Let's admit it, we live in a funny world right now. As much as we all try to ignore the news it still hits us, there is the spread of AI with the 'its going to change the universe' rhetoric, the fear for jobs, the fear for what our kids future will be, the FOMO and sheer overwhelming feeling when you login to literally anything online - X.com/Linked In/etc.
I wanted to write this blog because, well, I came away from Shoptalk not full of chatter on technology, but with with this core belief in humans. I'm not anti-AI, far from it, but I hope reading this takes you away from some of the chaos in our lives today to a place of calm for a moment. If we can find more moments like this maybe life will improve. And maybe thats what life is about now - its about the moments. Remember the moments.
Back in late 2025 I decided to do a larger booth at Shoptalk. This was a big step for ShipperHQ, we had always wanted the 'overhanging sign', but never took the plunge. Booths are expensive, exhibitions are expensive. Was this the best use of a fair chunk of our marketing budget?
As I tell my team constantly we have to "Stand Tall". With 6000 brands, and a reputation that includes being a UPS Premier Partner we have the credentials. What we have never had tho is funding, we've built this business with our bare hands. Along with the timing, luck, grit, and the aide of all the staff and customers along the way, well, we are able to be in a fortunate position with the company where we have a thriving independent business in the technology space where we can explore, learn and build with our staff & customers at the heart of our decisions.
So back to the booth, I really wanted to do something different. Shipping can be boring lets be honest, and I have a big love for community and ecosystems and just the reality of retail. I used to work in Finance in London many years ago and I never saw the customer. One of the things that drew me to eCommerce so much was how close to the customer we were. My husband was a merchant, I then ended up building technology for merchants, it was a breathe of fresh air from this machine I was in where we were working for no real purpose apart from lining big company profits. eCommerce gave me purpose.
Over the recent years tho I've felt like I've gone into this chase for the growth, the money, never is it enough, and the stresses of long hours and work. It wears you down slowly. I went away late last year for a big family holiday and it gave me time to sit back and think about what I really wanted, and how I wanted ShipperHQ to grow. I realised a number of things, but one of them was that I had to push thro more on my vision on what ShipperHQ should be. And this booth was pivotal to that.
Well I'm no designer. Luckily for me (and it has been great, I highly recommend it) my now 19 year old son Lloyd joined the business for a year in our Product team. He is, in his own words I think, a 'creative'. So this seemed a good project. We went thro a lot of ideas whilst on vacation in New Zealand, I think in the end he was very happy when we left so he could escape my daily ramblings and requests for drawings.
Experience counts, and this is a good lesson to all, we return to the US and our Chief Designer Louis grabs a hold of our chaos and attempts to bring some order. He had good ideas, we had options, but it wasnt quite there.
Just before Christmas I ring up Joe Smith at The Buzz Lab. Joe is hard to describe. The most beautiful human being you could ever wish to meet or work with. My history with Joe goes way back, his firm are absolute professionals in the Video Production space, but this is a multi-talented person (and company), I can't even describe their calibre. Its quite by accident we even work together, he is way out of my league.
Anyhow we talk as over the years we have developed a friendship. And the more I talk the more I could see he was excited (well I'm going to believe this!). And he is like well whats your idea? I laugh and say Joe look I have no idea, but I know the feeling I want. I want a place people find welcoming and warm, an escape from the stresses of the world, somewhere that they want to take a picture, somewhere that has nothing thats remotely stressful, something away from tech. And I dont care we are shoving that in the middle of an eCommerce exhibition floor, let's be different, lets dare to do different.
Frankly I probably didnt say that last part, but I felt it!
I'm not sure if I affected his Christmas break, but he definitely thought about this. This is not what Joe 'does' either, he definitely has a lot of experience tho around stage production, etc. His first idea is a tornado. Sounds good I say, but too traumatic.
Then we get this.
Wow.
Well we have a design concept. Living in Texas and spending a lot of time in Fredericksburg, TX and the Hill Country (which is dear to my heart) I loved it. How the hell to tie this back to shipping, but we had done a booth a few years back where we basically tagged the items on the booth and said how much they cost, the shipping challenges in checkout experience, etc so I wasn't too concerned.
For me though this is January 2026, I've a concept. Someone believes in me. Someone brought this to life. My marketing and design team I think thought I was pretty nuts. What on earth was I doing. But we were doing it, I shared the image around, the more people saw it the more they accepted this is the booth. Marketing couldnt argue, this would pull in people for pictures etc. And if you can create a conversation, well anything is possible IMO.
But how to execute. Well Joe Smith luckily seems to have the best connections on the planet and brought in Jimmy (aka Grady for those in the know!!). I'd met Jimmy a few years back, my recollection was light tho, I remembered the time, not the face. I felt like he didnt have an option not to join in, and was probably wondering who this overweight middle aged woman was that ran a shipping company and needed his help with building the booth. Probably thought I was nuts (seems to be a theme).
I step back from the booth mgmt, the design and marketing teams plough forwards. Chris joined to help out with Joe/Jimmy - the photo here is from when we went out for dinner in Vegas, I picked up the surcharges on the steak (story for another day!).
So not content with this left of field booth we decide lets launch ShipperHQ.ai, and lets double down on some of the product releases to get out for Shoptalk. We effectively did a years worth of work in 3 months to bring this together. We completed changed how we engineer, and we made massive progress. But we were up against it. We had no time to talk to marketing or design, they were left alone.
Being an engineer in 2026 is an exciting time. especially as a Gen X when you are in a hurry to get things done. There is fear aswell mixed in, but we push this to the back of our minds. I feel empowered. I'm ready, and I'm moving.
A new brand appeared, staff were scared, where was our stable ShipperHQ stamp going? In the trash I said. Time to change, time to evolve, time for momentum, for depth, and for innovation.
In the last 2 weeks of Shoptalk I have to say the combined effort of the team was something to behold. Teams when they run well they really sing, you can feel it. I saw that singing in March amongst engineering/design/marketing and yeah it takes your breath away. You see people accomplishing things they never thought possible, you see them just push thro and create something that just works. To see a person first do that is a great privilege as a boss and CEO, because I know once they have bended reality once they will do it again. And this team did that in March. I'll forever be proud of them. And proud of those that managed to clear the noise away and allow us some focus. Thats what you need when your backs are against a wall, you need to ability to think, to focus, to create. Many people that are unsung do that for others so they can create, in this case it was our sales, support, customer success, they kept things moving so we could build the new.
I arrive on the Sunday. I'd seen a couple of bits of snapshots of parts of the booth before I get there, but none of us (even Joe/Jimmy) had seen this together. It was the first time. We had props they hadnt seen. I meet Chris, he came in mid way to help with the project, and is cut from the some cloth as Joe and Jimmy. Never in my life could I wish to have 3 more down to earth but extremely talented professionals on this. Chris has a background in film set design and it showed.
Being there at the construction was the best thing I could have done. I felt this booth, it came alive in front of me. They had flown in the engineer Norman to bring it to life. I could see his sense of accomplishment as it came together. He had a pride in his work, we saw it with the guys working it. And just know - booths are not like this. They are things you trash after 3 days, the whole Expo business is extremely throwaway. But this wasnt that. What we had created here was more than that. And I dont think any of us intentionally did this, none of us walked in there with emotions around this. It was a job. I fully expected the booth to be dismantled and re-purposed after, I had said we had no need to keep it beyond the 3 days, I didnt want the storage headache.
And here it is.
I absolutely love this picture. Its probably my favorite of the show. This is of the guys that did the construction work, its a real shame Norman isnt in it, he left before this was taken. You can see their pride, you can see their work, what a great moment in time to capture. These guys do booths all day every day, I dont know, do they feel that pride normally? I think so. Do other people see it, I dont know. I'd like to hope so.
Here is a photo during construction with my son Lloyd in it. Thats his logo hanging on the banner above. He worked closely with Joe and Chris/Jimmy to help with bringing this to life. Sharing these moments with him has been significant for me. It's not just about work. It's more than that. It has to be more than that.
I share all the rest because for me its important. I hope you see in my blog here what is behind a booth, what happens a little and I hope it does for you a little of what it really did for me. Which was made me realise once again that we are humans, and we need to live. We need to remember that its not all about the race to build, the race to compete, the race to anything. We live in an ever frantic world and its important we all set boundaries and find the places of calm. Thats not always together.
My takeaways from Shoptalk were probably very different to other people. I'd say the booth did its job. There were the people that would walk by and go 'nice booth', those that side looked but were too shy to say much, those that took a pic and walked on but smiled. All the interactions. The investors that came up in a rush and I'd say come sit down and 30 mins later you could see them just relaxing and laughing and shedding the stress of what seems a stressful job at these shows. Then sending them away :)
I saw those that just come under the porch with their friend and sat on the swing and for a moment it all fell away. Peace. Peace in a mad crazy busy exhibition hall.
Wow. The finished Booth!
Some of you may say - did I get leads. Absolutely. And I had a great team around me from ShipperHQ. They had the hard job doing a lot of meetings, the front of house on the booth, finding the business. A job as a CEO at these events is weird, but I spoke to current customers and to prospects. Most were fed up of the chatter on AI. We released a whole new platform with ShipperHQ.ai, but we realised fast that this wasnt about us talking about agents or intelligence or LLMs or MCP, this was about connections and relationships.
Let me explain what the booth concept really was. A lot of people thought the booth was set in the past. No it was set in the future. The future should be where we have calm, we have freedom to do what we want to do, and as merchants thats to be able to focus on your job. The booth was almost like the film the Matrix, we created a world you could live in which is peaceful. I've always believed that my primary role as a technologist is not to intimidate or overwhelm or confuse you, its to abstract the problems away so you can be more successful. If I don't do that I'm not doing my job. AI is a tool to be used, its not who we are. Its not there to make you feel rushed or like you have lost control. We are, for now at least, in charge of AI. And as long as I stand as CEO of this company I'll ensure that stays true. But I will leverage it. This booth was designed using AI. But I'd argue it was by far the most real booth at Shoptalk. Thats how you use AI. Its not there to deteriorate our experience, it has to enhance else leave it to one side.
I'll finish with a few facts and some recommendations I have for both the organizers and for attendees. And by no means am I saying anything is wrong, but I do think we can always improve.
I'll leave with a few more photos. I had a problem with my camera, so unfortunately lost some great pics. But I will remember the moment, and I hope you do too.
Til next year.