I just got back home from ECC 2016. It was a great time, full of excellent people, interesting products, and a few surprises. I have plenty of previews to write and photos to post from the event, but before I get to that, I wanted to talk about the show as a whole. The best word to describe it was surprising. Here’s a brief breakdown of ECC 2016.
Bigger Than I Was Expecting
Given California’s new laws — no vaping indoors and a higher vaping age of 21 — I was expecting a relatively small show. While ECC 2016 was certainly smaller than the gargantuan expo in Pomona last year, it was bigger than I thought it would be. There were more companies and more attendees than I expected, which is a credit to the show’s organizers. Several of my industry colleagues were similarly surprised.
The word on the show floor was that ECC 2016 will be the last major vaping event in California, given the new restrictions. If that’s the case, at least California vape shows went out on a strong note. Hopefully that’s not the case and there will be more great California vaping expos in the future.
Less Vape Mooches
Whether it was due to the outdoor venue or having older attendees, I was delighted to see less vaping mooches at ECC 2016. In past California vaping conventions, shows were plagued by ingrates that walked from booth to booth asking for free stuff. Many weren’t even respectful about it, ignoring the hard work that went into creating new vaping hardware and e-liquids. They simply walked up to a booth, with little to no knowledge of the product, asking, “What do you have for free?” While I’m sure there were leeches at the show, I don’t recall seeing any egregious offenders. That’s a good thing.
Brrrrrr
ECC 2016 was easily the coldest vaping event I’ve covered. The organizers couldn’t do anything about this, since none of them are weather-controlling mutants (I think). While the weather in Southern California is almost always wonderful, the Friday and Saturday of ECC 2016 were on the chilly side (for SoCal). I felt bad for the models wearing short shorts and barely-there t-shirts. Thankfully, Sunday was considerably warmer. If there are California vaping shows in the future, hopefully they take place some time between April and November.
Stay Tuned
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve lots of previews and photos coming soon. Be sure to bookmark this link to keep up with all the RPadTV coverage from ECC 2016. For now, here are a few shots from the show.
