Travel log: Florida, part II

Downtime is rare when we travel. There are usually meetings, appointments, and things to be done-so when I had a few hours of downtime I decided to take advantage of it.

After all, I had been putting out fires all morning and was even mistaken for hotel staff. I deserved to blow off a little bit of steam. I took my book and my drink and headed down to the pool area to catch some sun. The pool area was beautiful and coming from sub-zero temps at home the warm sum felt nice.

There was ambient noise of waterfalls and chit chat under some music, and I just took it all in. Granted I probably looked a little strange sitting on a lounge chair in work clothes rather than the beach attire everyone else had on, but I didn't care. I just kicked off my shoes and enjoyed the sun.



Thursday was just the opposite. We had zero downtime as the trade show kicked off. Before the wave of people the booth had to be prepared. We had to put the pieces together because believe it or not, trade show booths do not just magically appear. (Unless of course you are a huge company that pay minions to do that for you for about $400 per hour union wages). We put ours up ourselves - or at least I put it up.

Once the booth was ready to go it was time to welcome the media. This is a special time set aside for media appointments, but we are media so we take the opportunity to chat with some of our other media friends and a few clients before everyone else arrives. Before the waves of people it was time to grab a boxed lunch, or in this case a gift-bagged lunch. We had a chicken wraps in our bags and after woofing them down like a bunch of teachers we went back to the booth to greet the many farmers who are in attendance from across the country.

This year we brought with us left over All Aboard Wheat Harvest t-shirts, some hats, bumper stickers and gloves. We rolled all these items up in little "giveaway bundles" and handed them out. We started with five boxes, or about 200 bundles. They lasted all of 16 minutes. We were out of giveaways before the show even started, but the silver lining is not having to ship them home and we have room for the next shipment of shirts coming this summer. And, we have some great free advertising walking around the show, resort, and probably a few airports.

Once the show ended we headed out to the Sand Bar for a NAMA event before heading out to dinner with the folks from the Sorghum Checkoff, who are always fun. This Kansas girl enjoyed fresh fish, and the best caesar salad I've ever consumed.

All in all - it was a successful (but busy) day in the Sunshine State.