Sorry for the delay guys! It’s taken us almost a week to recover from Vaper Expo but we have finally had a chance to sit down reflect.
Vaper Expo October 2023 ran from 27th until 29th, and for those who don’t know, Friday 27th is the Business to Business day with Saturday and Sunday open to the public.
It all started quite stressfully! We were given a floor plan months ago and positioned ourselves to be opposite our friends Stu & Liz at Vapesmarter. We ordered new banners, new tables, leaflets, cards, etc based on this position and layout… what a waste of time that was. On Friday 20th, 6 days before we are due to go and setup, we are told by a friend that things had changed! Bit of notice next time would be useful! Luckily the guys and girls at Deathwish & Vaporony worked some magic and got the Ohm Zone back to a more reasonable layout.
Thursday 26th was a soggy drive over to the NEC for the setup day, nothing exciting to report there, just the day everyone heads over to build their stands, setup and just get a feel for the area. Good to see old friends again like Neil at Infernal E-Liquids, Jane from Shytots E-Liquids, all the guys at Deathwish Mods, Oscar and his lovely wife at Infinite Modz and of course, Stu & Liz at Vapesmarter.
Friday 27th rolls around which meant an early start leaving Nottingham at 6am to ensure we were there in time and give ourselves time for a coffee stop and a bit of breakfast. Rock up to the NEC, finalise the look of the stand and come 10am, away we go! Craig, our glamorous assistant from May turned up to help again, fashionably late! As I said before Friday is the Business to Business day so a mainly trade event. Despite this, busy all day with plenty of people trying E-Liquids and lots of reviewers and members of the press grabbing bottles which was great. Had some well known faces over such as Vaping Bogan, Grimm Green and Vaping with Vic at the stand trying our liquids and even grabbing some Roseus and Amalfi! High praise indeed.
As May taught us though, Friday is the “get a feel” day and abit more sedate, Saturday and Sunday were the days we were looking forward to!
Saturday morning, up bright and early… well, early and back to the NEC. Day started well as we met our good friend, Andy at Starbucks who it’s always a pleasure to see. After a brief catch up, back in we go for another day…. which couldn’t have started worse! Two minutes before opening, our power goes, nothing, zilch, nada, no lights or mains supply. Turns out our neighbours had knocked a connection killing power to 3 different stands.
The rest of Saturday passed in a blur, it was crazy and the Ohm Zone was manic, considerably busier than in May. Talked to hundreds of different people, saw thousands of different vape setups and devices and ran extremely low on a number of E-Liquids! Roseus Custard, Andreas Custard and our Limited Edition launch E-Liquid, Ostia all proved incredibly popular. The buzz in the Ohm Zone was electric though, lots of laughing, lots of chat and banter, it all had such a fantastic community feel to it that I’ve not experienced for years. I wanted to get off the stand and go and try some other E-Liquids and devices but simply didn’t get chance.
One thing that struck me was how closely all the small UK Vendors in the Ohm Zone stuck together and worked together. If we didn’t have something in particular that someone was looking for, be it a device or certain strength or flavour of E-Liquid, we’d suggest other vendors who may have them such as Infernal E-Liquids or Dino Sauce or Shytots or Deathwish and they were doing exactly the same for us, it all felt like such a team effort to support each other.
As Saturday came to a close, we were beat but luckily had planned to spend a night at a hotel on the NEC site to avoid having to travel back and forth again. If you ever visit Vaper Expo for the weekend, make sure you book a night at the Premier Inn NEC. We had a great evening having a few drinks and a meal with people from the Ohm Zone, different reviewers and just some great people. The plan was for an early night but, we were still sat in the bar as it was all closing up and we may have opened a bottle of Scotch in our room with friends… it happens!
Sunday was very much like Saturday but just abit less intense. As was my worry we did sell out of a couple of E-Liquid flavours so I’m sorry if you couldn’t get exactly what you wanted that day. Another day though spent laughing, chatting and just generally having fun, watching the mobility scooter racing did raise a few laughs!
There are a million other little things from over the Vaper Expo weekend I could mention, a hundred other people I should mention but it all went by in such a blur and felt like it was over as soon as it started. What I took away though was just a sense of good fun and community. The Ohm Zone really does seem to improve with each Expo and long may it continue.
The Vaper Expo will return in May 2024 with the Ohm Zone. Sadly I’m not sure if we can make this one due to being on holiday for the build day and the Business to Business day but I’m seeing what we can reshuffle or potentially sort out as I will miss just seeing everyone and being involved. Watch this space….
Want my advice? If you’re on the fence about attending Vaper Expo, give it a chance but head to the Ohm Zone - it’s where the community really is.
1 comment
Great write up of the event Chris, I was lucky enough to nab some of the Ostia before it sold out, an amazing recipe that should go full time in my opinion.