The Bolton Chamber of Commerce just attended the New York Women’s Expo at Sienna College in Albany – and it was so successful that we will be attending another expo shortly: the seventh annual Adirondack Sports & Fitness Summer Expo on March 9-10 at the Saratoga Springs City Center. (For more information visit www.adksports.com or call 518-877 8788, and 
see EXPO2!!)
An expo (an abbreviation of “exposition”) basically means a gathering of a large number of exhibitors and vendors, hoping to reach a targeted audience on a particular theme – all coming together at one place at one time, for the benefit of all concerned.
An expo is BIG – for example, the Women’s Expo had over 150 exhibits, and thousands of participants over two days. There was everything on display from auto dealers, banks, colleges, medical services, health screening booths, nutrition, fitness, all kinds of food, all kinds of fashion, jewelry, beauty makeovers, spot massages, civic groups, electronics, and vacations – just to name a few of the exhibiting booths.
From the time you walked in the whole place smelled great (wonderful food demonstrations and lovely perfumes) and sounded exciting (the exhibitors who did shows on the stage). There were giveaways at almost every booth, and prizes galore to register for.
Expo Sponsors attract exhibitors and vendors by the amount of advertising they do to bring in participants, and the areas in which that advertisement is concentrated: radio, television, billboard, print media and the internet. The Women’s Expo had a $75,000 marketing budget targeted for the Capital District, north to Glens Falls and east to Massachusetts – covering territory that single businesses could not easily do, and giving access to a huge number of interested people.
Audiences and participants are attracted by the number of exhibitors concentrated in one place – a great way to see who is offering the newest in products and services from all over the country. Often brand new businesses come to expos just to get their name and product out to the public. Expo participants often continue to purchase products and services they have sampled from the people they met in person.
The Women’s Expo started with the research that women make over 85% of household purchasing decisions. Now, that is a targeted audience that any vendor would love! And the women who come are offered an exciting event where they could “shop, learn, laugh, network, and gather information to make informed decisions…and have a lot of fun at the same time!”
The Bolton Chamber of Commerce booth raffled off a gift basket containing lots of goodies, including two tickets to the Girlfriend’s Getaway to be held at the Sagamore Resort (May 10-12, 2013) on beautiful Lake George; and $50 in Bolton Bucks to be spent while the lucky winner is here. Our booth also collected over 650 names and addresses that will be used for direct promotion of Bolton businesses and events; and we gave out over a thousand advertisements for the Bolton area.
Many people who stopped at the booth shared wonderful memories of vacationing with their families in Bolton Landing as children, and those who had never visited thought they just might come up and check us out this summer!
Do you visit “Expos”? What are your favorite kinds to go to? Do you get lots of “goodies” when you visit?
Penelope Jewell
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