Fireman Convention

I spent this weekend at the FDIC (Fire Department Instructors Conference) Convention in Indianapolis, somewhere in the middle of 340,000 square feet of convention space with over 900 vendors. It was pretty overwhelming to say the least.

Why was I there? Because Black Diamond has an excellent marketing campaign for their X-Boot. The idea is that fire boots by themselves are not exciting, so Black Diamond decided to make their booth a little more interesting. What would attract more than 35,000 firefighters and EMTs, most of which are male? Models. It was my job to let everyone know who the models were and talk to people as they passed by.

The models were Aubrie Lemon (Deal or No Deal Case 23) and Carrie Stroup (Maxim). They were both very fun to work with. I believe my favorite line was, "Aubrie's been on TV and Carrie... owns a TV, so come say hi." It was amazing to me how these firefighters would run into a burning building but were reluctant to talk to Aubrie or Carrie.

Aubrie and Carrie thought it'd be funny to get my camera and take some candid pictures on the last day.

I think those two signs pretty much say it all:
Training in Progress and Emergency Scene Ahead.

One of the many self-portraits the girls took. It reminded me of the Ashton Kutcher Nikon Coolpix commercial, except I'm not Ashton Kutcher and none of those girls stuck their tongue out.

The last of the self-portraits was of Carrie's right eye. On the flight to Indianapolis, she accidentally put nail glue in her eye instead of eye drops. I am still not quite sure exactly how that can happen but it cleared up by the end of the weekend for our group picture.