Anyone Ever Done a Taste of Home Cooking School Event?

[BakingNana]

We've been invited to have a booth for the upcoming Taste of Home Cooking School Women's Event, which is a national touring event sponsored by, of course, Taste of Home magazine. There is a vendor mall prior to the actual event; vendors cover all types of products from bath fittings to jewelry to candles, etc. The fee is steep-$525 for essentially 2 hours. 2,000 tickets have been sold for the event. I'm just not convinced it would be worth it for us. Opinions?

 

[soapbuddy]

That's pretty pricey for just two hours. How many people do they expect total, or is it only for those that purchase tickets?

 

[BakingNana]

It's only for ticket purchasers. With 2,000 tickets sold, I'd need to make good sales to over a quarter of the attendees. I feel like it'd be a real crapshoot. Unless someone out there has had great experience with an event like this, we'll probably pass. I think since we're being enthusiastically pursued by our newspaper for this and it's 3 weeks away, they're having a tough time filling all the booth spots.

In addition to the local fairs, we're having a booth at the Exchange at the air base here 2 Saturdays a month (GREAT deal there). That's enough for us at this point, I think. There are days I don't feel I have a life as it is! I'm right at that awkward point of needing help and not being able to afford it.

 

[soapbuddy]

Let's say that out of the 2,000 people, 1% buy a bar of soap. So that's 20 people. If each person buys a bar of soap @ $5 each, that's $100. Nowhere near to even cover the booth fee. I would pass, especially, if they are having a hard time selling all the booths.

 

[BakingNana]

Thanks, SB. It's so good to be able to bounce this kind of thing off other people who know what it's all about. Even if we counted it strictly as part of the advertising budget, I can probably spend that amount and reach a whole lot more than 2,000 people using other sources. I noticed going over the list of those already signed up that there are no strictly local businesses listed. The close as it gets to that are those that sell (and forgive me, here; I'm not sure what other word to use to describe them) pyramid style....Pampered Chef, Scentsy, jewelry companies, Mary Kay, etc. We're passing on it.

 

[soapbuddy]

I'm glad to hear that you're passing on it. None of those companies make handcrafted products.