Publisher’s Toast: Time Travel and Trade Shows

Well, the knees finally cried “Uncle,” which meant that for the first time in years, I didn’t attend Expo West.A lifetime’s skiing, running and tennis were fun, but the wear and tear mean that I’m having partial knee replacement on both legs at the end of April.

After telling my surgeon of the enormity of Expo West and the ground I would have to cover, he sagely recommended that I skip it this time around. I heeded his advice.

Expo has grown into a must-attend event for me. I’ve been going to the show for almost 20 years. I’ve seen it grow from a somewhat niche conference to the incredible gathering it is today. While it is overwhelming and difficult to navigate, the value has always merited the logistics and pain of walking the show. It made me think about the benefit of Expo, as well as all the other shows I’ve attended over my 35-year beverage career.

I’ve attended hundreds of events. Early on, FMI was my gold standard, but there were also dozens of others, from individual classes of trade to technology to distributor meetings, and they’ve all played a role in building up my industry knowledge. Two or three days on the floor are a master class on seeing the trends and innovation the industry has to offer. Up close, you can learn more about what’s going on than months and months on the phone and visits with individual brands. You can sample the wares, take the measure of the team, and generally scope out what a brand needs to make it a success.

Most important, though, shows give me a chance to see friends I’ve cultivated over the years. Walking the show is almost an exercise in time travel, bringing together old and new simultaneously.

It’s the players, not the industry, that are the reason I’m so happy to attend the Expo Wests of the world. Being face to face with the founders, creators and sales teams of the companies, schmoozing around samples, it’s the greatest.

We are in a world of impersonal communication, emails, texts, Zoom calls and a general avoidance of contact. The most important element in business is connection. We have too little of it today and we’re all the less for it. Keep attending the shows: I’ll bring my new knees along.