The Vancouver Board of Trade show & Reception

By Sue Ann Bartecko, Principal KSA Consulting, Ltd.

After a two-year hiatus, The Vancouver "Board of Trade Show" returned on Oct. 29 with a new look, a bigger and better format, and a sell-out crowd.

Put on by The Vancouver Board of Trade's Small Business Council, the trade show provided an opportunity for attendees to promote their products or services, and connect with others in the Vancouver business community. A total of 49 booths represented businesses from several industries including hospitality, dining, insurance, interior design, consulting, legal services, and non-profits.

This year's trade show included four professional development sessions that added some education to the evening's mix. The break-out sessions began with Darci LaRocque, President of Swirl Solutions, on how to create a successful slide presentation. Darci covered the well-known dos and don'ts, such as "don't read directly from the slide" and "do check spelling," but also shared some lesser-known tips, such as 1) If you have a bulleted list, use animation to show bullets one at a time, and 2) Visuals are best because they enhance the speaker's message instead of competing with it, and they also prompt the speaker on the topic.

Following Darci, Hussein Alibhai, Senior Sales Manager with Yellow Pages Group, shared his knowledge on maximizing one's digital presence to reach more customers. Hussein began by making a case for on-line advertising through statistics such as the percentage of Canadians online (about 84 per cent) and how much time we spend online (52 hours per month). He then presented a four-step process: 1) Build your presence using a website as the foundation along with free business directories, 2) Differentiate through content – the more the better because both customers and search engines like it, 3) Engage customers through social media because word-of-mouth now takes the form of ratings, reviews and responses, and 4) Measure and adjust your strategy using analytics.

Next up was Dan Steiner, partner at Stikeman Elliot, who spoke about shareholder agreements and protecting your board of directors from liability. By setting the ground rules for the lifecycle of the company, shareholder agreements provide predictability and stability, especially in situations where partners have differing financial strengths, business sophistication, or majority vs. minority holdings. A typical shareholder agreement covers governance, funding requirements, anti-dilution, transfer restrictions, dispute resolution and exit strategies, valuation, and minority protection. Dan concluded by explaining that the best way to protect board members is to obtain director and officer liability insurance.

Ron MacMillan, Academic Coordinator for Analytics and Business Intelligence at BCIT, closed out the break-out sessions by sharing some do's and don'ts of visual analytics. Visual analytics refers to the presentation of data such as in an information dashboard. Ron revealed that an individual's attention to a visual is based on four factors – colour, form, position, and motion; therefore presenters can manipulate these factors to draw more attention to their data. Ron wrapped up by prompting the audience to reconsider PowerPoint because the viewer's constant shift in attention from the screen to speaker is not optimal for business communication.

Danielle Molnar of Accentrix Design and Julia Kozlov of Domm Design best expressed the value of the Show. "It's been two years, so it's great to have the show back and to connect with other (VBOT) members. We like it because we get to know other vendors we could use. It's the opportunity to cross-trade with other businesses."