Where Have I been?

It has been an exciting time in my personal and corporate lives (sometimes it is hard to tell them apart – just ask my wife).

I have been doing a great deal of travelling over the summer – from the mundane to the exotic. Chicago, New York and Lexington, KY on the business side and London, Spain, Casablanca, France and Italy of the working vacation side.

New York was New York. It’s a wonderful city to visit and provides a great potential for business (both past and future) with the extended value of housing Wall St. The expo I attended was more of a boutique trade show focusing on direct marketing and although always an interesting expo, it does not produce a great deal of business. The prime reason for the NY visit was to meet with existing contacts and to let the financial market have one more glance at me before I hibernate in our Florida offices for the winter.

Chicago was decidedly more interesting. It is much more hospitable and has the added benefits of Chicago Hot Dogs and Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. In other words, it is a delight to a my gourmand palate.

The trade show was the largest venue for the Motivation Industry and all of the companies listed on the gift card section of the BSP Rewards Malls were there. I am not sure that it was such a great show for the exhibitors but it was excellent for us. There were substantially fewer attendees this year and even booth spaces that were paid for in advance by some of the companies remained empty. The economy strikes again!

On the other hand, our vendors had more time that they could spend with me and were more motivated to work with us on special promotions and greater discounts. We were welcomed more warmly than last year – but that was probably because of increased purchase volume we are attaining with them – you think?

The European and Mediterranean vacation was sandwiched in-between the two trade shows and frankly, I loved it. I was celebrating my 50th (yep) anniversary and my wife decided that she deserved a major vacation. The only caveat was that I could take my world BlackBerry and be on the hotel and ship’s provided computers for one hour in the morning and one hour at night. I have got a great wife who understood I wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy myself for that length of time if I wasn’t able to be in contact with the office and clients.

So, I am back and rejuvenated and working on some interesting “stuff” right now so look for some interesting news in my next blog.

Until later….