Peridot kicked-off the 2012 trade show season last week at MD&M West in Anaheim, CA.
For the show, we lasered up a special plaque based on a yoga graphic I found having to do with mapping Chi. We hoped people would stop by the booth, notice and ask questions; hence allowing us to apply our considerable charms and powers of (hypnosis) persuasion.
We loaded up the truck and we moved to Beverly…
10X20 ft booth and luggage for a week pretty much stuffed my Rover to the gunnels. The Saturday morning before the show, Debra and I set out for Points South.
We decided to take 101 south and spend the night in Santa Barbara. 101 is a MUCH more pleasant drive than the efficient but soporific Highway 5 route. Plus, it allowed us to make a few tourist stops on the way including the Madonna Inn, the Palace of Pink excess.
Stopped in Pismo and scratched a long-time itch by driving along the beach for an hour.
This is serious fun! I was rolling around in the surf and flying up and down dunes. If the whole tradeshow investment was not in the back of the truck I would have had even more fun.
Debra was not impressed and was sure we would end up like this:
I was ready for some of this…
…but forgot my swimsuit.
We pulled into Santa Barbara later that afternoon. Cool place to hang for a weekend.
We spent the night at the Castillo Inn near the marina and had a great dinner at Holdren’s, where the locals hang. Debra hit the considerable shopping opportunities before continuing south, hugging the coast and sightseeing along the way.
From Malibu to Dana Point we just took it easy and marveled at the vast eclectic circus that is LA.
We arrived late afternoon in Anaheim and checked into our hotel for the week. Anaheim is a surreal place with Mickey Mouse’s house visible from the hotel balcony.
We got to watch the fireworks most nights before getting up early Monday morning for booth set up.
Always a pleasure working the Peridot booth with my partner Debra. She has a great rapport with Peridot’s customers and OWNS what she is selling.
The show was reasonably successful. Tuesday a little slow, Wednesday was packed and Thursday medium busy. We don’t think we met the “killer” new client this year, but we spoke to a lot of established customers promoting our newly beefed up CNC capabilities, of which many of our customers are not yet aware. Mike McGeachy came down Thursday and worked the booth with us and hung around for tear down, which was completed in record time this year. We were on the road by 5:00 PM for the slow crawl out of the basin.
Thank you to all who stopped by the booth including the person who stole the blue vibrator LOL. Next show is Santa Clara Job Shop Show in March. Hope to see you there.