And the countdown begins. :-)
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Event finished up tonight at the Vertigo Club in the Sodo district of Seattle. Had one hell of a good time today as well as the evening before. Event ran as smooth as silk both the pre-party Friday night at Brouwers Cafe in the Fremont district of Seattle and todays Seattle Cigar Expo held on the grounds of the Seattle Center....it was a hoot. Great cigars, great food & drink and fellow BOTL to share it all with. Toss in fantastic weather as well as the entertainment.....in a nutshell I'm going again next year!! :-)
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It was awesome. I had VIP too. Food was awesome at the pre-party.

The expo itself was set up even bigger than I was expecting. Can't wait for next year.
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Wild Boar on friday night...that was some good eating!!

Wait until next years event. This is going to grow

And the frosting on the cake is this all took place in Seattle, the PC capital of America.

I know the people that put this together, great folks who busted their asses to pull this off. Kudo's and many thanks!! :-)
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:-)
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Interesting to hear the "it was awesome!" feedback on the event. I also went, though not on a VIP ticket. At $150 + fees, I was going to pass. However I found the online discount codes for $50 off admission Friday afternoon and decided to bite @ $100.

I felt it was a solid first effort for an event, given the restrictions that exist. I did my opinion on it on the cigar family board, I'll copy/paste here for my thoughts. And sorry, as although I took a camera, I took no pics :-)

Here's my recap / opinion of the event;

I think it was a solid freshman effort. Hopefully the organizers will get some good feedback (there should be plenty) and take that to the planning meetings for next years event. Here are my pluses:

+ Great selection of wine and spirit samplings!
+ The overall ambiance was great
+ Excellent food vendors: El Gaucho steak slider, the pulled pork sandwich from Crush, and the bacon mac & cheese. Mmmm....
+ For the average smoker, the included sticks weren't bad. I'm pretty picky, but will definitely try half of the 15 sticks.
+ THE WOMEN "AMBASSADORS". WOW. THAT WAS AN UNEXPECTED AND PLEASANT SURPRISE.
+ The venue I think worked great. Weather played a big part in this working out well.
+ The music was EXCELLENT! I think it would've been better had the Latin band played a longer set.

And the things I think could be improved:

- MORE OUTDOOR SEATING. Doesn't need to be all leather couches and lounge chairs. Just some folding chairs and tables would've been nice.
- The manufacturer booths were pitiful. Only 1 or 2 actually had sticks on display. Shoot, the La Gloria Cubana had a sign.....and nothing else. What was the point? The Vertigo Lounge booth had a stack of flyers.....and noone there.
- Some of the manufacturers that were listed as sponsors had ZERO visible representation. No booth, no sticks in my goody bag, what gives? Tatuaje? Padron? 601?
- Pete Johnson & Rocky Patel bailing on the event and not showing up. Was nice to see Dion from Illusione and Matt (Room 101) representing.
- Ticket price was steep. At $150, I'd have been dissapointed. With the $50 coupon code, I can work out $100 worth of value from what I got, and I think it's "fair".
- I got 2 dessert tokens, and there was 1 dessert booth. I guess it's good they had several choices?

Some thought's / suggestions:

Rather than do a goody bag with sticks, why not have a punch card where you can get them from the manufacturer's booth? This way the brands could actually have goods at their booth and it would give attendees a chance to interact with them and find out what the stick they're getting is all about. If I get some stick I've never even heard of in a ziplock bag, there is a small chance I'm ever going to smoke it. However if I'm talking to a rep as it's given to me, and I hear about what the brand is about, it sparks actual interest in that brand (assuming I like what I hear) and I'm more likely to remember them the next time I'm in the shop looking for something to smoke.

I think $100 bucks is the "sweet spot" for a general admission ticket. This isn't Vegas / The Big Smoke. No seminars or talks about where the industry / individual manufacturers are headed. No "big" names attending. No sticks that I couldn't see in a $30 Cigars International sampler. The way I broke it down was $35 for the CRA membership, easily $50 in food and wine/booze tastings, and then some $ value to the sticks. At a c-note, I'd be in no questions asked, as would probably a half dozen or so of folks I know that I talked about it with.

Seemed to me that every attendee should've gotten a raffle ticket. The 1 ticket per stick purchased was silly given that if you bought a box you'd get 20+ tickets. I don't know how the raffle turned out, but I would think everyone should get a small shot. I certainly wasn't going to go buy something that I wouldn't normally simply to get a single raffle ticket. And none of the 3 vendors selling sticks seemed to have anything in box quantities, or any special "deal" for the event. The local I try to get my sticks from runs special pricing any time you buy a full box, and their event deals are amazing. And they sure don't get the amount of attendees the expo got.

Do a better job of nailing down what attendees are getting for their ticket. I heard "15+" sticks, saw a bigger list of manufacturers on the website, and then got exactly 15 sticks in my bag. While I don't feel like I didn't get any value, there were a couple sticks I thought I was going to get but didn't see (601 Maduro, Padron).

In general, it just needs more stuff. The even ran from 1pm-8pm (or started at noon for "VIP's"). I got there at one, and had seen everything there was to see well before 2pm.

Overall, like I said it was a solid showing for a first time event. I think it showed that there is definitely enough audience for this, and there is excellent potential for this to be a GREAT event. Hopefully brands of cigars and accessories take note and will have a stronger showing next year, as I really think they were the weak spot in this. Of note, the Xikar rep was doing the best he could given all he had were a couple catalogs out to look through. Very friendly, made it a point to shake my hand and talk about what they had going on. But I did find it pretty sad that representation by the cigar brands was lacking the most at a cigar expo.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year. I think they've got a real opportunity here to start something great and hope that they capitalize. Additionally, the legislation coming up at the start of the year to amend the smoking ban has the potential to further broaden the audience, and really push this event over the edge.
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Thanks for that review. Glad I saved my money now. No sticks at booths for sale? WTFKOSIT?

Sounds to me that the event down on the waterfront might have been more entertaining.
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I agree with a lot of the stuff you said, but I still had a great time. It was the first one, so obviously it'll only get better for the future.

I blame the manufactures themselves for having such poor displays, that was pretty weak on their part. I can't blame the expo organizers for that one.

The thing I do like about having the sticks already in the bag is not having to wait in line to get a cigar. Smoke Easy did that and it was kind of a cluster.

I also wish they had more stuff to raffle off, boxes of cigars, humidors, shirts, etc. And I agree with the a ticket already included in your gift bag. But still, a good idea for a ticket a stick just cuz it'd be nice to win something for buying a cigar or two.
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I think you summarized it very well. I did the VIP ticket, and really had a great time. The before event was excellent at Brouwer's - great food, great drinks, great place. The after event at Vertigo Club was disappointing; the buildup and website for that "exclusive" venue was a little oversold. A single room with limited seating, and it took quite a while to get food and drink set up.

Saturday, for the main event, Fischer Plaza was a GREAT venue for a 7 hour herf, with great music and food.

I agree that the biggest gap was the manufacturers, with almost zero presence at any of the events. The saturday event was supposed to be "sponsored" by Tatuaje, and their special SOHO cigar was supposedly available. Nothing. Nada. Very disappointing.

Again, overall it was a great experience, but some things to improve on for next year to make it even better.
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I blame the traffic due to Hempfest and Seahawks game in the evening to get set up for the after party. I was pretty exhausted from the expo during the day...so the after party didn't really matter to me.
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Don't get me wrong, I had a good time and look forward to next year.

I bet the brands couldn't sell due to not having a tobacco license or some BS like that. Which makes sense, but still, have some sort of presence in your booth. Matt Booth was the only one I felt was consistently in/around his (Room 101) booth. Although I never went up and actually chatted it up.

Also, I can see the plus/minus of having the brands hand out the sticks at their booth. I can see the first couple hours everyone being mobbed around each booth to get their stick and a punch in their card. But at the same time, with an event this "small" (compared to TBS) it could be figured out. Just off the top of my head, have 2-4 different colored punch cards, and rotate what colors can go get their sticks every X minutes or something.

Ultimately, I got tired/bored of standing for 5 hours, which is why I headed home. Plus I didn't want to go feed the meter again. Had I came with some friends it may have been a different story.

I was weary of the pre/post events. I've been to Vertigo several times, and I can see the draw if you live/work nearby. The only real knock on it in my mind is the HVAC needs some help. If there were at least 10 folks in there, it gets smoky real quick, to the point where it made my eyes burn a little. But I suspect people's tolerances are different in that regard so could just be me.

Bottom line, and I can't stress it enough, though there is definite room for improvement, it was a great first shot. It really wouldn't take much tweaking to really hit a home run, and I'm confident next year will be even better.
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Well any event you go to, the vendor can't sell anything. It's like going to the homeshow or something. They're just there to display their product.
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Quite the contrary; the ones that were there and active were definitely selling cigars. They were just mostly not very active. They had special deals ... buy 3 get 1 free, buy a box, get 8 sticks free ... stuff like that. But there were very few manufacturers, and none of them brought any swag (some that were pre announced didn't show up). I think they missed an opportunity.

Maybe they weren't sure it would be worth it; I bet that aspect of the event improves next year :-)
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I was thinking about that, but it wasn't clear if you would actually be buying from them, or the shops that had booths.

But I definitely found the lack of swag to be disappointing!
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The manufacturers there weren't selling cigars personally. The buy 3 get 1 free thing was you buy 3 from an inside cigar store vendor and they tell you to go to the rep for the freebie. Thats how I saw it. Some did give you a free cigar inside depending on who had what going on for specials.
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The folks who put this on busted their asses to put this on smack dab in the middle of PC Seattle. I still give it :-):-):-) for it's first year.

I'm really looking forward to next years event and the opportunity to watch it grow. Many who slept through this have been shaken out of bed. I'm just an outsider who had the privilege of peeking in as this whole party hatched.
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This was a great event and I'm glad I bought the VIP ticket. I met allot of characters and plan to stay in touch with them.

The opening VIP party at Brouwers Cafe was a great event with more drinks than the average man could handle. The food was fantastic, especially the wild boar. I met and had more than a few cocktails with Bill Paley the owner of La Palina cigars. He was a gentleman and gave me a few of his reserves that are very hard to come by. He loos like the guy from Dos Equis and in fact says "Stay toasted my friends'...

Ed Ryan and Jason with PDX Cigars are kindred spirits and the kid of guys you sit up and smoke BS and drink with until 2AM. I did such a thing in fact.

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The Event at Seattle Center was one of the best smoking times I've had. Sme of the points above are true and worth sharing with the organizers JJ and Gloria. Two great people by the way.

The music was perfect for the day and the Latino kid wining Johnny Cash and Elise was great... Cudos to him.

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A few more pics...

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A few of the cigars in the gift bag.

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At the VIP wind up we hung out, talked politics, drank/smoked until 2. In the photo is Ed his wife and a Texan that I can't remember the name of. Also a shot of Glynn with the cigar rights of America. A man after my own heart.

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I love the networking side of this event and will sign up in a heartbeat. The 2012 event will be sold out I'm sure of it. Again cudos to JJ and Gloria. Great event. Worth the cost of the VIP ticket.
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I also bought a box of PDX cigars and Ed gave me another free box. They were only offering 8 free with a box. So networking does have it's upsides. Because of this purchase I won a SousVide Supreme BBQ and vacuum sealer. I was told it's a 600 value...

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