Even if you own several vintage, classic, or race cars you will want a new car after attending this year’s SEMA (automotive aftermarket) trade show.  I have to say it was WAY BEYOND the CES type trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Imagine massive huge warehouses and the outdoor parking lots FULL OF CARS, TRUCKS AND ACCESSORIES!  Several folks mentioned that it was bigger, better, and more organized than other local trade shows they had attended.  I met lots of car fans as we bonded in the long lines for freebies. In typical trade show fashion – if there is a LINE at a booth- just buck up and wait or you will have FOMO (fear of missing out.). I actually got some really cool stuff – two silk screened t-shirts and a hat.  I could have had some free motor oil but did not want to carry it home along with my TONS OF FREE BAGS that I use for hauling groceries.  By the way, if you are looking for hunky, tall, muscular guys with tattoos, you have come to right place.  Or perhaps you are looking for a gorgeous gal dolled up in racing spanks (how do they spray those things on?) who is really a paid model.  

I need to spend another three days looking at the incredible line up of cars, meeting celebrity race car drivers and fix-it specialists, but I can’t.  My feet hurt after logging over 15,000 steps!  On another note – can I paint my new car that SAHARA color for 2019 that Axalta unveiled?  Check out a few photos from Kakofanny and the BEAUTIFUL paint jobs on BEAUTIFUL cars and trucks.  For details and photos from the show check out the SEMA website sema.org

This guy makes boat and car capsules, dust and dirt free storage

New products, they had a happy hour at 4

my new dude in the Vegas outfit

another Giovanna car – Rolls Royce!

nice clean engine

my favorite Ford Dragon Snake race car

of course you can buy a new Ford

fun image of one of the BIG TRUCKS

Now this is my dream car

loved his outfit. check him out on insta: @Masterali477

partial list of companies

red red red

everyone was looking at this new Bronco

my brother in law sells Amsoil in Texas…

the artists at PPG

favorite blue paint job

my color combo turquoise and orange

you too can buy this car!

new product line

more sports cars

Beautiful models and they were so nice!

liked this car

I think that is a motor?

love this blue paint job

I never got his autograph the line was too long! Got a cool hat from free swag machine

this guy was talented

PPG painted motorcycle

GOLDBERG was in the house!

green goblin and lots of accessories for who knows what

fast cars all around me

super hero car of course!

More models, she was very popular!

What did I tell ya?

just one more cool paint job

Live silkscreening, but you gotta wait in line…

got his autograph!

Kathy and Ralph Holguin, Star of RMD Garage

liked the Bee and women racers…

Kakofanny Productions!

Forget that silly Keto diet with all those restrictions…

I felt like Charlie wandering through the chocolate factory with Willy Wonka at last week’s IBIE trade show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  Imagine all of these people under one huge roof dedicated to baking us breads, pies, cookies, donuts and did I mention CAKES????  My eyes popped out of my head looking at the beautiful displays of rainbow sprinkles, icing, fondant, and very large stainless steel baking equipment.  I really tried to understand the dynamics of the assembly line bread makers, gigantic mixers, and ovens but I was mainly in awe of how the heck they got the stuff into the building!  They even had extra large baking vans and trucks to check out.  I think I was most impressed with the SAMPLES – from a company named Dawn especially – check out my photos of their incredible baked goodies.  Yes, I will be on a KETO diet next week after my body comes down from the sugar high – especially from the GARBAGE COOKIES.  Don’t worry I got the recipe and promised to make them and ship them to my out of state friends and family.  I put captions under the photos to try to explain what you are looking at. What a great exposition for these serious world wide bakers!

The Pillsbury Cake Competition

They actually let you eat all of the pie samples at Rocky Mountain Pies!

Yup – Unicorn Gelato – unbelievably delicious

Treats made by Chef Solveig Tofte in a demonstration

Dawn Treats on display, check out the animal cookies!

How do they get this in here?

My nephew in high school needs these cakes! Team 1 Fondant Cake

Why not add raisins to everything?  She gave me samples. Traditional Sun Maid raisins!

Seriously, tons of sprinkles everywhere…

Best Cake ever!

Chocolate with chocolate – YUM ! More Dawn treats, Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies.

Great baking demo from Solveig Tofte

Light up your wedding cake – why not???

Best dressed and cutest display – CHEF RUBBER 

More sprinkles

Watson equipment – I’m impressed…

Greetings from India cake in Pillsbury competition – so beautiful!

BEcom equipment – amazing and HUGE !

Pastry Star natural ingredients 

cupcakes galore and cake balls too!

Gotta love a pizza spinner we always need more pizza.

Team 4 another PROM cake!

More Dawn goodies, did I mention the free samples???

How cute is she?  Solveig Tofte

POF stands for Print on Foods, love this – how fun!!!!

Panoramic Jason – best packaging, check out the Texas container!

Still think this is the BEST idea, a lit wedding cake !!!

Chocolate chocolate chocolate…

HI-speed inline printer – need this for charity bake sales! Print on Foods company

Another one of my favs…and yes I ate one…

Solves the Christmas baking container dilemma !

Huge cupcakes all over the place and FONDANT covered masterpieces…

Andrew Callison – nice guy exhibitor

I am just a huge fan of this DAWN company!!  More chocolate please…

What will these bakers think of next????

I know it is very very hot right now in Vegas, about 107, but it’s a dry heat…ha ha…and the inside of the Convention center is cool cool cool. Today Saralee and I got in our 10,000 steps PLUS and walked about 5 miles of the Affordable Shopping Destination (July 28-31 2019). I could say that it is kind of like a Hallmark Christmas in July show where you can buy tons of merchandise for Christmas, Pot, CBD, or hemp related items, clothing, jewelry, military sabers and knives, and almost anything that you can sell at a swap meet, mall, or 7-11 store.

I love the bright colors of this trade show and also the possibility of adding to my ridiculous collection of costume jewelry.  Since I am only a media “blogger” and not a retail merchant I was bummed that I could not buy all of the cool stuff in the aisles and Saralee walks too fast to stop and bargain for goods!

Here are a few of my favorites:

you got it, cash & carry

clever, clever…wish I had this in college…

oh yes, MORE BONGS!

cool pot signs…

Johnson Hui,one of my favorite jewelry designers. I bought a beautiful necklace and earrings here.

Special Concept 1020

My badge…

Wonderful greeters at ASDmarketweek

More beautiful BONGS!

Great trendy tops from Hem & Thread. I joined the frenzie and ended up with lots of cool clothes.

We learned about using a rewards program for our customers.

scarves for sale…

2019 NAB Show
I was lucky enough to attend this year’s NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show in Las Vegas at the Convention Center April 6-11, 2019. Hello, it was a huge venue with an overwhelming array of technology that required an open mind and sensible shoes…I felt sorry for the ladies dressed up and in heels. They looked great but I know that I covered more acres throughout the NORTH, CENTER, AND SOUTH trade halls in my granny marshmallow flats.
I was thrilled to listen to keynote NAB Distinguished Award-winner Alan Alda. I always have admired him and he was so humble, funny, and told us about his first magic trick performed in front of an audience as a 10 year old. We all used to watch him for years on M*A*S*H and he is still hilarious in person.
After the introduction, I wandered around for hours trying to figure out what the heck these broadcasters do with all of this miraculous technology.
I will list what I hope is important based on my opinion only. I read through the NABSHOW Dailynews for the basics (very helpful, professional publication) and highly recommend that you get all of the back issues from the trade show to see the full story.
1. WHAT IS IP? Many booths had the initials IP on them and once again, I had to google and call my 23 year old son to find out what the heck this means. HMMMMMMM, well it probably means Intellectual Property or Internet Protocol. Both of these definitions are on the internet, so look them up. Either way, it seems to be very important to all of these companies as a way to protect all of our computers, tablets, smart phones, etc. Good luck.
2. Fantastic, unbelievable huge screen TV’s. I think they were 8K screens. I stood there with hoards of attendees staring at the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen of nature, art, hang gliding, colors, etc. It was like Disneyland or that “Soarin’ Around the World” California Adventure ride. I tried to take photos but you can’t capture how amazing these 3-D type screens are. I was kidding when I asked the sales gal – is this available at Best Buy? She said YES! I am not going to tell my dad or husband about this because I know it will show up in my living room next week and then I won’t be able to go to Hawaii for vacation…
3. CAMERAS that capture aerial shots, dancing girls, green screen backgrounds that turn into cars, magical illusions, and other incredible scenes. High tech does not begin to describe these new lenses and robotic arm capabilities. I even saw a fake dog with a helmet camera for that all important “dog eye’s view” of life. I can just imagine our dog Fritz chasing squirrels in the park with this camera on his head. I wanted to order one to replace my son’s GOPRO camera but you have to order it online and it costs about $450. Very cool camera though from Insta360.
4. Great Speakers and Seminars. I tried to hit as many speakers as possible, but it was a bit overwhelming. I loved seeing the White House reporters speak on the second morning of the show. I waited after to meet Hallie Jackson, White House NBC News Chief, to thank her for her remarks. All four speakers gave me an idea of their press conference strategies which helped me to understand what the heck they go through on a daily basis at Trump’s White House. I was cracking up when Steven Portnoy, CBS Radio Chief said that Trump tends to give press conferences during the really loud helicopter pre-take off so he can avoid questions he doesn’t like by saying “I can’t hear you!” Hallie also said that they really try hard not to be “snarky” in their reporting, which I appreciated. I had a new found respect for veteran journalist Yamiche Alcindor, PBS NewsHour White House correspondent. She seemed very smart and experienced. Later I attended the most fun panel of the day – “BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY” where the crew talked about making the sound for the movie. They used over 90 guitars in the concerts scenes and hundreds of extras. They had the whole place rocking out!

Again, I have to say that I felt like a VIP and was treated GREAT by event manager DAN LEMLE. I don’t get paid to do any of this, just love to report on the trade shows from my point of view (an almost 60 year old mom) There was plenty to do and see and I hope you can get a feel for more of this trade show from my photos.

Esports team

I am a wannabe Socialite…

trade show queen

DelMundo jewelry

My new friends at DelMundo

tons of necklaces, cheap!

Christian, owner of Avalon Meat Candy

Yummy beef jerky

IMAX again…

My future couch Dovetail

Trades shows, IMDB website, Cuba trip, books on Amazon, Pinterest

For this trade show queen, the “Affordable Shopping Destination” show at the Los Angeles Convention center this past March 17-20 was a bit exhausting.  Most of the cheerful vendors even started to get a bit crabby by the last day…but managed to put their best foot forward till the cows came home…

GET YOUR STEPS IN  You can log over 3 miles per day. My friend who introduced me to this show as a walking opportunity (she walks about 5 miles per day) made sure that I knew about the “frenzie” phenomenon that occurs when a booth inside one of the great halls has really cool jewelry, clothing, purses and other goodies that you can “cash and carry.”  Just look for the pirhana’s feeding frenzie and RUN before you miss out!

BRING LOTS OF CASH  Warning – if you don’t stock lots of $20’s you will have to hit the ATM machine several times to haul off all of the really cool merchandise.  I took photos of my favorite booths and actually tried to see as much as I could over the 4 day show.  Many of the vendors were returners who stayed busy with repeat or brand new customers.  I did hear some remarks that indicated that it seemed a bit slow compared to the previous ASD shows, but most seemed very happy with their potential sales.

POT IS KING My overall impression was one of amazement at the variety of goods represented throughout the convention center. From rows and rows of cannabis merchants, jewelry (costume and fine), clothing, shoes, purses, skulls, and Motorcycle merchandise to the interesting and educational seminars.  I attended as many seminars as I could and learned all about customer rewards programs and the best way to use social media to improve product awareness.  Oh yes, and I bombarded my instagram account with #ASDshow posts!  I didn’t mind that much but now that the show is over I’ll have to unfriend them until next time!

Right up my alley!

What it’s all about today SOCIAL MEDIA!

more lovely rooms

Judy having fun

Elvis loved bacon sandwiches

Nice invite

my kind of beds…

One of hundreds of slides from our speaker

Kathy and Judy T.

Dominic and Kathy

Sponsors of the Preview

Garden Decor at IMAX

cool art

love the marble…

Dominic gave a speech

My daughter and her best friend came to town and we hit the MAGIC clothing and fashion trade show.  It was definitely inconvenient to have the shows at two different venues – the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and the Las Vegas Convention Center.  I could not park at the Mandalay so I ended up dropping the girls off.  I think they ended up drinking more margaritas and the Cosmopolitan’s flower drink than attending the show!  I heard it was fabulous and that the fashions were young, hip, trendy, and perfect for the millennial generation of buyers.  Our friend has a store – BLONDETOURAGE BY THE BAY in Newport Beach so she was buying for her online website.

I took off for the convention center because I KNOW the convention center.  I was cracking up at most of the clothing lines because I have no clue about style. I only know what I like, and I do NOT like “daisy duke” shorts and torn jeans.  So that eliminated several options for my fantasy store.  I am not a size 6 by any means so therefore even the beautiful gowns that I saw would not look good on me.  Give me Tadashi or Adrianna Papell old lady gowns!  I did LOVE the Pantone Spring colors displayed in one area.  It was clever and made me actually think that I should wear some of these colors someday soon…Fiesta, Jester Red, Turmeric, Living Coral, and

Newport Beach Yacht Club member

Balboa Bay Club member since 1997

Attended the fabulous CES show!

Robots Galore…

Can they vacuum?

beautiful images

Learned all about Virtual Reality

Gary Shapiro Author

Drives itself…

Love Mercedes

Car of the future

Son Reed would love this…

Pink Peacock are ones listed on the web at http://www.glowsly.com. See my photos for MAGIC colors on display at the convention center.