The first day of the 2011 ASD Show in Las Vegas was thronged, and exhibitor reaction has ranged from satisfied to ecstatic. Mike Beyer of Drink-A-Lyzer is a first-time exhibitor at the ASD Show, launching a new pocket breathalyzer product. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of traffic,” he says. “We brought in 20,000 pieces for this show, and we sold all 20,000 pieces on the first day of the show. We’ve actually oversold.”
ASD group marketing director, Camille Candella, was not quite that enthusiastic. “It’s hard to comment on traffic before the show is over,” she says. “I will say that pre-registration was up 15 percent, which for a show our size is significant.”
Even so, Candella was upbeat, despite her caveats. She was careful to note that any analysis was premature, since she was talking at the end of only the first day. “But it is looking very full,” she says. “It’s looking busy. It’s happening, people are doing business, they’re upbeat, and that’s a very good sign. Traffic flow is good.”
Others exhibitors agree. Buddy Messer of Sun Stuff is selling licensed merchandise, such as tee shirts, with the old Sun Records brand. He’s pleased with how the show is going. “It’s been good,” he says. “We’ve met a lot of people, we’ve got people noticing us, and that’s what we want.”
John Hansen III says that his toy company, John Hansen Co., is back at the ASD Show after a long hiatus. “We actually used to show here about 20 years ago, and we decided to come back this year,” he says. “We heard it’s a good show with a lot of foot traffic, which we’ve seen so far.”