Organic Expo Post Mortem

I was going to say Eureco merely survived the Organic Expo and Green show held last weekend at the Sydney Convention Centre. But the truth is that Eureco were an outstanding success!

Thursday saw us haul the stand mock up from the Bolton living room into the Convention Centre, only to discover upon arrival that they had not fully laid the floor in our stand. By the time we had picked up printing, afternoon tea and another van load the floor was done, thank goodness!

Fixing our floor!

Worth mentioning for Thursday was how great we all looked in our high visibility orange fluro vests! We also met neighbouring stand holders Will, with his business Every Man Jack as well as Erik and his deliciously masochistic Swedish Healing Mats.

The bump-in team

Friday was the first day of the show, and we arrived early to put the finishing touches on our stand. (The stand looked amazing, by the way). Being trade and media day, we were pleased to chat to lots of prospective Eureco stockists and other interested people.

Our fantastic stand set up

On Saturday the expo was open to the public... and the public came. I arrived 5 minutes before the doors opened and had to fight my way through to the entrance -the public were keen!

Megan and Hen

Saturday also saw the launch of "Robe Girl" or Hen, if we reveal her actual name. Swathed in a purple (nocturne) coloured bamboo robe, Hen wandered around the expo handing out Eureco leaflets and generally attracting all kinds of attention. She overheard this conversation between two expo visitors:

Girl 1: "Oh my god, have you touched her robe yet?"

Girl2: "No."

Girl 1: "I touched it earlier and it feels amazing."

It sounded funnier when Hen recounted the dialogue, maybe I'm missing something. Anyway, Hen did a fantastic job, as many people approached the stand after meeting Robe Girl and being informed about how great bamboo robes and towels were!

Frances and "The Girls"

Just as the expo was about to close on Saturday evening, the organisers told us that the Channel 7 program Weekend Sunrise would be broadcasting live from the expo the next morning. From 7am.

So at 8am on Sunday I, (that is, MEGAN) was at the expo, taking one for the Eureco team. I thought the Swedish Healing Mat people would attract attention of the TV crew, so I put on Hen's robe and took on the role of Robe Girl for the morning, waiting for the action to come to me. However, despite their charms the Swedes didn't get the crew over to their stand and we had to settle for 3 seconds of fame along with all the other stand holders. Yes, I was on Sunrise, telling the nation about Eureco. I thought I was safe, no one I knew would be up at that hour on a Sunday... I was wrong.

My personal camera shyness and early morning issues aside, having Sunrise at the Expo achieved an overwhelmingly popular response, as Sunday's crowds were a force to be reckoned with. We changed our promo and offered 20% off across the board for the last day of the expo, which proved very popular with the punters.

Frances with her pink towels

Hen aka Robe Girl had a run in with security, as a result of certain inter-stand rivalry fuelled by ugly jealousy (theirs, not ours). So she was relegated back to the ranch for the afternoon, which was great as she stepped up and processed sales along with the rest of us!

Every day of the Expo we ran a competition from our stand, where people signing up to our newsletter could go into the draw to win a bamboo towel bundle. Here are the three lucky winners:
Day 1 ~ M. Knowles, Russellvale NSW
Day 2 ~ N. Hargrave, Maroubra NSW
Day 3 ~ S. Rees, Point Piper, NSW
Look out for your prize in the mail!

And the winner is...?

So that was the end of a successful Organic Expo, and our hot trade show debut! On behalf of Frances, many, many thanks go out to the Eureco family, whose generous help and support made Eureco's expo debut the success that it was. Thanks not only for the help getting Eureco physically in and out of the expo, but for the 6 weeks of mania preceding it.
Thanks to Graham, Amy, Sophie, Mum Bolton, Kathy and Hen.