Backyards, Bourbon, and Baja

How Promocations landed in Los Cabos, Mexico

As I write this, my Promocations business partner Josh Robbins and I are hosting our fourth event, but this one’s a little different. For the first time, we’ve taken our wildly relationship-focused concept and planted it on solid ground. More specifically, in Los Cabos, Mexico. Sun, sand, strategy, and possibly a little tequila.

Personal Aside: we did not choose Los Cabos for its proximity to Sammy Hagar's legendary bar, Cabo Wabo. However, that doesn't mean I'm not carving out time to make a pilgrimage to this mescal Mecca.

This is our first land-based Promocations event, and to be honest, it still gives me the same jolt of excitement (and mild exhaustion) as our very first voyage on the PromoCruise. It also has me thinking (as things often do), how the hell did we get here?

The short version? Grit, willpower, tenacity, and more planning meetings than most have in a lifetime.

The extended dance version starts, as many good ideas do, with a bourbon-fueled conversation in my backyard - aka, The Back Forty. Josh and I were discussing industry networking events and how they could, perhaps should, be done better. As a longtime supplier, he’d been to more than a few, and I’d certainly done my fair share of walking exhibit halls and awkwardly circling buffet tables. We both felt the same thing: they weren’t bad, but they weren’t meaningful or memorable.

That conversation was different from the ones we had before: the frustration was deeper, the ideas were sharper, and by the end of that afternoon, we had sketched out what would become Promocations.

What followed wasn’t easy. We had to:

• Create and position a brand-new networking model

• Identify and secure truly remarkable destinations

• Build trust with third-party vendors for housing, transport, and logistics

• Craft a schedule that put people - and relationships - first

• Develop an app (yes, from scratch) to enhance the experience

• Convince the promo industry to take a chance on something different

That list barely scratches the surface. Anyone who’s planned even a small gathering knows how detail-intensive it can be. Now imagine planning an immersive, multi-day, full-sensory experience on sea (and, today, on land).

I’d be lying if I said we weren’t nervous before our first event. Back in April of 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, we stood on the dock, excited and thoroughly wrung out. And yet, by the end of that week, we knew we had something special.

What we saw during and after that first PromoCruise wasn’t just laughter, fun, and sunburns (though there were plenty of all three). We witnessed new connections being formed, resulting in authentic and lasting friendships through honest conversations. And over the following months? Business growth for every attendee.

Promocations works because it doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. It’s built on a single principle: that genuine relationships fuel the promotional products industry. And relationships aren’t built in 10-minute booth visits or over stale muffins in a hotel ballroom.

This week, we bring that same energy to Los Cabos.

We’ve swapped cabins for casitas and cruise decks for oceanfront terraces, but the mission hasn’t changed. If anything, we’re doubling down on what matters most: time together, shared experiences, and creating space for honest, valuable connections.

So, we are back at it, and this time, there are no nerves - just intention.

Because when you start with the right people, in the right place, with the right purpose, you don’t just build a great event.

You build a movement.