Sorry -- I have not been on the forum the last 1-1/2 weeks or so. Crapload of people at the show. I easily spooned out 2,500 samples of the caponatta my mom's friend had made. There were 3-4 of us in the booth most of the time; I 'plated' non-stop for two days while others stood in the aisle giving out samples, drawing in potential customers, etc.
There were a few booths with knives, but nothing like we're used to on the BBS. And I did not see any cutting boards.
95% of the people there were just interested in free food, but there were enough serious people around to make it worthwhile to try marketing a higher-end product.
Since the booth fee is $800+, I could see pooling together a couple makers/ vendors to share some space. And I think there would be a bit of interest in BoardSmith boards.
The lady working the booth next to ours spent ~15 years producing cooking shows for some well-know TV cooking personalities. She's interested in opening a storefront geared more towards serious cooks, since SlT, WS, etc. have veered more to gimicky stuff. She's very interested in carbon knives, old cast iron cookware, etc.
While I am not in the food business in any way, shape or form, we finished the weekend with a couple things worth following up on.
And yes, there was a HUGE display/ booth from the makers of the Fieri knives
Dave, please feel free to PM me or send me an email if you'd like more info about how the show was set up and how things went. I could see a booth next year sporting Boardsmith boards with one or two people there putting on cutting demos with knives from makers on KKF while Dave M does some sharpening along with an occassional talk about hand making knives and handles.