For certain 2001 conventions (American Society of Climical Oncologists (ASCO), and Oncology Nursing Society (ONS)), the company was pitching a slogan of 'Building Stronger Tomorrows'. To fit this theme and generate excitement over their tradeshow booth, AMGEN decided to have me display some of my LEGO models (*building* a strong tomorrow -- get it?) as well as create a set of DNA Double Helices.
Two DNA models were built and glued beforehand while a third would be built unglued, by me, onsite during the conventions as a 'performance' of sorts.
An announcer was also present, and every 20 minutes or so he would deliver a message that tied in the theme with my performance as well as gave a background about myself.
Shipping a large number of models across the country (some of them my unglued prototypes from my studio) proved to be quite a task... quite an anxiety-filled task.
But all of the models ended up at the first show relatively undamaged, and what damage there was was repaired (they are LEGO bricks, after all). Set up the first night before the opening day was busy, but by late evening all of the models were in place (including a 5 foot by 6 foot Mona Lisa mosaic).
Each convention lasted three days. The first days were fairly novel and interesting, but by the second convention, I must admit the whole display/performance thing was starting to wear thin. Passers-by were encouraged to ask questions, and they did. In fact, all of the conference attendees seemed to think the booth was the coolest one there at the show. Some even took pictures, and many, many took some of my business cards.
With all of this in addition to my exhibition/labor fee, it was certainly an experience that was worth my while.
The first two shows were back-to-back in mid-May, and the final ones are much later in the year.
Here are some pictures:
