The first thing you think when you walk into the show is what an incredibly great idea it was to consolidate The Snow Show with Outdoor Retailer. The second thing you think is, “What took them so long?” I imagine the answer to that is quite a soap opera.
The next thing I thought was whether I’d gone to the dog show by mistake. I like dogs, but the sheer number was rather remarkable this year.
For the two days I was there, it was a vibrant and active show. Not so sure about the third day, given the number of attendees who were on the Friday morning flight back to Seattle with me, but that’s what happens at trade show; the last day is typically slower.
What the hell did we do when the show was even longer? Oh, that’s right- we were younger and it was a lot more fun. It was amusing when the people who were supposed to show up first thing in the morning didn’t make it till noon because they’d been out “networking” all night. Somehow, it made you credible.
Before the world (inconveniently) changed on us, shows focused on retailers writing orders and brands “getting paper,” whatever that is, from them. Now, as a show veteran pointed out to me, buyers want to get on their computers, put orders from all their brands into their systems, and see how things look over all before finalizing orders given their sell through and new brands they may have discovered.
Which is how it should and has to be in a digitized world where, if you aren’t using big data to figure out what to buy and who to sell it to, and how the brands you carry relate to each other, you may not be around after the next recession, whenever that is.
Read the remainder of this article as well as other interesting and resourceful articles on Jeff’s blog