I have no regrets attending the 2012 Small Business Expo held at the California Market Place last November 8th. As soon as I walked in the entrance, they had someone dressed in business attire dancing on a platform. I thought to myself, now this is the type of expo I want to be in. Just because it’s about business, it doesn’t have to be so serious.
We were then instructed to ride the elevator all the way to the penthouse floor. As soon as I walked in, the energy was high and the check in process was a breeze with my pre-printed badge. There were so many booths to visit, I immediately felt overwhelmed with so much information.
I quickly came up with a system of collecting everything I can in my small business expo bag – I know, not much of a “system”. But I got there at noon and I wish I had came earlier because I didn’t finish networking with all the vendors (smh moment).
There were a few things I looked out for:
- Possible businesses or business owners I can work with
- Ideas for a vendor booth
- FREE giveaways
- Free information
- New trends that I may not know about
- Vendors and companies offering referral incentives
The VIP workshops were all so relevant that I was disappointed there was not enough time to attend each one. The only one I attended was the CRM – Customer Relationship Management – How to get your customers to keep coming back.
A few of the vendors I really liked were:
- Do it in Person Booth – they hired professional models who attracted most of the men. They also had a photo booth which was a nice touch for post marketing purposes. They are a competitor of EventBrite.com
- PayPal – they came out with a credit card reader to compete with square.
- Web Commercial Pro – offered free 30 sec. professional videos to anyone who wanted to create one.
There were hundreds of vendors and needless to say, I cannot wait to attend the next expo in town.
Mae Day Marketing 