Natural Products Expo West 2005 - Day 2 & 3

Wow! What a couple of days. This show has been amazing. Days 2 & 3 provided even more buzz and excitement than on Day 1. I didn’t have a chance to check-in on Day 2, because our booth at the Natural Products Expo was packed from the beginning of the day until closing. We sponsored free henna tattoos to show attendees in our booth and invited master artist, Wendy Tylka from San Diego, to do the honors. Needless to say there was a waiting list the entire day and Wendy didn’t disappoint. Every tattoo she produced was exquisite and it was clear after the first few tattoos that the word was getting out that Auric Blends had it "goin’ on." From that point on our booth was overflowing with people until they finally turned the lights out and demanded that everyone go home. Near the end of the day Wendy also blessed our booth with the most incredible and beautiful belly dancing display I’ve ever seen. She was truly a master and as mentioned above, our booth was genuinely blessed by her presence. People left our booth with scent of Egyptian Goddess on their skin and the spirit of Auric Blends in their heart.

On the business side (it was a tradeshow after all) of things we spent both days meeting new and old customers and catching up with old friends and business partners. We saw just about every current retailer of Auric Blends’ products in Southern California. All of the great folks from the various Whole Foods
Stores were there, as were many of the people from Henry’s Markets, who by the way, is one of Auric Blends’ original customers in the natural products industry. We also saw all of the wonderful independent retailers who stock and sell Auric Blends products on the West Coast. Many of these stores also provided some of the original building blocks of our business activity with health food stores. We owe a lot to these people and its great to see them at the show so we can look them in the eye and tell them how much we appreciate their business.

So what can I say but what a weekend! Last night I also got to spend a few hours at Disneyland with my family, so its safe to say "I’m spent" and more than ready to go home.

Natural Products Expo West 2005

Well, here I am in Anaheim, California for the 2005 Natural Products Expo West, the annual West Coast gathering of all the players in the Natural Products industry. I work for Auric Blends (www.auricblends.com), arguably the leading US brand of hand-crafted bulk incense and oil-based perfume products. We're exhibiting at the Expo for the first time in 4 years so its exciting to be here to see all of our customers, as well as the people who drive many of our sales and distribution efforts. Its also great to be here to see the incredible array of products that comprise this huge multi-billion dollar industry. With nearly a quarter-million square feet of exhibit space and over 2400 exhibitors there's no doubt this show is "the" show to be at if you're buying or selling anything that's remotely close to a natural product.

Day 1 of the show didn't disappoint. The show floor was packed all day for the most part and there was a distinct and palpable buzz in the exhibit hall. This show creates that buzz better than any other I've ever been to. People seem genuinely excited to be at Expo West. I think its something that most people truly look forward to all year, and when they get here they're usually brimming with energy and anticipation. The Auric Blends booth was busy almost the entire day as we sampled out hundreds of bottles of our world-famous Egyptian Goddess (www.auricblends.com/egyptiangoddess.html) perfume oil. I'm still astonished at how people respond to this fragrance and how quickly it wins them over. I started working in the fragrance industry over 13 years ago and I've never seen a scent capture women's imagination and hearts like Egyptian Goddess.

I didn't get around much at the show today because our booth was so busy and I don't like missing any of the action. :-) Tomorrow will no doubt be busy at our booth again as we're sponsoring free Henna tattoos by a local and noted Henna Tattoo artist. Should be good...