2010 PGA Merchandise Show

Sunday night I got back from the 57th PGA Merchandise show in Orlando, FL. Part of my job is to attend the two trade shows that the PGA puts on each year. In September I went with Jane, President of Daphne's to Las Vegas for the Fall show. It is amazing how small that show is compared to the Orlando show put on each January. What is even more amazing is that from what I was told (since this was my first time attending) that it was even bigger years ago then what it is now!
I arrived Tuesday evening and after meeting up with Jane and going for a quick workout in the gym, met up with my friend Julie! Julie and I played golf together at Mizzou and she is a buyer for a club in St. Louis so she was attending the show for the week too. So fun to get to hang out with her and catch up! Wednesday I spent the first half of the day setting up the booth with Jane. We then had lunch and actually went to the gym at the hotel again and had a great workout prior to showering and then meeting Jim (another regional account manager I work with) and our German distributor for dinner. Thursday, Friday and Saturday we met at 6:30am for breakfast, walked over to the convention center and got ready for the show to start at 8:30am. We then worked the booth until 6:00pm. Then we closed up and went to dinner where we always had good wine and lots of laughs!
Saturday Jane left to catch a flight home and Jim and I stayed to break down the booth. I thought this would not take long...3 1/2 hours later we were ready to head to dinner. (Good thing the show ended at 3pm on Saturday and not 6!) We went to dinner with Mark, my field sales rep in Florida, and Corola, our German dirtibutor. After a fun dinner we went to a bar down the street called the ice bar. They have a room that is kept below freezing and everything in there is made of ice. You get a coat and gloves before you go in and then you enter the frozen tundra! The bar is made of ice, the glass you get your drinks in is made of ice..basically everything. We were hysterical laughing and taking pictures and enjoying some mighty fine drinks in there too! It was one of the highlights of the entire trip!
All in all, it was a great trip, a lot of work but a lot of fun!


Our booth just before the show began
Mark (my field sales rep in Florida), Jim and I during the show
Jane, President of Daphne's and Dottie Pepper, LPGA player and NBC analyst
NBC filming a commercial at the Daphne's booth(it is suppose to air in March before a tournament)
Jim, Mark and I at the icebar in Orlando

Jim by the fire in the icebar
Me in the big ice chair