While Inventor Lady, Rita Crompton, has been attending the National Hardware Show (NHS) for the past 15 years, the 2022 show was Kat Crompton’s first show. The large open floor plan that included rows upon rows of vendor booths was what she expected from a professional tradeshow. But where the NHS deviated from her expectations was in all the opportunities offered to showcase products besides just a booth.
The NHS does a great job creating other areas that inventors can capitalize on to get more visibility for their products. Those areas include a Habitat location, the United Inventors Association stage and new product area, a large stage in the backyard area where inventors can give demonstrations or presentations. Invitation-only panels are routinely run where inventors can talk about their journeys to market and participate in question and answer sessions with the audience.
Kat had the opportunity to work with several UIA representatives as a new product judge and sit on an advice panel for product pitches.
NHS 2022 was also the first time she got to experience being a part of the Inventor Lady’s team and learn what a different opportunity it presents for the inventors attending to go as part of the team. In most cases, when an inventor goes as an individual, getting to participate in the previously mentioned other showcasing areas is hard because he/she is limited to keeping the booth manned. But when you go as part of the IL team, there are always people at the booth to have you back and represent you. That frees up more time to spend networking and participating in other areas of the show. If someone comes by that expresses interest in your product, someone from the IL team is there to offer information on your product, provide your contact info, scan a badge, or get their contact info. You don’t have to worry about missed opportunities for networking or interest.
The Inventor Lady booth location has been upped in size and location quality with every year attended. You get to capitalize on a reputation years in the making. We’ve come a long way with our visibility and at the 2023 show we will be right up by the main entrance.
Previous attendees have won the Retailer’s Choice Award as well as some others receiving honorable mentions. The IL booth itself is an award winning booth, having previously won the Most Interactive Booth Award. After attending last year, we had one inventor say he received 100,000 hits on his webpage following the show.
Simply put, attending as a part of this group will expose you to greater visibility, opportunities for being invited to speak on stage or participate in panels, as well as things not associated with the show like radio interviews and TV interviews.
Attending on your own means you will be at square one and faced with the dilemma of how to be in more than one place at a time. Attending with the Inventor Lady offers so much more. We are looking for more inventors to join us at the 2023 show who are in patent pending status and have a sexy proof of concept prototype. If that describes you, please contact us. We are currently working to get our inventors’ products listed on the NHS website so they can capitalize on all the pre-show publicity! Join Us!
rita@inventorlady.com
303-910-8889
https://www.inventorlady.com
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