The SAAC Show

We have just spent the day over in Long Beach, CA., which conveniently sits about 20 minutes from our factory and 20 minutes from my home. Our goal this year at SAAC was to find out how folks are responding to this blog and to our new Website.

I want to thank everyone who came up with such nice things to say about the blog. Sometimes it gets a bit lonely typing away, and the only way you know that anybody is listening is by the hit totals, and the e-mails. There were also plenty of positive comments on our website which I truly believe is the best supplier website in the industry. (No bias, of course.)

We always have a very good result at the shows, because we are very aggressive about getting folks into the booth. So we were pleased by both the turnout and the response today.

However, as we reviewed the day, we badly wanted to take a survey. We would have asked these questions.

1. How long have you been in the industry? We know that some of the folks that come by have been in a long time, but we suspect that many are brand new.
2. Are you full-time, part-time, or some-time?
3. What percentage of your business is promotional products? What percent is printing or something else?
4. What are your goals at the show? This is especially true of those who hit the booth, get their badge swiped, and then jet on down the aisle.
5. What would you like suppliers to do at the show that they aren't?
6. Should we show our whole line or just what's new?

The really big question is what do shows do today that you can't get on the internet? I know that one answer is touching and judging garments where you can't possibly get samples of everything. But with California Springs line, it is all hard goods, and free samples are pretty much unlimited. Just wondering.