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1. BETTER THAN EXPECTED
All of us at
halfwheel were pleasantly surprised by the overall mood of the show, which seemed pretty good. That’s a far cry from the last time we were leaving the Sands Expo Center when disgust with the PCA organization and its trade show were at all-time highs.
Getting people to smile and be happy has been such a struggle for this trade show over the years, but for the most part it finally happened. Furthermore, I was surprised by the lack of fall-off for Day 3 attendance, something that had become a problem in 2018 and 2019.
Miami Cigar & Co. was one of a number of companies that dramatically reduced the size of its booth in 2021.
PCA 2021: Ashton
Amongst the booths that look very different compared to previous PCA Convention & Trade Shows, Ashton’s presence this year has to be towards the top of the list. Ashton’s previous booth which was redone not too long ago was much larger and much nicer, but the company seems to have decided that a nice booth isn’t necessary to write orders and that makes sense. Actually, it’s likely makes tens of thousands of dollars of cents in terms of the savings between this booth and the old one.
The new booth has just three display cases none of which included the company’s newest product and a pretty spartan attempt at branding. That being said, there seemed to be retailers at most of the tables in the booth, which is really all that matters. The curious question to me is whether 2021 is an aberration or whether this is going to be Ashton’s approach for the future. Given the costs associated with big, heavy booths, I really can’t imagine companies like Ashton goi