Scott Tokar's "Personal-Fx"

I just posted a new blog entry...

The new blog can be found right on our website at http://www.corporatefx.com/#Blogphp

This Typepad blog will be discontinued as of June 1st, 2009.

Visit www.CorporateFx.com for more!

Scott

New blog post on www.CorporateFx.com

A new blog post can be found at http://corporatefx.com/#Blogphp

This blog page will be moving there as of June 2009.

Thank you for reading!

Scott Tokar

SAPphire 2009, Orlando

The SAP "SAPphire" trade show in Orlando is one of those conventions where I have become a "regular" attraction at. People sit in my theater just to find out how I am going to top last year's performance. After all, this is my 15th year with Sun Microsystems at the SAP North American gathering!  

Cost cutting is an important theme at the show this year... So, we are allowing the CIO's to "magically" chop some heads in a guillotine right there on the exhibit stage!  Needless to say, the aggression release and comedy by-play made Sun Microsystems (once again) the busiest booth on the exhibit floor!

Corporate-Fx, Putting the "Show" back into "Tradeshow"!

My Son Lucas begins his magic career!

My son Lucas had his stage magic debut this week (in his school's talent show).

Having a professional magician as a Dad, Lucas had quite an advantage over the typical "TV-Magic Kit" performances that most 9 year-olds begin with!

He performed a unique twist on the classic "Clippo" cut-and-restored effect followed by cutting his Dad in half with an illusion direct from the Corporate-Fx warehouse called "Modern Art".

Instead of my trying to give you each detail, I have posted his performance on YouTube.

If you watch it, Lucas sure would appreciate a "5-Star" YouTube rating... With enough encouragement he may want to follow in Dad's footsteps!

NEW - re-designed www.CorporateFx.com website is up!

Whew!  After a full month of wrapping my brain around "RapidWeaver" for the Mac, I have finally updated the http://www.CorporateFx.com website!

I would love you to visit the CorporateFx website and tell me what you think... I'm looking for usability reports and any "bug" reports.

ALSO! there is a newly embedded blog on the site with an RSS feed from Blogger.com.  Soon the Corporate-Fx Blog will be moved and maintained ONLY from the Blogger feed and this (TypePad.com) feed will magically "vanish"... Here is the direct feed address: http://corporatefx.blogspot.com/

AACRAO, (the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers)

Back in Chicago again with my trade show magic after the brief Easter break.

I'm not sure if they were bringing me a "thick envelope" or not, but the Collegiate Registrars at the AACRAO overwhelmingly accepted the magic in the Campus Management Corp. booth this week. 

After pulling a large crowd to the booth the audience is seated in the theater for a more detailed product walk-through of Campus Management's CRM and ERP software suites... And, a FREE T-SHIRT!

A total success for Campus Management and total FUN for the attendees!

Cisco thinks outside of the box at HIMSS '09

Do you ever get that "boxed-in" feeling at a tradeshow?

Corporate-Fx founder and magician, Scott Tokar pulled record crowds to the Cisco booth at this year's HIMSS trade show in Chicago.

The "Theater-Style" magic presentation concluded with this escape from within a locked steel box on the tradeshow floor.  We were able to explain how Cisco helps hospitals around the world "escape" the typical limitations of communications and information technology within the privacy regulations of HIPPA compliance.

VOIP, records management, asset management and tracking via wireless networking were all subjects explained magically in the presentation. Relax... With our magic, not a single audience member was subjected to "death-by-powerpoint" in understanding Cisco's features and benefits.

Best of all, Cisco loved the show so much they asked to book the 2010 HIMSS show right there on the spot!

See you next year!

Side-Fx at the "EMS Today" tradeshow in Baltimore.

The paramedics at the EMS Today show in Baltimore sure did enjoy the "cut and restored stethoscope"  lessons from my Side-Fx book! see www.SideFxMagic.com

I had the pleasure of working in the Philips booth teaching the EMT's how to reduce anxiety and build rapport with their pediatric patients out in the field. Needless to say, Philips consistently had the largest crowd in the hall!

Thanks to all my new medic friends for your support! I look forward to seeing you again in the Fall!

My son, Lucas begins his stage magic career

"The school talent show is coming Dad, so I told them I'm going to do some magic... Will you help?"

With a warehouse of illusions and props from my tradeshow magic career this was an easy request to fill. 

Here is a video of our first rehearsal performing "Modern Art" so Lucas can cut me in half...

Enjoy!

Cisco @ NRF '09 in New York City

Are your numbers up, or down? That all depends on what you are counting... Now doubt there were fewer attendees at this year's National Retail Federation tradeshow in New York City. But there were also fewer creative attractions and professional presentations as well!   This worked to Cisco's advantage, because they saved money this year by using a Corporate-Fx "Aisle-View" presentation.  AND, they stood-out, by being one of only a handful of exhibitors with excitement and activity in their booth. Keeping in mind that attendance was down, Cisco kept their numbers in-line with only a 2% drop in the number of qualified leads from last year's show! If you are looking for favorable cost-per-lead calculations and increased mindshare over your compitition "Carpe Diem" with Corporate-Fx and our lower cost Aisle-View presentations!

www.tech-em.com ~ Marketing Insights From The CES Show Floor

Demos that rock, data collection that delivers and experiences that are truly one of a kind.  Meet the superstars of South Halls Three and Four.

SanDisk. If you’re a CES regular, you’ll recognize SanDisk’s perennial presenter and magician, Scott Tokar. His show expertly blends improv comedy, impressive magic tricks, audience participation, product points and an easygoing, everyman appeal into a seamless 30-minute shot of entertainment. New this year, SanDisk is mixing Tokar’s act with an Ultimate Rock Band 2 contest, further increasing audience participation. The on-stage fun ties into SanDisk’s main product push for 2009—preloaded slotMusic and slotRadio cards that store tunes and Rock Band Games. —Booth 30659

To see the whole story, go to:

http://tech-em.com/news/2009/jan+9+marketing+insights+ces+show+floor

Caught on YouTube again!

SanDisk booth at this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, NV.

CorporateFx magician, Scott Tokar performs his 9-way Sawing-in-half illusion...

200,000 or 300,000?

I'm here in Las Vegas once again performing for SanDisk at CES (the Consumer Electronics Show). Reports say that there are 100,000 less visitors to the show this year... That may be true, but durring my show it is hard for me to tell the difference between 200,000 and 300,000 atendees! 

Just look at this iPhone photo we snapped yesterday at 1pm. No lack of crowds here, my aisles are packed! And, once again SanDisk maintains top energy and visibility on the trade show floor. 

Recesion or not, for these companies at CES it is always a good thing to have huge crowds like this one chanting your name and increasing their product awareness with a live presentation in the booth!

Corporate Fx Magician, Scott Tokar for Sun Microsystems at SuperComputing 08

 

Once again I have ended up on YouTube! 

This is a video from an audience member in the Sun Microsystems booth at Super Computing 2008, Austin, TX. 

Corporate-Fx delivers a full seated audience for the next speaker in the presentation theater!

Super attendance at Super Computing

This is now the 4th year that Corporate-Fx has been at the Super Computing show for Sun Microsystems.

You might think that attendace would be down due to the economy, but that is clearly not a problem in Austin, TX this week. "We ran out of giveaway T-shirts after the first day" reported the Sun marketing team. "We are truly pleased with numbers again this year". 

After an audiance is gathered through Aisle-View magic the crowd is "pied-pipered" into the demo theater for presentations by Sun partners. "This is a great help to our staff because they always have a full theater to speak to". 

Another great show.

The "Cisco" kid.

Once again I've been performing for Cisco Systems. This week at Educause08 in Orlando, FL.

Some of our customers tell me that the U.S. economy is in a "significant slump". That may be so, but Cisco sure didn't see a "significant slump" in qualified leads at this year's Educause show.

At last year's Educause (in Seattle) I worked my Aisle-View magic for Cisco and then sent the audience on to a professional (& expensive) Live presenter. It worked, and we broke all previous records for leads at the show. This year, (to reduce expenses) Cisco hired only Corporate-Fx (no professional Live presenter), and then I introduced Cisco's real life exhibit sales staff on stage.

Bottom line, Corporate-Fx lowered costs for Cisco while maintaining equally measured results for their sales team (even when this year's show attendance was reportedly way down because of the "significant slump" in the economy).

Corporate-Fx continues to help reduce tradeshow expenses with Cisco while helping to maintain an exciting and crowd building live presence in their booth! 

The only noticeable side effect to using magic seems to be that the audience is having more FUN with the live presentation instead of suffering through typical trade show "DBPP" (Death By Power Point). And, as Martha Stewart would say "...that's a good thing".

Lower Live Presentation Costs... Higher Qualified Lead Counts... And, fun... Tradeshow Magic by Corporate-Fx.

No doubt, THE most remembered exhibit at the show!

Another GREAT show in Vegas!  This time at Focus08 for Secure Computing (a part of McAfee).

With only 5000 attendees at the MGM Grand's convention center and only six hours of exhibit time over the two days you may think that adding magic would be over kill...  NO WAY!  With Corporate-Fx help, Secure Computing was THE most visited booth on the show floor and just about EVERY attendee saw the live presentation!

Bottom line, Secure Computing OWNED the show! Simply by adding the low-cost "Aisle-View" trade show magic by CorporateFx. It would be hard to get that kind of visibility and memorability at a larger show! 

Well done Secure Computing!

Corporate-Fx team in Denver:

Just look at those crowds!  Corporate-Fx magician Jon Petz pulls in an eager bunch of attendees to the IHS exhibit at the recent SEG tradeshow in Denver.

This is now our 7th year of infotainment with IHS!  And every year we seem to top the past numbers for hot leads! 

Here is what IHS had to say:

"From the empty aisle on the left, looks like you got everyone within striking distance! Lots of people having a good time in the IHS booth – just the kind of experience/memory we want for them!! Thanks again."

The bottom line is the QUALITY of our tradeshow magicians with the Corporate-Fx group! Nationwide!

Gala Dinner Show in Vegas

We just returned from producing and performing in a gala magical awards banquet at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas for Chordiant Software.  

With Dana Daniels (Comedy Magician of the year) and Joseph Gabriel (Classic magic maestro) we had the chance to cut the head off of a VIP Executive and then he had the chance to return the "favor" by cutting Corporate-Fx magician, Scott Tokar in two to close the show!

We had a great time and so did our audience!  We are looking forward to doing it again next year!

If YOU have a sales meeting or corporate gathering that needs a little magic, please keep Corporate-Fx in mind to make your event unforgettable!

A recommendation "surprise" on Linked-In

Thank you to Nancy Weiss, of Synopsis for this blushingly FANTASTIC recommendation on the social-networking site www.LinkedIn.com

"As someone who has been working with Scott since 1995 (at several different companies), I wholeheartedly recommend him and Corporate-FX for your tradeshow entertainment, awareness and lead generation needs. 

Scott is not only an exceptional magician; he is also one of the few tradeshow “entertainers” who truly understand tradeshows and how (and why) to get a company’s message across to the audience. Scott, of course is interested in what a company wants to say at a show, but he also takes the time to learn about the company, it’s technology, it’s products, it’s culture, and it’s employees.

I work in a very technical environment (our audience and our employees are by their own admission “techno-nerds”) and more than once, I have been asked by event attendees as well as members of my own company, if Scott is an employee – they are shocked when I tell them he is not. 

It can sometimes be very difficult to convince upper management that it is worth spending more money on a tradeshow – but, in my case, after the first time our executive staff saw Scott (back in 2002), there was no question as to whether he would be back the next year. Our CEO’s mantra became “sign him up NOW!” We have even hired him to go to international events where his style translates very well. 

So, if you are looking for someone who can deliver your message and deliver measureable ROI for your next tradeshow, you need to call Corporate-FX and Scott Tokar." 

Service Category: Tradeshow Magician
Year first hired: 1995 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative