My First NAB! What should I know to make the most of it?!

[Ralph Hajik]

Hi Ronald Lindeboom,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear you probably won’t be at NAB, but I’m sure you have bigger & better things to do. Ronald, your doing an excellant job with the Cow Magazine and the site. The Very Best to you and the Creative Cow Staff. I wear the same size shoe as Bob Zelin and just in case I see Bob, my shoes insured.

Happy Travels
Ralph Hajik 🙂 Mooooo!

[Ron Lindeboom]

Thank you for the kind words, Ralph, they are truly appreciated.

It’s not that we wouldn’t have liked to have done something this year at NAB, it’s just that with such a small team we have to focus and do those things which are most advantageous to the COW for the cycles spent.

We will be at NAB this year, but only for a couple of days — and yes, I will be super-gluing my shoes on to protect them from Bob Zelin while we are there.

Oh, Cowdog says to tell Bob: “I like shoes, too! They’re tasty, especially the old well worn ones!”

I better go give the ole dog his morning bowl of kibble and beer…

Best regards,

Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLC
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine

Creativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.

“Incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.” – Woody Allen

[Ralph Hajik]

HI Ronald,

WOW! I don’t know how I got my picture up there with “The Best” but, thanks for the recognition.

Happy Travels
Ralph Hajik 🙂 Mooooo!
https://reels.creativecow.net/film/from-oman-to-oprah

[Earle Nichol]

Hey Ron,
I survived 1 booth with Bob 2 years ago …best frickin 1/2 hour at NAB ever!!! I recently went from Operations Manager to selling equipment(crazy???) I went last year for the first time as a Sales guy.. I felt like it was my first..after all those years of disciplining myself..on concentrating on my top 10-15..I was all over the map..just wanted to say to the guys that are going for their first time…LISTEN TO RON…LISTEN TO BOB…OR YOU’LL HATE YOURSELF THE MINUTE YOU STEP BACK ON THAT PLANE BACK HOME!
Looking forward to the show.

Earle

Communication! Communication! Communication!

[Ralph Hajik]

Hi Sean,

I don’t know if you already have your Free pass for the NAB convention. I like to pass this forward to you and anyone else. I keep in communication with my friend Mike Hicks from Non-Stop Music and he sent me a free pass code to use. Feel free to use our VIP guest pass code to register: NV1215

Enjoy your time at NAB
Happy Travels
Ralph Hajik

[Sean Kapleton]

thanks everyone (bob included 😉 for the help and info. The pass I have its the most basic one so I am not sure a flight and hotel for just convention access alone really makes sense this year with the budget I am on. Oh well maybe next year?
cheers
sean

[Collin Kennedy]

This is an interesting thread, even if Sean backed-out. I concur on the comfy shoe plan. I am sure that on a given NAB show floor day you probably clock 10+ miles. My plan, because it is budget minded like Sean is: Stay at the Riviera, sure there are nicer hotels, but you can’t beat the rates! And it’s walking distance to the LVCC. (although the trip home at the end of the day can be brutal) But they usually have shuttle buses if you can’t bear to hike anymore. I don’t obsess over the hotel that much because I spend so little of my time there anyway. Classes, seminars, demos, the show floor, and the after hours get-togethers and parties, I spend maybe 5 hours a day in the hotel room and I sleep 4.5 of those. I do the PPW conference track classes on Saturday and Sunday, then spread my time between classes I care about and the show floor for the next three days. And I always plan on at least 1 or 2 dinners at world class restraunts, because it’s Vegas!

“Success should be measured by your effect on your audience”

[Andrew Richards]

New, supportive shoes. Take a hit of ibuprofen each day before the show and after (you’ll be a lot less sore the next day than if you wait to hurt before you start popping pills). And if you’re a bigger guy like me, Gold Bond is your friend.

Get a show map from the NABshow website ahead of time and plan your route from booth to booth. If you don’t you’ll waste a lot of time wandering needlessly. The LVCC is massive, and it is crazy to bounce from hall to hall.

Best,
Andy

[Tim Wilson]

[Andrew Richards] “New, supportive shoes. “

To clarify, my experience is that the show floor is not the first time you should wear those new shoes. Even if they’re sneakers, break them in first.

Even more important to me: new socks. Wear a fresh pair every day. When I was spending all day on stage doing demos, I actually changed socks in the early afternoon, and it made a huge difference.

Protect your voice. Go easy on alcohol, and watch the amount of time you try to spend talking in crowded bars. You’ll be amazed how much better you feel on Wednesday or Thursday if your throat doesn’t hurt.

Have a big breakfast, and bring some snacks, a bottle of Superfood or some such to get you through the middle of the day. You can kill an hour waiting in line for a lunch that’s expensive and not very good. If you have to eat at the show, avoid the main dining area at the bottom of the South Hall. I don’t know if it’s still there, but I (used to?) really like the Indian place tucked into the right side of the second floor of the South Hall as you come up the main escalator, halfway or so back.

But better to tank up at breakfast, a light snack in the middle, and have a really good dinner. (Before dinner, some generous vendor will often have nice hors d’oeuvres for free if you keep your eyes peeled.) Prepare to spend grown-up money to dine really well. Vegas has some of the best food on the planet, and it’s incredibly accessible if you pay attention. You can walk into Postrio in Las Vegas (in the Venetian), and need a reservation way in advance in San Francisco. Ditto Nobu in Vegas (Hard Rock) vs. New York, Figs (Bellagio) vs. Boston, and many others. Those are somewhat old-school. It’s true for lots of newer ones too, as well as outstanding restaurants whose flagship, or only, location is Vegas.

I’d even say cheap out on a room to spend the money on really good dinners. With obvious exceptions, there aren’t many truly awful rooms left in Vegas, and even less expensive ones are usually pretty nice. You won’t regret spending the money on real food. Truly world class dining. There are trips that I ONLY go to town to eat dinner.

Never pass up the chance to have water. Or go to the bathroom. 🙂

And as I mentioned in my previous post, it’s especially important even for show vets to check out the map and make a plan. Many of the vendors that mean the most to you have changed locations, in some cases dramatically. The map will also tell you a very interesting tale about who’s swinging for the fences.

For that matter, use Monday to scope things out, watch the demos, pick up the literature. The later it is in the week, the more one-on-one time you’ll have with people working the booth, even in booths that look like pandemonium on Monday.

Read the literature in your room. The stuff you feel like keeping, mail back. Senseless to carry it. If it’s too precious for you to part with, at least show up with room in your suitcase to carry it home.

My favorites of this advice: new socks, expensive dinners.

[Jon Schilling]

heat stroke is a real possibility out there as Tim mentioned. Do drink water.