{"id":54,"date":"2008-09-26T13:53:16","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T13:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/2008\/09\/26\/ventriloquists-and-creepy-dummies\/"},"modified":"2008-09-29T16:03:11","modified_gmt":"2008-09-29T16:03:11","slug":"ventriloquists-and-creepy-dummies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/2008\/09\/26\/ventriloquists-and-creepy-dummies\/","title":{"rendered":"Ventriloquists and Creepy Dummies"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nHey there, Joan here blogging from the California leg of the Advantages <\/em>Roadshow. I was delighted to learn that a video would be shown on the magic bus tour from Newport Beach to Ontario, CA. However, when I learned it was a comedy involving a ventriloquist, I became instantly creeped out.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Does anyone remember the book\/movie Magic? It was about a ventriloquist and his evil, jealous dummy that ends up killing people. I read that as teenager and it stayed with me. Anyway, it\u2019s a strange talent, but the comedian, Jeff Dunham, turned out to be really funny. Thanks to Tina from Quickpoint for making the trip go faster with that amusing video.<\/p>\n

So, with all the seismic activity happening on Wall Street and Washington D.C., I decided to chat with folks at the show on their thoughts and predictions on this latest financial debacle. The general mood was somewhat shaky, but certainly not panic. In fact, some took a pragmatic view of the whole situation. Barry Hermanson from Aunt Beth\u2019s Cookie Keepers says that in a way the industry can use the situation to its advantage to \u201cshake out the people that don\u2019t belong in the business in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernie Trowbridge, VP of Redline, says that many users are now buying for their top 10 best customers rather than their top 100. \u201cOur lower-end items are doing the best now. Umbrella sales, which were our fastest-growing segment is now down.\u201d David Johnson, national sales manager at American Calendar, found a silver lining in the financial cloud. He says in the past, many buyers purchased their calendars from Europe, \u201cbut with the weaker American dollar, it\u2019s been driving people back to buy domestically.\u201d Johnson feels the next six months will be bad. \u201cI just can\u2019t wait until the election is over \u2013 no matter who wins,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the election, there seemed to be no clear-cut favorite \u2013 neither candidate is blowing the socks off anyone. A few attendees said they were leaning towards McCain, while one woman said she thinks \u201che\u2019s out of touch with the average American.\u201d She says she\u2019s not thrilled with Obama, but feels he understands people better, however, she said he made a mistake in not choosing Hillary as a running mate. Another woman said she wished Oprah had run. I was thinking with Lance Armstrong and Brett Favre would make good candidates for president and VP. They obviously need something to do, and their tenacity to stay in the game is admirable.<\/p>\n

On a happier note, distributors were pleased with their finds at this show. Kitty Mikesell of Hippo Custom Imprinting was looking for specific items for a clubhouse grand opening at a golf course. \u201cI wanted something besides golf balls and the suppliers were helpful in offering their ideas for this program,\u201d she says. \u201cI was also able to find great youthful giveaways for a program I\u2019m doing for members of a chamber of commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathy Swanson of Proforma Graphic Source says she found the show \u201csmall, but good. I found the education session helpful as well.\u201d Nikki Coulas of Lee Wayne Corp. was also pleased with the education session. The 15-minute education segments that the \u201csuppliers presented were wonderful.\u201d Coulas says sales have been steady, and she\u2019s taking a wait and see approach to the future. \u201cMy sales will be okay. It\u2019s as much as I put into it. If I\u2019m lazy, I just won\u2019t eat as much. I\u2019m not overly optimistic for the future, but if it stays the same, I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe ever-smiling Daniel Townes checks in two of the 116 attendees at the Roadshow in Ontario, CA.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n


\nRoadshow guru Nick DiNicola has supplier Tina Van of Quickpoint pick the lucky distributor to win a $25 gas card. Kefang Xu from Lantos Ltd. looks on.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n


\nStacie Livingston of Fields Mfg. and Teddy Scott of AZX Sport are two of a select group of road warriors who have attended all 18 Roadshows.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n


\nAnna Ramos VP of sales for Berney Karp, shows off her handy traveler cup which features a teabag strainer. (Michele, you may be interested in this.)<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n


\nDave Johnson of American Calendar says a distributor gave his company the idea for the sudoku puzzle book that is selling well.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n


\nSteve Saltzman of UM Imports (left) and former University of Idaho football player Jason Grindall from Graphco Line strike a pose. Saltzman admits to being a total ham.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey there, Joan here blogging from the California leg of the Advantages Roadshow. I was delighted to learn that a video would be shown on the magic bus tour from Newport Beach to Ontario, CA. However, when I learned it was a comedy involving a ventriloquist, I became instantly creeped out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-shows","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bellwether-asicentral.com\/bellblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}