Being that we are a startup and trying to reduce costs in education, we are always trying to find ways to conserve money, as our savings flow directly into the pockets of students. Over the course of the past four months, we have exhibited at two of the major, annual math conferences in the US: MathFest and the AMATYC conference; what we have discovered is that it is very hard to exhibit at any conference on a tight budget. This puts small companies like us at a distinct disadvantage versus the larger corporations (Pearson, Wiley, Cengage, etc.) because these conferences are some of the best places to create awareness among faculty for your products and services. Below is a sample of what it cost us versus what it cost Pearson (estimated) at the most recent AMATYC conference in Boston, keeping in mind that we did to travel to attend and as such, we did not include that in the calculation.
|
Cost |
WWCoM |
Pearson |
|
Booth Cost1 |
$600 |
$11,000 |
|
Table/Chair Rental2 |
$177 |
$4,000 |
|
Power Adapter3 |
$75 |
$375 |
|
Promotional Materials* |
$50 |
$2,000 |
|
Wireless Internet Access4 |
$0 |
$3,600 |
|
Literature Rack5 |
$0 |
$378 |
|
Colored Carpet6 |
$0 |
$567 |
|
Shipping7 |
$0 |
$1,000 |
|
Free Giveaways* |
$0 |
$3,000 |
Total |
$902 |
$25,420 |
Obviously, Pearson was at AMATYC to exhibit more than just two books (as we were), but that being said, every time an extra booth is purchased or a free-t-shirt is given away, that is money that could be saved on behalf of the students. It is just something that we here at the Center thought people should be made aware of the next time they attend a conference.
1 Our first-time exhibitor booth cost $600 and Pearson bought 10 $1,100 booths for their display 2 Our table cost us $177 for a 3 day rental after taxes and I assumed Pearson had about 20 tables for their display at $200 a piece 3 Industrial-to-conventional power adapters cost $75 for a 3-day rental 4 Wireless internet cost $300 per day per access code granted by the hotel 5 Literature racks costs $126 per day for a 3-day rental 6 Pearson had changed the carpet to color-coordinate their booth, which was 8’ X 30’ 7 Shipping cost $125 per 100 lbs so I assumed Pearson had about 400 lbs of equipment * Pearson had many of free giveaways including T-shirts, keychains, lanyards as well as many promotional materials so these numbers are estimated at the best of my ability
