The National Hardware Show was in town for three days last week at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is a 71-year-old show with lots of international representation even though the attendees are typically from U.S. retail stores.

The trade show is held in conjunction with the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA) All-Industry Conference which presents speakers on the NRHA Village Stage. Among the topics: “Think You’re Meeting Your Customers’ Expectations? Don’t Count on it!” and “Licensing Your Product to a Large Manufacturer.” Co-locating with the National Hardware Show was the Lancaster Buying Show at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. Lancaster is a distributor of paint-related products.

Networking is a part of any convention or trade show. Such opportunities were available at free breakfasts the first two days of the show and at Happy Hour get-togethers at the end of each day’s show.

Exhibitors had taken spaces inside and outside the Las Vegas Convention Center. Expected attendance was around 30,000 people.

Most conventions feature celebrities, and the listing of celebrities for last Thursday contained only two names I recognized: Bob Vila, the original home improvement reality star, and actor Lorenzo Lamas. For some reason, this show, I made a point to visit the celebrities.

Bob Vila was at the show introducing a line of branded products, part of the Viatek Consumer Products Group. When I arrived, I was told he had just left – early – to catch a plane. The good news: I was given one of the remaining Vila-authored books that had been signed to give to customers.

So no Bob Vila. Next I walked way across the show floor to find Lorenzo Lamas. Yes, I know he is too young for me; I was a fan of his parents, Fernanda Lamas and Arlene Dahl. Nonetheless, I trekked across the show floor wondering what Lorenzo was doing in the Excalibur Cleaning Supplies booth. He wasn’t doing much, I discovered. In fact, I didn’t realize he was even there and had to ask, “Where is your celebrity?” I was then directed to a man sitting in the corner looking at the floor. That was Lorenzo.

He quickly got up (tall, nice looking, wearing an Excalibur hat, short hair) and told me he wasn’t at the booth selling anything and pointed me to a another man at the booth. I told him I really wasn’t a buyer and wondered what he was doing at the show. He said his wife is a friend of another gal working the booth and he came along as a favor. He didn’t have much else to say so he asked if I would like a signed picture. “Sure.” I took a short video of him signing and moved on. After the fact I Googled Lorenzo and discovered I should have been more enthusiastic; he had appeared in every episode of the old TV series Falcon Crest, and I think I watched all the episodes.

Celebrities aside, most of my time at the Hardware Show was spent looking at products in the Central Hall and in the Convention Center silver lot. Among my favorite products were the grills that now can act as smokers and even bakers. You’ll see what I saw in the attached video.