Gibsonton trade show & extravanza
I just returned from Florida but leaving Russia again. This time I will fly to Dubai. I really love this place, especially winter time. In Russia, there is a lot of snow, but in Dubai, the February is one of the best months! Not so hot, still sunny, you can swim, you can walk, you can lay on the beach. This type of weather is definitely my favorite.
Gulfood exhibition will start tomorrow, so I can leave feedback about Florida event in Gibsonton.
International Independent Showmen’s Association
It was IISA’s trade show and extravaganza. This event has 50’s anniversary – they started in 1969! At that time Gibsonton was carnival town – habitant made a lot of carnivals, fairs and trade shows. It was easy to meet an elephant in a backyard at that time.
Now, this moment of glory gone – Gibsonton is still a small town but it still has big trade show of IISA.
But It is not A-class show like IAAPA or Cinemacon. Much smaller (and much cheaper for participants).
But for me, It was important to show – I understood something new. Before IISA trade show and extravanza I believed that nowadays customers finding goods and equipment on the Internet. But in Gibsonton, I realized that even in America there are a lot of people, who don’t use the Internet. I asked my neighbor from Wapelo how he looking for customers through Internet and Social Media. He said: “I don’t use them. I even have no registration on Facebook”.
To be honest, there were a lot of old (60-70-year-old) customers – owners of small and medium companies. For example, this one is 92 years old!
But the most interesting is that everyone left the exhibition with new orders! It means this people “out of Internet” exists and spends money! If you don’t participate exhibition like Gibsonton IISA trade show and extravaganza – you have no chance to find them! For me, this is a big lesson, because in September I going to move to the USA.
Some pictures from the exhibition:
This trailers costs 100.000-250.000$ and bring up to 15.000$ of income per day during fair or carnival.
I was surprised that there a lot of small family companies who made fun food equipment business in the USA. In Russia, we don’t have a family business, because of a lot of revolutions.
On the last day, I took a car and go to Tampa Bay. Very nice place – I love the smell of ocean!
