Account by Lynsey C.!
January 21st
530 Checking in at Grand America; I love this hotel. Every afternoon you are greeted with warm chocolate chip cookies!! Over warm cookies we have a slight confusion on rooms and end up switching roommates to “do more with less, core value #7” and save good old Zappos an extra night hotel.
January 22nd
7am Wake up call
715 Reality check that it’s 29 degrees outside and I packed for more like 70 degrees. I knew it was cold, but just didn’t really think about it at 5am while packing the day before.. Confirm that Tara (New Yorker) totally packed for cold weather.
830 am Bump into Steve from Zappos on my way out of the hotel. Salt Lake City offers a great little tram that runs about every 10 minutes and will take you from just outside the hotel to the convention center. Well, 10 minutes in 29 degrees with a thin cotton hoodie and leggings sounds like frostbite.
9am While waiting at the booth to meet with Brad and Jerry, another Hi-Tec employee and myself get to chatting about Twitter. He follows Tony and quite a few other Zappos employees. We exchange Twitter names and are destined to Twitter to one another someday soon! Next, Meet with Hi Tec team. I’ve been asking for more pink additions to the girls offering of the kids’ line and this season they have it! We review their Magalog spot last year and discuss our options for 09’. Overall, great meeting and partnership.
10am Swing by Life is Good to grab a catalog for our apparel buyer, Holly. Jimmy Ho and I share a tear that I no longer will get to work with him on apparel and then immediately after make plans for beers later.
10:20am Check out White Sierra for apparel group. Dom schools us on the Good/Better/Great method of buying.: ) Head over to Hot Chillys booth with Dom to discover that he won Rep of the year!! Dom received a very nice plaque that he flashed off for a second as well as a glass paper weight (at least that’s what I think it was) with Chillys on it.
11am Check out Baffin and Bogs with Greg. After two years of buying cold weather boots I still can’t figure out what kid goes into 60 degrees below-zero-weather.
12pm Lunch, beat the sandwich line rush and stake out a spot on the floor. Next, Teva with Barney and Liz. WOW, fall product looks amazing! Get to talking about European exclusives and special color make ups for Zappos. End up meeting the design team and marketing team. Great people. Meet the guy that started the Teva Mt. games! Run over to Birkenstock to recap with Scott about our '09 plan. Everything is solid, so on to next appointment.
330pm Check out J-41 with Fred R. Women’s line; looks awesome, smaller kids SKU count but continues to evolve season to season.
4pm Walk the show for an hour while answering emails and recapping topics with Tara.
530pm Get ready for meeting with Fred and Steve.
6pm Recap meeting with entire Zappos team at show as well as our executive team. Great meeting!
715pm Wonderful dinner with Kamik team, shut down the Metropolitan (amazing service).
January 23rd
7am Rise and shine; wake up call
9am Kamik Team meeting. Product looks great, looking at two spots for Magalog next year. Also, talking exclusives with Dave and wide width snow boots!
12pm Keen meeting with executives and meet Tom. Great guy! Business is good and just wanted to focus on Magalog and marketing initiatives!
1pm Andy and Erika head over to Ahnu to check out kids line. I take off to say hello and thank you to some of our apparel vendors. Tag teaming!
2pm lunch!!! WAIT, Sorel and Columbia with Katie. Grab lunch and eat on the way! Columbia’s got pop colors. Love it and have been waiting for some fun colors and new shoe types.
2:45 Head over to Sorel. Line looks amazing.Logo changes and marketing initiatives are great. Toddler boots are great addition and overall, really stoked on everything we saw.
5pm Head to airport…..long story short; forget my wallet at Grand America, but soon is brought to me. All is well and on the plane home at 7:30 (delayed flight)