Day 2 of the show yesterday (day 4 of the trip) and my legs are definitely starting to show signs of fatigue. Standing for 9 hours per day really starts to take a toll on your support beams making the walk from the show to the hotel like a slow shuffle…only two more days to go.

Conrad Anker spent two hours at our booth yesterday signing posters and chatting with passers by and old friends he has made along the way. Conrad introduced me to a few of his friends including one of the employees for The North Face who works in their new office in Venice, Italy where Brooke and I plan to take our honeymoon next year. It’s great to be connected in the industry!

If you have never been to an Outdoor or bicycle industry trade show, I’m afraid you are missing out. Not only do you get to look at the coolest new gear offerings from every company associated with the particular industry, you can manage to drink free beer for the last two hours of the show each day (if you’re not working of course). I always know when it’s 4pm at the OR show and not because I’m surrounded by 170 Timex watches, it’s the flow of beer that I see with people walking by our booth.

It’s great marketing in my opinion but some companies take the free beer ploy even further. Keen shoes gave away a free pair of shoes and the guys at Optic Nerve Eyewear Company had a stupid human trick contest where each trick earned a free pair of sunglasses. Our friend at Fuel Belt did some trick with his eyes making them twitch back and forth faster than a hummingbird flaps it’s wings…coolest thing I’d ever seen.

Last night’s stage in the Tour of Utah was a circuit race that consisted of a 6.3-mile loop that the field did 8 times in just under one hour and a half and was won by Toyota United Pro team member Chris Baldwin. The event was very well managed and the loop had the cyclists pass through the start finish line 4 times on each loop making it very spectator friendly as well. I saw an old fellow employee, Petar Tomich who now works for the Navigators Cycling team and chatted with him and team director Ed Beamon just before they rolled out on course in the team car.

The night was topped off on my walk home where I witnessed one driver smash in to two cars before becoming wedged in between the Utah public transit train and a Toyota forerunner at an intersection. Myself and another by standard flagged down a police officer then both ran down to the scene to inspect the aftermath and offer our stories on what each of us witnessed. The driver was clearly intoxicated and was very lucky he did not hurt anyone during his drunken rampage. There seemed to be an abundance of people who witnessed everything so I bolted before being interviewed.

Brooke came in to town last night from Wisconsin to get her dress fitting done and so the two of us can meet with the flower and cake crew. Tonight we are going out to dinner with the Timex crew to Log Haven where we will be getting married this coming September so that will be fun!
Thanks for reading.

Yesterday was the first day of the show and traffic was better than expected for Timex and other vendors that I spoke with, so spirits are up in Salt Lake City.

Dean Karnazes was at our booth in the morning signing some of his books and talking with a few of our retailers and was followed up by Conrad Anker who spent two hours in our booth.
I saw some of our Timex Multisport Team sponsors yesterday, Vinu Malik from Fuel Belt, Alan Romick from Headsweats and Talia Herman made a guest appearance in the Spenco booth. Great to see all of you.

The best surprise guest for me was seeing my brother Greg yesterday for the first time in almost two years. He is working with a fly-fishing specialty company out of Montana called Simms Fishing.

Retailers sniffing at the latest offerings from Timex packed our booth back to back with individual meetings and frequent fly by’s from potential new accounts. The new Expedition Tide and temp E compass is getting some serious lookers and the new line of heart rate monitors also seem to find some serious time in the limelight.

So, I managed to pull off what I call the “Mexican Trifecta.” This term is applied when one ingests Mexican food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, chicken burrito for lunch and Chili Verde enchiladas for dinner. The lunch time burrito was nothing to write home about but certainly beat the pre packed turkey sandwiches that cost $8.50 at the show cafeteria though!

After dinner we peeked around the corner to see if The Flock of Seagulls were still playing at the industry party but the big hair mullets were no where to be seen or heard.

Tonight is stage 4 in the Tour of Utah cycling race and consists of a criterium that goes around the Delta Center only one block away from the OR show and two blocks from my hotel so that’s where I’ll be tonight! I think the Health Net boys are in the lead over the Toyota United pro team but the race isn’t over ‘till it’s over!

We’re missing some staff here unfortunately because of the recent terror threats that has put a few of the major airports into lock down mode. Fortunately it’s smooth sailing at the airport here in Salt Lake City.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but I need to download a different browser to do so.

Thanks for reading!

My body is slowly getting adjusted to the time zone change here and allowed me to grab and extra hour and a half today versus yesterday’s 4am wake up call so I’ll have to keep today’s report short.
I spent yesterday morning getting our booth prepped for the grand opening that takes place today at 9am. No major issues to report yesterday during set up so I feel pretty good going in to the festivities that lie ahead.

I finished up at 1:30pm and quickly ran back to the hotel to help with set up for a pre show sales meeting with our 30 field representatives. Dan McKee, Tom Weth and David Schlissel each spoke about new product offerings and marketing strategies within each of the brands that they manage. My favorite new product has to be our line of heart rate monitors that Tom has been working on that will blow the doors off the competition. They look awesome, are loaded with a ton of features and are priced great!

The meeting was capped off by a visit from Dean Karnazes who will be running 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 different states starting September 17th in Missouri. For more information on the Endurance 50, you can visit the website at www.endurance50.com. Dean was kind enough to stick around and personally sign one of his books for each of the sales reps in attendance. Dean will also be at our booth this morning for a few hours to sign books for anyone at the show.

Once the show wrapped up, I was invited to an intimate dinner with Conrad Anker and a few of my Timex co-workers. Conrad is one of the most respected alpinists ever to grace the snowy caps of many of the world’s highest peaks. In 1999, Anker was part of an expedition on Mt Everest when he discovered the body of George Mallory whose story has been put in to print and also produced into a movie. Aside from being well known across the globe, Conrad is a spokesperson for Timex Expedition line and is a very humble and great person.

That’s all for now, day one of the show is only a few ticks away.

Oh…still no burrito…

I arrived yesterday in Salt Lake City, UT for the 25th year for the Summer Outdoor Retailer show where thousands of outdoor industry companies are here to showcase their new products to eager retailers from around the country. This is the main stage for Timex’s line of outdoor and sports watches including Expedition and the Ironman line.

As the Manager of Events and Sponsorships, I am responsible for overseeing every operation that goes in to making our show happen from the overall look and setup of the booth to staff shirts. Luckily we have an outside vendor that handled all of our shipping and actual booth set up for this show so my main task is to make sure everything is here and in one piece and be ready to handle any issues that may arise.

Yesterday when I arrived, I went down to the show and met Jamie with Access who is handling our booth set up and interrupted him while he was gluing back together one of our video/watch display towers that had been damaged in shipping. I said to Jamie, “If that’s the worst thing that we have to deal with for the entire show, then I’ll take it”.

If you have ever worked a trade show or any type of off site event, you will know that no matter how prepared you are, something is always bound to go wrong so it comes down to a matter of how good you are at making it work.

So far, Salt Lake seems to be a pretty quiet city and shows very little signs that they hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. The town sits at around 4,000 feet and the views of the mountains are breathtaking. Yesterday I strolled by Temple Square in the heart of downtown, which is home to the Tabernacle Choir, the Salt Lake Temple and lush and lavish gardens. If you are ever in Salt Lake you need to take a tour, it’s beautiful!

Down to the front desk I go where 18 boxes are waiting for me to transport to the convention center to put my finishing touches on the booth and get ready for the first day of the show tomorrow.

(PS, no burrito yet but I’m scoping out the scene!)

Since my first day here at Timex on June 12th, I have eaten lunch in our cafeteria everyday. Thankfully our chef can roll a pretty mean burrito.

Yesterday Gary, David, Mike and I decided to fly the coop and try out Senior Pancho’s in Southbury, CT. My first impression was I felt like I had been here a thousand times before. I’ve been to so many Mexican restaurants in my life that they are all starting to look alike. They all have the rounded archways, pastel painted walls, murals of Mexican landscapes and their national flag hanging from the ceiling.

Most Mexican restaurants also share the same pride in their chips and salsa that somehow always make their way to the table just as you are sitting down. Their salsa was great. Just the right amount of cilantro and not too hot! Chips were warm, crispy and salty…just awesome.

Question: Why don’t restaurants serve sweetened iced tea? You can find the sweetened version in any grocery store or food mart but not in restaurants? I’ve found that using a sugar substitute rather than real sugar will give you that store bought sweetened tea flavor. Anyway…

Then it arrived…it took up half the plate (pictured right; and that’s only half of it). The Sante Fe burrito made my lunch partner’s enchiladas look like hot dogs in a hallway. It is a bright red tomato tortilla filled with grilled veggies, chicken, black beans, rice, lettuce and cheese then topped with a red sauce and a dollop of sour cream.

Senior Pancho’s Sante Fe Burrito definitely made my “Top Ten Ultimate Burrito” list. If you’re ever in the area and if you need someone to show you the way, I would be delighted.

Stay tuned for the “List”

Thanks for reading….