By Boyd Barnett
This past weekend, I had the pleasure to attend the Buckmasters Expo 2011 in Montgomery, AL. I was there to help work the Moultrie booth in conjunction with Walter Craig's Sportsmen's Headquarters. We arrived on Thursday afternoon to find the our good friend, Rich Miller, had everything set up for us (and for that we are much appreciative, sir!).
We were also there with the guys from Summit Treestands and Knight & Hale game calls. Together, we created a large block of Pradco products and were very lucky in our booth locations. I say "lucky", because we were on a crossing aisle which allowed folks to comfortably visit with us without being shoved along by the masses of humanity on the maiin aisles.
Buckmasters was my second consumer show since coming to Moultrie; the first was the World Deer Expo in Birmingham just a few weeks ago. While the square footage in Montgomery was about half of what was in Birmingham, the crowds seemed just as big...if not bigger! The lastest number I heard about the attendance on Saturday at Buckmasters was over 40,000!
Thankfully, we had a couple of friends help us in the Moultrie booth - Justin Martin of "The Season" and prostaffer Mark Brenner. If I didn't tell you guys enough...thank you so much for your help! While Mark, Justin and I worked one table, Beth and Sarah, our awesome cashier, handled the other table. With the combination of two good-looking ladies at the other table, we guys were left alone most of the day! Haha!
Through all of our efforts (and in no small part to the efforts of Walter Craig and its employees), we had an outstanding show! We sold out of M-80's before lunch on Saturday, and D-55IR's not much later. They had to go back to the store twice to bring us more cameras! If there was still any question, it was answered loudly last weekend – people love the Mini Cams! We sold out of everything they gave us to sell over the weekend; from cameras and viewers to feeders, everything found a new home before the doors shut on Sunday.
Perhaps the best part of the whole experience was being able to meet and talk with so many of our customers. Customers is not really the right word..."friends" would be a much better description. We had a blast talking game cameras, hunting and just chatting over the course of the show. If you were able to come by and see us, thank you so much for all the kind words and great stories you shared with us.
With such a huge crowd at the Expo (I'm pretty sure the archery competition and Swamp People had something to do with that!), the times just before the doors opened were a lot of fun for us exhibitors. I was able to walk around and see the whole show with only a few other folks around. Being able to do this also allowed me the opportunity to meet and talk with several other exhibitors. We met some good people both in the aisles and behind the other booths.
Our next show, ATA, is not for a few months, and by that time Christmas will have come and gone and we will be starting a new year. If anyone is in the neighborhood, stop by the ATA Trade Show in Columbus, Ohio, and say hello. Who knows what new stories there will be to tell by then!
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