For those of you, who are unfamiliar with the ever so popular trade show called LifeFest, allow me to fill you in. LifeFest is a three-day event that focuses on women’s health and beauty. It takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Downtown Toronto, Ontario. I had the pleasure of working this particular event over this past weekend, and it has inspired me to write this article.

Over the course of three days, more than 40,000 women pass through the doors of the Metro Convention Centre, and by noon on Saturday, it was at maximum capacity…99.9% women. Being at the mercy of all those ladies for 72 hours inspired me to write this article titled “Trade Shows:The Latest Sporting Event”.
Think about it:

• Every sporting event takes place in a stadium. The north building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre stretches 14,000 square feet. The average size of a football field is roughly 57, 600 square feet. The Canadian International Auto Show stretches over 850,000 square feet. For those of you die-hard football fans, that’s like watching fourteen+ games simultaneously.

• Almost anything you consider has a trade show affiliation or membership. From Star Trek to Star Wars, wine and cheese, to beer and peanuts, sports and recreation, to yoga and relaxation. We’ve now have the conventional two team line-up. If we consider the Rocks, Paper, Scissor Expo, we’ve established a race!

• Vendor booth spaces range from 10X10 to 20X20. It is imperative that each vendor stays within their boundaries. Anyone caught not abiding by the boundary rules could potentially be dismissed. If red cards were an option, we’d have a game of soccer.

• The competition for the grandest booth can sometimes be ruthless. Spying, picture-taking, grunting, and death stares are continually witnessed. Throw in a couple of profanities and “your mama” jokes and you might as well compare it to sitting in the golds of the NHL.
  

• Security Guards are strategically placed at all ends of the building. Replicating a referee, a guard is there to foresee that everyone is playing by the rules and to break out any fights that occur over a slight adrenaline increase, most likely brought on by more than one offering of a free sample. Sort of like the one I was witness to over a women’s Schick Intuition razor. A penalty was enlisted on both female parties as well as a warning for probable dismissal.

• The trade show attire is close enough to a triathlon team. Comfortable shoes are standard, along with stretchable pants and shirts. Layers are usually an option, as the temperature begins to rise once the show begins. Team colors are also standard, thus differentiating one’s self from an opposing team member.

• Calories burned- the average NHL player loses over 5 lbs a game. I lost two pounds in 48 hours due to a ten hour run up and down the show aisles NON STOP. Hand me a baton and I will run a marathon.
• The winning team - and the winner is the team who either:

a) comprised the largest sales

b) provided the most amount of free samples

c) gave away the best booth prizes (in a particular category.)

• The Grand prize winner is…dum da da dum…all of the above.