 Welcome to RFL on this unlicensed podcast. My name is Caleb and we're here with Tacos Papadopoulos. What's going on, man? What's happening, Caleb? How are ya? Good, good. So, quick call to action. Tell our folks what they're supposed to be doing right now. Absolutely, remember to like, listen, and subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you download your audio podcast on Spotify, Google, or Apple. Very good, very good. If you guys got any questions, we'll tell you how to contact us here at the end. So, it is currently the Friday before Whisperpalooza. So, Whisperpalooza Eve, if you may say, so. I like the way that sounds. Exactly, we are tingling with anticipation. A lot more of a hydration plan in place, though, versus Christmas Eve, right? So, I'm like, I'm gonna start. That's very true. Gotta get ready for that. So, I'm drinking water, I'm drinking water. So, a follow-up we might do this week is, you know, the other week we had Claude on and had a great talk with him about the Whisper side of the Whisperpalooza and the shows in general. And I thought it'd be kind of fun to give us, or give our view of how these shows work, how they're put together, what's involved, tips and tricks that we picked up from doing this, who have been doing this a long time. And just kind of show you, you know, peek behind the Kamala here and see what we have to get done to get this show happen. So, it looks like we're partying, having a good time, which, I mean, granted, we are, but there's a lot of work that goes into it. So, first of all, tell us where are we? We're booth 647, I believe, right? That's correct, that's correct. So, when you're walking in, we're in the far right back corner, I believe, of most of the displays that are out there. Yeah, so hang right towards the end. We're in the end of a row. We've taken over four single booths into one mega booth. So, mega booths, yeah. We've only changed our spot like three times. So, sorry about that, Gary and friends. But they really do, I mean, Claude was legit in saying how hard that they work at WISPA for putting this stuff on too, because yeah, we kept going round and round and round, trying to get a location that better suits us and thanks for their hard work. I think we got it. Yep, yep. So, for us, you know, the planning for this show starts months in advance. You know, we've got an excellent marketing team. Those guys do a great job. Shout out to all those guys for sure. And one of the things that you do is actually they'll render out the booth for us because it helps us decide where we put it in our displays, where are we putting our towers, where we're putting the poles and the seats and all that other sort of stuff. Because we like to change it up every year, you know. I mean, we always have the same thing. Somewhere to sit down, we've got some pop-up banners and some cool stuff. We've got shirts and we've got all of our towers showing our products. But, you know, every year these products change and we want to showcase some new goods, which we've got some new goods coming, which we're excited about. We've got new pop-ups. We've got new artwork and stuff like that. So that in and of itself is an ordeal, you know, trying to get all that planned, the modeling for the towers. I mean, how many towers are we up to this time? I think we're putting up five this year. So we're going to have five tower sections with the full diversity of all our antennas, twist port adapters and other accessories and stuff that we have now. Yeah. So that's fun. So we get that ready and we're like, okay, now let's make this list of 10,000 parts we need to get together. This spread across three continents, some of the stuff that's new and you're like, okay, we know the show's coming for a while. We got this new product we want to showcase. We're going to get the prototypes done in time. Yeah, that always gets done about the last only 37 seconds of available time. So we get those. That's when they push the limits. Yeah, that's the way it always goes. So we get all that stuff shipped and that's always an adventure too because you ship 18 different shipments there then we've got to round them up. So book all of our stuff, we fly out. Normally we would go out Monday morning and then we get started up. But now we've kind of like, well, maybe we'll go out Sunday. Let's ease into this, that Monday where you're flying out early morning to fly, especially with those for the three hour time difference where I am, that it makes for quite a bit of a long day. So fly out there, get settled, meet up with folks. Then Monday at noon, the excitement starts. The total chaos and dumpster fire that is set up. It's hurry up and wait. Like you're so ready to go and you get there and then you have to wait like four hours for them to bring you your show crate out. We've got six people from multiple countries here. We're ready to roll. Oh, you're gonna bring it out in two to three hours. That's okay. So the other thing was getting checked in. I like coming in the day before now to get checked in. So we're not also sitting on top of our suitcases and going, oh, here's everything I own in the middle of the show floor. I hope no one wants off of it. Yeah, there's that. There's that. So we get set up, get it all put together, which is always an affair. Bid some pieces and nuts and bowls and then go, oh, there's five of these in this show. We don't actually need but one. So get all that set up, everything laid out, nice and pretty, catch a breath, and then it's on. Monday night, because we try to be like, all right, we're gonna take it real easy Monday night, you know, we gotta be cranking. We got the lunch at this. We got the show floor. We're gonna be adults. We're gonna be proper ready to go. And that usually goes out the window immediately, maybe. Yeah, it never really works out the way you plan, right? So there's always something to take you sideways or distract you or make you do something you really weren't planning. And sleep is usually one of those things that gets pushed to the side and staying up late and meeting up with people and talking and hanging out is usually dominates the whole show, the whole show. For sure. For sure, so. And Monday night's a good night because there's a lot of the big vendor presentations and stuff. So Camium's got an event, Mimosa's got an event. These are where they're really doing their showcase thing. That way they can get everyone pumped up and talked about on the floor. So that's a good place to meet up with everyone. If you guys haven't signed up for some of those, definitely check those out. So then Tuesday, you know, there's various, all the sessions and stuff start, which we're not really a part of generally. But then the exhibit hall floor opens around lunchtime. So that's where all of you guys pour in. And it is on. It is chaos for at least hour or two. And it's fun because like people walk up and you're like, dude, I haven't seen you in a year. It's been awesome. What's up? You know, you're hanging out while your buddy is catching up. And then there's some poor guy that walks up and it's like, hi, I'm curious to learn about your product. So you've got to be able to shift modes rapidly back and forth and be like, okay, yeah, hold on. I'll catch up with you in a little bit, buddy. And you know, helping folks out. So that's always a part of it. Shirts galore. We're gonna have a ton of t-shirts. We've got product catalogs and stuff like that. So if you come by at the booth and there's one of us free, you're probably gonna get attacked with the catalog. That's our way to sort of trap you into the conversation and be like, hey, have you seen this? Start whacking you upside of the head of it. So that's a fun attention grabber. Yeah, for sure. And then let's just talk. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. So that's a big part of it. It's definitely, you know, from start to finish, it's just really 100% nonstop, nonstop. I mean, you know, there's also, you know, the shipments don't always make it there as well, right? So we're, you know, on top of, you know, trying to set it up and trying to get everything that's there, there's also the stuff that's like, hey, we don't have this yet and we have to get it. So you have to kind of work all that, all that stuff in there on top of, you know, trying to be professional and trying to, you know, get all this information out to our customers. It's quite chaotic actually. Yeah, there's generally someone running around in the background with a spreadsheet with eyes of deep panic. Where is it? Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, yeah. Yeah. Guys, all we have is either small shirts or like triple X, that's all we've got. And we, you know, we never get that right. We try and learn from, you know, every past show and stuff like that. It's like, I think it goes in cycle. So it's like one show, we didn't have shirts big enough. So the next show, we made a whole bunch of like, you know, triple, triple X and double X and then everybody seemed to be skinny, right? We got everybody wanted like large or extra large. We had all these big ones and I don't know, it's difficult to really judge. I don't know why it works out the way it works out, but hopefully we have a better mix this year of shirts. That way we can, you know, give out as many as possible and ones that actually fit you. That'd be nice, right? Yeah, that would be a nice thing. So we'll see, we'll see. So the exhibit halls open generally from like 12 to two and then it'll soft close and opens back out, I don't know, four to six or it's in a little app. It'll be on the schedules and everything. So I think what a lot of folks don't understand is that soft clothes, it's not a hard clothes. Like most of us will still be around. Now, you know, maybe a little hit or miss, we might have to go put out some fires in the email or make some calls or run around the panic, trying to find where all of our samples are or whatever that she's ever got in there. Eat, eat ourselves. Yeah, that's always important. So especially with someone of my particular stature, I get kind of hangry. So I know it because y'all start throwing like Snigger bars at me. I was just gonna say, if you're at the show and Caleb looks agitated, just give him a Snickers and he'll be fine. That's all. He's just hungry. Yeah, it was after like four hand me a beverage. So, but yeah, that's always, that's always an affair. But that's always a good, because it calms down, it's like, if you don't have sessions, obviously look at the sessions, check out there's so much good material there. But if there's not a session active that you're really into or something or you've got multiple people and you've got some folks in those sessions, you know, come talk to us then. Everyone wants to try to do it that first day too. And we tell folks, look, we're there Tuesday, we're there Wednesday all day. And then Thursday, you know, is that first two hour period. So we're gonna be there. We're gonna wanna talk to you whether it's Tuesday, the first 10 minutes or you know, end of the thing Thursday, we're there. So you don't have to be there immediately. It's not like the information is out of stock, like everything else can be, right? There's no talk shortage going on right now. No, not with you and I, at least we can talk forever. I think also what's really important now that you mentioned sessions is don't forget about our vendor presentation, which is on Wednesday the 13th, at I think 9.15 a.m. in Champagne Room 4. It just sounds funny whenever I say that. But anyway, in Champagne 4, make sure you come check out our vendor presentation where we'll have some updated information for the market, including new products and other things. So Champagne 4, 9.15 a.m. Wednesday morning to 13th. Come check that out. Yeah, so this is our big time to show and get the big boards up and everything. So that's always fun. You know, like I said, it's over the course of three days. If we are around, you know, catch us at the bar, and this is where we do a lot of our socializations and it's not for the party aspect. I mean, it kind of is, right? But it always seems to be the great sort of focal point or meeting point. So even if that's not hardcore, you're seeing, totally get it. It is a great place to run into people and meet people because they're naturally congregate. Now, I've not been to the Paris, so I'm not really sure what the layout is. The Rio had that iBar that was right by the front door. That was the giant trap. So I went, it's right like, yeah, it's like the spider trap, right? The spider web, everybody hangs out there and there's people walk by it and kind of jump out, grab you and bring you in. But Paris is quite similar in that way. I went last year when they canceled it. We still had our tickets, so we ended up going anyway. And I think when you walk in the main doors on the right-hand side, there's this kind of, you know, main bar lounge sit-down area, which is pretty comfortable for socializing and hanging out. And again, yeah, of course, there's a lot of drinking that goes on in Vegas. But again, it's not for everybody and it's not something that you have to do. But it's a great way. If you're a new wisp, if you don't really know anybody, chances are if you look in these kind of main places, usually the main bar or the main lounge, that's where you'll find most of the wisp people hanging out. And it's a great place to just come in, sit down, say, hey, I'm so-and-so with, you know, XYZ company. How are you? And meet somebody new and start chatting. I mean, by far in the 10 years I've been doing this, everybody is super, super friendly. So don't be shy, stop in and, you know, come see one of us. Yeah, and if you're new, don't be nervous about it. Just say, hey, this is my first time here, I'm just getting started. And there'll be plenty of people that'll talk to you, take you into the wing, show you what's going on. So it is a very open community, which is a good time. It rocks, I love it. I love it. It really does. So as much as my younger years, I'm like, Vegas! And now I'm like, Vegas! Vegas! And I kind of drag in. But as soon as you walk through the door and you get that super-oxygenated casino air, hits your nose, and then you see some of your folks. And you're like, oh, yeah, OK, I can do this. Let's do this. Yeah. Oh, it's always a good time. I don't know if I should laugh or cry at this point. Like I said, it's a lot. It really takes a lot out of us, like I said. From start to finish, I mean, we've been working on this stuff for months now. Trying to lay out, like Caleb said, how everything looks to how everything goes. And you try and sort of speak choreograph kind of the flow of the show and scheduling everything like that. So it really takes a lot out of a person, a lot out of a person for sure. So for your vendors, you should go out there, whoever your favorite vendors are, make sure you stop in and just say thanks. Because chances are, they put in a lot of work to kind of setting this up and trying to deliver as much information to you as possible. So it's not just us. There's a lot of the vendors out there doing kind of the same song and dance we are. So it's a hard life. It's a hard life. It looks easy sometimes on the outside. On social media, it looks great. Like, hey, look at him having a good time. But you don't see the tears and the sore feet and the headaches and stuff. That doesn't always come through, you know? Yeah, the two I am. You're like, where's my water bottle? Sorrow. It's $7 if you take it from the fridge. Damn it, I'll do it. I don't care. I'll just drink from the sink at this point, you know? Yeah, yeah. So come see the manufacturers for sure. See your sales reps from the various sales channels and stuff, you know? Sales reps, I always used to give sales reps when I was in channel such a hard time. I give our guys a hard time and it's kind of my job not to, but oops. But these guys are really working things, just keeping up with everybody, making contacts and stuff. So it's a great opportunity. Get them, take you out to dinner. If you're wanting to have a serious, actual business meeting, definitely you can set that up. I wouldn't shoot for many breakfasts. I have seen it. It's always funny. It's like I've scheduled an 8 AM breakfast with a customer and I'm like, really? OK, cool, cool. That's your choice. And we'll do it. Yeah, we'll do it. We do what we have to do, right? So in the end, yeah, we power through it all. Lunch meetings, probably a lot more productive. Or if you want to have a meeting, like I said, we've got a number of folks at the booth. And one, it's maybe not Tuesday, but like Wednesday. If you want to sit down and have a little sit-down meeting and talk some things out, just let us know. We'll get it set up with one of our folks, not a problem at all. Any dinners and stuff like that, let's figure it out. Like our schedules, we've kind of given up on trying to make a hardcore schedule. We used to, we're like, all right, this night we're doing this one, this night we're doing this. And it always just ended up in flames immediately. So now we're just never works out. There's just so much. Again, it takes two to tangle, right? So it's not just about you making that appointment. It's like, is the other guy going to do it? And it often doesn't work out. I mean, again, during the day, obviously it's a little bit easier for that stuff to actually happen and stuff like that. But yeah, in the end, we're kind of flying by the seat of our pants and just ad hoc making things work. But we're definitely available to anybody. Yeah, we're available to anybody who wants to meet with us. Whether you're coming to our booth when the booth is open or you're coming when the soft clothes, so to speak, is happening. Come on by, talk to us. And if we can't, I mean, if we can't get to you or whatever schedules just don't work out while we're at the show, I mean, the follow up and we didn't even talk about the weeks that it takes to kind of follow up sometimes with a lot of the leads and communications and meetings that we have generated at this show to then follow up and finish after the show. So don't feel like you have to cram everything in there. There's ways of making it work outside of the show as well. So that's something to keep in mind. Yep, yep, for sure. And if we're slammed, just, you know, and we can't talk to you at the moment because we got a line, just come on back later. Like it'll thin out eventually, I promise. So don't feel bad. It's definitely crazy at first. Yeah. It's definitely crazy at first. Our booth gets a lot of attention and not to kind of put a spoiler out there, but we're gonna have something pretty cool set up in our booth as we do every year. So again, make sure you come by our booth sometime during the show for sure. We'll be posting a lot of stuff on social media, like we normally do, but we'll be throwing up some stuff there, some cool things you'll be seeing. So keep an eye on our social media for sure. Some giveaways too. We're gonna have giveaways at our booth as well, so. Yeah, we're still working on some details on the end of the show. We're gonna be moving some stuff. So, but yeah, I mean, that's really it. Like, it's kind of hard to express how much work it is without signing on like a big cry baby, but at the same time, it is definitely worth it. And then just, it's so enjoyable. I just need to vent. I just need to vent and come out here and whine a little bit. So let me have this, okay? Let me have this. I feel better now. I feel better. But it is also such a good time. Like, you get to see so many people that we've known for years and years and years and getting everybody in more of a relaxed mode is really great too. So, and then Thursday, Thursday comes and then it's teardown. Teardown tornado is always a fun time because no matter when most people go home, like that late night flight Thursday or even Friday, but God forbid if you don't tear your booth down in 37 seconds, people lose their mind. And then they're trying to roll up the floors and the forklifts moving everything. So it's like, all right, we have to not only tear down the stuff, keep what we're keeping, but also not get run over at the same times. And nothing ever fits in the crate the way it did when you shipped it out there, right? So it's like, it's like hyper Tetris, right? So Tetris is cool when you're setting up the booth. You know, you put everything in there, the boxes are all nice and they're closed the way they're supposed to be and everything lines up. But somehow when it comes time to put it all back together and in the show crate to send it out, oh, forget about it. It's complete chaos, complete chaos to make that happen. Yeah, boss. I don't know what happened to all that stuff. They picked it up, but they must have lost it shipping it back out. I don't know. So I totally didn't push into a pile and throw a match to it. So. Definitely, yeah. Crazy stuff. That's the sort of background. So what about some tips for folks that are new? I thought we'd throw some little tips out there. Some fun ones like, we're walking shoes, comfortable walking shoes. Like I actually see this a lot. I mean, you should know that. But a lot of times when folks are new, they are like, okay, this is my first professional event in this industry. So they're business casual with their nice shoes and stuff. And they don't realize you're gonna walk like 20 miles. Okay. You were definitely getting your steps. You're gonna walk a lot. Like the hotel room is generally a long ways from the convention hall and everything spread out. So you're gonna walk a lot. Yeah, definitely. And bring business cards. Don't worry about them being flashy. Don't worry about whether they look professional or not. It doesn't matter. But bring business cards. So that way we have a way of getting your information and us giving you our information so we can sync up later. So business cards are extremely important to bring a lot. If anything, usually business cards are used for like raffles and giveaways, right? So if anything, just bring them that way. You have something to drop in the box. But I see many, many wisps even experience when sometimes you forget them, right? So it's not just like, hey, you should have them or not. Just remember to bring them. Again, if you haven't made business cards, maybe you don't know exactly what your company name is gonna be or something. Just again, bring a business card that has your name on it. Your contact information, email and phone number. It's really important and it's a great way again to make sure that you can synchronize up with anybody that you find important at that shelf. So business cards. Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot. I mean, we could take the pictures of the badges and everything else. So it just seems like the business card still, I mean, it's an old school technology, but it just seems to be the way that it works out the best. It does. And well, the nice thing about the business cards too is usually the back is what? Empty, right? So you can write some notes. And that's why I like it. I mean, we've done it before. We used to rent the QR code scanner. So somebody comes up, you kind of scan, it beep, it goes in a database. So later you can kind of go through the list, right? But then you have this huge list of all these random names and businesses and stuff. And you're like, what did we talk about? Whatever. Yeah, I mean, I know it's old school, but it's really, really effective. And again, not everybody has those scanners. So it's a lot neater than trying to write down. It's like, is that an I or is that a one? I don't know what that email address is. I know, because my handwriting is sloppy as crap, right? So it's complete garbage. So you definitely want to bring a business card, like I said, just to make sure that those defined things you need, email address, name, and phone number is 100% legible, you know? Yep, yep, for sure. You're gonna need to hydrate. So I mean, we say it from a joking perspective if you're among the party enthusiasts like some of us could be. But even if you're not, if you are going to be talking so much, you're gonna be walking so much, it is so dry, right? And super, super dry. You're gonna be tired and cranky and just not feel good. And you're gonna need just way more water than you think. So I tell that to everybody. Yeah, I do it all the time. Bring chapstick. I bring chapstick because my lips dry out, my nose dries out. Again, it's not about being dehydrated because of the drinking and stuff. It's just a natural environment. The air is very dry inside because everything is cold when you walk outside. It's hot and dry. It really just dries out your body. So hydration is really, really important. And I'm not saying beers and sodas. I mean, seriously, drink some water when you're out there. You'll have a much better time. Water, Gatorade. You still got time to get some PD light packets. Those are actually lifesavers. Your little safety travel pack that you travel with. Yeah, my old man. Aspirin PD light. Aspirin PD light, Tom's just my old man bag that everyone makes fun of until it comes to the rescue, right? So. Yep, yep. I know you got my back, so I'm good. Then other than that, really just pace yourself. So you don't have to see everything the first day. You don't have to have every single conversation. Like this is spread out over days, right? And there's evenings and night events. And there's a lot of ways to track folks down. So if you've got somebody specific that you're kind of targeting or whatever, just kind of keep an eye on things easy and when you can, take some notes. Of course, everyone's got to put out their own fires at the office and everything else. But plan on, you know, you're gonna be up late. You'll probably be up early. But just try to make some sort of plan to pace yourself and not burn out. There's been a lot of times where you see folks, Tuesday morning, you're like, how are you feeling? Well, Tuesday around lunch. And you're like, I'm dying. It's like, okay, well, we got four more days. So suck it up, Buttercup. Yeah. I think it's also important like the sessions and stuff. Again, like I said, especially kind of like that, the smaller wisps and stuff where it's just yourself and you're kind of running around trying to make all these different sessions and stuff. As an attendee, you'll get links to the presentations and everything. So what I suggest is pick out the ones where you want to ask questions, right? So go to the sessions that you feel that you want to actually interact there because you may have some specific questions. Maybe the speaker, you kind of know the speaker, you've seen them really successful, know what they're doing, and you want to ask them again something specific. So those are the ones you should really write down and you should do, and yeah, half twos. And then make note of the ones that are kind of interesting that maybe you don't need to be there in person because you'll get the presentations later after the show that you can kind of get all that information after the fact. So that's another good tip, I think. Yeah, no, that's excellent. And ask questions in these, engage. People that are doing these sessions are all volunteers. They're not getting paid, they're not getting tasked, they're volunteering to share their experience and knowledge with you. And it is an excellent time to ask them questions and get resources that you just can't get on day-to-day basis. Yeah, and I think the last thing that I would say is have fun. Now seriously, have some fun while you're out there, go see a show if you're into that, go eat at that nice restaurant if you're into that, go, whatever it is, this is work and it's a lot of work. But as a wisp owner and being in a Swiss ministry, you work hard, man, you're working these ungodly hours. Sometimes a job is thankless. You really get kind of beat up a lot and for one time you have this opportunity, take some time out for yourself. Go get a massage, I don't know whatever it is. Go visit the spa, go do something, definitely make a point in those four to five days that you're out there to go out and do something that you wanna do, not related to the show at all, just take a you day for sure or a you hour, whatever it is, right, shit. Maybe it's just, you just wanna sleep, right? You don't wanna answer the phone, you don't wanna have to make dinner for the kids, whatever it is, maybe your day's just thrown on that robe and just chillaxing in the room, whatever it is, make sure you put that on your schedule and you do that for yourself as well. Really, really important to keep that in mind. Yeah, a lot of folks that are deep in this industry, this is their only real vacation that they can get, so make use of it. If you bring your spouse, definitely keep them in mind. They may not want to hang out with a particular crowd or they're like, I hear about this stuff all day at home, I don't wanna hear about it at night while I'm in Vegas, so take them to a show, go out and make sure they get pampered and have a good time too, for sure, for sure. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, that about rounds up all my hot tips I may have, kind of our show of things, and I mean, mainly, we just wanna talk about it, cause we're pumped, we're ready, we're ready to get this, we're ready to see everybody, we're ready to go to the show, and then we'll be ready to be done with it. Yeah, definitely, so don't forget to come visit our booth, what is it, 647, I believe, right? In the back right corner, don't forget about our vendor presentation on Wednesday, October 13th at 9.15 a.m. in Champaign Room 4. And other than that, catch us around, if you can't make either of those things happen, catch us at the bar, catch us in the hotel somewhere, ping us on social media, let's sync up, I love meeting all of our customers, whether we've known each other for years, we've been doing business already, or you've just seen me on social media or whatever, don't be shy, come on out, get together, look for me, Caleb, and the rest of our team will all be out there looking to interact with each and every one of you if we can. For sure, for sure, and if you can't make it to the show, you can find us where you can normally find us, social media, bring us with talk groups and stuff like that, RF Elements pages, Caleb at RFElements.com, toss us at RFElements.com, reach out, let's know what you wanna hear about, and until then, we will talk to you guys next time. Stay horny, everybody. All right, Charles, stay horny.