"Trials and Tribulations of a seasoned (old?) marcomm creative"

As an experienced creative, my goal is to share my faux pas with up and coming creatives. Those that have learned a great deal through formal education, but still need experience through the School of Hard Knocks.* Hopefully by sharing my stories, you'll never have to go through the same "Trials and Tribulations" (embarrassments) that I did.

First the background. Years ago, I took a new job in Denver as the Marketing Director at a medical device company that was marketing bone growth stimulators. The company was part of a much larger, well-established pacemaker company called Telectronics. We were called Telectronics Bone Growth Stimulation (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it). We quickly came to the conclusion that we needed a fresh start and our own identity. Thus, after undertaking our naming strategies, focus groups, etc., we changed the name to Stimetics.

Soooo, now the meat of the story. I was at my first trade show with Stimetics in Albuquerque. I arrived a day early, immediately went to my booth location at the convention center and quickly realized there were no crates (which included all my booth properties and products to show). Just a table and a curtain. I knew to go to the drayage company's location, but they showed no record of receiving anything from Stimetics.

Something didn't feel right, so I tried to get into the hollows of the convention center to look around. Security would not let me take a look. I worked the first day of the show with just the sales collateral I brought with me.

The next day I arrived early, pre-security, and went searching for my crates. Well, come to find out, the crates were just on the other side of the wall as our booth. Probably like 5 yards away.

Here was my mistake. Even though we changed the company name to Stimetics, the crates I found were labeled Telectronics. No one (including me) informed the exhibit house that we had changed the company name. Bill of Lading--one name, Crates-- another. Needless to say, I was able to get our booth set up and product delivered before the opening of the second day. We ended up having a good show with a number of leads.

Advice to share... If you change the name of a company, acquire another company, or are acquired, notify all your vendors when you notify the marketplace. Not just your exhibit company, but also trade pubs, printers, packaging companies, videographers, etc.

*Because this advice is for newbies (which I wish someone would have shared with me when I was starting out). If you're an experienced creative, this advice will probably be of no help. But, If you have a similar newbie story to share, I'd love you to do so. Thanks.