Mike Van Valey--Has Your Trade Show Marketing Solution

     Michael Van Valey has been a Corporate Exhibit Manager for over 20 years. He has extensive experience in the areas of personal selling,  marketing and merchandising. He has specific skills in planning, organizing, and implementing the elements that consistently lead to successful tradeshow promotions. Mike's long record of success shows results and expertise in:

    From 1981 to the fall of 2004 Mike worked for American Greetings Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. American Greetings is a $2.2 billion manufacturer of greeting cards and related consumer products with 12 domestic manufacturing and distribution centers and 21,000 employees. American Greetings is the largest publicly owned distributor of social expression products. Mike's professional activities include the following assignments:

Sr. Supervisor, Trade Relations (1995 to 2004)

• Managed 60 plus trade shows and corporate events for multiple divisions with a $1.6 million budget.

• Developed trade show marketing plans for new corporate ventures that included a purchase of a $100,000 exhibit property and development of a promotional campaign that increased customer awareness and position within the industry.

• Facilitated team in developing marketing plans for key corporate shows that resulted in improved image, successful communications of a new corporate strategy and improved interaction with key accounts.

• Integrated exhibit properties from newly acquired companies, that were streamlined into our show schedule allowing us to upgrade exhibit properties and thus preserving limited budget.

• Managed American Greeting's largest corporate show (SHOPA) involving six divisions. Resolved conflicts and facilitated unity to create an exhibit that raised image of all the divisions and resulted in an increase in sales revenue by 20 percent.

Supervisor, Trade Communications (1988 to 1995)

    Managed American Greetings North American Division’s tradeshows and conventions.

• Introduced new exhibit strategy that lowered costs by 30%.

• Selected employee-of-the-month for successful efforts in planning and managing the largest and highest profile show at the time.

• Participated regularly in industry education conferences and earned CME (Certified Manager of Exhibits) in an effort to increase the professionalism in this position.

Product Merchandising Specialist (1987 to 1988)

     Responsible for interacting with product management in developing merchandising plans for seasonal accessories.

Market Management Analyst (1985 to 1987)

     Analyzed retail trends and developed customer presentations.

• Developed database format to capture customer profile data to systematize market intelligence.

• Worked collaboratively with product managers and customer account executives in proposing new product assortments and merchandising initiatives.

Cabinet Budget Control Analyst (1984 to 1985)

     Supported sales division in managing budget allocation of $20 million store fixture budget.

• Developed new database to assist with allocation of fixture budget using Lotus software.

Sales Representative (1981 to 1984)

     Covered a two-state area of 80 retail accounts and managed staff of 12 part-time merchandisers.

•  Exceeded sales forecast in each of the 3 years in sales territory

     Mike has earned a Certified Manager of Exhibits (CME) designation and is a member of  Trade Show Exhibitors Association. He earned a BS in Economics and an MBA in Marketing from  Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.