If you haven’t seen it yet, you will soon: the new online face of The Starr Conspiracy.

It’s clean, open, and easy to navigate (honest!). With a white canvas, clean typography, hand-drawn illustrations, and black-and-white photography, our website now tells our story with heart and transparency in a way we’ve never done before.

If you market HR technology, you’re probably working at a fevered pace to get ready for the HR Technology® Conference & Exposition. You have to get the booth ready, plan your giveaways, review your list of influencer and analyst briefings to schedule, and make sure everyone on the ground in Vegas has this year’s talk track down.

What if you could go to HR Tech and not only engage with prospects and show off your brand, but also get some strategic insight that would help you take your business to the next level all year long?

Oh, shit. Your biggest trade show is just around the corner, and you promised yourself you’d be more prepared this year. And like most small and medium-size businesses, you invest up to 25 percent of your marketing budget in trade shows. That’s a sizable chunk of change, and how you manage the expectations of that spend has consequences. So before you finish your “Oh, shit!” moment and decide to just recreate last year’s experience, consider your goals and craft a better strategy.

Launching a new product or service? Good for you. Your trade show strategy may have higher stakes, but if the goals are clear, the tasks are simpler. If you can’t create 15 minutes of fame with a brand-spanking-new line of business or sparkling rebrand, then you either suck at marketing or you’re releasing a crappy new product or service. What you accomplish in the “off” years truly marks the progress of your brand. Without a new product to promote, your focus will likely be centered around brand awareness, education, or building and strengthening relationships with your brand ambassadors.