NASFT's annual Winter Fancy Food Show moves to San Diego this year, providing a much-needed economic boost for a city still rebuilding from a fiery October.

NASFT says its fancy food shows typically attract 19,000 to 32,000 attendees, including representatives from specialty food, wine, gift, and department stores, supermarkets, restaurants, mail-order and other related businesses.

An impressive percentage of those attendees come not just to nosh on free samples, but to make a wholesale buying decision. NASFT says 87% have buying authority.

Here’s the breakdown on job titles:

34%: Owner/CEO/President
14% Sales/Marketing
13% VP/GM/Director
11% Buyer/Purchasing Manager
9% Department Manager
5% Chef
14% Other

The association’s tally for the 2007 Winter Fancy Food Show included:

3,922 specialty food retailers
1,741 chefs, restauranteurs and hoteliers
220 bakers
640 deli owners
1,009 gift store buyers
632 caterers
375 candy store buyers
690 supermarket buyers.

The 2008 show will have more than 1,100 exhibitors, with the usual large percentage of company founders and product innovators on hand to discuss all their latest creations.

Along with the traditional West Coast skew (fewer tiny East Coast companies, more tiny West Coast firms) this year’s exhibitor list also features a notably large list of firms with products from Australia and Chile.

These shows provide the opportunity to make the kinds of face to face contacts that will create a stronger connection and better success with all those post-show phone calls.

They also provide the opportunity to taste the gourmet food items directly, something you still can’t do on the internet.