Maximize Your Cash Returns by Shopping Online

Gone are the days when you spent hours in shopping. Nowadays shopping can be done online. You are almost done with some few clicks. Online shopping is becoming a trend in the UK market these days. People who are so busy with their routine hardly find time to shop. Online shopping is the best way for the workaholics. Not only has it made their works easier but also offers maximum cash benefits. There is lot more ways to maximize your cash earning while purchasing an item online. Let us discuss about online shopping and the cool ways to maximize your returns.

What is online shopping?

With the advent of cutting edge technology, shopping can be made online like the same way you do your virtual shopping. You can buy anything online without visiting the shop in person. These online portals have user friendly navigation in order to ease up your shopping. Ranging from groceries to complex electronic gadgets, you can buy everything online. Nowadays lots of shopping portals have different set of procedures to buy things online. All these portals have separate payment gateways were you can make the payment online. All you have to do is to own a credit card with sufficient funds on it and an internet connection.

What's special about online shopping?

These online shopping portals have lot more differences compared to your normal shopping. Lot of offers, discount coupons and many exclusive freebies are some of the highlights of the online shopping. Some portals even offer free home delivery. Online shopping is one of the safest ways to buy expensive items. You can compare the quality and cost of some items contrastingly. But, you can't do the same while you do you r shopping in person. Some sites offer cash back guarantee while you do online shopping in their portals.

How to maximize your profits while doing online shopping?

Online shopping is a cool trend nowadays. You can make your shopping more productive and beneficial when you chose the right portal to do one. These cash back portals are nothing but similar to B2B sites (Business to Business site). Majority of these cash back site contains a variety of links of the popular shopping portals in the UK . These cash back site serves as a gateway to your convenient shopping. They have nothing to do with the shopping stuffs.

They simple have the details of the top notch retailers and their offers in their portal. It doesn't end here, as one of the most interesting features of this cash back portal is its cash back offers for every purchase you make trough this site. Most of the cash back portals offer free membership and you will be given a separate account. Every time when you purchase any item through any of the links listed in the cash back portal, your account will be credited with certain sum of amount. When your account crosses certain limit, you will be paid by the cash back portal. So, you not only enjoy the cash back benefits but also enjoy some other cool offers like discount coupons and credit points. These coupons can give you much more benefits than any other shops can offer while you shop in person.

Things to keep in mind before shopping online.

• Even though online shopping has lot of advantages, it has to be done with utmost caution.
• Never reveal your account details to anyone.
• Make sure about the delivery of the products you order. You have to provide a valid address.
• Payment processing must be done with great caution, read the disclaimer policy every time you make a transaction.
• Select a genuine portal for shopping online. Make use of the consumer reviews portal to know about the recent offers and attractive deals.

If you make a clever analysis of the cash portal site, you will be the one to enjoy massive benefit from such sites.

Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House

Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London was a touring exhibit that showed at the Seattle Art Museum.  

While the Kenwood House museum in London was closed for renovations their wonderful collection is traveling around the United States.1  There was a mix of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting including work by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Anthony Van Dyck, Ferdinand Bol and  Aelbert Cuyp and 18th century painters such as Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Francesco Guardi and George Romney.
  
Let's look at the 17th century Dutch and Flemish painting first. The highlight of the exhibit is this Rembrandt self-portrait from 1665 when the artist was 59 years old.  Rembrandt painted his portrait more than 60 times throughout his life.  Of all of his self-portraits this is the largest, measuring 45 3/4" x 38 1/4".  It is a life sized image and breathtaking to see in person.  Rembrandt portrayed himself in a variety of ways, with different angles, moods and costumes. In this he shows himself as a painter holding the tools of his trade.  It is as if we, the viewer, have interrupted him at work in his studio. It was his trademark to focus on the face and leave other areas of the painting unfinished. It is a trick that works well, your eye will fill in the rest including textures (the fur of his collar) and missing details (such as the hand holding the brushes and palate).
 



Portrait of the Artist, ca. 1665, Rembrandt van Rijn, Kenwood House, London
English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927

No artist made as much of an impact on the Golden Age of Dutch painting as Rembrandt, in his early twenties he had already opened his own studio in Leiden and started taking students (such as Gerritt Dou). Soon after Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam and began a very successful career. His studio saw a steady stream of commissions and he took dozens of private students. However he had his share of true tragedies: Rembrandt and his wife Saskia had three children who did not live past infancy, only their son Titus who was born in 1641 lived to adulthood. Sadly Saskia died several months after the birth of Titus in 1642. Due to the difficulty in his personal life Rembrandt struggled professionally and artistically as well in the 1640's. His style of painting which was once considered revolutionary was now seen as old-fashioned.

However in the 1650's Rembrandt's career had a resurgence and he continued his painting with a renewed vigor.  He now lived with Hendrikje Stoffels with whom he had another child. He was once again a well respected artist and getting many commissions.

By the time he painted the Kenwood self-portrait in 1665 Rembrandt's successful decades long career was winding down.  The artist looks both confident and world weary in this painting.  Much has been made over the two half circles, especially as most of his portraits had a darkened background.  Are they part of a painting he is currently working on? Does he include them to balance the composition? Is there a specific meaning in these shapes?  The gallery text suggests they tie to the famous "O" that Giotto could make without measuring that art historian Giorgio Vasari wrote about. I think the mystery of the shapes adds to both the composition and impact of the work.

After seeing this painting I plan to devote a future blog post to comparing and constrasting many of the different self-portraits that Rembrandt painted over the course of his life.  I have many to choose from, in fact SAM has printed small free booklets which highlight seven of them. Make sure to pick one up in the gallery.
 

View of Dordrecht, ca. 1655, Aelbert Cuyp, Kenwood House, London

English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927

When this was painted in the mid-17th century, landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes were painted commonly for the middle class to purchase and seen as a source of Dutch pride. The harbor scenes highlighted the shipping industry that was the source of trade and commerce. Aelbert Cuyp was a well known landscape painter, I always associate him with his landscapes which include cows. This painting greets you as you enter the exhibit and it was one of my favorites, I think it is an interesting hybrid of cityscape and seascape.  Cuyp created this with a strong sense of atmospheric perspective.

Portrait of Pieter van den Broecke, 1663, Frans Hals, Kenwood House, London

English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927

Frans Hals (1580-1666) lived and worked in Haarlem and was a masters in the “Golden Age” of Dutch painting, and is best known for his lively portraiture. His style was revolutionary in that his subjects are often shown smiling and laughing.  Portraiture nearly always showed a serious subject, even when the subject was smiling, such as in Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the smile was very slight.  Smiling had connotations of idiocy or lunacy however Hals managed to convey an atmosphere of merriment and liveliness.  His loose brushwork and painterly style added to the feeling of his sitter's vibrancy. 

The Seattle Art Museum has put together a lot of information on the works in this exhibit including facts on many of the  in the portraits.  The following text is taken from their website and helps us to better understand the individual portrayed in this painting, Pieter van den Broecke: 

"The Dutch seaman Pieter van den Broecke began his career trading fabrics in West Africa. He eventually took over a company that dominated the Dutch trade in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In this portrait by Frans Hals, he’s 48 years old and wearing a gold chain that marks his 17 years of service with the Dutch East India Company. He and the artist were close friends."2

Portrait of Mary, Countess of Howe, 1764, Thomas Gainsborough, Kenwood House, London

English Heritage; Iveagh Bequest, 1927

Lord Iveagh collected all of the work at Kenwood in three years, he never actually lived at the manor but wanted to fit in with English aristocracy and amass a number of paintings that fit in with traditional taste.  The collection is nearly half art from the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century (with a few Flemish and Italian paintings included) and half 18th century British portraiture.  I will admit I am more drawn to the Dutch art and I don't always find 18th century British portraiture as interesting. However Kenwood has an extensive collection, there are many nice examples from Joshua Reynolds who was the head of the Royal Academy and also from the talented George Romney. 


I think my favorite painter from this era was Thomas Gainsborough who uses a relaxed approach and painterly style to capture the spirit of his subjects.  His work could be compared to Frans Hals in that sense. I really liked this one, the Countess of Howe.  I love the vibrant colors he used, the rich pink tones in her dress seem to be echoed in the sunset behind her.  I have always enjoyed the trees and the skies that Gainsborough paints in the background for each of his portraits.  With the Countess of Howe, I think he captures the spirit on an intelligent woman.  However her feet seem to be oddly floating beneath her and the ground slopes towards us, the bottom part of the painting is a bit distracting.

Again the following text is taken from their website and helps us to better understand Portrait of Mary, Countess of Howe:

"Countess Howe was actually an aristocrat by marriage and not by birth. So technically the painting should be called “Lady Howe.” But Mary Hartopp became a countess after her military husband became an earl. The couple was vacationing in Bath when they asked Gainsborough to paint each of them. 

Gainsborough went all out painting her in pink silk and ruffles standing outdoors on some estate. She was, of course, posed inside Gainsborough’s studio but that landscape suggests the countess as both aristocrat and a landowner."3


European Masters: The Treasures of Seattle is an exhibit which is running concurrently at the Seattle Art Museum and is comprised of 34 privately owned paintings.  This assortment of Old Master works is really impressive and fills several galleries.

The Seattle Art Museum website says of this exhibit:

"The paired exhibitions will give visitors the opportunity to observe different approaches to collecting, the history of taste, and how the market has changed since Lord Iveagh began to form his collection in 1887. Most importantly, our visitors will have the chance to see exceptional works of art from right here in Seattle, which, until this moment, has largely overlooked the art of Europe. Featured artists include Vittore Carpaccio, Francisco de Zurbarán, J.A.D. Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, and Frans Hals."

 Still Life with a Tankard, plate of Oysters and Glasses on a Table, Willem Claesz Heda, 1636

Privately owned collection (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The work in these galleries is from the early 16th through 18th century, I was suprised to see a small Pontormo alongside a beautiful Carpaccio Madonna and Child with an exquisite carved wooden tabernacle frame.  Seeing famous 16th century Italian paintings from private collections made me curious about the provenance of the works. Who owns these now? A few owners were listed but most weren't.  Who purchased them? How did each owner come to acquire them? 

I liked this exhibit as much if not more than the Kenwood House collection. I was able to find an image online of one of my favorite works, a beautiful early Dutch still-life by Willem Claesz Heda (above).  He painted many variations on this type of "breakfast still-life" and this is a really wonderful example, the textures, composition and palate he used all add to the overall visual effect.  I wrote about this type of art in an earlier post- History as Seen through the Dutch Still-Life. 

I was also pleased to see a still-life by another favorite of mine, a female painter from the late Italian Renaissance named Fede Galizia.  Galizia was from Milan and known for her exquisite still-lives and this was no exception.  

In addition to artists previously mentioned there was interesting work by: 

Ambrosius Bosschaert- an early Dutch floral still-life
Pillippe de Champaigne- a large scale Visitation scene with vivid colors
Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun- a "tête d'expression" of a young woman done in pastel

There was a room dedicated to an artist unknown to me; 18th century French painter Martin Drölling (1752-1817) which contains five works from the same collector.  They included a lovely portrait of a young woman and a small copy of Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun's portrait of Marie Antoinette painted in 1789, the year of the French Revolution.

All in all these two exhibits pair nicely together and give the viewer a wide range of painting to see from late Renaissance, through the Baroque and Rococo and even had some examples of Neoclassical art.  I have visited twice now, spending a quick visit on the night of the SAM Members Preview and nearly three hours on my second visit as I looked at, conversed about and took notes about the art.  Seeing as I really enjoy this art and won't get another chance to see these (especially the work from the private collections) I definitely plan to go back a few more times before it ends.

The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and English Heritage. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, with additional funding from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. In-kind support is provided by Barbara and Richard S. Lane.

1. Exhibition Itinerary: 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 3–September 3, 2012)

Milwaukee Art Museum (October 12, 2012–January 13, 2013)

Seattle Art Museum (February 14–May 19, 2013)

Arkansas Arts Center (June 7–September 8, 2013).

 

2, 3.  Seattle Art Museum Website, "The Characters of Kenwood" http://seattleartmuseum.org/EuropeanMasters/characters.asp

Exhibit Guide
Bryant, Julius, Susan Jenkins and Walter Liedtke.Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London. American Federation of Arts (2012).

Why Stance Is Important When Playing Snooker

If you are a keen snooker player you will already know that there are a number of things that can help you to improve your game, such as your cue control, your positioning, and even the equipment that you play with. One key aspect to playing snooker well is your snooker stance, which is the way that you are positioned at the table when you are taking your shots.

Whilst you may not realise just how important stance is when playing snooker it is actually one of the most important aspects of playing this game well, which is why it is important that you develop your snooker stance and learn how to maintain it when you are playing snooker so that you can play consistently good games. So why is mastering your stance so important when playing snooker? Well, there are a number of reasons why it is such an important key to a good name including the following:

Stability: Once you have mastered your stance you will find that your stability will enable you to take far smoother, more controlled shot when potting balls. Your stance helps you to stand solidly, which means that there will be minimal movement in the rest of your body whilst you take your shots.

Balance: Your stance is something that will affect your balance when you are playing snooker. In order to take a smooth, accurate shot proper balance is vital, and this is something that you will gain from developing your snooker stance.

Consistency: Mastering your snooker stance means that you will be able to position yourself correctly each time you are taking a shot, so every shot that you take will be as controlled and smooth as the last. This will give you a far more consistent game.

Other benefits: There are also other areas of your game that will be positively affected once you have developed your snooker stance. This includes your cue grip, your cue control, your accuracy levels, and your confidence levels.

Some people find mastering their snooker stance when playing snooker far easier than others. However, if you are struggling then do not panic - as is the case with anything else practise will prove invaluable when it comes to getting your stance right. Spend time practising your stance and taking shots to try and improve and keep going until you feel you have got your stance just right.

China Export Companies Can Help Your Business Grow

For businesses looking to make some inroads in their own markets, one of the best strategies available is to make connections with a host of china export companies that can provide your business with a competitive advantage on goods and services. China export companies have been growing exponentially over the last decade. With globalization a key to keeping your enterprise or corporation stable, profitable and growing in the future, it is now more advantageous than ever to take advantage of the opportunities that China export companies offer. Here are some tips.

China Export Companies Can Make the Difference

One of the most advantageous strategies your business can implement is to find China export companies. In almost any industry and for a wide range of businesses, you can purchase products and services from China export companies for less. This not only gives you a competitive advantage in your market, but can help you achieve a wide range of your business goals as well. However, in order to start trading with China export companies, you must first make connections with the right businesses. This can be done with one simple tool- Made in China.

Make Valuable Business Connections

Made in China has been helping millions of businesses make connections with China export companies for years. While in the past, it took an enormous amount of time, money and experience to find the right China export partner, today, almost any company large or small can find suppliers to provide them with the goods and services they need to compete in their home markets. Made in China gives you the tools and resources necessary to make these connections such as the ability to search through their network of millions of businesses within seconds to find companies that fit your interest and then to further research specific companies that might provide the best fit for your specific needs.

China Export Tools and Resources to Improve Your Overall Business Dealings

While making the right connections with a China export partner is the first step to a possibly fruitful partnership, other aspects are vital to the process of doing business with China exporters. For instance, understanding customs, tax and other facets of China export issues can help you better offset costs and reduce the time it ultimately takes to do business with your new China export partner. Made in China can assist you in many ways on this front. With a variety of comprehensive trade consulting products offered, your company can do business efficiently and effectively reducing your overall costs and time constraints.

For businesses looking to gain advantage by employing China export partners for products and services, one company that can help you achieve your goals on a variety of fronts is Made in China.

(Article source: http://www.madeinchina.com)

Information Marketing - 5 Scarily Potent Tactics To Grow A 5-Figure Information Empire

What's an information empire? Well, it's an empire of your information products selling round the clock and bringing home cash to you! Here are 5 scarily potent tactics to grow a 5-figure Internet information empire from scratch:

1. Make The Most Of Resell Rights

Resell rights products are instant products you can plug in and sell right away! They usually come with a completed sales letter and ecover, so they are ready to be sold immediately. Make the most of resell rights products when you can.

2. Turn A Teleseminar Into A Product

Conduct a teleseminar and turn it into a product that you can sell later on. Let your teleseminar participants know that you will be turning it into a product and selling it.

3. Turn Your Articles Into A Product

Written some articles in your niche? You can make a compilation of them and create a small report out of it and use it as a lead generator or a low-cost front-end product. It's as easy as copying and pasting your articles into a Word document, and converting the document into PDF format.

4. Create Audio/Video Versions Of Your Ebook

Once you have created an ebook, you can create an audio version of it by hiring a voice over artist to read out your ebook. You can also create video tutorials that complement your ebook.

5. Create A Home Study Course

Once you have a complete package of ebooks, reports, videos, and audio, you can create a complete home study course and sell it a premium price! This is a way to sell your products to those who want the whole enchilada from you.

5 Reasons Why Information Marketing Is The Perfect Business Model

In this article, I'm going to reveal to you 5 reasons why information marketing is the perfect business model for Internet marketers. Information marketing is the process of creating and selling information products that teach people how to do something. The information products can be in various formats including video, audio, home study courses, conference calls, etc. Here are 5 reasons why I believe a business in information marketing is perfect.

1. You only have to create the product once - Creating the products is actually pretty easy and you only have to create the product once. By not having to constantly recreate the product, you can move onto other projects or create more products which ultimately makes you more money. Plus, you can easily change your products and/or update them with relative ease as information products are generally easy to create.

2. Information products are very hard to duplicate or imitate - One of the problems of physical products, like a golf club, is that you can create one today and literally within a few days, you can see an exact replica made in China for about 1/10th the cost. With information products, that's not the case. Someone would actually have to take the time to consume the whole product and recreate it themselves. Most people are not willing to do that.

3. Digital information products have little to no cost to deliver them - This is a HUGE benefit. Typical products have all sorts of extra costs to them, like packaging, shipping, production, etc. The costs can add up quick. With information products where most, if not all of them, are stored digitally, delivering the product can happen 24/7 on autopilot with no cost. If someone buys a new eBook or 6 hour program, usually the product will be delivered via email.

4. Insanely high profit margins - For all the reasons I've already stated, the profit margins are crazy. Think about it. You can create a product with little to no cost, you don't have storage or inventory costs since the products are usually digital, and you don't have costs to deliver the product, so realistically you have practically 100% profit margins since the only real cost was the time it took to create the product... and this all happens on autopilot.

5. People will pay to get information put together for them - People will argue that the information found in information products can be found for free online, which is true. So why would someone pay for something they can find online for free? Because they don't want to spend hours, if not days, finding all the information all over the place themselves. People will gladly pay you to package that information up together for them if it saves them time.

There are probably a million more reasons why information marketing is a great business to be in, but these 5 will give you enough information to chew on for awhile.

The Portraiture of Rosalba Carriera

The work of 18th century Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera (1665-1757) was quite influential upon portrait painters of the Rococo.  Rosalba was a portrait artist who worked in the relatively new medium of oil pastels. 

During the 18th century artists were beginning to experiment with this medium which was much faster than oil painting, however due to its more fragile nature, not as suitable for really large scale work. Pastels allowed the artist to combine the techniques of drawing with the effects of oil painting and they dried quickly.  This new medium was perfectly suited for creating preliminary sketches meant to be turned into larger paintings such as sketching landscapes out of doors.  When pastels were first invented few artists worked with them other than for preparatory sketches.

Portrait of Louis XV as Dauphin, Rosalba Carriera, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

As it turned out, oil pastels were also well suited for created a new vibrant style: the 18th century pastel portrait.  The soft edges and vivid colorful effects of pastel were perfectly matched to the taste at the time which was transitioning from the Baroque to the Rococo.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art writes of the medium:

“Pastels have always been praised for the freshness of their colors, at once both brilliant and subtle.”1

Perhaps the artist most famous for pastel portraits was the 18th century Venetian painter, Rosalba Carriera.  Rosalba worked nearly exclusively in pastels and portraiture and her work and reputation earned her an international following. 

Rosalba was highly regarded as a portrait painter and sought after by such figures as the young Louise XV, Cardinals, a Countess, other aristocrats and a variety of international travelers and artists.  She had a reputation for working quickly and being able to capture both a wonderful likeness and the personality of her subjects.

Gustavus Hamilton, Second Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume, Rosalba Carriera, 1730–31, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Venice was a primary destination for anyone who took the "Grand Tour" of Europe, including aristocratic English travelers such as Gustavus Hamilton, pictured above.  It is interesting to note that he has chosen to wear a well known variation of the Venetian Carnival mask under his hat (the type of silver brimmed hat which was also worn during Carnival) in the portrait.  The portrait would then be a symbol for the time he spent in Venice and would represent that he was well traveled and steeped in local Venetian culture.  It became more than a portrait, it represented his status as an educated man who had lived abroad.  Rosalba's portrait doesn't focus on the costume, instead showing a sensitively painted work alive with color and texture.

Portrait of Faustina Bordoni Hasse, Rosalba Carriera, 1730’s, Ca’Rezzonico, Venice

Rosalba's subjects sought her out due to the flattering light that she cast each of them, using a luminous quality that captures each individual.  In her paintings she subtly changes from exacting details to soft highlights and from subdued backgrounds to areas of vivid color.  Her work transcended the use of pastel on paper to create a new and more engaging type of portrait than traditional oils. 

Rosalba's pastel portraits influenced a generation of artists from all over Europe who admired her style such as the French painter Maurice Quentin de La Tour and John Russell from England.

Self-portrait, Maurice Quentin de La Tour, c-1750-60, Musée de Picardie, Amiens

French artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704-88) also worked exclusively in pastels.  He met Rosalba Carriera when she came to Paris in 1720 when he was still a teenager and apprenticed under Claude DuPouch.  After his apprenticeship ended he applied to join the French Royal Academy and was able to exhibit his work in the Salon.  While they had different styles and approaches to pastel, the viewer can see the influence of Rosalba's style in the rich tones and textures of his self-portrait pictured above.

Portrait of George Medley, John Russell, 1777

While Rosalba began her career in the Baroque age English painter John Russell (1745-1806) was working entirely during the Rococo.  While he was too young to have met Carriera personally, he was definitely influenced by her pastel portraits.  Russell too worked solely in pastels and even wrote a book on the medium.  There were several different approaches to using pastels and Russell preferred to blend his colors in a similar manner to Rosalba.  As she had painted the portraits of many English travelers, Russell was able to see her work in person and even owned a few of her portraits.

Rosalba Carriera painted hundreds of portraits, each created to show the nuances of her subject's personality.  Her style was known for its deep and vibrant colors and its rich textures.  Like many paintings reproductions do not do her work justice, they must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.  Rosalba truly transformed the medium of pastel and expanded its uses from a preparatory medium used to lay out more finished oil paintings to a finished product which was in high demand. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art writes of pastels in the 18th century:

“Pastel, too, afforded the artist a richer interplay between medium and support than oils did. Pastel paintings were commonly executed on blue paper mounted on canvas, not only because this was the thickest paper available in the eighteenth century, but also because of the chromatic advantages it offered as the pigments of the pastel picked up and interacted with the blue background…They offer an invaluable insight into how such tonal complexity was worked up. Unlike oils, which can be mixed on a palette from nine or ten basic pigments, each tone requires a different stick of pastel, with artists making use of hundreds of crayons.”2

1 & 2- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: The Eighteenth Century Pastel Portrait

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/papo/hd_papo.htm

 

Key Ways To Garner The Crowd's Attention And Interest In Your Business Trade Show Booths

Any business leader that has ever engaged in a marketing convention knows that this promotional medium delivers an unprecedented array of benefits and overall return on investment. However, the results yielded at an industry function do require careful forethought and planning to successfully grab the attention of the crowd and steer them clear of the ever-present competition. But how? Oftentimes, these marketing events resemble the corporate version of a new cul-de-sac development. Lots of similarly constructed structures (aka - trade show displays) that all look pleasant enough, but don't really pack the advertorial wallop need to make a lasting impression.

If you want your business' exhibit for a trade show to stand out like a custom Cape in a sea of cookie cutter Colonials, it's time to start thinking outside of the box (or in this case booth!) and start getting creative with your convention image and displays for optimal impact. Understanding a few critical event rules can help ensure that your displays make the entrance you need to show the crowd that you are the only business at the event worth their precious time.

Rule #1: Trade Show Booths - Be The Round Peg In The Square Hole

Gone are the days when every business at an event was required to have square, boxlike trade show booths. Today's trade show booths literally come in every size and shape. Partner with a cutting edge design team who can help create finished exhibits that offer a distinctive final look that instantly differentiates your organization from the competition. The crowd will immediately be encouraged to visit your stands to get a closer look at what your organization has to offer.

Rule #2: Don't Be Afraid To Demand A Little Attention

Once you have finished trade show booths that are visually inviting, it's time to employ some other proven tactics. Most businesses offer free handouts to encourage visitors to check out their trade show exhibits. While effective, these promotional giveaways can prove a bit too reactive. Companies that want to get noticed can't be afraid to employ some proactive attention-getting tactics to stand out from the opposition. Bring your own sound system to be able to connect with the crowd throughout the day. Announce a raffle, ask trivia questions for prizes, hold a bidding auction for exciting merchandise, etc. In short, do whatever you can to be the (fun and exciting) squeaky wheel at the event!

Rule #3: Know What To Do With All That Attention

Of course, all the attention in the world is virtually pointless if your organization doesn't know how to effectively propel it forward into a lead or sale. While keeping the creative juices at a function is critical to success, it's also important to work closely with your team manning the trade show exhibits to ensure that they can best manage the influx of visitors and appropriately represent your organization. Consistent training sessions, either internally or through a partnership with a professional provider, can help ensure that your staff is ever-ready to engage, connect and close with every visitor that checks out your booths during the function.