2018 ICAST Is a Wrap

The 2018 ICAST trade show that is held annually at the Orlando Orange County Convention Center was another great success.   As with any large event like this many of the brand sales and marketing staff, who man the booths come and go. All my contacts from past years are now all gone.  A relationship like these enables media bloke like myself to get a different prospective on new products being present at the show. 

This year, with out any contacts, I had to sort of freelance the show trying to get the attention of booth staff.  Most of the time, unless you are a little pushy, which I am not, you cannot get the attention of booth sales and marketing staff. This is especially true at the major brand booths.  In addition, because booth staff are there to make sales, I never take up their time away from making sales.  This year as I walked the floor I spent my time with small brands where booth traffic was not as hectic as with major brands.  I did have one fun experience at the show.  Here is a little background on my fun.  About five years ago, when  one of my contacts gave me a fly rod to donate to the Jacksonville Kayak Classic, it was won by Jason Schall.

Jason is an amazing angler from Charleston, SC. He has caught over 600 different species of fish. Jason is a two time winner of the IGFA Chester H. Wolfe Outstanding Sportsmanship Award. He won in 2014 and 2018. Jason is also a member of sport fishing whose who. He is on the pro staff of many brands and spends his time promoting sport fishing. I always like to hook up with him at ICAST. Well this year as I walked the show floor after meeting him and his wife early on, I kept crossing his path all day long.  I was able to snap a few photos of Jason and Jennifer. Always fun to see Jason at ICAST.

ICAST is made up of one fishing tournament day, one demo day on the water behind the convention center and three show days. This makes ICAST a week long event.  In the past I always spent two days at the show. But this year I only s pent one day.  Even with one day it was a fun filled experience.  I will b e posting my show video and a few small brand articles to my blog over the next few weeks.

So until next year, be safe in the sun and have a great day in the great out doors.