Filling my car up with gas two weeks ago, I spotted a “take one” flyer with a $5 dollar bill peeking out. Curious, I lifted it and discovered that what I thought was a “fake” was a real $5 bill stapled between a spiritual flyer. I quickly checked all the pumps in the area for more (seeing an old guy running between pumps had to look funny to the casual observer) and wondered in process how long the flyer had been sitting.
Fast forward to today….same gas station, same pump, and guess what, another $5 dollar bill peeking out. Thinking that everything happens for a reason, I started to reflect about the odds of this happening again and message that this gift was presenting?
…A reminder that I need to get to church Sunday and pass along the offering to others who need it worse.
…A blessing and encouragement to do the right thing when an alternate choice presents itself.
…A suggestion that if you look for good, you find it and if you look for bad, you find it also.
Frankly, there’s a host of things that this gift symbolizes but the essence is this: What you look for you will find.
Reflecting upon my long career, I’ve been blessed working for the right company at the right time…a career mosaic of dots that connect. Call it luck, call it faith, call it what you want….I found what I was looking for at the time and benefitted more than I deserved at times.
So what does this have to do with Exhibitions?
The legacies I’ve profiled in my earlier blogs all “paid forward”, laying the foundation for the industry as we know it today. The $5 is a reminder to me that we ALL must pay-forward our learnings to the next generation of exhibitionists. This can be done through mentorship, speaking, teaching, writing, sponsorship, but it must be done.
My biggest concern about the exhibition industry is that we don’t hire and bring fresh talent into our industry AND that the next generation of marketing decisions makers devalue the power of exhibitions, blinded by technology and the perception that it can replace the power of face-to-face marketing. We must bring new talent and next generational thinking into our industry so that exhibitions continue to evolve. To stagnate is to die.
Look for good…evolve as a professional…share with others….and the “what ifs” will turn into “can be’s”.
exhibitionpro 