Fields of Candy!
Currently watching the Travel Channel and they’re showcasing a national trade show devoted entirely to candies and sweets! Ooooohhhh what I would pay to have the reporter’s spot for this one!
Like most trade shows, this one is humongous. It’s like a huge candyland maze full of treats and gadgets. everyone seems to be pulling all the stops with their Trade Show Booths and I could just imagine the amount of time and preparation each one took. Some have spaceship motif complete with laser lights and darkened booths to showcase candies that light up in the dark, some have bubble machines complete with bubble candies that you have to catch with your tongue to taste, and still others have the simplicity and elegance fit for a rocking chick chocolate booth.
There’s a lot of new candies out there, sour, sweet, sexy, big, candies encased in toys, bubble, baubles, and a huge cotton candy. Mmmm mmmm mmm. Yum. The kids ARE having fun, it’s like trick or treating in spring!
Brings me back to when I was working in marketing. Going to trade shows are fun, you get all kinds of goodies from companies participating in these shows, and you get to have a glimpse of new and upcoming products for the season or for the year. But it’s a nightmare working the other side of the show, namely the ones putting it together.
Sometimes, businesses at these trade shows are only as good as their Trade Show Booths and you have to have a really polished and well-fitted booth tailored to your particular product or else potential buyers are not quite as inclined to enter your space. The more eyecatching the banner colors, design and placement, the better your chances. If you’re in a candyland trade show and you have a boring four by four, boxed-in booth with just the requisite desk and tables to showcase your glow-in-the-dark candies, it most likely won’t work.
Then again, once you presented the come-on and lured people into your lair, er, booth, you have to make the sale. Let’s see, the kids probably will like the brain ooze candy with the yucky looking white stuff oozing out of a nose-shaped container so that should be a seller, I’m not so sure about the swirling windmill-type lollipop where you need to stick out your tounge against the rotating lolly to catch all the flavors.
The coolest I think is the crayola candies complete with an artist’s paint brush that you can dip in the colors palette, use it to draw on paper [edible paper I hope?!] or stick into your tounge to eat. There’s also the crayola pens that you can lick like lollipops. Cool, but I give minus points for being so like the real thing, gee, I wouldn’t want my kids mistaking a real crayola for a candy and chomping down a whole carton.
