IPCPR 2015: Day 2 Recap

Hi, I’m Brian. I actually slept last night. Here’s my thoughts on the show so far.

1. The rectangle shape of the show floor seems to cause the retailers to come in waves. Working on the extreme ends of the show floor the first two days, those parts of the show floor that were busy the first day were empty the next. It was a very interesting phenomenon that you didn’t see at the more square and broken up show floors of years past.
2. Each show has a different feel to it, especially depending on the location. This will be my fourth year, with Orlando 2012 being my first year. It was a very interesting location, as the convention center, hotels and event locations were so spread out that nobody was near each other. Unless you made plans to see people, you ran into very few people over the course of the evening after the show. In Las Vegas, you couldn’t walk two feet without running into somebody and striking up a conversation. This usually made it difficult to make your way back to your room and as such, the nights were quite late. This year, it’s an interesting mix of the two. Most places are within walking distance of sorts, so you’re still seeing people, however at a much slower rate than Vegas.
3. The weather — an easy topic to bring up in conversation, but the particular thing people are constantly bringing up is the extreme humidity. Vegas is hot, easily reaching over 100 degrees during the day, however, the humidity here causes it to be even more miserable. If you sweat a lot and are worried about drenching your clothes, don’t worry too much, because everybody else is too.
4. FDA legislation was the talk of the show last year. This year I’ve only heard two people mention it, and they were both during speeches at events. I’m sure it’s still on people’s minds—we’ve talked about it plenty among ourselves—however the dangerous air of doom around the show seems to be gone. I’m not sure if people are just trying not to think about it because it’s so depressing, but if that’s not it I think the worst thing we can do is assume that after signing a petition, we’ve done all we can and forget about it.