Last week I went to my first NBAA-BACE, the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention and trade show. It was in the desert, at the convention center in Las Vegas, and I walked in a little nervous and a lot excited.
Several of my aviation clients had done a great job preparing me for what the trade show would be like. By the time I got there, I felt like I belonged. Bonfire Red has been doing award-winning work in the aviation sector for a long time, and I wanted to finally align a brand to that work.
Before the trip, my team and I built simple 5x7 handouts. Nothing fancy. Just a little taste of what we do in aviation, with QR codes that take people straight to individual case studies on our website. I'll admit I asked the team about swag, notebooks, pens, the usual stuff. We decided against it. The show was going to be full of chachkies, and ours would just end up in a tote bag. That turned out to be the right call. There was a ton of swag. Looking back, the handouts were the right size and the right quantity. They gave people something real to hold without weighing them down.They also gave me a way in. I didn't need to pull out a tablet or a laptop. I could start a conversation, let people see the work, and get them curious.
I think people appreciated that I wasn't trying to sell them anything. I was there to introduce myself, learn about the things that keep planes flying safely, and figure out who was out there. I made a lot of new friends, and I left hundreds of handouts behind.
What I'll say about the vibe is that it wasn't what I expected. In a good way. When I pictured private and commercial aviation executives, I pictured a room full of people who had no time for a branding guy. Instead, these people were incredibly welcoming. Many of them took the time to explain things to someone with no engineering background. And they were genuinely eager to learn what a branding and digital shop could do to spice up their GTM materials.
The aircraft were the highlight for me. The jets were out at Henderson Executive Airport, about a 30-minute shuttle ride from the convention center. There I toured a Bombardier Challenger 3500, and I have pictures I'm excited to share. I also saw the HondaJet Elite S and the HondaJet Elite 2. I toured a TBM 980, a single-engine turboprop, and I saw the Piper M700 Fury and the Pilatus PC-12 PRO. Someone who has spent this long around aviation work doesn't get to spend much time inside the aircraft themselves, so stepping into those cabins was a thrill.
The Aviat Husky A-1C-200 was the one that stuck with me. I befriended the folks behind it, one of my favorite aviation brands out there. I've always said that if I ever bought a plane, I'd want something that could get me deep into the backcountry, where I could go camping, fishing, and canoeing in places most people never get to see. Standing next to that airplane and talking about it was a treat.
I also came across an Aston Martin DBX at Henderson. Our team was part of the marketing release for that model at Aston Martin Newport Beach, so seeing it there felt like a small full-circle moment.
I came home tired, inspired, and fully convinced that showing up as yourself, with work worth looking at and no pitch in your pocket, still goes a long way.
Thanks to everyone who stopped to talk. I'm already looking forward to next year.