The startup lemonade stand

We left for Vegas one day in advance. The plan was to get to our booth, install it and be ready for the following day. Unfortunately, our flight got mixed up and we reached Vegas at 7 PM. For those who know me, no, I didn't get lost during the flight. For the last time, I never get lost, I just don't always take the shortest path to get somewhere. Anyway, there was no problem, setting up our booth should was a 5 minutes thing thanks to velcro and a turn key booth we had ordered. Did you know that velcro was invented in 1941?

Next morning, we show up at our both at 8 AM. The show opens officially at 10 AM. Surprise, no booth!

Nothing, not even a carpet!

No panic, not yet. We are not exactly on the shortest path, but we can still adjust. We reach the CES booth and ask what's going on. No problem, we were transferred to a bigger booth nearby. CES is huge, nearby meant crossing the equivalent of a big shopping mall. We reach our new booth 10 minutes later. Big problem. Not only is our new booth not a booth, it's a meeting room, but it's also taken! So we walk back to the CES booth and try to keep our calm. After a few phone calls they decide to give us our old booth. We remind them that our space is still empty, where's the booth? Top priority they said, our booth will be ready as soon as possible. We reach our empty booth at around 9. At 9:30, news we got was that the CES president is aware of the problem, we have top priority, but still no booth. Quarter to 10, we set up a black jacket on a large suitcase with a pyramid of giveaway boxes on top. It look like we had a lemonade stand.

The show opens its doors and we were there acting like nothing was wrong. So many people are attending the show, it is unbelievable. Most are walking by fast, no time even for a fast 3 bullets. We are with a simple "free phone calls" to slow them down and then with the other bullets. We quickly get a lot of attention and traffic.

Around lunch time, a team is assembling our booth nearby. Once ready, they stop the traffic and slid it quickly. Five minutes later, our posters are up and we are ready to go. Amazingly, having no booth at all didn't have that much an impact. Lemonade stand was working just fine, the lesson learned is not to invest too much in the booth, more on the props you hand out. Our mobile pain reliever boxes were really attracting attention.