Following the opening of its west coast facilities this past summer, D&H Canada is expanding its Technology Trade Show series with the addition of a Vancouver date today, November 1.

The distributor will bring its brand of trade show to the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel, adding to existing stops in Montreal (typically in the spring) and Toronto (typically in the fall.)

Greg Tobin, general manager of D&H Canada, described a setup mostly familiar to those who’ve attended the distributor’s shows — the evening kicks off with a presentation from Tobin himself, offering the distributor’s pitch for those who might be new to working with D&H, from there, it’s buffets, bars, entertainment, and a line up vendors from APC to Western Digital.

“We’ll have a red carpet theme, we’ll have a jazz trio band, and some paparazzi there for photo opportunities,” Tobin said.

While the setup is mostly the same as its other trade shows, the distributor is skipping offering a more extensive lineup of seminars, both from D&H itself and from various vendor partners, a typical part of distribution events. Tobin said the distributor decided not to include seminars this time around, and will instead opt for now to run a series of training seminars in the field more frequently, for smaller crowds.

“We want to be able to educate and bring our vendor specialists to the region, and a little bit more hands on stuff than you can do in the typically 45-minute seminar session,” Tobin said. “That’s our strategy out west — we want to get very intimate and hands-on with our new customers.”

That said, the distributor already plans to run a western stop for 2018 — and that one will include the more “full lineup” afternoon and evening session that they usually run, seminars included.

There’s one other notable difference from the distributor’s other events, and again, it’s designed to get to know resellers who may be new to the distributor and its vendors.

“Typically, we don’t encourage vendors to do a lot of free giveaways. But this time we are,” Tobin said.

In fact, he said D&H will “fund some giveaways for all the folks who’ll be there” in the name of getting to know some new people, and building the business. In all, Tobin said he expects about 150 resellers to attend this evening’s event.

While D&H’s western business is still no doubt a work in progress, Tobin said the company has gained solid traction since opening its Vancouver location in early July. In all, he said, the western operation is beating its plan in terms of both breadth (over by 50 per cent) and revenues (over by 20 per cent.)

“I wouldn’t say the west coast was under-serviced, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the reception we’re getting,” he said.