Our small but mighty team successfully pulled off our first trade show at Natural Foods Expo West in Anaheim, California last week! We learned a ton, overcame some gnarly obstacles, and met some amazing people in the food & beverage industry. We were honored to be among so many talented founders and brands, and had so much fun introducing people to Twrl Milk Tea.
Since this was our first trade show as a new beverage brand, we had to prepare from the ground up--from figuring out what kind of car to rent, to what show services we would need, to how much product we should bring for sampling. The first booth we ordered was stolen, but luckily our printer Signwin is based in Los Angeles and pulled through for us--please check them out for your conference needs, they are awesome! We also got some unexpected help from a group of Second Harvest volunteers when we had trouble moving out after the show. It's not an exaggeration to say that they saved us from many tears and many more hours of hard labor--thank you so much!
We had some great highs too, and one of the highlights of our experience was being interviewed on live TV by Fox 11 News. We were super excited to have the opportunity to tell more people about Twrl Milk Tea, possibly even more excited than seeing Jason Momoa in a nearby booth down the aisle from us.
Now that travel is opening back up, we also got a chance to meet with many of the people we've worked with over the past two years in person. Zoom really doesn't do social interactions justice, so it was really great to shake hands and talk with people we've only ever exchanged emails with and spoken to on our computers. We feel incredibly lucky to work with such supportive, wonderful people. Special thanks to our friend Ryan MacCarrigan, who traveled from the Bay Area to provide his enduring support and encouragement. We might be a small team but we couldn't do it without a community of helpers around us--we are very grateful to you all.
And thank you to everyone who dropped by to say hi and try Twrl Milk Tea!
You can see photo and video highlights on our Instagram!
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