Where am I going?

Friday morning I am off to Las Vegas for the 2010 ABC Kids Expo. Every year Scandinavian Child (SCI)attends this huge juvenile industry trade show along side other manufacturers and distributors, such as Maclaren, Graco, Skip Hop, Boon and Medela (to name a few). Over 900 exhibitors fill over 1 million square feet of exhibit space. Scandinavian Child will have 2500 square feet of that space... that's bigger than my house! The show is open to retailers, manufacturers, sales reps, importers/exporters and media. It is not open to the public.

We begin planning for the next years show immediately after the current years show ends... that's right, just days (perhaps even hours) after this show, we will already be talking about and envisioning things for the 2011 show. It's a big deal and it takes a lot of work. We ship a ton of stuff to Las Vegas and we take a lot of staff. We work our tails off two full days before the show even opens just setting things up. Then, the people come. For four days we're on our feet from 9am to 6pm talking, demonstrating and selling. Even after the show each day, our work is not done. We take manufacturers and customers out to dinner. We attend receptions and awards shows. Staying busy is not a problem during this trip.

To give you an idea of how this all looks, here's some pictures I found from the 2009 show.

Row after row of exhibitor booths.

Asile after asile of people customers.

Front, corner view of our booth last year.

So, hopefully I'll stay busy and the time will fly by. Because, honestly... while I will be working very hard to ensure that SCI has a good show, I will be thinking about Lea and Kevin the entire time and how much I'd rather be here with them!