The Trade Mission Cowboy Hat
I wore my good cowboy hat to a trade show overseas, and by the end of the week it had been tried on by half the people in the building.
I was invited to a food trade show in a big convention hall overseas, and I had the good sense to bring my best hat. It is a tan felt hat I bought for my daughter's wedding, and I keep it in a box on a shelf. I figured it would help me stand out. It stood out like a lighthouse.
On the first morning a man approached my booth, pointed to the hat, and asked a question I did not understand. I nodded. He took off his own cap, held out his hand, and I realized he wanted to try mine. I handed it over. He put it on, grinned and posed for a photograph with the whole booth next to us.
By lunch there was a line. I am serious. About thirty people stood politely along the aisle, waiting for a turn. A woman in a dark suit wore the hat for a full minute without smiling and then handed it back and said, in perfect English, "It suits me." I said it did. An elderly man tried it and told me through his translator that he now understood Texas.
At the end of the day my hat had been worn by a chef, two importers, a bank officer, a priest and a very small child. I discovered that the hat had done more selling than my brochure. People who had walked past my cheese for two days stopped to ask about it. The sample table was empty by four.
I checked in with the federal trade office before the trip, and they covered the booth rules. They did not cover hats. I came home with a long list of new contacts and a hat that smelled faintly of coffee and cologne. I put a note about it on farm.FM. I wear it now only to weddings and shows, and my wife says it has seen more of the world than I have.