Where did the “Booth Mom” nickname come from?

So why am I known throughout the trade show industry as “The Booth Mom^®”?

In the mid-‘90’s, I worked with an exhibit staffer, Joe, who gave me the nickname “Booth Mom” because he said he couldn’t believe that I was actually nice to my trade show exhibit staff, bringing them homemade cookies, and keeping things in the storage closet of the exhibit for them like bottled water, Vitamin C cough drops, healthy snacks and Dr. Scholl’s foam insoles. He said he’d worked with sadistic “Booth Nazis” before who felt their job was to make exhibit staffing miserable, but never had a “Booth Mom”. The name stuck. And few years later, I decided to register it as my trademark because it fits who I am and what I do – someone who cares about my staff’s comfort and morale (since they are the face of your company at a show) and nurtures exhibit programs to watch them grow.

The “Booth Mom^®” does what clients don’t want to…

In the late ‘90’s, I was told by another client that he thought I’d earned the Booth Mom moniker since I did the exhibit management that he didn’t want to – sort of like when you knew that if you procrastinated long enough that your Mom would pick up the pieces of your school project the night before it was due and make you look good. That fit my MO, too, since I’ve saved many clients with their last-minute requests for help with their exhibits and events.

A.K.A. “Candy, the Cookie Lady”

Then there’s the tie-in to my baking a suitcase-full of individually bagged homemade cookies and bringing them to show set-up, which has given me another nickname – “Candy, the Cookie Lady”. The successful on-site set-up of trade show exhibits are built on many relationships – with your vendors, show managers and a plethora of on-site contractors like freight handlers, electricians, forklift drivers and installation and dismantle labor. Showing up onsite with 40 dozen homemade cookies (at no cost to my clients) has built not only relationships, but long-term friendships at many convention centers, too, over my many years of being The Booth Mom.

“Got milk?”