Undeliverable

A few years ago, I went to Reno to exhibit at a large national conference. My company had a big, bulky booth display we shipped. Unfortunately, the exhibit hall loading dock closed early on Friday, and the expo started on Sunday. The shipping company attempted delivery, but no one was there to accept the boxes, so they shipped them to a warehouse in Utah for storage. When I arrived on Sunday to set up, I had a bag with a few brochures and a tablecloth with our company name on it.

My boss's boss happened to decide to go to this event. He wasn't happy. We took our tablecloth and put it up as a backdrop using big binder clips. When I opened the package of brochures, they curled up like paper towel cardboard tubes because the fulfillment department had not let them dry and cure after printing. So, there we were, no booth display, no materials, no giveaways, and a tablecloth that looked like a wrinkled sheet behind us—just us and our smiles, plus a few business cards. Our boxes and display were shipped back to the office…two weeks later. Now we take it with us.

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Paul Wilson

Paul Wilson is the editor-in-chief of BenefitsPRO Magazine and BenefitsPRO.com. He has covered the insurance industry for more than a decade, including stints at Retirement Advisor Magazine and ProducersWeb.