Specialty Coffee Expo + FDIC (April 2024)
Over eleven days, this trip took me from Chicago to Indianapolis, working with Electric Soul on projects for two different clients. Both segments of the trip were centered around trade shows. The first stop was the Specialty Coffee Expo, which is the largest specialty coffee event in North America, and the second was FDIC International, which is the largest conference and trade show for the fire and rescue industry in North America.
Chicago
The main purpose of our trip was to document Bridge City Coffee as they attended the Specialty Coffee Expo after being honored as Roast Magazine’s 2024 Micro Roaster of the Year. It was a de facto reunion from our Honduras trip a few months earlier as everyone spent time at the Bridge City booth promoting the advantages of using Bext360‘s supply chain tracing technology.Â
We spent five days in Chicago as a lean, two person team capturing assets that will eventually be combined with what we gathered on our Honduras trip.
Indianapolis
After we were finished working in Chicago, we traveled to Indianapolis where we met up with the rest of the crew for FDIC. Over the next four days, we gathered assets for IDEX Fire and Safety. IDEX has multiple brands which are at the forefront of the fire protection industry and on this trip we were tasked with capturing material for HURST Jaws of Life and SAM. We filmed everything from sit-down interviews to general show b-roll, including car-cutting demos and equipment challenges.Â
Final thoughts
Trade shows are a different experience than most production environments. In both instances we were capturing unscripted, candid moments in a crowded, lively environment. Leaning into the spontaneity of the people who are around is where the magic moments are – not necessarily the perfectly planned frames like a normal commercial shoot.Â
