HERD in the aisles – Day 1 chuckles from Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2007

We’re baaaack. The SNEWS® editors were extended an invitation by the OR Daily publishing team of Bicycle Retailer to continue with our somewhat irreverent potpourri of trade show gossip, innuendo and “heard in the shadows” kind of fodder each day from the trade show floor. Each day, our herd, which grew in size tenfold by the end of the Winter Market 07, will be sending photos and tidbits by Treo, Blackberry, hand-scrawled notes tossed over booth walls and more. With that in mind, we bring you musings from the Open Air and exhibitor set-up.

>> Yes, we all know move-in can be stressful, but do we need union guys adding to the chaos? We think not. Yet on Wednesday morning, there we were, standing next to a crew from JanSport, trying to drive in a vintage VW bus to display in the booth , except the aisle was blocked by an abandoned cherry picker. Five minutes go by and the driver arrives – he was on break (apparently in the union he’s from, you block everyone else from doing their jobs while you are on break). The cherry picker then proceeded to, in colorful language, tell the JanSport crew that he was not moving for anyone, making his point by closing the argument with, “Are you union? No? Then f*&% off.” The supervisor was found in short order who told the cherry picking idiot to let the VW by…which he did. And unions wonder why they have such a bad rap?

>> What do you do when you’re ready to set up, but your booth is currently buried on the other side of the convention center hallways, in someone else’s booth space by mistake? If you’re Rod Helland of ARS Business Solutions, you sit on the carpet, looking somewhat lonely, and make the best of the situation until your booth actually does arrive – late in the afternoon it was rumored.

>> On the bus heading out to the Open Air Demo, one of our Herd crew overheard a woman talking to a gentleman sitting across the aisle about housing. Apparently, he was looking for a house to buy and, they discovered they both lived up in the great Northeast. The discussion got very involved — price, square feet, just put in new plumbing, roof may need work. It was essentially a selling of the house next door to her’s. He’ll be contacting the realtor. Who says this isn’t a buying show?

>> In the “too good to be true” category, we bring you the photo to the right taken by one of our many HERD volunteers during Day 1 of the Open Air Demo at Pineview Reservoir near Ogden, Utah. Who says Outdoor Retailer Summer Market doesn’t have clout.

>> So you think you’re tough? We’re betting not many are as hard core as Tom Strauss, owner of Emotion Kayak. Tuesday, July 31, Strauss was screaming downhill on his mountain bike when his front wheel buried itself into a ditch and he went airborne over the handlebars and, as he puts it, “flew a long way upside down.” The impact broke his scapula in five places, broke his top rib, damaged all the ligaments in his ribs and bruised his lung along with other assorted less serious injuries. After walking out for an hour and a half to the trailhead (he passed out several times on the way) he was evacuated to a hospital where he was on a morphine drip for 14 hours. Oh…and he’s now here at the show, working his booth. Stop by and say hi. You’ll get a broad smile as usual, but go easy on the hugs.

Our Herd is always standing by for your humorous, ridiculous, off-beat, whacky, and most certainly irreverent tips and emails (photos are absolutely encouraged) to add to our popular The HERD SNEWS® Chat postings. And “shhhhhhh,” your secret is safe with us. Sources are never revealed, naturally. Send an email to the SNEWS® HERD team with all the nifty details at Herd@snewsnet.com.