So my job during the Cosmoprof show was to man the booth whenever John and Stephanie were in appointments outside of the booth. I’m not sure how effective I really was at this job. My usefulness was probably used up during setup. I do not speak a lick of Italian or any other language than English for that matter. The first time they left me alone, I was super nervous. I was watching the workers hanging up our signs when the representative from Bodyography stopped by and startled me. In my mind, I was ready to tell the guys hanging up the signs “thank you” or “gratzi” in Italian. When the guy from Bodyography tapped my shoulder, I turned right around and said “GRATZI” to him!! Totally the wrong greeting. How embarrassing. I seriously thought about it for days after. Duh.
Our booth was located on the very edge of the US Pavilion and the Greek pavilion was directly in front of us. In the pathway directly in front of us, they had really thick cords hidden underneath the carpet. Definitely not safe in US standards. It became quite interesting to watch everyone deep in conversation trip over those cords. Seriously. But, I digress…
The show was really great thanks to Stephanie. She worked so hard planning and marketing our brand. We had so many great appointments, and it has been really great to see how the relationships we made there are developing. On the second to last day, I was able to head over to the manufacturing pavilion. I had an appointment with Faber Castell to view their pencil collections and planned to be gone from the booth for an hour or so. But, once I got there, it was a different story. I got lost in all of the booths viewing the latest and greatest in cosmetics. Product development is so much fun!!! I really felt my blood move quicker the second I stepped foot where I was comfortable. I was able to meet several new manufacturers and hope that we can create some great things together in the near future.
On the last day of the show, we got to sell the leftover product in our booths to cosmetology students and the open public. Just as we got setup, Stephanie and John had to leave to an appointment. As soon as they left, a swarm of Italians came to buy and I literally just stared at them. I could not communicate at all. I felt so inadequate. It had been about 20 mins of torture when one of my Italian manufacturer reps stopped by our booth. He immediately took in the situation and translated for me. Thank you, Marco! I owe youJ.
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