Stealing the Show

Abstract

Suitcasing is not always this upscale. Julie Ichiba, group show director of VNU Expositions' ASD/AMD Trade Shows, has seen companies go beyond renting nearby hotel suites or simply buttonholing attendees in the aisles. She's actually witnessed sellers at her Variety Merchandise Shows go into vacant booth spaces, open up product cases, hang signs and go to work. She likes to call these bald-faced cheaters "squatters."