The food show itself was well-attended by the regular business types (food-buying triads could be seen moving through the crowds), the food-loving public, and the industry itself.  The show was massive...two large halls completely filled wall-to-wall with booths and packed with people the both days we attended. If you're presenting at a booth, it's a show of playing your cards: Are you gong to stand pat with what has made you successful up to this point, or are you going to show your hand and display new product your company has developed in R&D over the last year, knowing that after showing comes stealing.  The trend in the candy business we observed seems to be a product that's a mix of an airy crisp (think rice crispies, popcorn, etc.) with nuts or chocolate bits held together with corn syrup or another binding sweet liquid and some sort of seasoning (everything from nutmeg to chipotle)...maybe on a stick.  So many things on a stick!  Okay, we get the stick idea!  And while this may answer all that matters to a candy company trying to make value-oriented products that have good cost numbers...we'll stick with our approach used to create our newest butter crunch flavors. We don't think there's anything old-fashioned about aiming for new products with high quality ingredients.

As our buddy Walt used to say it:  "And that's the way it is..."