Happy Birthday, Ate Eng! I'm not there to serenade for you so I sent Corrine May to sing for you a "Happy Birthday" song. Hope you like it:

Don't worry about that extra line
That's creeping up upon your face
It's just a part of nature's way
To say you've grown a little more
Trees have rings and thicker branches
Kids shoes get a little tighter
Every year we're getting closer to who we're gonna be
It's time to celebrate the story of how you've come to be

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
You're such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

So light a candle on your cake
For every smile you've helped create
For every heart and every soul
You've known to grow a little more
A few more pounds, a little more grey
Don't count the years just count the way
It takes a little time to go from water into wine
Don't ever lose the wonder of the child within your eyes

Happy birthday my friend
Here's to all the years we've shared together
All the fun we've had
It's such a blessing
Such a joy in my life
May the good Lord bless you
And may all your dreams come true

I worked as a college instructor before at an agricultural college where we trained entrepreneurs. We usually conducted or joined trade show to let our budding student-entrepreneurs meet many potential customers face-to-face in a brief period of time inexpensively. It is also a way for our college to personally meet possible sponsors and partners and reinforce relationships.

Preparing for our exhibit booth is not an easy task. Though we cannot afford decorative truss , we managed to purchase presentable used trade show displays. We refurbished the damage and replaced missing pieces, we did still come up with an effective, original display for very little cash. We wanted to decorate our floor with logo floor mats but it's way above our budget already.

For the informational items on our booth display, we prepare written materials to distribute such as flyers and information sheets. We displayed items that appeal to multiple senses, including photographs or posters of our product or service (grafted mango, grafted durian,grafted rambutan, seedlings)), music that communicates a mood or a sense of place, and taste samples if we are introducing people to a food product like shrimp and crab kroepeck or polvoron with crab shell powder.

There were times that I'm assigned to look for our exhibit booth. I need to learn as much as I can about the product, service or issue that our booth represents. It's not easy to speak about it to people who are knowledgeable as well as people who are unfamiliar with it. I prepared myself for questions they might ask and prepared answers for them.

Another thing, we purchased inexpensive giveaway items to attract passersby to our booth like pens or key chains to complement our school's image.

I would love to hear any personal experience from you on how you prepare your trade shows.