My staff sometimes shows up hung over for booth duty. How do I curtail the partying without sounding like the mother of a teenager?

If your staff is carousing so much that they still show the effects of the night before during the morning after, then they are acting like teens. So you will need to "mother" them on this issue to demonstrate that such behavior is unacceptable. After all, you wouldn't tolerate staff appearing at the office in a similarly depleted condition. It's even less acceptable in your booth, where they'll be interacting with customers.

While you cannot physically control how your booth staff behaves on their personal time off the show floor, you can define how they should comport themselves during their work time on it. The best time to do this is not at the show, of course, but in the weeks leading up to it. During your regular pre-show meetings, set aside time to discuss what is and what is not acceptable booth behavior. Let them know that appearing for booth duty hung over - for example, smelling of alcohol, having a disheveled and tired appearance - is inappropriate and inform them of the consequences.

Following the meetings, reinforce the message in written form with e-mail and printed reminders of the behavior policy. By first clearly proscribing the behavior, and then plainly showing that there is a price to pay for it, you should be rewarded with a booth staff that's more sober and less snockered.