My daughter and I spent the day yesterday wandering around this great exhibition. She spent some time trying out her skills on the flow rider. We took in the great shows, including the Super Dog show, always a fun time. The miniature horses were sooo cute. I think one of my cats is bigger than some of them!! lol
The Food Building is self-explanatory. My daughter and I both being adventurous, tried out a few new items, and indulged in the familiar chicken shwarma with a wonderful sweet finish of baklava. Yum Yum!!
Of course we had to check out the International Building, which is chock-full of incredible products from around the world. You have to know your merchandise and your prices to survive this part of the exhibition with your wallet still heavy enough to buy lunch; but, its well worth wandering around and looking at all the great stuff. One vendor of particular note, was offering hand-made hats, mitts, scarves, sweaters etc all 100% alpaca wool!! Incredible! And quite affordable as most of the sweaters were in the $50-60 range. We also met a very nice gentleman who was demonstrating all-natural body products. He showed us a mint body and face wash, a mud and gold flake masque and a wonderful moisturizer. We didn't buy, but will definitely check out his products later online and likely purchase some later on. He said they have a shop in Hamilton.....we were like, "really?" LOL We live in Hamilton. Another place we stopped at hailed from Grimsby. It seemed that even though we were in Toronto, we were oddly attracted to vendors from our own neighbourhood.
Moving on to the Arts and Crafts building, we found so many talented people offering so many cool and unique items; it was starting to get hard to keep the cash in my pocket. We decided to start collecting business cards instead, so we could check out the vendors online, for purchases later. I was very surprised that not all of the vendors had business cards or a web site.
I have no formal training in marketing, however, I do know that the best way to get the word out about your products is to talk about what you do to everyone you know and to always have at the very least, business cards on hand in case anyone asks for it. I could be wrong, but my thinking is that if you are paying for a vendors table or booth at a fair or festival or exhibition, its extremely important to realize the full potential of the event. The potential for sales are not limited to just the event, because many visitors like myself, will use the event as a time to explore and inquire about new products, collecting information and contact the vendor later to make a purchase. In addition, if I liked something in particular, I will tell my peers about what I saw and again another possible sales opportunity for the vendor. BUT! If you don't have a business card; this can't happen!
In addition to the business card, anyone who has a product or service to sell should have a web site. There are tons of free web site hosting services on the internet. It costs nothing except your time to setup a one page site with your basic product details, a few nice pictures and contact information for prospective buyers to find out.
As you know, I am a graphic and web designer; and if you don't know how to design your card or web site, this I can do for you!!
The other item of interested that I noted is that the website for the CNE does not offer detailed information or contact information for any of the vendors at the show. I think that adding this to their web site would generate more interest by fair-goers. AND, the CNE could offer this service to the vendors for an additional fee. All that would be needed is a simple listing of the vendor/company name, the product and a link to the vendor's web site. Think of the possibilities!!
All in all, I had a really great day, and so did my daughter. I can't wait till next year!!
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