More On Coffee Fest - Las Vegas

I love conventions. I love walking up and down the isles, hearing all of the salesmen, seeing demonstrations, sampling, sampling, sampling. I like the fact that most of the vendors are trying to put their best foot forward and win you over as a possible customer. You should, as a possible customer, be treated like gold. Full attention from someone who is extremely knowledgeable about the product they are representing is an exciting opportunity for me, a possible buyer, to see a product in action being handled by someone who is properly trained and getting the most from that product.

Then, there are the companies who send young pretty girls to represent them, who have as much knowledge about a product that a 3x5 card will allow. These companies make me ill. I'm not that stupid or shallow to drop 8K on a machine because you have a Britney Spears clone in a low cut top talking about the automatic milk frother works. PLEASE!! Get a freaking clue!! Or the espresso salesmen who don't know how to properly pull a shot of espresso!! I'm not going to buy espresso from you if you serve me an 8 second pour and expect me to be blow away by the rich flavor. And really, I saw way to many portafilter lying on drip trays when not in use. Who the hell trained these guys and sent them out to represent their company? And the owner of Astra, who handed me an 8 second shot poured by his new Super-Auto. I handed it back to him and said, "Sorry, that was a little too fast for me. It's too bitter".

And, zero representation from the BGA. Are they trying to make it as wide spread as possible? Even the SCAA booth didn't have ant info concerning the BGA. How serious is this guild?