Exhibitor Magazine's 12th Annual All- Star Awards

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all-star awards

hen the going gets tough, the tough get creative. And the winners of EXHIBITOR Magazine's 12th Annual All-Star Awards are some of the toughest mamma jammas you're ever going to meet.

Churning out killer results - including everything from a 400-percent increase in badge scans to a 55-percent budget reduction - this year's four winners prove that a tough economy, tough competition, and tough internal challenges are no match for a creative mind and a do-or-die attitude.

Take Lorna Pierno, director of marketing programs at Xirrus Inc., an information-technology company in Thousand Oaks, CA. After years of playing a strong second fiddle to behemoth brands such as Hewlett-Packard Development Co., Cisco Systems Inc., and Motorola Inc. at Interop Las Vegas, she came up with a brilliant boxing-related theme that educated the masses about her company's product offerings and drew almost 3,000 attendees to her booth. That figure was four times the company's 2008 results and more than enough to outshine the show's heavy hitters.

Doreen Paquette, event and trade show coordinator at Adrian, MI-based Wacker Chemical Corp., is another prime example. When her company threatened to pull out of a key industry show to save some cash - but lose a $26,000 space deposit in the process - she dug out her calculator and started crunching numbers. When the smoke had cleared from her keypad, she'd found a way to save the company $57,450 off typical exhibiting costs. After management reversed its decision, her lean, mean marketing machine maintained almost the same lead-count levels set at the previous show, despite the dramatic budget reduction.

So please join us in congratulating this year's tough new titleholders. Hailed by judges as "persistent promoters," "inventive marketers," and "aggressive problem solvers," our winners live by the words of Irish poet Brendan Francis, who wrote, "The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it."

May their award-winning solutions help you tackle some of your toughest challenges and escape from your most perplexing problems unscathed.

2010 JUDGES

Janice Breuer, CTSM, trade show specialist,
FFF Enterprises, Temecula, CA

Amy Gregory, CTSM, senior veterinary
conference planner, Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc.,
Topeka, KS

Lisa Lawley, CTSM, CME, event-marketing
manager, Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, CA

Bob Milam, aka Trade Show Bob, president,
TSB Enterprises, West Jordan, UT

Kerry Talbot, director of trade show/event
marketing, Quintiles Transnational,
Durham, NC

Mara Weber, events and users group
director, Honeywell Process Solutions,
Phoenix, AZ

THE WINNERS: click names or image for article

Adam Polaszewski, trade show and events manager for CareerBuilder Inc., has successfully navigated his way through more than 400 shows during his five years with the company. During his tenure he has not only improved implementation and results but also the processes by which trade shows and events are handled at CareerBuilder.

Doreen Paquette, event and trade show coordinator for Wacker Chemical Corp., has held her current position for nearly 10 years. Her responsibilities entail planning and executing the company's trade show exhibits,
along with myriad hospitality and special events, including groundbreakings and employee-appreciation events.

Lorna Pierno, director of marketing programs for Xirrus Inc., oversees and executes more than 80 trade shows and corporate events each year. She has 15 years of experience as a marketing professional at a range of companies including MetLife Investors, Alcatel-Lucent, and now Xirrus, which is based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

Marla Merritt, director of sales and marketing for OrthoBanc LLC, has spent 20 years marketing financial services. During that time, she has discovered that themed campaigns can bring excitement and brand recognition - not to mention hard-core program results - to products that can otherwise seem routine and boring.