May 21–May 24, 2024

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EDS FAQ

  • General

    What is EDS?

    EDS is a lead­er­ship summit.

    It is an impor­tant gath­er­ing of the movers, shak­ers and bright­est minds that elec­tron­ic com­po­nent man­u­fac­tur­ers, dis­trib­u­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives have to offer.

    In an ener­gized, pro­gres­sive atmos­phere, top deci­sion mak­ers come togeth­er to build busi­ness. It’s a forum to plan, dis­cuss new oppor­tu­ni­ties, and reset goals.

    The core of EDS is valu­able idea exchange. It hap­pens through high-lev­­el strate­gic meet­ings, event func­tions and infor­mal gath­er­ings. Busi­ness rela­tion­ships are rekin­dled and new ones formed.

    EDS is more than just one week of meet­ings. It is a year-round match­mak­ing and plan­ning activ­i­ty that cul­mi­nates in Las Vegas at the EDS Summit.

    If you’ve nev­er been to EDS, then you’ve been miss­ing out on some amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. It’s not your typ­i­cal tradeshow envi­ron­ment where all of the action hap­pens on the con­ven­tion floor. EDS is a com­bi­na­tion of sched­uled, one-on-one meet­ings, edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to max­i­mize success. 

    EDS is a strong­ly sup­port­ed, joint effort by the indus­try’s top mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions: the Elec­tron­ic Com­po­nents Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion and the Elec­tron­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Asso­ci­a­tion.

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    As a small Distributor, how do I get access to those good industrial lines who are locked away in suites?

    Although most of those com­pa­nies have estab­lished and very lim­it­ed dis­trib­u­tor net­works, they do make changes from time to time. If you want to stim­u­late an inter­view, how­ev­er, you can’t wait until you get to EDS. Iden­ti­fy lines for which you think you’re qual­i­fied, and call the Dis­trib­u­tor Sales Man­ag­er in Jan­u­ary or Feb­ru­ary to ask for an appoint­ment at EDS. Many com­pa­nies leave time open on their appoint­ment cal­en­dars just for the pur­pose of meet­ing with select­ed poten­tial distributors.

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    Why aren’t the suites closed while the show floor is open?

    EDS exists to facil­i­tate dia­logue between Man­u­fac­tur­ers and Dis­trib­u­tors, but not to reg­u­late it. Accord­ing­ly, we pro­vide a choice of venues to meet the style and pref­er­ences of the var­i­ous com­pa­nies who par­tic­i­pate in EDS. Typ­i­cal­ly the com­pa­nies in suites are heav­i­ly OEM-ori­ent­ed Man­u­fac­tur­ers and their Dis­trib­u­tors; where the com­pa­nies on the show floor are more like­ly to be MRO-oriented.

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    How many people attend?

    Atten­dance at EDS is typ­i­cal­ly about 4000 indi­vid­u­als, divid­ed rel­a­tive­ly equal­ly among man­u­fac­tur­ers’ sup­pli­ers, dis­trib­u­tor, and man­u­fac­tur­ers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tive per­son­nel. EDS has superb mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion, attract­ing some 80% each year of the tar­get audi­ence of com­pa­nies who dis­trib­ute elec­tron­ic com­po­nents. Elec­tron­ic dis­tri­b­u­tion is a com­pact indus­try, so that com­putes to about 600 dis­trib­u­tor atten­dees from 200 com­pa­nies. When you divide that num­ber among 300 man­u­fac­tur­ers, par­tic­i­pat­ing in meet­ings that often run half an hour or longer, you under­stand why it’s so impor­tant for man­u­fac­tur­ers’ sup­pli­ers to take aggres­sive action to be sure to attract the dis­trib­u­tors they want to see.

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    What’s the procedure for getting a badge to EDS?

    Every­one in the show area is required to have a valid badge for EDS 2024.

    • For Dis­trib­u­tor and Rep com­pa­nies who have attend­ed EDS in pre­vi­ous years, there is online reg­is­tra­tion right here on our web­site. Badges are $500, but are pre­paid by asso­ci­a­tion mem­bers when they pay their asso­ci­a­tion dues. Dis­trib­u­tor and Rep com­pa­nies attend­ing EDS for the first time must con­tact EDS Man­age­ment to attend.
    • Man­u­fac­tur­ers who are at EDS order badges for their meet­ing staff when they pur­chase their meet­ing space.
    • Man­u­fac­tur­ers who wish to meet with EDS atten­dees, or to eval­u­ate the event for the future par­tic­i­pa­tion and who do not require meet­ing space may reg­is­ter for the EDS Affil­i­ate Reg­is­tra­tion badges. These badges pro­vide access to all areas, to all offi­cial EDS pro­grams, and pro­vide space for a lim­it­ed num­ber of meet­ings. Affil­i­ates who reg­is­ter in advance will be list­ed in the Show Direc­to­ry and on the EDS web­site, includ­ing address, phone, email, key per­son­nel and prod­ucts. There is a fee of $1600 per com­pa­ny for ECIA and ERA Mem­bers and $2200 per com­pa­ny for Non Mem­bers for Affil­i­ate sta­tus, which includes the issuance of up to two (2) badges. Addi­tion­al badges may be pur­chased for $250 each. Man­u­fac­tur­ers attend­ing EDS for the first time may be eli­gi­ble to reg­is­ter at a spe­cial rate ($825/ECIA/ERA mem­bers, $1140 for Non Mem­bers. This spe­cial reg­is­tra­tion option is sub­ject to verification).
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    Why are some manufacturers in other hotels? It would be much more convenient for distributors to see everyone in one place.

    It’s rare that we can’t accom­mo­date every man­u­fac­tur­er who wants to be part of the EDS mar­ket­place in the head­quar­ters hotel. Chances are that any com­pa­ny in anoth­er hotel is there to avoid pay­ing a par­tic­i­pa­tion fee to the Show Cor­po­ra­tion. Thus, that com­pa­ny is tak­ing advan­tage of a mar­ket­place paid for by oth­ers. We advise you to decline appoint­ments with man­u­fac­tur­ers in oth­er hotels. It’s not the best use of your time, and effi­cient use of time is what EDS is all about!

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    Why is EDS always in Las Vegas?

    First and fore­most, because it works best for most peo­ple! Las Vegas comes out on top every time we sur­vey the indus­try on the best place. That has some­thing to do with val­ue — low priced plane fares with­out a Sat­ur­day stay­over, deluxe hotel rooms over $100 a night less than com­pa­ra­ble rooms in most big cities, favor­able rates for exhib­it ser­vices, etc.

    But the oth­er big point is that the indus­try likes the ​“under-one-roof” idea, with suites, con­fer­ences, sem­i­nars and hous­ing all in the same place. There are very few facil­i­ties that offer enough hotel rooms, meet­ing suites, and ade­quate space for dis­plays, sem­i­nars, meet­ings, con­fer­ences, etc., all in the same complex!

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    Why does EDS have registration fees for distributors and representatives?

    EDS oper­ates for the ben­e­fit of the three func­tions in the dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nel; Man­u­fac­tur­ers, Dis­trib­u­tors, and pro­fes­sion­al field sales (Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ Rep­re­sen­ta­tives). All three groups derive finan­cial ben­e­fit through their par­tic­i­pa­tion; but essen­tial­ly the entire cost of pro­duc­ing EDS has been borne by Man­u­fac­tur­ers. The EDS Board believes that the man­u­fac­tur­ing com­mu­ni­ty should not pay the full freight for putting on an event which is of equal impor­tance to the oth­er func­tions in the chan­nel. Giv­en the over-all invest­ment Dis­trib­u­tors and Reps make in com­ing to Las Vegas (plane fares, hotels, meals, etc.), the $500 badge fee (per per­son) is not expect­ed to deter any­one from attend­ing, but will help keep the bot­tom line black. Of equal impor­tance, it will spread the cost among all the peo­ple who ben­e­fit, not put the whole bur­den on one segment.

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    Who owns EDS?

    EDS is oper­at­ed not-for-prof­it under the spon­sor­ship of the elec­tron­ic indus­try trade asso­ci­a­tions most con­cerned with dis­tri­b­u­tion, ECIA era ERA. (Orig­i­nal­ly orga­nized by radio parts man­u­fac­tur­ers in 1937, the dis­trib­u­tor asso­ci­a­tion joined in a year or so lat­er, and the Elec­tron­ics Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Asso­ci­a­tion became an equal part­ner in the ear­ly 1970’s.)

    A Board of Direc­tors of lead­ers in the three trade asso­ci­a­tions sets pol­i­cy and direc­tion. Direc­tors are select­ed because of their stature in their com­pa­nies and their asso­ci­a­tion and serve with­out com­pen­sa­tion, for terms not to exceed six con­sec­u­tive years. The pres­i­den­cy rotates among the three groups.

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    The OEM segment of the EDS universe and the MRO segment seem to have differing needs. Would the industry be better off with separate shows?

    While the premise of dif­fer­ent needs is large­ly cor­rect, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of respon­dents in our sur­veys clas­si­fy them­selves as both OEM and MRO, and thus could be faced with hav­ing to attend an extra show.

    More­over, the costs of oper­at­ing two sep­a­rate events would be so much high­er that the indus­try prefers to accept the small trade-offs nec­es­sary to accom­mo­date the OEMs, the MROs, and the hybrids in a sin­gle event.

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    As a new or potential EDS participant, how do I decide which of the many participation options is best for my company’s needs?

    Your dis­tri­b­u­tion strat­e­gy, the size of your dis­trib­u­tor net­work, and the impor­tance of your line to your dis­trib­u­tors are among the fac­tors that come into play. You’ll find a thumb­nail descrip­tion of the var­i­ous for­mats — Exhib­it Booths, Euro Suites, Con­fer­ence Units and Hotel Suites — else­where on this web site. In addi­tion, you can ask the experts on the EDS staff and EDS Board or con­tact the spon­sor­ing asso­ci­a­tions for advice.

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    What kinds of products do distributors look for at EDS?

    • Ampli­fiers
    • Anten­nas and accessories
    • Audio com­po­nents
    • Bar cod­ing equipment
    • Bat­ter­ies and bat­tery packs
    • Cab­i­nets and enclosures
    • Cable assem­blies
    • Capac­i­tors
    • Cas­es
    • Cat­a­logs and books
    • CB prod­ucts
    • Chas­sis slides
    • Chem­i­cals
    • Cir­cuit pro­tec­tion devices
    • Coils
    • Com­mu­ni­ca­tions equipment
    • Com­put­er periph­er­als and supplies
    • Con­nec­tors
    • Con­sumer products
    • Con­trols
    • Crys­tals
    • Dat­a­com
    • Decals and mark­ing devices
    • Dis­plays and readouts
    • Fans and blowers
    • Fas­ten­ers
    • Fiberop­tics
    • Fil­ters
    • Fus­es
    • Heat sinks
    • Heat tools
    • Hybrids
    • Indi­ca­tor lights
    • Insu­lat­ing products
    • Inte­grat­ed circuits
    • Inter­con­nect devices
    • Jacks and plugs
    • Lamps
    • LEDs
    • Mag­net­ic materials
    • Marine elec­tron­ics
    • MATV, CATV, CCTV
    • Meters
    • Micro­phones
    • Microwave prod­ucts
    • Opti­cal devices
    • Oscil­la­tors
    • Out­let strips
    • Pag­ing systems
    • Plugs and sockets
    • Poten­tiome­ters
    • Pow­er pro­tec­tion equipment
    • Pow­er supplies
    • Print­ed cir­cuit boards
    • Print­ers
    • Rec­ti­fiers
    • Relays
    • Resis­tors
    • RFI pow­er line filters
    • Secu­ri­ty products
    • Semi­con­duc­tors
    • Sen­sors
    • Sock­ets
    • Solar equip­ment
    • Sole­noids
    • Sol­der and sol­der­ing irons
    • Sol­id state sys­tems and devices
    • Speak­ers and sound equipment
    • Sta­t­ic con­trol products
    • Sur­face mount­ed devices and hardware
    • Switch­es
    • Switch­boards
    • Tele­phone equipment
    • Ter­mi­nal blocks
    • Test equip­ment
    • Timers
    • Tools
    • Tow­ers and accessories
    • Trans­form­ers
    • Tubes
    • Tub­ing
    • UPS
    • Video equip­ment and accessories
    • Volt­age pro­tec­tion devices
    • Wire and cable
    • Wire har­ness equipment
    • Work­sta­tions
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    Why can’t I just buy a “one day ticket” to attend EDS?

    EDS is not your typ­i­cal tradeshow where the only option is to explore the show floor and engage with ven­dors. EDS is all about build­ing and fos­ter­ing rela­tion­ships. The core of EDS is valu­able idea exchange. It hap­pens through high-lev­­el strate­gic meet­ings, event func­tions and infor­mal gath­er­ings like the pop­u­lar Con­nec­tions Café and evening social events. Being onsite for the entire event max­i­mizes opportunities!

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    What is the EDS Badge policy?

    POL­I­CY ON MIS­USE / MIS­HAN­DLING OF BADGES

    All EDS par­tic­i­pants must be reg­is­tered to receive a badge. Badges must be worn at all times to gain access to EDS meet­ing spaces, events, and activities.

    Badges will only be issued to employ­ees of reg­is­tered com­pa­nies. Reg­is­tered com­pa­nies are strict­ly pro­hib­it­ed from attempt­ing to cre­den­tial or reg­is­ter any per­son who is not an employ­ee of the reg­is­tered com­pa­ny. Mis­use and shar­ing of EDS badges is strict­ly forbidden.

    Indi­vid­u­als will be issued one (1) badge only. Lost badges will only be replaced upon pay­ment of a one-hun­dred-fifty-dol­lar ($150) badge reprint­ing fee.

    All badges are the prop­er­ty of EDS and must be returned to EDS upon request.

    EDS reserves the right to pro­hib­it entry or to remove any indi­vid­ual, whether reg­is­tered or not, whose con­duct is not in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter and pur­pose of EDS.

    With­out lim­it­ing the fore­go­ing, EDS reserves the right to remove or refuse entry to any­one who has reg­is­tered, gained access, or attempt­ed to gain access to EDS under false pre­tens­es, pro­vid­ed false infor­ma­tion, or for any oth­er rea­son what­so­ev­er that EDS man­age­ment deems, in its sole dis­cre­tion, is cause for deny­ing entry or removal under the circumstances.

    Any­one wear­ing a fal­si­fied badge and/​or caught shar­ing, swap­ping, or oth­er­wise mis­us­ing their badge will be sub­ject to removal from EDS and may be pro­hib­it­ed from reg­is­ter­ing for EDS in the future.

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    Are all meetings on the same schedule?

    The vast major­i­ty of the meet­ings run 50 min­utes, begin­ning on the hour. This allows par­tic­i­pants enough time to get from place to place with­in the show area at the hotel. Off­site meet­ings are dis­cour­aged, as they are dif­fi­cult to get to and com­pa­nies hold­ing off­site meet­ings are not reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants of EDS.

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  • First Time at EDS

    What is EDS?

    EDS is two events in one, and both of the events have dimen­sions that make EDS much more than just a show. To get the most ben­e­fit from par­tic­i­pat­ing in this unique event, par­tic­i­pants have to under­stand its mul­ti­ple dimen­sions, and plan in advance to cap­i­tal­ize on its dis­tinc­tive features.

    EDS is an appoint­ment-cen­tered meet­ing place, and becomes more so each year. Plan­ning for EDS should include con­tact­ing the peo­ple you want to see well in advance of your arrival in Las Vegas. Whether your pur­pose is to refresh an exist­ing rela­tion­ship or to cre­ate a new one, you should have a check­list of what you want to accom­plish at each meet­ing. Planned objec­tives, and prepa­ra­tion to meet those objec­tives, are the basic ele­ments behind every suc­cess­ful EDS meeting.

    EDS is a mar­ket­place, where con­ver­sa­tion and con­fer­ence lead to com­merce. Every meet­ing at EDS has to explore or con­firm a ​“fit” between the prod­ucts a man­u­fac­tur­er offers and the mar­kets a dis­trib­u­tor or rep­re­sen­ta­tive serves.

    EDS is a resource cen­ter and a forum. Your plan­ning should also allow time to vis­it Asso­ci­a­tion Cen­tral, where the three asso­ci­a­tions that bring you EDS also put their resources at your dis­pos­al. As a forum where indus­try trends are explored, EDS pro­vides both for­mal and infor­mal meth­ods of learn­ing what’s new, what’s hap­pen­ing, what’s going to be hap­pen­ing, and what it means to your com­pa­ny and your pros­per­i­ty. Keynotes, sem­i­nars, and net­work­ing events all put you on top of the trends that shape your future.

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    Who attends EDS?

    Most of the peo­ple wear­ing Man­u­fac­tur­er badges at EDS sell prod­ucts they man­u­fac­ture, or have man­u­fac­tured for them, through the dis­trib­u­tor chan­nel. They may be at EDS to find new dis­trib­u­tors, or to meet with their estab­lished dis­trib­u­tors, or pri­mar­i­ly to recruit man­u­fac­tur­ers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tives. Oth­er com­pa­nies with Man­u­fac­tur­er badges offer prod­ucts or ser­vices that the com­pa­nies attend­ing EDS use in their own busi­ness­es … soft­ware, Inter­net ser­vices, con­sul­tants, etc.

    Dis­trib­u­tors of elec­tron­ic com­po­nents and relat­ed prod­ucts attend EDS from all over the world, and they include both those who do busi­ness pri­mar­i­ly in their own local mar­kets, and those who do busi­ness nation­al­ly and glob­al­ly. Some dis­trib­u­tors spe­cial­ize in par­tic­u­lar com­po­nent cat­e­gories, such as switch­es or bat­ter­ies, and some spe­cial­ize in par­tic­u­lar cus­tomer cat­e­gories, like light­ing or security.

    Many man­u­fac­tur­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing in EDS out­source their field sales to pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions (rep firms) that serve a clear­ly defined ter­ri­to­ry, do not take title to the goods they sell, and are com­pen­sat­ed pri­mar­i­ly through com­mis­sions on sales results. (Many also receive fees for pro­vid­ing spe­cial ser­vices and/​or retain­ers for intro­duc­ing ​“mis­sion­ary” prod­uct lines — new mar­ket entries with­out an exist­ing cus­tomer base in the territory).

    The two pri­ma­ry U.S. trade asso­ci­a­tions con­cerned with elec­tron­ics dis­tri­b­u­tion, Elec­tron­ic Com­po­nents Indus­try Asso­ci­a­tion and Elec­tron­ics Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Asso­ci­a­tion spon­sor EDS and have key per­son­nel on site in the Grand Ball­room to answer ques­tions about the indus­try as well as about the associations.

    All of the major elec­tron­ics indus­try trade pub­li­ca­tions (print and online) that cov­er the chan­nel, and many of those that cov­er prod­ucts and tech­nol­o­gy attend EDS. Thus, EDS is a prime venue for inter­fac­ing with edi­tors and reporters. As with the oth­er aspects of EDS plan­ning, you need to tell the media in advance what you have that’s new and sug­gest a time to meet, either one-on-one, or through a press con­fer­ence in Media Central.

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    Why attend EDS?

    Dis­trib­u­tor atten­dees are look­ing for new lines to car­ry which are com­pat­i­ble with the needs of their dis­trib­u­tor base, or for new prod­ucts from their exist­ing ven­dors, and/​or to build rela­tion­ships and to find out what’s going on in the indus­try. Be pre­pared to tell them who uses your prod­ucts, and how they dif­fer from sim­i­lar and/​or com­pet­i­tive prod­ucts. Dis­trib­u­tor atten­dees expect new ven­dors to have a pro­gram in place, includ­ing rec­om­mend­ed inven­to­ries, sell­ing prices, return poli­cies, lead gen­er­a­tion and mar­ket­ing support.

    Rep­re­sen­ta­tive atten­dees are at EDS to facil­i­tate dia­logue between the dis­trib­u­tors that they call on and the man­u­fac­tur­ers whose prod­ucts they bring to mar­ket. They may also be look­ing for new line oppor­tu­ni­ties, and to meet with their cur­rent prin­ci­pals for review and plan­ning. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who are look­ing for prod­uct lines want to be sure that a new line will fit well with the oth­er prod­ucts they sell and they gen­er­al­ly want exclu­siv­i­ty in their clear­ly defined ter­ri­to­ries. If you do not have an estab­lished cus­tomer base, expect them to want to be paid fees for intro­duc­ing your mis­sion­ary line.

    Man­u­fac­tur­er atten­dees may be look­ing for new dis­trib­u­tors, new rep­re­sen­ta­tives, or both. They may be at EDS only to inter­face with their exist­ing chan­nel net­work or they may be plan­ning to intro­duce new prod­ucts for their dis­trib­u­tors to sell, or new strate­gies and pro­grams. They know that at EDS they can get more done at less expense than via any oth­er meet­ing of their chan­nel partners.

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    How do you get an appointment at EDS?

    Ask for it. Make a list of who you want or need to see, and call or email with a sug­gest­ed meet­ing date and time. Use the Who’s Here page of this web­site begin­ning in Feb­ru­ary 2023 to search a list of reg­is­tered com­pa­nies and use EDS Match­mak­er to assist you with mak­ing appoint­ments. Tell them what you’ll have at EDS, and what it can mean for them.

    The experts tell us it takes three rep­e­ti­tions to get an idea across. Use your own con­tact list, too — and don’t wor­ry about cross­check­ing it with the EDS list. Your invi­ta­tion may be the tip­ping point for some­one who had­n’t pre­vi­ous­ly reg­is­tered. Use the EDS Sched­ule Tem­plate to keep track of your appointments.

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    How do you prepare for appointments at EDS?

    Every appoint­ment needs an agen­da, although it won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly be the same agen­da for each meeting.

    Ask the dis­trib­u­tor or rep you’re meet­ing with what they want to talk about and inte­grate your agen­da with theirs. Have nec­es­sary sup­port data on hand, includ­ing sales his­to­ry, mar­ket share/​competition, new prod­uct infor­ma­tion, busi­ness plans, and be pre­pared to dis­cuss fore­see­able prob­lems and opportunities.

    Here are some of the issues that are like­ly to be on any agen­da. Be pre­pared to answer them as well as to ask them.

    • How’s busi­ness?
    • What’s affect­ing busi­ness in your mar­ket area?
    • What are your fore­casts for the year ahead?
    • How are we doing? How can we improve our ser­vice to you and your customers?
    • How have you been impact­ed by the major trends and issues in the marketplace?
    • Glob­al­iza­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing mov­ing offshore
    • Impact of e‑commerce and indus­try consolidation
    • Envi­ron­men­tal pres­sures, tech­nol­o­gy advances — wire­less and others

    Don’t talk about your prod­uct — talk about what your prod­uct can do for your vis­i­tor and their customers.

    Don’t scare peo­ple away because you’re so busy talk­ing to your own staff.

    Take notes, col­lect busi­ness cards — and fol­low up.

    An indus­try sage once remarked that the two basic ele­ments that make EDS tick are new oppor­tu­ni­ties and old friends. Cer­tain­ly the EDS envi­ron­ment is con­duc­tive to adding a per­son­al ele­ment to every busi­ness relationship!

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