What a great trip to The Great Salt Lake City area and what a wonderful/busy show the Wasatch Intermountain Fly Fishing Expo 2023 was!!
As I need help at my vendor booth every now and then I enlisted my family!
We split the trip on the way and stayed in Idaho Falls. Under the nice spring weather, we enjoyed a small hike, ice cream, and Thai & Vietnamese cuisine.
Next day, expecting another pleasant drive to SLC, I started to load our stuffs back to my truck. As I opened the door to the parking lot, I was like WHAT IN THE............???
We knew Montana was expecting another winter weather but hoped we would be out of the range.......... We were wrong. Idaho Falls seemed just the edge of the snow storm. I guess Montanans can never get away from snow!!
Roads were not bad at all except it was hard to adjust my mental conditions and visions from a sunny pleasant drive to a gloomy mood and a cloudy condition. But we made it to the SLC area, Sandy, exact.
Leaving my crew in the hotel, who required some rest hours, I started to set up the booth. This time I made quite an upgrade and improvement from the last year. Last year, it was simply the first time for me to run a booth. Though I've been used to interact with people (including sales pitches!), I noticed some improvements had to be done for the future. Things and my new items did work just as I expected.
Banquette was enjoyable and scrumptious!!
I donated a Livingston guide trip to the expo.
Team photo! Our #2 was in her beauty sleep that we didn't bother!
Friday was just average busy as it was still a weekday. Yet fair numbers of folks visited my booth. I like the expo hours were set from 10am to 7pm on Friday. I had time to visit other vendors and fly tyers, some of whom I have known through the previous expos and become good friends. Then as expected, during the late afternoon hours, the venue became noisy with audiene.
Saturday became really busy! I had a workshop regarding "how to fish the Yellowstone Drainage after the flood". I had a great group of students who were eager to listen and learn. Booth visits were great too. Oftentimes we talked about topics other than fly-fishing. To me, that's all about the expos and interactions there.
We had a good dinner to celebrate the end of the expo and the next day we drove all the way to Livingston. This time weather was pleasant all the way and NO SNOW welcomed us at our house.
As much as it was successful and enjoyable, I have noted a few more improvements and what I would prepare for the future. I hope to be invited again!