I dropped in to visit a long time friend in the business, Brad Ford, at the Wicked Distribution booth. Wicked Cafe and Wicked Distribution is the Canadian importer of Intelligentsia Coffee, responsible for all the importation and supplying of that roaster's coffee in Canada.

"This is our third Canadian trade show that I've participated in, and this has to be the best show, in Canada at least, that we ever attended." Ford said, "the turnout of qualified people to the booth, and the number of people that came through the booth has been excellent."

I asked Ford what "qualified" meant and he went on to explain: "the number of people coming to meet you at the booth that are people looking to start a business, or have a business and want your product was quite high this year - we generated many leads."

I asked Ford what made this show good for that kind of traffic. "The fact that it is all in one room, and that people coming to meet you are there because they really wanted to get there was one big thing," Ford said" but also I've noticed that the tea industry seems to really be driving this show as well, with a lot of higher-end tea companies represented. We shared our booth with TeaGuy and that drove even more traffic our way."

Intelligentsia is one of the premier brands in the US, and it's good to see additional market presentation in  Canada. Ford pointed out that in Toronto, Good Neighbour and Manic are great representatives for the Intelligentsia brand, and in Ottawa he recently landed a company called Holy Oak cafe that are presenting the coffee well.

Brad Ford and Brendan Waye Brad Ford, along with co-booth operator Brendan Waye of TheTeaGuy.com, at the trade show.