Hi ,

 

Yes, it's the final newsletter of the year. How was 2020 for you? Are you ready to kick it down the road and welcome 2021? I wonder how much things will really change in the new year. It's just flipping a page on a calendar, so I don't think much will change right away.

 

I know some businesses that are thriving. I know many more that have struggled for the last nine months, laying off people or even closing their doors. There's a local indie theatre that has been hanging on by their fingernails to figure out how to make money during a pandemic that has forced them to close their doors. They have virtual showings of a handful of movies; they've done fundraisers; they opened for a few weeks in fall until new protocols forced their closure again. Restaurants are the same: they opened to limited seating for a short time only to have to go be to take-out only.

 

TradeshowGuy Exhibits has had no business since March. We've staying in touch with clients and prospects and assured them that we're only dormant - we will be back when events, tradeshows and conferences start going live again and to please work with us again. In the meantime, since we're a small business that works with various vendors (who are also facing their own downsizing challenges), our family is making do.

 

The last two weeks of the year sees little activity on TradeshowGuy Blog, even though the blog enters its twelfth year. I posted an article on tradeshow customization, but decided, thanks to the holidays, to forgo the weekly video and weekly podcast/vlog. It'll all return in the new year. 

 

Here's wishing you a great 2021!

 

Soundtrack for this week's issue: Paul McCartney's new album, THREE. It's the third album he's released where he plays and sings everything. As he put it, during the "rockdown" he just started fiddling and playing with bits and pieces of music that he'd collected, and wrote some new things...and it just came out last week. Being a big Macca fan, of course I'd check it out. Paul is always creative and it shows. Different sound textures and instrumentation, a few ballad-type things, a few straight up rockers and a few in between. I'm listening to it this morning while writing this and still trying to take it all in. But I like it. Click the link above for the enhance Spotify version.

The Convivial Society:

 

From the time we were children, we knew that our experience of time could shift. We knew that time would pass much more slowly during certain periods:  a long, uninteresting stretch of the school day as we awaited recess or the days leading up to a birthday or Christmas. Time on those occasions seemed to crawl. Then there were those moments of play and joy and companionship when we became unaware of the passing of time until those moments drew to a close and we wondered where the time had gone or how it had passed so quickly. 

The lesson of childhood is that the experience of time is conditioned by desire. The location in time of our object of desire warps our experience of time. In the realm of general relativity, gravity bends time. In the realm of human experience, desire bends time.

 

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James Clear:

 

"Your favorite athlete's first workout was just as bad as yours.

Your favorite chef's first meal was just as bad as yours.

Your favorite artist’s first work was just as bad as yours.

Keep going."

 

 

Getting the Right Color on Your Tradeshow Graphics. Things have changed a bit since this was published, but printed colors are still very important.

 

Just Ask for What You Want. Life lessons come in all shapes and sizes.