Night One at the FMI LP

Well, the first night is complete.  I took some pictures and will upload them tomorrow.  A few things struck me on the opening night of the conference and I though I would pass them along.

• The days will be long…too long.  The booth opens at 7am tomorrow morning and will be open every other hour until 7pm.  In between are sessions.  That is too long of a day.
• Loss Prevention is a small space.  Everyone knows everyone else.  And everyone knows Pedro Ramos, former VP of Loss Prevention at Pathmark and our very own VP of Operations. 
• The show is much smaller than last year.  Last year there were 240 people in attendance.  This year, the number is 200. And, I bet 75 of those people are vendors.  So, that leaves 125 retailers.  Assume two from each company and you are left with around 50-75 retailers total. 
• The retail space is in a wait and see mode.  One of the gentlemen I met at the show is a 30 year veteran of the space form the vendor side.  He sees the same thing we are seeing.  There are a ton of opportunities in the funnel.  But, no one is willing to pull the trigger on ANYTHING.  Everyone thought it was going to happen in June.  But, now June looks to be too early.  It better happen before the end of the year.  If not, many companies will not be around for 2010.

More coming tomorrow.  Time for bed.  The fun really starts in 6 hours.