Florida Fun in February

Published March 5, 2012

a.k.a. Florida Road Trip and 2012 AUSA Trade Show Highlights

As we have done every year for the past five years, General Digital exhibited at the AUSA Winter Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Wednesday, February 22nd to Friday, February 24th.

What made this trip different, though, is that Tenell and Brian flew down to Melbourne, Florida, on the Monday before the show to visit customers and do some last-minute shopping for the trade show setup. Serendipity paid us handsomely in that, on the way to Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services, we made a wrong turn and ended up at Electro-Optical Imaging. This resulted in enjoyable and productive meetings with both Lockheed Martin and Electro-Optical Imaging. The “road trip” aspect of the journey allowed us to display some of our flat panel LCD monitors and to discuss offerings from our Optical Bonding Laboratories and Software Services Group. We brought with us the 24″ Saber Standalone™, the 19″ dual flip-up display with keyboard TwoView™, the 15.4″ Saber PanelMount™, and the 8.4″ waterproof and sealed Barracuda™, our road trip regulars. Bringing the monitors along has allowed us to demonstrate convincingly that General Digital can accommodate a whole host of form factors and capabilities. An added benefit is that our variety of LCD monitors often sparks ideas in the engineers’ minds of other programs where our products and services can be of use.

After the meetings, we made the two-and-a-half hour drive down to Fort Lauderdale to set up our booth for AUSA’s ILW (Institute of Land Warfare) Winter Symposium and Exposition. In addition to the monitors that we showed in Melbourne, we added the 37″ Titan PanelMount™ and the 15″ ceiling-mounted, dual display TwoView Micro™. Oh, and did we mention that the Barracuda™ was at home in its fully decorated fish tank showing the underwater adventures of the SpongeBob SquarePants movie, Finding Nemo, and Shark Tale? On day one of the trade show, we dressed in our business attire; but on days two and three we came beach ready. The booth was decorated on days two and three with beach balls, a beach towel, and the requisite Frisbee disc and bottle of suntan lotion.

It’s no wonder why our booth was hailed by many as the best of the show. We boasted a free charging station where attendees and exhibitors alike could charge their mobile phones and other devices. Our tagline? “Recharge at no charge”. Pretty catchy, huh? Then there was the classic gumball machine which hit people of all ages with a welcome wave of nostalgia. Also, we provided a laptop inviting anyone to check their e-mail or social media and possibly “Like” us on Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites. With so many stopping by, and the promising contacts that were made, we may very well have had one of our best trade shows to date. But stay tuned, we’ve got more road trips and trade shows to come!