Accredited Trade Show 2012

On Friday I went to my very first trade show. If you're not in the know, a trade show is hosted by a vendor (in this case, our confectionery distributor), and different brands come along  to host stands, showcase new and existing products, and do deals with visitors. Trade shows aren't open to the public, so I was very excited to be able to go along with my work.

Photos and gossip under the break!

The Accredited Trade Show was held at their distribution warehouse in Dandenong, Victoria. Accredited service much of Victoria, so it shouldn't surprise me too much to see how big it was inside, but I was blown away! The trade show itself was held in a marquee outside the warehouse, with a small section inside the warehouse as well.

Above, a bad shot of the outside of the warehouse, with the marquee on the left.

 Above, a brief glimpse into the inner workings of the Accredited warehouse.

All the major brands had a stall (the bigger the brand, the bigger the stal, usuall): Cadbury, Nestle, Mars, Smith's, Wrigleys, plus lots of others.

Above, the Cadbury stall.

Above, the Nestle stand. I loved the snakes!
 

Above, a blurry shot of the Universal Candy stand.


Red Bull was there, complete with their two little rocket cars outside (the license plate on this one is 'W11NGS' and the other one (not in photo) is 'GIVESU').

They also had a Humvee inside, on which they had a DJ (drinking Red Bull of course) playing music for much of the day.

I also met the guys from Nexba Ice Tea. Drew Bilbe and Troy Douglas are the two Aussies behind the brand, and they were at the trade show themselves to promote their delicious drinks. They were truly lovely and passionate about their product. I didn't get a photo though :( But I am so excited for the new flavours they are introducing very soon, including blueberry!


I saw a lot of my reps there, even though it was crazy busy so I didn't even get a chance to say hi. But I won't lie, one of the awesome aspects of the trade show was the free samples.

But the real reason I was there to check out all the new things. This particular trade show is one of the biggest in Victoria, so a lot of brands like to launch new products here.

Wrigleys is bringing back Wild Berry Skittles. The flavoured Skittles (Showtime, Wild Berry, Crazy Cores, Citrus, etc) are rotated seasonally, a la Mars and their seasonal M&M's range. They didn't have any samples there to show us unfortunately, mostly due to the fact that these won't be properly launched until the end of August/early September.

This isn't exactly a lolly, but Wrigleys is also introducing chewy mint Eclipse mints in three flavours: peppermint, strawberry and fruit.

They did have a sample for viewing but I wasn't allowed to take a photo. The tin is small (remember the Extra Professional Mints? It's that tin) and holds 27 mints. The mints themselves are smaller and rounded, about the size of the current chalky Eclipse mints, and they have a hard glossy shell. They should be popping up very shortly in stores.

Stuart Alexander, the brand that distributes Mentos and Chupa Chups, had three new products to launch. The one I am most excited about is the Caramel Chupa Chups:

I suspect it will be cream-based, but I am looking forward to it anyway. Unfortunately they had none left by the time I found their stall.

They also launched new 'Mystery Flavour' Mentos and Mentos 3D gum.

I didn't have time to talk to the reps at the stand about the product, although I really wanted to. The Mentos could be all one flavour, or there could be many different mystery flavours - who knows? They didn't have samples of these so I didn't get to snag one for review.

Smith's launched a new variety of Doritos: Fuzed. The pack features two flavours in the one bag, sweet chilli and lime. 

There will be a new Tic Tac flavour very soon, in green apple. Again, no samples, but I loved the big display unit!

These confectionery 'ice cream cones' are new-ish, and I snagged both flavours for review, so you will see them up here shortly.

Whew! What a day! I did see lots more but didn't get photos of everything - it was just so busy! Thanks to Accredited for holding the show - you guys are wonderful!