PCA 2022: Day 1 Recap

As Charlie mentioned in his Day 0 Recap yesterday, you’ll be getting one of these blogs from each of the remaining writers, with the first day’s recap of the 2022 PCA Convention and Trade Show being handled by myself. As somebody that is apparently bad at math, and anniversaries — though thankfully at least, not in the context of my marriage — I thought that this was the ninth trade show that I had covered with the halfwheel crew, but it is in fact the 10th.

After having done this for a decade, I still sometimes feel out of place, since I’m not nearly as involved in the day-to-day business as Charlie, Brooks, and Patrick are. However, once I get out on the floor for day one, I quickly remember that I’ve built up relationships with a large number of wonderful people in this industry, and the process of covering the show once again fits like an old shoe. Enough about that though. This is supposed to be about the show and not myself, so here are some ruminations on the first eight hours of PCA 2022.

1. Attendance Attendance Attendance — This topic is always what people want my perspective on, and I guess I can understand that. If I was limited to having to hold down the fort all day long, I would have very little idea of what was happening outside of my immediate area. If an explorer of sorts came through my deserted island I would certainly want to know what was happening in the world beyond my horizon, as do many of the manufacturers who are stuck at their individual booths all day. So this year I could safely say day one at least felt different. Was it because there were actually more people in attendance? Perhaps. Charlie noted yesterday that international attendance is back, so that in and of itself would suggest there were more people at the show. However, just seeing or feeling how crowded it is can be misleading, as so many factors can play into that. Is the booth layout making a wider or more narrow aisle, thus creating the illusion of more people or fewer people? Did you just happen to be in the area of the trade show where a lot of attendees congregated? Was I assigned a more popular booth that was packed all day, no matter what the actual attendance numbers are? That’s the problem with feeling these numbers. It’s not really an accurate barometer; however, I do like to turn around and ask the manufacturers how their show has been so far. So far the responses to that question have been positive, and for their sake, I am happy that the show is at least busy from that perspective.
2. The Show Does Feel Different, Or Perhaps More Normal — When the 2020 show didn’t happen because of COVID-19, the people who did attend the 2021 show were all just happy to be there. Yes, it was a smaller number of both manufacturers and retailers, but the fact that people were back at the show, seeing old friends and business associates, made them so happy they didn’t seem to care about the fact that it was a reduced show in many respects. This year actually does seem like we’re back to the years of old, though. Last year, I stated that people were here to do business. This year, people are here to do business, reconnect, smoke cigars, probably party some, and in general do what used to be done during a week of being in Vegas. The hotel bar at night is a pretty good indication: you once again have to wade through a veritable sea of cigar-smoking individuals while simultaneously parting the curtain of cigar smoke to even see what lies ahead. I haven’t seen crowds like that since the Circle Bar was a thing — which was quite a number of years ago.
3. Are Big Booths Back? — On day one, I do walkthrough videos of all the booths we think need something more than just photographs, so while some of my cohorts might stick to one area of the show floor to maximize their coverage efficiency, by the end of the day I’ve walked the entire show floor. Last year I noted that booths weren’t necessarily smaller in the sense of square footage, but smaller booth structures. This year some booth spaces look the same, but others have returned to a bigger is better mantra. This year there are definitely more walls, towers, and video billboards. Sure, some manufacturers have stuck with their minimalistic approach, but while there is no right or wrong answer, it does appear we’re slightly back in the direction of what the show floor used to look like.