A seller's market: festivals and expos help businesses take their show on the road.

• Author: Haraldsen, Tom

In 1980, the owner of a Salt Lake City radio station developed a concept to attract business from a sector that wasn't advertising--the health and fitness industry. From gymnasiums to sporting equipment retailers to health food stores, he wanted to lure their participation and make a few bucks on the side.

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He created the first, and as it turned out, only health and fitness fair sponsored by his station (which is now defunct). The show offered booth space in the gymnasium of a local high school and sold out quickly. It didn't hurt that this expo ran concurrently with the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, when American speed skater Eric Heiden won five gold medals and the U.S. hockey team made history by beating the heavily-favored Russians for the gold. Patriotism and interest in athletics were running high in the country at that time, and attendance at the expo was brisk.

Though the expo was never held again, many of its exhibitors realized the power of taking their products out of store fronts and into the public--of taking their show on the road. And the concept has increased in popularity ever since. Each year, dozens of expos, festivals and other events are held in Utah. Some are as small as an arts festival in a local community, or as large as the Outdoor Retailer Market and ISE International Sportsmen's Exposition, both held at the Salt Palace Convention Center. At every expo, the goal of participants is the same: exposure of products and services to a segment of the public that might not otherwise see them, and the chance to network with other entrepreneurs.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Expo mechanics are fairly general from show-to-show. Retailers and manufacturers rent booth spaces bordered by pipe and drape, for anywhere from $200 to several thousand dollars, depending on the size of the booth and the show. Attendees circulate through various booths at the shows, where literature, samples, demonstrations and other information is available. For the exhibitor, additional costs include collateral materials, travel time, taking product or inventory off the sales floor for display, and, of course, manpower. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? The answer seems to be yes.

"Oktoberfest at Snowbird is the best advertising we've ever done," says Jeanette Wenzel, who along with her husband Helmut, owns the Edelweiss Gift Shop in Centerville. "We've done Oktoberfest for 18 to 20 years or so, and it's a natural...