(Gina’s note: Kathie Kerr is our publicist for the 30-city Big Bus Tour that kicks off April 25 in Houston for the new book, “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual.” She came to Orlando during Global Pet Expo, so all the tour folks could have a final planning meeting. After the meeting, I asked her to take a spin through through the trade show and share her impressions.)
When you’ve attended as many trade shows as I have, even the greatest of them can become a little dull after that 50th trip down the aisle. That’s when I don my alternative personality and become the fairy godmarketer. I leave the earthly carpeted floors of trade shows like the Global Pet Expo and enter the realm of my imagination in which exhibitors have unlimited budgets to jazz up their presentations – building codes be damned.
My first act as fairy godmarketer would be to create an event to show off the tens of thousands of high-fashion cat and dog collars displayed at the show. In display cases they are boring, but make them part of a fashion show sporting celebrities wearing their favorite collars, and old boy: Lady Gaga has on a Cartier dog collar made from reclaimed meat packaging products with a diamond entrusted buckle. Charlie Sheen sports the “winner” collar, a no-holds bar clear transparent collar with a cocktail mixture swooshing around inside.
On the next stage (yes, there are several stages), there’s an international Bollywood musical going on. Beautiful men and women in eye-popping costumes are dancing and singing the story of how Himalayan Dog Chew got its start in humble beginnings on yak and cow farms in the mountains near Nepal. The latter part, at least, is true. Himalayan Dog Chew began in 2003 when of one its founders, Sujan Shrestha, took in an abandoned puppy off the streets in the eastern city of Ilam in Nepal. The puppy ate up the yummy treat that is a hard cheese-like product consumed by Nepali people, too. Supposedly, American dogs are loving it, too, and a side story is that the family venture is creating new and much needed economic opportunities for the yak and cow farmers.
As an urban chicken farmer, one of my favorite sections is the new hen houses and portable chicken coops. Over there, chef Bobby Flay is taking eggs freshly laid from the hundreds of exotic chickens on displayed and preparing omelets on demand for the crowds. The chickens ring a little bell with their beaks each time they produce a fresh egg.
There are so many games and toys to keep pets occupied that it’s hard to take them all in. But there’s one game for dogs that just can’t be overlooked—poker. Over in the games section, big screen televisions are relaying a blow-by-blow account of a high-stake poker game. The English bulldog appears to have the winning hand. C.M. Coolidge would be so proud.
Because my husband is a bicyclist, one of my favorite products at Pet Expo is the Bike Tow Leash, invented by mechanical engineer and service dog trainer Michael A. Leon. You can hook your dog to your bicycle and the dog can trot along side-by-side the bike, without tipping the rider over. This is another family-owned and operated business venture. To demonstrate the product, guess who’s in the arena with his bike and greyhound, Spins? Well, of course, it’s Lance Armstrong and he’s wearing his black-and-white-spotted plastic wristband encouraging the world to be kind to animals.
Back by popular demand is the talent show and beauty contest to determine “America’s Veterinarian Idol.” Dr. Marty Becker, author of the new “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual,” took the crown after a ventriloquist act in which his dog, Quixote, sang “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Dr. Becker barely moved his lips at all and the leopard colored Speedo swimsuit was a shoe-in winner in the beauty contest.
Another favorite of mine: Judge Judy puts parasites on the stand to determine culpability in spreading diseases. They were small, but you could definitely hear their testimonies with today’s high tech microphones.
Finally, at the end of the show, (in my head, anyway), there was a touching finale when school children from the Orlando public schools and singer Celine Dion performed “It’s a Beautiful World,” while truck after truck loaded up items to be donated by the exhibitors to local pet shelters. That last part is true about the kind donations of items that exhibitors don’t want to pack and ship home. They are donated locally to pet shelters.
All-in-all, another job well done by the fairy godmarketer.
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