Before your next show make sure you outfit your team with embroidered apparel.

We all wear a uniform.  Like it or not, we wear a uniform.  When you see a fireman or a police officer coming towards your way, you can easily recognize them by the uniforms they are wearing.  The same is true of the members of the armed forces.  In may occupations, there are prescribed, easy to recognize uniform.  And based on that uniform we can pretty much determine a person 's line of work.  Additionally, to a large degree, the uniform that you wear may also dictate the authority that you have and the respect that  you command.

A business person's uniform is her corporate attire.  Years ago, a major food company adopted a Friday casual day policy.  Casual policies are hard to define so as you can imagine, many people pushed the edge of the envelope.  But every Friday, every single employee showed up to work in a variety of casual dress.  Every employee except one - the CEO.  During the time that I worked at the company, he never once came to work in anything but a well tailored suit and tie.  He felt his uniform was defined by his position, and try as he might, he would never be just "one of the guys."  His job was to take care of one of the largest companies in the world and all the people working for this company. He felt that our dress is our uniform and how we wear it and how it looks on us determine what others think about us.

I heard a comedian once say (in much more colorful language than mine) that people treat you in a manner consistent with the way you dress. If you dress like a prostitute, then you may be treated in a consistent manner.  An extreme for sure, but you get my point.

Which leads me to trade show dress.  Companies spend thousands of dollars to attend trade shows, but then allow their booth personnel to show up wearing pretty much what they want.  Since the definition of casual can have a variety of definitions depending on who is asked, no one should be surprised when employees show up wearing a variety of dress options.  And  many of those options are just not good choices for a trade show booth.

You should never leave your encounters with customers to chance perception.  Dress is important and many of our first impressions of people are formed based on the way they are dressed.  That one employee who shows up to the booth wearing a wrinkled shirt and pants may very well cost you and your organization a sale.  A trade show is not the place to experiment with fashion.  Sadly, many loss sales could have been averted had the exhibitors just invested a few dollars more in tasteful corporate embroidered apparel.

Always put your best foot forward with the way that you and your team are dressed .  Remember, it's your uniform.