The show was from March 4 through March 6, at the Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but our story begins before that, on Sunday, February 27, when, unable to contain my excitement over a road trip any longer, I started packing (I was not planning on actually leaving until March 2). I guess if I'm being technical, it's maybe even before that, when my former employer observed that he was no longer able to pay me and for the second January in the last 3 years, I found myself without employment. Cue up Roger's Burn Your Tongue Facebook feed, which had a mention of this show at the exact right time, and it seemed like a great opportunity for a number of things, not the least of which was to visit both Santa Fe and Albuquerque, as the area had been on my list for over a decade. The stars didn't align before, but seemed to be now...anyway, ready and rarin' to go way early and naturally, the day before I was set to leave, I broke a tooth. I almost didn't go, but had enough hobby implements (I dabble in modeling) for me to sand and file down the high point enough for me to manage around it and undaunted (mostly), I set off south-ish for the horizon.
I had intentions of perhaps filming some video content for the FOH series, or maybe just picking up some items and doing a haul-type video of the show, but it was not as all made in the heavens as it seemed. I initially wrote to all of the contacts for the show, to ask what the policy was regarding cameras and filming. No response at all. Tickets were only $15.50 at the door, so I wasn't super worried about that, but I didn't want to get booted for having a camera and shooting footage. Since I had no response, I left the camera (and later kicked myself for not bringing the FOH get-up, as I found some items in restaurants that I would have liked to have shot) and went incognito, normally dressed, just behind my KN-95, as usual. Absent the handcam, I had intentions of taking some shots of the booths. The reason none of them appear in this post we will get to shortly.
If the drive down was wonderful (it mostly was, aside from the stretch along I-64, which was offensively stupid), then the return trip back was magnificent and glorious. It never fails to amaze me how stunning the same sites can be when approaching them from different directions (there is a section of I-15 that goes through the canyon south of St. George that never fails to get me also). Sometimes you can grow used to the beauty all around you, but road trips are great at refreshing your perspective. This one definitely did for me.That aside, there is no good route to Albuquerque from Salt Lake and it's a trip that turns 7 hours into easily 10. I also went through several snowstorms on the return trip, which points up another issue with the show itself.
I guess I probably won't have a better lead-in than that, but I found the show to be rather frustrating. It was cool to see so many industry titans milling around, but most of the vendors are there to sell stuff. That's fine, but the problem comes either with the organizers or the venues not allowing sufficient space to do that. I don't know which to blame, but the complete lack of signage was...incredible to me. That is probably the fault of the casino, which, incidentally, is the first time I have ever seen this lack for a major show, but it ties in somewhat to the folly tally. The narrow aisles create instant bottlenecks, with even a modicum of people, and just let someone bring in a stroller...or a wheelchair and it's instant magnification. The security was wanding everyone, which is fine, but then the cash ticket booths were right next to one of the larger booths, which means, again, bottleneck. This was less of a problem Friday night, as attendance was solid, but not pronounced. I went there Saturday, after a reasonable amount of time to let the line go down, and found a good 200 - 300 people in the queue to get wanded and that line was not moving. If you didn't have a ticket, then it was a longer wait to get to the booths and it was cash only.
So, here's the problem for me. There was 120-ish booths, give or take. There were over 30 that were either non-food related at all or not relevant to either spicy food or BBQ, ostensibly what this show as about. That left 90 potential booths, total. I will say, to the good, that the show program was very nice and one of the better ones I've seen, so kudos there. Thanks to that excellent program, while I was hoping for a lot more snacky type stuff, of that total number of booths, I had narrowed it down to 10 that I wanted to revisit and maybe (probably) buy some stuff. Most of the sellers I had interest in were stuff that Roger was stocking (and where I would normally get it anyway). Those other 10 were either lines he was not carrying or were ones I guessed he was not likely to pick up in the near future or for products that didn't seem like they would fit into his lineup. Now, if I'm going to pay $15.50 to get inside and then have to elbow people around to spend more money AND there's already 2 or 3 persons per booth in what seems a lot like a very close-quarter superspreader event, this seems like a bad prospect, at best. I did not return to see it, but I understand they were turning folks away on Saturday, which is usually a bigtime no-no for a public event. This should not be what the vendors want and probably is not.
I've been to a lot of trade shows, or conventions, most of which were larger than this, some of them far larger. I've even run a few myself (I'm available for consulting, if the show organizers want to reach out). It's easy to tell when a venue is accustomed to handling crowds and shows. I understand this is a regular show, so how this could have happened is baffling to me. For shows in Vegas, for instance, there will either be metal detectors at the entrances with one gigantic ticket/lanyard will call area or several smaller ones. For this show, there was two wanding stations and two cash ticket windows.
For a show like this, when you want people to loiter at the various booths, you have to give them room to do this. There needs to be room to maneuver and operate, not shoved in like sardines so you can sell more booth spaces. If you don't, people will skip booths rather than stand there. I've been to shows with 100K in attendance and have had less of a problem moving around. Ideally, there would have also been doors dedicated just to the show, and possibly a parking area, but maybe there are not regular shows at this casino. Whether there are or not, the timing of this show needs to be adjusted. Putting a show day on a Sunday, unless you're expecting largely local-only patronage, is also a huge mistake. While I had a lot of fun milling around the area and checking things out, choosing a time when you can have the driving vendors miss snowy weather would be a nice consideration. Ticketing absolutely has to change. Someone waits in line, finally gets wanded, asked if they have a ticket, and if no, then are directed to an ATM, where there may or may not be fees or a queue...not smart.
Anyway, as for this show, maybe it's just me, but as much as I want to support the industry, I've been to (and ran myself) so many shows that were well-run, that it takes a lot for me to deal with something like this, particularly on the heels of a pandemic that may not be entirely over. It was nice to check Albuquerque and Santa Fe off the box and I don't regret the trip, but honestly, I don't see myself coming back for this again unless I can get a media pass. The lull when it's industry only, before the general public comes in seems to be the prime time and if that's in the cards, I'd make the drive (or maybe flight) again, but if not, then also not.
I expect (and hope) that all of the vendors had a good time and did well at the show and sold everything out, so as not to have to haul it back, and further hope that no one attending comes up sick as a result. For me, my first industry show (and first trip not only to the area, but through Moab, which I've always also had in the back of mind) was kind of a mixed bag, mostly positive for the trip overall, but less so for the show itself.
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