Preface

1 Week Before Event

It’s a week before the 2015 SF Bay Area Entrepreneurship Conference and Trade Show and the stress levels in the room have never been higher. Since this was our first competition, everyone was in complete work mode. There were newsletters to be printed, business cards to be designed, and final logistics to be sorted out. Some people were deeply focused on putting the final touches on the booth layout while others hoped to refine the business plan one last time to perfection. In all of this commotion, Whitebox Graphics CEO, Rani Mavram said, “I was a little afraid that we wouldn’t be able to finish it all in time, but I’m honestly just really happy to see everyone come together in order to make it happen.” We knew that we wouldn’t be happy with anything less than perfection so we exhausted ourselves spending extra hours after class in order to make our vision for the company come true.

By March 14, the Friday before the trade show, Whitebox Graphics had completed everything and we were finally able to take a sigh of relief at the products of all our hard work. Joanne Her, an employee in the HR department, even said, “The past week was super stressful for all of us, but I think now we are all just super excited for the chance to show the rest of the companies what Whitebox Graphics can accomplish at the trade show.”

The Trip to Oakland

Fremont BART, 7:30 AM

It’s 7:30 in the morning and Whitebox Graphics has arrived at the Fremont BART Station, less than enthused about the early call time, but nervous with excitement for the trade show approaching them. We all gathered our posters and luggage and boarded the BART to head to Oakland.We enjoyed the gorgeous scenery outside the train and were happy for some down time before our sessions at the Oakland Convention Center were to commence.

We arrived at the Oakland BART Station at around 9:00am and went straight into our sessions. We were appalled by the myriad of students from all across the country that were also present at the trade show and enjoyed meeting new people and learning about their businesses. While most of us attended the first session where we learned about the importance of LinkedIn and how valuable making connections are, a couple of us attended competitions. Rani and Abhiram gave a presentation on our Sustainable Business Plan while Malik and Sonia attended the Elevator Pitch.

It was the first time any of them had ever attended a competition like this and Malik thoroughly enjoyed the experience and said,“Although I was really nervous about how the Elevator Pitch would go down (pun intended), I knew that we had a solid company so being able to show it off to potential investors in the time span of an elevator ride was really fun for both Sonia and me.” After our first session, a few of us took a break and headed over to a local coffee shop for breakfast while the others attempted to take power naps between sessions. We then all headed back to the convention center and attended the second session which taught us the importance of branding a product. After both sessions were over, we all headed to the hotel to relax, while the others headed to lunch before we were to go to San Francisco for the rest of the evening.

SF

Oakland City Center BART , 3:20 PM

After a long day of attending sessions, we were all looking forward to our trip to San Francisco and Pier 39. Full of excitement, we headed towards the BART station to take a train to Embarcadero. The BART ride was especially fun because some of us got to witness a group of dancers that put on a show for us during the ride. Everyone was thankful for this trip because not only did everyone need a bit of R&R, but it was perfect weather for a day in the city. Employee of the HR department, Eunice Ko said, “Although we had to endure a tremendously long walk from the BART station to Pier 39, it was all worth it because we got to spend more quality time with each other and take in all the sights of San Francisco Bay.”Once we all reached the pier, we stopped for an obligatory group picture and then from there, we broke into groups of 5 to explore the city on our own.

 While some brave souls ventured another mile to the irresistible Ghirardelli Square, most of us chose to stay back and grab some delicious food at the Pier (which wouldn’t be complete without food pictures for our Instagrams). After that some of us chose to check out the sea lions basking in the sun on the docks while others snuck off to get some dessert and extra fudge to serve as a late-night snack.

Evening in San Francisco

SF Waterfront , 7:30 PM

Before heading back to meet the rest of the company, a couple of us were able to witness amazing street artists in action creating gorgeous masterpieces of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were appalled by how easy they made it look and some of us even bought a picture or two to keep as a momento. When it started to get dark, we headed back to the town and hung out near the aquarium until it was time for all of us to head back to the BART station again. Everyone had an amazing time in the city which we will always remember from the myriad of pictures we took with all our friends in the company. 

An employee of the Marketing department, William Hao said, “Even though we slept later than we probably should have putting the finishing touches on everything, we were all just so excited and hopefully it will all be worth it when we put up our booth tomorrow at the trade show.”

We were all very tired from the day’s excitement and adventures and couldn’t wait to finally get to our hotel. While some of us fell asleep instantly, others stayed up to prep for the next day’s trade show which we were all psyched to be a part of.

Trade Show Day

Convention Center , 7:30 AM 

It’s Sunday morning, the day of the trade show, and all of us awoke extra early in excitement to see all our hard work unfold at the trade show. We all walked to the convention center at 7:30 to start setting up our booth. By 9:00, with the help of all of our employees, we had finally put everything together in the booth. We had an array of laptops to present our company video, multiple order forms and newsletters laid out artistically, and to make our booth more appealing, balloons and fairy lights.

After that, we all sat down for the opening ceremony and got to listen to an amazing and interesting keynote speech by Jag Randhawa. He introduced to an analogy about how the brain forms connections which parallels the connections we form in life and how important it is to keep and make such connections. 

Following Mr. Randhawa’s inspiring speech, we given the go signal to begin selling our products and services. Invigorated by the energy from Mr.Randhawa’s speech, we were all determined to make the most of this trade show by making connections with potential customers, but also other school’s businesses as well. Although we had a rough start, customers soon began placing orders and we even ran out of order forms before the trade show was over.

Three hours later, it was time for the closing ceremony and awards. Whitebox Graphics won fourth place in the video advertisement as well as for our business card and logo design. We were ecstatic about the results because it was much better than we had ever expected to do in our first competition. 

After the results were announced, Mr. Shull said, “I couldn’t be happier for everyone who took part in this trade show because you all worked so well together as team and it definitely paid off in the end.”After awards and closing ceremony was over we took down our booth, sad that the trade show had already come to an end. We all packed up all our belongings at the trade show and the hotel, said one last goodbye to the city of Oakland, and walked to the BART station for our ride home.

Fin. 

Oakland , 2:30 PM

After the trade show was over, we all had time to reflect on what we got to experience over the past two days. We were all sad that it was over so quickly because we would miss the thrill of meeting new people from all over the country and learning about a variety of businesses far different from our own. Not only did we learn about other businesses, but we also were able to share our own business with potential customers and create better connections. The trade show opened up many opportunities for us, as a company, to market and share our products. Overall, the trade show was a great experience for our company as a whole because we were able to work together to take our small class run business and market it to a bigger community. At the end of it all, Abhiram said, “This experience was truly unforgettable and I think we, as a company, did such a great job together. I’m so proud of everyone that worked as hard as they did to make this happen as well as it did.”

Acknowledgements

Whitebox Graphics would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this article.