Thank you for considering the opportunity to exhibit at the 2008 WI State SHRM Conference. Over 600 human resource professionals attend our conference from across the State of Wisconsin each year. This year’s conference is being held in Green Bay, WI at the KI Convention Center. The following should provide you with additional information about this exhibit opportunity:

Exhibit Hall Hours

Please note: We are marketing to attendees that the exhibit hall will be open from 7:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. It is expected that you will have someone available to staff your booth during these hours.

Theme/Activities

This year’s theme is “Human Resources: Going for the Gold.” We have chosen black and gold as the colors for the Exhibit Hall.

Wednesday, October 15th - “Opening Ceremony”
(Attendees will collect pins as they move through the hall)

There are 17 SHRM Chapters in the State of Wisconsin – can you find all of them? Buttons have been placed with random Exhibitors. When you have successfully found all the chapter buttons please bring them to the Activity Booth for verification and get entered for your chance to win great prizes!

Thursday, October 16th – “Medal Ceremony”
(Attendees will attempt to locate stickers corresponding to the sport that is the answer to a trivia question throughout the hall)

Answer sports trivia questions and then seek out the appropriate sticker. A picture of each event will be on a sticker held by random Exhibitors. Once completed please bring your game sheet to the Activities Booth for your chance to win prizes.

• The Exhibit Hall opens just before the keynote begins on Thursday morning. During the day we will be having our morning and afternoon breaks with beverages and plenty of snacks. In addition, lunch with dessert stations will be served in the Exhibit Hall.

• Attendees will also be treated to an exciting event Thursday evening at the Lambeau Field Atrium. There you will enjoy a festive dinner at a table with others from your local chapter while enjoying and dancing to the music from the Deuces Wild! Dueling Pianos. Transportation will be available to attendees between the KI Center and Lambeau Field.

Friday, October 17th – “Closing Ceremony”

• With the Exhibit Hall closing at 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, you are still welcome to attend the conference as a participant on Friday. Please note that your meal expense is not included in the exhibitor pricing. If you wish to attend breakfast or lunch on Friday you are more then welcome, however please be sure to sign up. The pricing is listed below.

Breaks/Lunch/Dinner
Wednesday night you are welcome to partake in the appetizers throughout the hall. There will also be cash bars throughout the hall.

As an exhibitor, with each booth you purchase you will be provided with two lunches and two passes into the Thursday night event.

Lunch will be delivered to your booth during the first break out session between 10:30 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. on Thursday. If you need additional meal packages besides the two provided for lunch and the Thursday Evening Event you can purchase them for:

• Thursday - Lunch - $20 each
• Thursday - Evening Event - $50 each
• Friday – this includes Breakfast and Lunch, plus keynotes - $50 each

Booth Prize Give-Aways
If you would like to collect business cards at your booth for a prize there are two different ways we ask that you work with us to distribute them:

Option One – Media Screen Listing
You will be able to start drawing names of the winners on Wednesday night and throughout the day on Thursday. All winners name’s will be posted on a media screen listing the name of the winner and giving them directions to pick up their prize at your booth. Please note: each booth will be limited to posting 4 winners. If your winner(s) do not claim their prize, you may want to consider either sending it to them or dropping it off at their place of business after the conference.

Option Two – Exhibitor Booth Give-Away
You can also choose to coordinate a giveaway right at your booth. This option would allow you to select your own winner. You can determine a time or a process in which you would announce a winner when the exhibit hall is open. If you elect to do your own drawing we ask that you be courteous of your fellow exhibitors in your immediate area by respecting their exhibitor space and the noise level to the extent possible.

Exhibit Pricing

The cost of each exhibit booth is $800. Your 10 x 8 booth includes the following:

• One 8’ x 30” skirted table
• Back and side drapes
• One chair
• Carpeted Exhibit Hall
• A sign with your business name
• Two sets of meal tickets (Wednesday and Thursday only) Additional meals purchased will be added to your booth packet.

Session Attendance

In the past, we have been very supportive of allowing our exhibitors to attend sessions provided the sessions are not full and the exhibitor still maintains a presence at their booth. In recent years, several organizations have registered their HR generalist staff through the exhibitor registration process to avoid the attendee registration fee. Because of this, we are asking that if you have staff that is attending for the main purpose of going to the learning sessions, they must register as an attendee. It is our hope that organizations will respect this.

Food & Beverages

We are under contract with the KI Center for providing all food and beverages. You can bring in a prepared food item provided you do not cook, brew or bake it onsite. In no case can you bring in any beverages of any sort to give-away.

Advertising

If you would like to advertise in our conference program you can get additional information by going to www.wishrm.org and clicking on the 2008 WI SHRM State Conference Logo at the top of the web page. Once you are on the website click on the “Advertising” section for additional information. Please note if you exhibit there is a 10% discount off of advertising based on the size ad you would like.

Sponsorship

Sponsoring is an opportunity to maximize your firm’s exposure at the conference while demonstrating commitment to the HR profession. Sponsorship packages range from $500 to $10,000, with higher levels waiving booth and advertising costs. Our sponsors are also rewarded with preferred placement in the exhibit hall in addition to other recognition opportunities throughout the conference. If you are interested in sponsoring, please click on the sponsorship link during the registration process to be contacted by one of our Sponsorship Co-chairs.

NEW: Vendor Directory

We are currently in the process of re-designing our Wisconsin SHRM State Council website.  Included in our new website design will be a Vendor Directory which will basically be an online buyer's guide for HR professionals across the state of Wisconsin.  The website is scheduled to go live in August of 2008 with the Vendor Directory listing to go up October 1st.  For the low cost of $100, you can select to be included on this page from October 1, 2008 - September 30, 2009.  Your listing will include your company name, contact info, brief 10 word descriptions of your organization or headline and a hyperlink to your website.  Look for this new option in the exhibitor registration process.

Students

Each year we invite, encourage and support college students that have elected the Human Resource field as their professional path to be active attendees at our conference. As an exhibitor of this conference we are asking for your help to provide the same level of support to educate or provide insights into your products and services to the students. These individuals are the future of our profession and it could only be less then a year away when they are in positions that could influence decision making on your services or products. We really appreciate your willingness to partner with us.

Grand Door Prize Give-Away

An excellent way to receive recognition for your organization is to donate a prize for our Grand Door Prize Give-Away. We are asking that the value of these prizes be of a $100 value or greater. These door prizes will be given away during our event on Thursday evening. Winners will be selected from the prize drum that will be located in the exhibit hall Wednesday night and throughout the day on Thursday.

To Register

Go to www.wishrm.org and click on the 2008 WI SHRM State Conference logo on the top of the web page. Once you are on the home page for the conference click on Exhibitors and then registration. This will walk you through a step-by-step process to register. A $300 deposit must be paid by August 1st, 2008 to secure your exhibit booth.

• Organizational ID (email address) & Password - Please realize that when you go to register as an exhibitor the email address of the person registering for your organization will become your user ID. In addition you will be asked to create a password for your organization. Take note of this information as it will be your responsibility to keep up-to-date the names of the individuals from your organization that will be staffing the booth throughout the conference.

• Organization Single Point of Contact – To help facilitate communications for our exhibiting organization this year, when you register on-line, you will be asked to provide us with one point of contact for your organization. All exhibitor updates and information will be forwarded to this one contact. This individual can be different from the individual who registers your organization on-line.

• •You will also find a link to our hotels and a timeline for the conference called “Conference at a Glance”, as well as information on conference attire, speaker, sponsorship and advertising information. This site will continue to be updated until the conference, so make sure to mark it as a favorite and return to it often.

Thank you for your interest in the 2008 WI SHRM State Conference. We look forward to seeing you there. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact: