I went to the pet expo to check it out and see if I could get any ideas to use in future expos our group would be exhibiting at. "Pet Expo" does it's thing in many cities, we missed two in the SoCal area so far this year, I will be on the look out for future ones. The expo is a good mix of commercial and charitable organizations doing something that touches the pet universe. The Santa Clarita event was a large rectangle about 80 ft wide and 4300 ft long. The entrance was on one small end of the rectangle and the main stage for entertainment and speakers was on the other end. The rows along the sides contained booths where people sold pet oriented items or showcased some adoptable pets or solicited for their group. The middle of the rectangle was left for the entertainment, a skateboarding bulldog. Yes, it does look strange to see a dog skate board!
This pic shows the length and width of the pet expo layout. Most groups had one booth, some had two. (each pointed tent is a booth, 10' x 10')
The mobile spay and neuter truck is an interesting idea, they service kennels, shelters, rescues etc. They charge $110 per dog and didn't give any discounts for rescue groups. The servoce mostly the antelope valley but are expanding. They would be happy to go to santa clarita. You never know when you might need the services of a dog denutter.
Big Dog Rescue had a double booth. one of the few groups that did. They had a lot of dogs to show and lots of trinkets to sell. Although, the name of the Group was Big Dog Rescue, they only had two big dogs, the other dozen or so were small things. The answer I got from a volunter as to why so many small dogs at the big dog rescue booth was: "They need homes too!".
This was the trinket table for BDR. I don't know if we have any trinkets to sell, but maybe we can come up with somthing. Any members or friends of members of the group who are artistic and want to sell their art, t-shirts, etc should be encougaged to parner with us.
More on the BDR booth layout, kennels all around the back and sides, trinkets up front, people looking at the dogs and filling out adoption apps in the middle. not a bad layout, but the traffic didn't flow well as it could have been with one side an extrance and one side an exit.
The only mastiff at the show. He needs was with BDR and needs a home.
Same dog in his kennel.
Here is Tillman the bulldog getting ready for another skate board ride.
An example of another rescue group, Helping Paws who do both cat and dog rescue. They had a small no frills set up, only general info and some small dogs to adopt. They did get a lot of interest for their size. The booths with animals got more visitors than those who didn't. The only exception to that rule was Cesar Millan's booth.
The expo was entertaining. This area contained food booths and a picnic area for people to sit, eat and watch the entertainment.
Cesar explaining a little about his dog psychology center. It seems he is going to be moving to Santa Clarita. His organization gives out grants to other group. We should work on a grant statement or something.
Here is Cesar taking pictures with his fans. I did not get my picture taken, they didn't say I was too ugly, I just didn't want to wait in a line of over 100 people.This fair was exactly the sort of the event the group should go to. The whole thing was designed to get a crowd of people who love animals. We can easily come up with items to peddle, dogs to show and donation boxes for people to help rescue a Big dog for the next one of these. Other events are good, but a pet oriented one is going to have more people who are sympathetic to our cause.
WCM should make a calender of events and try to line up peeps to work the booths. Maybe Wendy can add another tab to her great worksheet for potential group events. Or maybe the web guy can put a page up for volunteers only.
Let me know if you have any specific questions I didn't cover in my ramblings.
Cheers.
--Ed
