Enter the South Hall about in the center and the Telesteps (www.telesteps.net) extension ladder people make a noisy impression. Their booth area is right at the door and has something that looks like an advertising sail going up to the ceiling. After all, vertical is their thing. They have a platoon of reps ready to answer questions and also have at least two ladder extenders. These are people who extend and compact these ladders. The resulting click-clacking is a striking sound that goes on from 9:30 am to 5 pm.

Landing a good floor space is not an element of luck. Seniority of showing at IBS gives an exhibitor certain points. And so does paying a premium for space and location. Big vendors have a big presence.

Then there are the small booths, like Rainhandler’s. Rainhandler (www.rainhandler.com) is a plastic grid about 3 inches wide that when attached right under the edge of the roof turns the stream of roof runoff back into rain drops that bounce off the Rainhandler grid and land about 3 feet away from the house. Simple: no gutter and the wind blows the leaves away.

Ted with Rainhandler says he chose the South Hall this year because they had heard that traffic there was as much as 50% better than at the West Hall. In spite of that rumor, he is seeing about the same amount of traffic as last year when he was in the West Hall.

Sometimes he thinks the small company should just stay away from the huge IBS. But then again, after displaying for 11 years now, he’s afraid of what might happen if Rainhandler were to bail out.

“It’s all about the list,” says Ted, flicking up the ticker tape that records the contacts of people whose cards he has swiped into his machine. No swipes at IBS is not something he is ready to risk.