by Jeanne Brei
ECN is thrilled to return to presenting our I&D ACE Awards honoring the men and women of I&D. We will be accepting submissions for I&D ACE awards all year and traveling regionally to present them. Please visit www.ECNACEawards.com to send us your submissions and read submission guidelines.
In this first quarter, we are honoring 3D Exhibits’ John Kulchawik with a Best Traveling Lead/Supervisor ACE, and Sho-Link’s Jeff Brosseau with a William F. Nixon, Sr., Lifetime Achievement ACE.
Gene Faut, president and owner of 3D Exhibits, Inc., nominated John Kulchawik as a Best Traveling Lead/Supervisor ACE, saying,“John has been our go-to guy at show sites for over 27 years. His ability to handle anything that is thrown his way continues to impress clients and coworkers. His client service and attention to detail makes him everyone’s first choice to supervise their jobs.
“John is an integral part of all our success. He makes the salesperson and the company look good. John’s pre-show preparation is second to none. He reviews the drawings, meets with the entire team, and reaches out to our showsite partners to ensure that they are ready for us. He rights all wrongs in the field and the clients love him. John is an all-star. He is a humble man who shares the credit for a successful show with his team.
“John is who many clients recognize as ‘their guy.’ ‘Where’s John?’ is their first question. He becomes familiar with the clients’ products, their technical needs and their requests. We are lucky to have him.”
Gene included two old client letters that they “dug up” since, as he explained, “clients don’t write letters much anymore—they tend to text the supervisor directly.”
One of those letters wrote, “Dear John, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your excellent coordination in setting up the SecurityLink booth at the ASIS show in St. Louis. Your knowledge of the procedures and patience in answering my many questions allowed me to concentrate on other situations without the worry of the actual booth. Most important was your excellent ‘can-do’ attitude and willingness to help no matter what the job.”
A second testimonial letter wrote, “I wanted to send a letter to recognize John Kulchawik for all his efforts last week at IN World. John did an outstanding job. He was right there for me during the entire event. John handled the issues that arose in a timely manner, resulting in a positive experience for Sun Microsystems and our partners. He was always available to handle any request, whether it came from Sun or one of the partners in the booth. One partner was so impressed that they mentioned to me how professional and accommodating John was during the show. They said that they have never worked with an exhibit company that was so accommodating and one that truly cared that their client’s experience was the best that it could be at the show. John’s efforts helped make IN World a success for Sun Microsystems. I thank you both for sending the best to support us, as always.”
Larry Kulchawik, a former ECN columnist and author of Trade Shows from One Country to the Next, spent 40 years working for Exhibitgroup, Derse and 3D Exhibits, as well as serving as a past president of both IFES and EDPA, and had this to say about his brother being honored: “Before I retired and traveled to the cities where my clients were exhibiting, I would run into other I&D company reps who would say, ‘So you are John’s brother.’ ‘No,’ I’d say, ‘He is my brother.’ But I have always been impressed with the fact he knew more people on any show floor in the US than I did. He even knew the site people for a show I did in Barcelona when I was working for Derse. So I am John’s brother!”
And our Lifetime Achievement honoree, Jeff Brousseau, was nominated by Sho-Link Corporate Vice President Colleen Johnson, who says, “What do you say about an individual who, from 1978-2021, put his heart, soul and immense talent into one industry? Sho-Link says thank you, Jeff! Thank you for setting a pristine example of craftsmanship, problem solving, curiosity, leadership, commitment, fortitude, diligence and adaptability. Thank you for wearing so many different hats that we nearly ran out of hats! Thank you for being there through the pager era to the Nextel era to the email era to the smartphone era!”
Jeff’s career in tradeshows started at McCormick Place in 1978 at the International Housewares Show. He spent 18 years working as a union carpenter/tradeshow exhibit technician for several contractors before going to Sho-Link in 1996 as assistant city manager of Chicago. Somewhere along the way, he says on his LinkedIn profile, a “great part-time job became a way of life.” In 1998, he relocated to Las Vegas where he became Sho-Link’s city manager in 1999. In early 2005, he relocated again to his present position as Orlando city manager before retiring last year.
Congratulations to John Kulchawik and Jeff Brousseau as the newest inductees in the ECN I&D ACES Hall of Fame.
