How The Taste And Trade Came To BeEditor's Note: The following is the first in a three-part series about the area's Taste and Trade Expo. The first part is about how the expo got started.
The Taste and Trade Expo will enter its third year Oct. 16 and 17 at the Orthopaedic Capital Center on the campus of Grace College.
The cost is $3 a person while children under 12 get in free. There will be door prizes as well as a grand prize of a trip to three different locales. The grand prize was donated by Embarq.Each vendor will also have giveaways.
"We were looking at ways to promote business in the area," said Kim Nance of Kosciusko Development Inc.
Trina Hoy, director of communication and events with the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce, said the idea of the event came up to help fill the void of the now-defunct Taste Of Kosciusko.
"These are local businesses that also support our community," said Nance. "We're always looking for ways to promote local business."
The first year of the expo, in 2007, the expo received a grant from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation to help get it started.
"We couldn't afford to lose money on it," said Hoy. "The grant was a great way to help (the expo) get going."
KDI and the chamber have worked together on the expos with the chamber taking the lead due to having more employees.
In the expo's first year, there were 75 booths of local business, but the attendance was low.
In the second year there was a shift in businesses having a booth, but there was a boost in attendance.
This year there will be 79 booths and the attendance is supposed to be higher than the previous two years.
There were lessons learned from the first year.
"We didn't have art exhibits the first year," said Hoy. "We're doing more advertising and there is a lot of entertainment."
"We also learned a lot from the builders association show," said Michelle Goble, Chamber Of Commerce.
One thing that has helped the expo is the presence of the Orthopaedic Capital Center.
"We wouldn't have been able to hold this event if it weren't for the Orthopaedic Çapital Center," said Nance.
"Grace College has also been really great about allowing us to do the expo at a discounted rate. Otherwise, we probably couldn't afford to hold the expo," added Nance.
While Nance, Goble, Hoy, Kathy Patchison and Joy McCarthy-Sessing work to get ready for this year's expo, much of the work starts much earlier.
"We start working on the expo around March," said Hoy.
The next part in the three-part series will deal with businesses who have used the expo to help market themselves.
