Now before you assume this doesn’t apply to you, I mean all booth staff, if the title makes you uncomfortable, then I’m not sure how you found your way here at all.  I’ve been doing these conferences for a while and have picked up on a few good and not so good behaviors.  And this applies to more than just a cookie cutter nerd fest event.

Today I met my first professional booth babe.  To be fair, he gave me some fancy sounding made up job title, but at the end of the day, he’s a booth babe (or a booth abe?).  He engages customers, partners and the like.  Promises double the leads and so on.  I am a little skeptical, but I like the idea.  He inspired this post actually.  So did the stalker badge scanner lady.

Do talk to people.  How else do you know if there’s anything in common or business interests?

Don’t just stand (or sit) there.  Engage.  I walked all the way back across the expo hall floor to say hi to the vendor that tweeted to me.  I needed to tell them they are doing it right.

Lighten up.  Sure what you have is great, but same thing for everyone else in the expo.  Your t-shirts may be cool today, but someone else’s is better.  And at the end of the day it’s likely just going to be given to my kid or worn on a frumpy rainy sweats kinda day.

Do find that common thing to talk about, and it’s not always business.

If you want to scan the attendee badges (and who doesn’t), give something in return.  Even if that something is simply a conversation.  If you have fun swag, great, but that’s not required.  Don’t be that lady that walks up to me and doesn’t say anything else except “can I scan your badge?”  The answer to that is a big fat no.

I guess at the end of the day it’s about treating people how you’d want to be treated.