5 Ways To Make The Most of Expo West

Jordan Buckner: [00:00:00] Expo West is coming up and it's like the Super Bowl for CPG. While I won't be there this year, I invited on Heather Holmes to really share some tips and suggestions on how to make the most of attending the show. Heather, welcome on today. 

Heather Holmes: I seriously cannot believe Expo West is so soon. 

Jordan Buckner: I know. It's like, as we're recording this, it's like a couple weeks away.

And, you know, I think at this stage, people know, generally, if they're going or if they're not going, right? If you have a booth, you definitely need to sign up and everything. And I think there's probably two things that I want to talk about, right? Like, for those people who have a booth at the show or a couple weeks away, what are some of the things they need to think about to make the most of it?

And then for those who are walking the show, what are some of the considerations that they can have to actually make sure it's a worthwhile event? Yeah, we'll start with the first one. So maybe we'll just start like overall. So what are some of the things that you see brands doing that are really helpful as you're just thinking about going into the show?

Heather Holmes: So a couple things I think is [00:01:00] that they're starting to promote Expo West on social media and LinkedIn. So my favorite brands are sharing teasers on LinkedIn. They're sharing behind the scenes of their booth and what they're doing. So to me, Expo West is not only the event in itself, It's the pre promotion before Expo West, and it's the post Expo West exposure that you're going to get.

So I think you need to start promoting Expo West that you're going to be there. Stop by your booth. Start, you know, unveiling to your community what you're going to be doing at Expo West. Are you going to have a really cool experiential experience? Because all the industry publications are now starting to look at LinkedIn.

The hash tag Expo West to see what people are talking about. So, the 1st thing is, you need to start talking about Expo West and saying that you're going to be there from a B to B relationship, industry, press, retail, investor, press. You need to start talking about it on. LinkedIn, if you have a boost, you should [00:02:00] write a news release to typically when you have a booth.

Expo West will give you all of the media members and influencers that are at the show for you to reach out to and say, Hey, we're going to be at the booth. We would love for you to stop by. So this is something that you really need to start working on now and just sending an email to everyone, having them stop by your booth.

So there's opportunities for them to know about your brand. In addition, potentially cover you, 

Jordan Buckner: I think that, you know, one thing I find is most people go into a show, whether they have a booth or not, I think, like, let's just see what happens right at the show and things will magically appear.

And I always talk with brands around, like. Going into any trade show, but especially Expo West, which is really expensive, you need to come into it having a clear goal of what you're trying to accomplish there. And I always say like having a primary goal and then maybe a few secondary goals, but you need to kind of detail out what that looks like.

And generally they're around, right? Like meeting buyers and distributors to ultimately make sales, finding [00:03:00] ingredient suppliers, maybe just building your brand awareness so that people. Press and incubators, consultants kind of seek you out to write stories about you. Maybe it's turning industry insiders into customers.

And maybe it's just like to network with other founders and supporters in person, but like having a clear sense of like what you want to get out of it will help you prepare for, as you're saying, like the pre work that you need to do and how to cater that messaging and story, right? 

Heather Holmes: There's so much pre work that can be done too, and I'm even talking about What parties are you going to go to?

What brands are you going to meet with that you could potentially do a giveaway or a collaboration with in the future? There's so many slack communities, there's Foodbevy, where you could literally post say, hey, guys, I run this chocolate company. I would love to meet with like minded people and people want to meet with other.

So you just really have to take initiative. But on the pitching side when I went to fancy foods, I write for like, 300 plus publications. I was astonished with like their, I was probably only like only [00:04:00] 10 brands pitched me and only one of them that follow ups. So not as many people are pitching pre trade show and no one's doing follow ups.

So there's a huge opportunity for you as a founder to have your team get some pre exclosure to new relationships prior to the trade show, because if you wait to do outreach until the trade show, most of the time after the show, no one's checking their phone, service sucks. A lot of the pre planning is done now, reaching out to brands that you want to build relationships with, reaching out to investors, reaching out to media, all the pre work is done now.

And then I also think too, it's the optics of it, starting to share on LinkedIn, excited, we're going to be at Expo West. Consier team and Expo West, start sharing what you're going to be having as a booth at Expo West. And then its content if your whole team is on a plane, and then you ship all your food and get content to create a reel for your consumers, right?

There's some content that's [00:05:00] more appropriate on the B2B side for LinkedIn, but Your consumers want to realize that you're growing and like it's a positioning statement and that you can say we are at the largest national products expo debuting our new product. So everything can be made bigger than it is.

Jordan Buckner: I love that part on sharing those genuine stories behind just like the everyday in the brand because I think. You're right. Like that's what people are responding to. They want to know the behind the scenes. They want to know like your successes, but they also want to know like the problems that happen because it makes you feel relatable and your products feel relatable.

And when you're relatable, those are the people who are buying your products or sharing the word about your products and want to get it out. And I love that idea of like really. Reaching out to press insiders, people that you want to meet at the show because those people are making their list now.

And a lot of times if they hear about you, they might plan to specifically come by your booth or if not, they're walking the show and they're like, oh, so and so message me. And then we got back to [00:06:00] them. But let me stop by because I have that initial kind of point of contact that will make me. Stop by their booth, learn more and potentially do a feature or learn from them as well.

So I'd love that too. What else do you have in terms of people who are like walking the show? Let's say you don't have a booth. What else can you do if to help get some attention or meet the right people if you just have a ticket? 

Heather Holmes: So, It's again announcing on LinkedIn that you're going to be there.

It's still taking content that you're on the plane from Philly to California to the biggest natural product show. It's still getting content of yourself. Hey guys, it's Heather. I'm here from publicity for good at Expo West. It's still getting content. But then it's also, I would say if you're walking the show from a strategic perspective, I would look at booths to see what people are doing to learn.

And I'd also try to build relationships with other brands who are ahead of you. Or brands who maybe have the same consumer, but you're not a competitor to really see if you could do [00:07:00] giveaways with them and really work together to have a bigger impact with your brand. But to me, it's all about those intentional relationships.

And when I look at trade shows, we have to be really strategic with our time. And I always look at what relationships do I need to nurture or go deeper on and or who are the relationships that never respond to my text messages or emails, but could really open up a lot of doors and that. I should wait an hour until I can meet with them.

Right? Like, you have to be strategic. But there's some relationships are bigger and you're not going to build a relationship on zoom via email and you need to be able to wait an hour to talk to them versus just, you know, the people that you want to see, but you don't need to spend as much time with them.

Like, you really need to have a roadmap of your intentionality. And like you said, your outcome in that looking at your relationships. It's. Which relationships do you want to nurture? Which relationships do you want to go deeper with? And who is going to be there, but you don't really know, [00:08:00] but you're willing to wait a couple hours or an hour to meet with them.

Right? Like, is it an investor? Of course, an investor might have back to back meetings. And you're going to have to wait a couple hours to meet with them, but is that worth it? You know, so you really need to have clarity otherwise. The whole day could end and you have nothing to show for it. Like, outcome based relationships, then like, I would say being really intentional with what your ask is versus like, you could walk away with a hundred business cards, but then what's the outcome of it?

Like, we have to be super intentional. 

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, I think that's the biggest problem with this trade show in particular and others because of the cost a lot of people will come away saying like, Oh, was it worth it? And I'm like, I don't know. I talked to some people. I have some business cards. Like one person said, maybe they'll buy.

And it just feels like a big disappointment let down. And so the best way that you can do is, as you just said, like, be proactive, actually make a list of, I want to meet these 10 people or these 10 brands and make [00:09:00] a point and schedule that in your day to see what it will take to do that and then do the pre work to reach out, send a couple of emails, a couple of pitches, tag them on social on LinkedIn so that you can get a little bit of time with them so that at the end of the show, you can come away and say, Hey, I met Eight out of a 10 people that I wanted to with a show, and I gave him this picture of this ask, and now I can follow up after the show.

I'm like, closing that. That's a much better story than like, I showed up. I talked to a couple people, but that was it. And I think that that makes the difference between the brands who have a successful show and even like, Anyone who's attending where you're a service provider or brand or working with a company of like, if it was a successful show or not, is if you have the goals to measure that success and have you proactively took those things into your own hands.

Heather Holmes: Yeah, and Expo West is just one of those things. It's a part of the process. Like sometimes really big partnerships take years and years and years to develop or do business [00:10:00] together. So. A lot of it is just the intentionality, but it's like having faith and knowing that if you're asking people, like, how can you help them?

And you're going in with your intentions and your pre planning and you do your work before expo. Right, you're going to be successful, but again, it's the. Free work that you do, it's getting the content saying that your business is going to be there. It's maximizing every opportunity example.

1 of my favorite brands that we've partnered with is net pod and I love Madeline, the founder. So example, if I were to run into her again and catch up with her, I also would ask if we get a photo together. Because it's content too, right? And that's amazing content that I could post on LinkedIn to talk about my story of getting to partner with Madeline and Nutpods and growing her business and helping with PR and how I value Nutpods.

So, right? Think about getting content too, because then it starts getting your name on the map. That you're doing really big things too. So it's, you know, like, to me, it's the full circle. It's building relationships, asking people how you can help. It's going deeper with [00:11:00] relationships, and nurturing the relationships that you have, and then it's just getting content.

Getting photos, right? Like, you have your own podcast and you're utilizing that to meet amazing people. I love podcasts because it allows you to connect with people that you otherwise might not because you have a platform. So if you can view yourself as a founder, as someone that Has their own followers and you meet a cool person and you promote them on your LinkedIn account, and now you're providing them service and you're elevating them and helping them reach more people too.

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, I love that. So here's another question. What would you say for the people in the industry who can't attend Expo West? How can they still take advantage of the. Increase attention in the industry around kind of this show to help create content or move things forward. Are there things that they can do, even if they're not going to be there?

Heather Holmes: Oh, absolutely. So there's a couple of things like all of the education. I think you typically can still watch the education and seminars or buy a [00:12:00] ticket and watch virtually. The second thing is there have been so many events that I haven't attended. But I've still utilized the hashtag. I've still engaged in the conversation.

I've still found influencers that were using the hashtag that I reached out to. So on , Instagram you can literally search ExpoLust or ExpoLust 2025 and engage with influencers, engage with media, reach out to people. You could still do a giveaway, you know, during Expo West with other brands and all those things.

You can't necessarily capitalize on any Expo West press because they'll do, like, roundups and hot products at Expo West, but you can still search the hashtag, join in the conversation, reach out to influencers that are utilizing the hashtag to reach out to them to see if they can review your product.

Jordan Buckner: Yeah, I love that. And I think there's still some like conversations that are happening on LinkedIn as well. So I think like during the actual show, a lot of people like they're not checking their phones or quite seeing what's going on. [00:13:00] But I do think there are also the people who are. Not at the show, they're actually probably more likely to be on linked in at that time as well.

And sometimes there's buyers, sometimes other industry people. And so you can actually still get a fair amount of attention from the people who cannot attend by posting like news, what's going on, what your updates are and get that attention. And then I think also just like recognizing that things will probably be a little bit slow outside of expo for that week in the week after, usually, as people are kind of coming back home and trying to reset.

But then plan that into your thinking of, you know, sharing like, Hey, here's some opportunities that. You know, that you might have missed or that weren't to expo and kind of reaching out to press and buyers and things like that, which may or may not get some pickup, but I think there's ways to still be proactive on some really cool opportunities.

So I absolutely love that. I think that, you know, it's going to be a good show this year. There's a lot of excitement that I've been seeing from companies and industry insiders. And so I'm excited to see everything there. Heather, what are most looking [00:14:00] forward to? 

Heather Holmes: Being current clients, old clients looking for trends, like I do write for a bunch of publications.

So I always like to see different trends or brands. I mean, I'm very passionate about brands that are purpose driven and regenerative agriculture and all those things. So I do like to look for trends. I'm excited. Our team gets together at it. So, Excited to rally everyone together from publicity for good.

It's really about relationships, though, in that there have been brands like Bjarne Osti, his family started Good Idea, and I met him years ago in 2016, 2017 at a trade show. And it's like you see all the breadcrumbs along the way of people who said yes to you or introduced you to someone or like, it's such a reflect reflective time to see, like, everyone who's been a part of your journey or will be a part of your journey in the future.

Right? Like everything is so interconnected and you know, this, every retailer that [00:15:00] says yes to you opens the door to something greater and better and more so excited to see old clients, new clients, find brands to cover in the articles, spend time with our team and just, it's really about the people because so many people have POPG, which has brought me to hear it.

With you in this moment and it's, you know, it's been so many yeses and like every yes, there's three nos, but the no is not a no right now is the maybe later. So it's just, it's such a good time to reflect and like, you know, have fun with your relationships. 

Jordan Buckner: I love that Heather had a blast at the show for everyone else who was attending enjoy everything that's going on there.

Let me know any trends that you see that are important to share. And then for those who are not attending all the stuff lost there's lots of ways to continue to take advantage of some of the just momentum in the industry as well. Heather, thanks for being on. 

Heather Holmes: Yeah, thank you