Foreign Trade Show Assistance Program.

• Author: Keelble, Steve
• Position: Indiana helps small businesses to afford international trade shows - Brief Article

State picks up the tab for overseas exhibits.

When establishing overseas business relationships, nothing beats face-to-face contacts. That's why trade shows work so well for exporters.

But overseas trade shows also have a tendency to break the marketing budget. Travel expenses can be astronomical, as can the cost of transporting exhibits and product samples. Foreign trade shows may still be worth the expense, but they can nevertheless be beyond the cash-flow reach of many smaller companies.

That's where the Indiana Department of Commerce's International Trade Division steps in. Its Trade Show Assistance Program picks up much of the tab to help Indiana companies put in overseas appearances.

"The Trade Show Assistance Program was designed to assist small Indiana manufacturers exhibiting their products at overseas trade shows," says Paula VanDeVanter, the program's manager. Eligible companies are reimbursed up to 100 percent of the cost of exhibit space rental at a trade show outside of the United States. Companies may use the program once per state fiscal year, with a maximum benefit of $5,000 per year.

Is that enough to make a difference? Definitely, replies Jerry Garriott, who heads international business at EHOB Inc., an Indianapolis manufacturer of Waffle-brand air-filled cushions designed to prevent bedsores and other maladies.

EHOB uses the program to reimburse the cost of trade-show participation for its overseas distributors. For example, the $5,000 allowance helped foot the bill for a Waffle display at a medical-products show in Beijing. The Chinese market for medical products is developing slowly, Garriott says, but its potential is tremendous.

"This gives people a good look at how potential users might use the product," Garriott says, "and it gives distributors a bunch of sales leads. You have to create a demand for your product." EHOB currently sells in about two dozen countries, and while international sales are just 6 to 8 percent of total revenues right now, they're growing.

Micron Technologies, a Michigan City manufacturer of filters for liquids, is another believer in the Trade Show Assistance Program, says company president Ginny Haenel. "It's a wonderful opportunity for smaller firms to increase their business at an international level."

Haenel's firm used the state...