I’m the new guy at Backbone, or at least I was this summer. I hope that title has begun to fade by now but even with a few months under my belt, there was still one rite of passage that I hadn’t yet experienced: trade show season.

I had heard the terms “OR” and “SIA” thrown around the office but to be honest, I really had no idea what they were all about. Until a colleague asked me if I had made any appointments, I hadn’t really paid attention. But, after two plus weeks on the road and attending the OR Winter Market in SLC and SIA Snow Show in Denver, it’s safe to say I survived and have more than a few new experiences to share.

Venues: Both the Salt Palace in SLC and the Colorado Convention Center in Denver are HUGE! Walking into these gargantuan convention centers to see hundreds of companies displaying their new products is overwhelming to say the least. I was glad that I arrived on the first day with a colleague who could show me where to go. If not, I would have wandered for hours. Even after getting to know my way around, entering the building before sunrise and leaving after dark reminded me of the time vortex that Las Vegas is known to create.

New Products: There are lots of great companies making really innovative gear these days. I’m obviously biased and think that Gregory Mountain Products and La Sportiva make the best products because I’m representing them and know their products best. But the reality is that the outdoor industry is growing and lots of companies are making cool stuff. I walked by the booths of numerous name brands that we all know and love and also lots of companies that I’d never heard of before.

Trends: Before starting work at Backbone, I thought that a jacket was a jacket and a backpack was a backpack. I naively thought that the differences between products were limited to colors, basic materials, and brand names. Boy, was I wrong! Outdoor products have thousands of hours poured into their design and the amount of technical detail in them is staggering. The challenge and opportunity for every brand is to figure out how to clearly stake out the product details that separate them from the competition and then clearly describe that to their customers. Some are clearly doing a better job of that than others.

Media: For me, the trade shows were all about getting to know the media that I had never met in person. While I’ve been fortunate enough to work with lots of great writers via the phone and e-mail, nothing replaces time spent in person. Every half-hour, I met and chatted with writers who I only knew by name. Some matched my non-introduced impressions perfectly, while others were very different than I had envisioned. It was great to meet so many writers and learn first-hand what their passions are.

Food and Drink: It’s a good thing that I enjoy food and can hold my liquor because there is no shortage of either at trade shows. From lunches on the show floor to media dinners at fancy restaurants, and endless late night cocktails, there is no shortage of opportunities to indulge. My strategy was to not go overboard so that I would avoid the inevitable hangover or food coma, which I think paid off, but it would have been really easy to overdo it.

In the end, the time away from home was well worth it as I got my feet wet at my first trade shows. I met lots of great people, pitched lots of great new products, witnessed what some of the top brands in the industry are up to, and generally had a good time. Best of all, I checked another rookie landmark off the list…