Ah, trade shows. There’s a good chance that you’ll attend one at one point in your professional career. They are absolutely invaluable for networking, finding new vendors, and getting your hands on a bunch of new swag, but they can be pretty exhausting.

To get you properly prepared, let’s head through the convention process so that you can be ready for the next one you attend!

So you hear that there’s a trade show coming up for your industry.

And your boss says that you have to go.

But then you find out that you get to be out of the office all day.

And they are going to buy you lunch.

Suddenly a trade show is the best thing in the history of the world.

So you get in the car.

And you drive really fast to the convention center.

You wait in a super long line for registration.

But then you get your badge and it’s go time.

There’s a moment of shock when you realize how big the place is.

And that there is an obscene amount of people in one place.

But you get over it and it’s time to visit booths.

Then you realize how much free swag is in the room.

And that it’s your new mission to collect as much as you can.

Sometimes you have to be sneaky about getting your giveaways.

But then you remember that you’re here to network.

So you go to talk to someone.

And immediately realize that you don’t want to talk to this person.

But the next person you talk to is awesome.

So you exchange business cards and agree to talk later.

But then you realize you have to do this for six more hours.

And six hours later you feel like this.

You’re just ready for a nap.

But eventually you and your giant swag bag get back to the car.

You go back to the office to show your coworkers all your cool new stuff.

You sit down to check your email and see a full inbox.

So you’re like, “Forget this!” and decide to go home for the day.