –  I selected my Canon 6D with a 24-105 lens to give me the best chance of photos, along with the iPhone for “instant” stuff.
  • A Laptop in case I wanted to break a story fast. For this part of the trip, I took along my Lenovo Mixx 300 with me instead of the Macbook Pro. Why? Weight. The MacBook Pro as lovely as it is, is heavy.
  • The iPhone (sans Pikachu case). The iPhone becomes invaluable to break stories fast.
  • And a light bag to put it all in.

Each person has their own way of covering events for their organisation. Some are very laptop-happy, others are happy using iPhones and other small devices.

For me I was using a mixture of both. For certain articles (for example the launch carrier of the A330neo with Airspace), I was editing that on the go with the iPhone to get the article “out there”. Others (such as the A330neo cabin mock-up) were done more traditionally.

Other posts were very much a hybrid post – for example, I’d do the initial write-up of the article, then post the article when I had a picture (for example the new seat for Air Asia from Mirus).

Aircraft Interiors Expo Office
Most content was posted from the comfort of this seat (Also known as my office)!

Then there are occasions where I just live tweeted presentations (such as the Crystal Cabin Award winners).

And this is where reverse papping goes on. I’m meant to be the one papping like there’s no tomorrow!

I was actually getting an image onto Twitter at that moment…


I was checking something on the phone at that point. Honest. Was not eBaying at all (least of the roaming speeds on O2-DE with Three UK were god-awful

To me, I was using what media I had to hand to get the story out. And doing it in an open and agenda-free environment as possible.

Now, I admit to having my own agendas (for me, I’m always looking to the back of the plane, the comfort innovations there), so a lot of my show was based around the comfort angle  (where as others looked at In-Flight Entertainment, Connectivity, Galley equipment… the list goes on), so its important to go to the vendors and discover what’s out there.

And that for me means I have to overcome one my personal fears: asking questions.

Believe it or not – that’s something I’m not good doing in real life. Heck, I find speaking up sometimes tough to do. But there’s another thing I do… which is attempt to listen.

All that time working in IT listening to peoples moans comes into play here. By listening you can understand a subject.

Therefore, sometimes being a sponge and soaking up information is a good thing. Helps you knock out articles on the fly.

I’m still picking up skills as I go along (and hopefully improving my atrocious grammar one step at a time… again, it’s a wonderful thing to have when you’re not dyslexic – trying to process all the information at once, and trying to get it all out an appropriate speed without mistakes. For those of you who are screaming the words GRAMMAR CHECKERS, a word of advice, they have their own minds and sometimes don’t make too much sense).

Of course having great colleagues who can answer questions help a lot, and the team at Runway Girl (as well as Flight and many other publications).

And like most things: I’m still learning. Which in life… is an important thing.

Next: A Walk through Aircraft Interiors Expo. Some things you might not had seen…

 

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates! You can also follow me on Instagram and Snapchat too

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European readers

 

 

BoardingArea