No matter how many times you may have been to The Motivation Show, the sheer size and scope of the thing never fails to impress. Everybody who is anybody is there. Every major brand. Every major retailer. Every major destination. Every major player in the motivation biz. And this year's show was no different.

More than 13,000 buyers and exhibitors - 7,500 buyers and 6,000 exhibitors from more than 1,900 exhibiting companies - were spread out across nearly 250,000 square feet of exhibit space at Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center. In addition, more than 600 paid registrants filled 2,200 seminar seats for the new Executive Leadership Series: Strategies to Motivate, Empower and Reward.

"We were very pleased with the success of our new seminar series," says Donna Oldenburg, Conference Director. "We worked hard to deliver best practices for improving employee performance and customer loyalty and concentrated on finding end-users to teach the seminars from companies like Microsoft, Avis-Budget, DHL, Gap, John Deere, MetLife and Red Roof Inn. The final results exceeded our expectations, and more than two-thirds of the conference registrants were first-time attendees, indicating that this education is what attracted them to the show."

As always, education will include dozens of seminars and workshops on how to create more effective, measurable programs and use motivation to get the most out of relationships with customers, channel partners, salespeople, employees, vendors and shareholders.

Knowledge a Priority
Education - in all its forms - is what this show is all about. Whether its attendees catching up on the latest trends and techniques discussed at seminars, exhibitors informing buyers about the newest motivational products, services and destinations or show-goers walking the miles of aisles doing a little comparison shopping for their next program, knowledge was the main priority - getting it, expanding it, using it.

"Excellent! Great information that will motivate me to go back to work and make our program better," said Cargill's Jenni Wilt, a sentiment shared by others who attended The Motivation Show's education sessions. "Absolutely outstanding presentation," noted Chris Flaman-Haley of Cascadia Motivation Inc. "If this was the only session I attended, it would have been worth the time and expense to come to Chicago."

'Enjoying the Opportunity'
Attendees expressed satisfaction with their ability to interact with exhibitors at the show. "We're a fraternal life insurance company, and I'm enjoying the opportunity to meet with vendors and see new products here," said Mary Shaull, Associate, Agency Services, for Modern Woodmen of America. "We purchase smaller promotional items in quantities of 5,000-10,000 and more expensive sales incentives in quantities of 150-200. We're also looking for interesting travel destinations. We have about 1,500 people at a national convention, about 500 attend agent sales incentive trips and another 200 attend incentive trips for top level managers."

That sums it up pretty well. With so many options, opinions and resources to sort through when it comes to motivating and rewarding people, it's not always easy to maintain a sense of balance and perspective. Ideally, the best way to make a truly informed decision is to put everything on the table, gather all the facts, get as much input as you can and make the information work for you (instead of the other way around). And that's precisely why The Motivation Show works so well. Where else can buyers find - under one roof - all the ideas, information, inspiration and input they need to make successful decisions about their incentive, reward and recognition programs?

At first glance it seems overwhelming - too much information, too many choices, so much to keep track of, so little time. But that's really the point, and it's what keeps people coming back year after year. "This is my third time coming to The Motivation Show, and we're looking for items to give to sponsors," said Michael Spidale, Director of Purchasing for the Chicago White Sox. "We purchase in quantities from 200 to 1,000, and it's good to be here to actually see the items, gauge their quality and talk directly with the reps. We get a lot of work done in one visit here. It saves time and avoids a lot of phone calls and waiting for samples."

A Matter of Perspective
To be honest, there were a number of exhibitors who weren't happy with the lighter-than-usual traffic at this year's show. But when looked at in the context of a shaky economy, corporate cutbacks and increased competition, a lighter crowd wasn't a huge surprise. Again, it's all a matter of perspective.

"While we're not new to this industry, this was our first Motivation Show," says Karen Helburn of Just Hatched, a supplier of baby gifts to the retail and incentive industries. "So far, we're very happy with the quality of new contacts and relationships we made there. Compared to other shows we've done, there was clearly less traffic. However, the quality of the conversations and the quality of contacts we made are clearly much, much better. Typically, we'll leave a show with about 750 leads, only to get home to face the daunting task of weeding through them. At The Motivation Show, we left with only about 200 leads - and I'll admit I was a little worried - but 200 really good, quality leads. So far, we have yet to call upon a bad one. At the very least we're having quality conversations. At the very best we've made our way into some very exciting programs. I'm happy to not be spending valuable resources sorting through a mess of leads. It's much better to have a condensed quality pool to draw from."

"Exhibiting in this year's Motivation Show was worth our while," says Jon Garbow, Gift Card Sales, Darden Restaurants. "Despite the soft traffic at the show, we were able to spend quality face time with some prospective customers. We managed to leave the show with some very viable business opportunities that we're excited about. In addition, exhibiting at The Motivation Show allows us to effectively network with our counterparts and a myriad of incentive industry professionals."

Serious Buyers
Debbie Antonio from exhibitor Bath and Body Works reported several successful meetings with potential new clients. "It's good to be at The Motivation Show because we meet with serious buyers," she says. "People represent a variety of companies, including doctors' offices looking for patient gifts and hotels searching for employee gifts. A couple of hotels are very interested in working with us on large co-branding programs. We also discussed some innovative programs, including some that benefit charities with other prospects. Quantities we've discussed here vary greatly depending on the program, but some are as high as 10,000 units."

"Tourism Australia had amazing traffic due to the best location on the trade show floor [right at the top of the escalators]," says Skye Baird, Tourism Australia's Business Events Manager for the Americas. "Our baby kangaroos and our baby wallaby - and the Happy Hour drinks - certainly drew in massive crowds to touch and see a real part of Australia. Leads were up 20% over 2006, and we were very happy with the event overall."

Curtis Smith from Dooney & Burke reported a strong response to their products. "The show [went] very well for us - great traffic and lots of interest in our new products. The people who can make decisions are here. They're looking for quantities from 100 to 1,000 for points programs, executive and employee gifts and other programs. We had very steady traffic and will be back again next year."

High-Tech Tools
In addition to walking the aisles, attending seminars and networking at special events, this year's Motivation Show offered attendees another way to maximize their trade show experience. MotivationConnect, a suite of revolutionary web-based tools that matched attendees with the most relevant people, products, destinations and events, also had a successful debut.

"More than 3,600 registrants used their free online portals an average of 2.6 times to plan their show participation," says Peter Erickson, Managing Director of The Motivation Show. "They conducted almost 14,000 searches and bookmarked companies, services or products nearly 20,000 times. This is excellent usage for MotivationConnect's first year, and we expect this activity to grow rapidly over the next 12 months."

Erickson says MotivationConnect will remain active for post-show information and follow-up for the current online community through December, and then open up again for the 2008 show early next year.

2008 Motivation Show
The Motivation Show, scheduled for Sept. 23-25, 2008 at Chicago's McCormick Place, is the world's largest exhibition of motivational products and services. It features nearly 2,000 exhibitors of incentive and recognition programs; branded products and gift cards; recognition awards; motivational destinations, services, and attractions; promotional products; and related technology and other services.