Day Two: Oklahoma Strong

Tough to be out here today with everything that happened yesterday and Sunday at home, but we are persevering. Day two of ICSC is upon us, though our delegation has thinned a bit as the Mayor and others rushed home yesterday. Today, people are still dressing up and the monorails are still “fuller than a butcher’s dog,” but I have noticed that the shoes people are wearing are getting decidedly more comfortable-looking. As I mentioned, with 1 million square feet to cover, it’s a lot of walking. You gotta be ready to get those dogs on that convention center carpet! If I were working the floor, I might even consider working in teams. It’s not gambling when you know you’re going to win. Anyway, that’s why we have these handy-dandy massage stations in our booth. Now is about the time when these things start getting pretty popular.

People also ask us about our little shopping carts.

We use these on our podiums to help attract attention from people that like to feel like giants. No, but seriously, we do like to leverage the fact that the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma City. We used to use the unofficial tagline, “We invented shopping! (Well, at least the shopping cart.)” My boss located a vintage shopping cart very similar to the original invented by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City in 1937 that we’d display in our booth. It is difficult to ship these types of items without getting damaged (like I said, your freight seems to get flung about worse than James Harden’s head during a flop), so we haven’t brought the vintage cart for a couple of years, but we still use the little tiny carts for mint holders. It’s a great little piece of trivia to help position our city and keep OKC top-of-mind to retailers and developers.

Show traffic overall seems at least as busy as last year, if not a tad busier. We have been getting lots of well-wishes and condolences after yesterday's storms. Nearly everyone has kinds words and thoughts for us (though it is tough to be away from home at a time like this). The booths across from us, Hilton and Firehouse, seem to be attracting good crowds as well. Being located near well-known names certainly doesn’t hurt our visibility. Speaking of well-known names, we have met separately with hoteliers Starwood, Hilton and Marriott and look forward to what may be in the works.

ICSC arranges booths on something resembling a city street grid (of course). Streets are alphabetical and avenues are numbered. Our booth is S324 N street.