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.
For whatever reason, La Aurora decided to only talk to
halfwheel about one news item prior to the 2021 PCA Convention & Trade Show. And while I appreciate the fact it gave us info about one line, out of the four options it could have chosen, the one it decided to talk about is far and away its least interesting item in my opinoin. In fact, it isn’t even new. And to make matters less sensible, it’s not even in Las Vegas. What’s annoying is that one of the actual new items in the booth has a great story, one that I would have appreciated more details about.
PCA 2021: Integra Boost
I’ve known about Desiccare’s Integra Boost brand for years, but it’s only become a common name in the cigar industry in the last couple of years. Integra Boost is a portable, two-way humidification product that is perhaps better known in the marijuana space than it is in the cigar space. That’s changing though and I suspect Integra’s presence will accelerate thanks to new agreements it has signed with manufacturers like Oliva.
It’s very clear that Integra is used to going to trade shows thanks to its cannabis presence. This was a high-end booth with a big video wall, a massive sign one that inevitably photobombed half of the pictures taken in the Miami Cigar & Co. booth and a cookie-cutter design that seems like it could be used by just about any company at any trade show.
PCA 2021: Toscano halfwheel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from halfwheel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
PCA 2021: Miami Cigar & Co.
For a long time, I was told there wouldn’t be any new items from Miami Cigar & Co. at this year’s PCA Convention & Trade Show, but as it turns out, that’s not the case. There’s not a new Nestor Miranda, though Nestor the man is here; there’s not a new Tatiana; instead, there’s a pair of new Don Lino blends.
Miami’s booth has shrunk in half, though it honestly doesn’t seem 50 percent smaller. The company removed a gigantic center structure which freed up a lot of space, both square-footage-wise and vertically. The one downside to that is that just about every picture of the Miami booth is going to have a gigantic Integra Boost logo in the background. As always, Miami’s booth featured a group of models who were making sure the Nespressos were flowing, even if I didn’t partake. As I’ve argued for years, smaller booths feel busier and that is certainly the case for Miami Cigar & Co. There were definitely fewer people in the booth, but w