Held in Toronto from November 23rd-26th, the Gourmet Wine & Food Show was a public event billed as “Toronto’s Best Party”. Why has it taken me so long to post about it? Frankly I needed a little time to consider how I was going to approach the subject and I also needed to try an view the expo from a variety of perspectives in order to understand my own experience.
Michelle and I had obtained media passes by virtue of our blog, and my occasional contribution to VINES Magazine, one of the event’s sponsors. I, by the kindness of my bosses, had been given two of the four days off, even though harvest was only just wrapping up. I hadn’t been to a proper function that required more than clean jeans in four months; I was excited. My media pass was sure to open doors, uncork bottles, and generally be a magnet for marketing attention.
It did, as expected, get me in the door au gratis, mind you the $15 entry fee wasn’t exactly highway robbery to begin with. I was happy to see the tickets priced so reasonably, since being a public show is really all about making products and experiences accessible, affordable, and enjoyable for the consumer (aka the target market). The more people able to participate and explore, the more likely companies are to build brand recognition, sell products both at the expo and in the future, and the more the organizers recoup costs.
I felt I was in an interesting position to look at the show from three perspectives: that of the media, that of the wine industry, and that of the consumer. It was this complex position however, that led to a rather confused and muddled experience, and ultimate disappointment.
Media
I should preface the following spoiled brat comments with a brief explanation of my media-attending-an-expo background. As I stated in a previous post, I was a member of interactive digital entertainment media for about a year. During that time I was pampered, catered to, plied with offers for free things, and fawned over at conferences because of my ability to promote products and push reviews. I was a route to get the hype out there, to sell the wares, to build the buzz. The marketers realized this, and as a result I was spoiled to the point of shame.
Even so, nothing could have prepared me for the complete and utter lack of interest paid to Michelle and I by the booth staff. Despite a different coloured badge holder emblazoned with the word “Media”, only two booths in the entire expo inquired about who we wrote for, and seemed the least bit interested in showing off their wares. The place wasn’t exactly crawling with media while we were there (I believe I saw two other green badges the entire time), and it was an excellent opportunity to show a passion and excitement about their wines in front of someone with an equally high opinion of the entire endeavour. Instead, the feeling that I was left with wasn’t passion, but a sort of exasperation and boredom likely resulting from having to serve quasi-intoxicated industry personnel. The attitude was much more “what do you want?” than providing any kind of recommendations or information aside from pointing disinterestedly at the pre-printed tasting note cards as fount of knowledge.
Much like tasting room staff who view the customer as more of an interruption to their day than a valuable individual to interact with, I got the distinct impression that if it were possible to be discrete about it, that we would have been met with sighs. Most of the booth staff looked like they just wanted it all to end so that they could go home; this around 5pm in a show that is open until ten.
Now for a moment of self-pity….both of us are students. We make no bones about the fact that we’re therefore dirt poor and that an event like the Gourmet Wine & Food Expo would be a little beyond our means. We were excited to have the opportunity to snag media passes, owing largely to my previous experiences that indicated these golden tickets were carte blanche to sample, slurp and review. The entry fee was waived, though compared to a lot of the tasting prices, $15 wasn’t really that much to worry about. I narrowly avoided abject embarrassment by asking an expo staff member if I was required to buy tasting tickets, or if the media was entitled to review samples. Oh no, tickets it was for us, and had I not asked, I would have gone up to a booth, tasted the wines I was interested in, and then stared blankly at the outstretched hand. Nothing here was free. Worse still, nothing here was cheap. We split on a sheet of 20 tasting tickets for $20 and were already feeling a little unsettled. That money was supposed to be for parking, now it was invested in tiny white tickets, each worth a whole dollar. Each tasting costs a dollar? Okay, we thought, not bad, they must have some decent wines here. Unfortunately, because we hadn’t really been expecting to fork over twenty dollar bills with frequency, we instantaneously became highly limited in our tastings. What we found when we went to any booth, was that very few wines were worth only one ticket. Depending on the merchant, attendants could be expected to spend anywhere from 2 to 15 tickets (equating to $2-$15) for a single sample. It dawned on us that our $20 investment would disappear in three booths worth of tasting if we tried with abandon, and so we started being very very selective. Good for our bank accounts, but very bad for our experience. It was like being unleashed in a candy store filled with thousands of treats and being told that we could try only five.
Heaven forbid that we wanted to attend any of the seminars, called Tutored Tastings, or participate in any of the grander events. Media status again got us no where and has thus led to this rather truncated and unexciting writeup of the event. Truthfully I have nothing to write of, seeing that these tastings ranged from dozens to hundreds of dollar per person, except, and they deserve special mention, the Dairy Farmers of Canada seminar, which was all about cheese, a food item near and dear to my heart. Free to any and all that were interested, and seeking only to promote Canadian cheeses (among the best in the world really), they new exactly how to promote awareness of their product by being inclusive rather than exclusive.
Industry Member
My other option would have been to get industry passes (red) due to my affiliation with Creekside Estate Winery in Jordan, ON. Creekside had a booth at the event, and other staff members were in attendance, so it would have been a piece of cake to be included on the list. I figured, however, that playing the media card would be more effective, seeing that the number of industry folks likely to be there (and this proved true) would be very high. With a media pass I hoped to differentiate myself as someone not just interested in drinking as much as possible and catching up with friends, but someone with the ability to get rave reviews into print.
I digress…
My position in the industry makes much of what I complained about in the media section, and much of what I will bitch about in the consumer section, seem sensical. I understand that public shows can be quite frightening for wineries and merchants without nailing down a decent sample pricing system. If tasting bars at wineries have to be careful about people (wine enthusiasts at that) who come in, drink as many freebies as possible and then stumble out without purchasing, imagine the sheer terror that settles in the pits of accountants stomachs at the thought of thousands of random public persons sweeping through your booth with greedy intent and leaving your poor booth staff frazzled, ruffled, and empty-bottled. It’s enough to make you lose sleep at night. Tasting ticket based expos help both the hosts attract companies to the show, while also ensuring that the companies willing to come and showcase their wine and food recoup some of their loses. I understand this and agree. But I do think that there are other ways to go about things. Not everyone there was out to get plastered. Some of us were hoping to try some wines we had never had before. Nowhere was there a flight option, nowhere could you ask for a smaller sample size for less money, and nowhere was there anything overly inventive. Read the sticker on the bottle, hand over the tickets and get a 2 oz. sample whether you liked it or not.
As I said though, these events are sometimes frightening for companies. I may be disgruntled from a media and consumer perspective, but I can’t help but sympathize with the exhibitors after hearing stories of sloppy drunkenness, broken bottle fights, deliquents being handcuffed to the supports on your booth, and other assorted bad behaviour on the part of the public. For every person there to explore new things, there are probably five that are there to get sloshed and pig out for as cheaply as possible, and it is that majority, unfortunately, that must be accounted for when organizing public events. This knowledge makes me feel somewhat guilty about slamming the event, so I hope that the inclusion of this section at least makes it clear that I acknowledge and accept the difficulties inherent in these kinds of exhibitions.
The Consumer
aka The Public, The Big Nasty
From a consumer perspective, these shows should be akin to the Holy Grail. If I’m a wine lover, then it should provide me the opportunity to essentially try before I buy. All those wines I look at but never pick up for fear that I’ll pop the cork and it just won’t be my thing; now I can try them, write them off or snap them up, all for a small fee. The $15 entry fee? No problem. Expected really, and I would pay it gladly.
If I’m not really a wine person, nor a foodie, but am just curious about the whole thing, then the Gourmet Food & Wine Show should be an affordable way for me to check out the scene, and who knows, maybe my preconceptions about snobbiness will be erased. Either way, I want to try new stuff. What I found at the show though, especially for Michelle and I who have been through the LCBO time and again and sussed out the wines we wanted to try, was mainly low to mid-end wines that were easily available, and generally inexpensive by our standards. Most of them we had tried at some point or another, and given the precious nature of the little white tickets, we weren’t about to try them again in that setting.. The price of the tastings wasn’t really conducive to going wild and trying everything we wanted. Instead I’m sure we missed out on many wines that we would have loved (and bought) simply by virtue of the fact that we couldn’t hand out our tasting tickets willy-nilly.
It’s my opinion that the focus of shows that are open to the public should be to increase awareness and access to the products available. It’s a fantastic opportunity to create some new brand loyalties by providing outstanding service and knowledgeable staff, as well reaching segments of the consumer market that you, as a company, may not have inroads with before. And just think, Christmas at that point was only a month away….
In the end, we left early Friday night after doing several rounds of the exhibit hall and tasting sparingly. I was scheduled to go back for a Tutored Tasting on Saturday, but a lack of enthusiasm and a bit of a situation involving the new kitten and the interior of the couch. Sadly I wasn’t overly upset. To be honest I didn’t know what to think. By midway through Friday night both of us just paused in the middle of the floor scratching our heads. We had been excited about the show for over a week, slowly counting down the days until it opened its doors to a huge stash of nifty beverages. Once there though, we didn’t know what to make of it. We tried what we could, couldn’t afford the rest, and just kind of…wandered out the door somewhat bemused by the whole experience. It wasn’t until the next day that I could admit how disappointed I was; that evening I was determined, I think because I was trying to view it from an exhibitors perspective, to find the silver lining.
I’m willing to give the whole thing another shot next year, and perhaps I’ll be more pushy with the media pass in order to take advantage of the setting. For now though, I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth.
