Nadyne's unofficial guide to working in a booth at Macworld Expo (part one)

MWSF is coming! In the past few weeks, some of the newer members of MacBU have asked me what it's like to work the show floor at Macworld Expo. We've got a big booth there, and we staff it with honest-to-goodness MacBU employees. It's a great experience for everyone involved. MWSF attendees get to come over and chat with someone who actually works on the product that they have questions about. MacBU folks get to interact with our users and hear firsthand what they like and don't like.

Working in a booth at MWSF is a lot of fun, it's hugely tiring, and it's occasionally frustrating. (At least, that's my experience working the show floor in the MacBU booth; someone else will have to say whether it's different in booths from other exhibitors.) I learn a lot when I'm at MWSF. I love it. You have to be prepared for working your booth there, though. This is some of the advice that I've given people who have asked me this question.

If you haven't worked at a MWSF before, plan to write a trip report. (It's important even if you have worked at MWSF before, but it's essential for you if this is your first time.) You're going to learn a lot at MWSF. You're going to talk to a lot of people. You're going to be asked questions that you don't know the answer to. If you take someone's business card, make sure you jot down something on the back of it so that you can remember who this is and why you want to contact them later. You should jot down some quick notes at the end of every day for your trip report. You'll forget a lot if you wait until you're back in the office to write your trip report or sort through those business cards.

Know what you don't know. I know that I'm not an Excel expert, so the first thing that I do when I'm working at our booth is to figure out who is an Excel expert so that I can direct questions to them. I also identify the other gurus that I'm working with. I can answer a lot of Entourage questions, but not all of them, so I make sure that I can identify the Entourage guru who's working with me at that time. If you don't know an answer to something and you can't find someone who does know the answer, don't be afraid to say 'I'm sorry, but I don't know'. Do not, under any circumstances, make up an answer or give an answer that you're not sure about — it will come back to haunt you.

Always remember that you're not going to be able to make everyone happy. Accept this. You're probably going to talk to someone at MWSF who you can't make happy. Listen to what they have to say, help them out if there's something that you think you can do, but don't take it personally if you can't make them walk away with a smile on their face. If they get agitated, remain calm and polite. Don't get upset, and don't take it personally.

Make sure that you have comfortable shoes. You're going to spend a lot of time on your feet, plus you're going to want to walk around all of the rest of the booths to see everything else. If you're working every day, you probably want a couple of different pairs of comfortable shoes. I can't stress this enough — you're standing on concrete (or a piece of carpeting over concrete, which is only marginally better) all day, and you will hurt if your shoes aren't up to the task. If your feet hurt, you're cranky, which means that you might snap at someone in your booth. Don't do it!

This has gotten long, so I'll write about my day-by-day impressions of working in the booth in another post. Stay tuned!