Without being Martha Stewart, or having the capabilities she’s
displayed on television over the years, it’s hard to take care of
everything at your event, unless the event is a small one.

Choosing the people to take care of things, however, can be a
chore itself, even if you’re just choosing one and letting that
person handle the whole event.

That’s why there are event expos, which gather event planners,
caterers, florists, disc jockeys, photographers and others under
one roof (and usually in one room), so you can get their names,
phone numbers, email addresses and start the process of selecting
the ones you feel most comfortable with.

“Event expos are great,” said Stacey Kesselman, whose
Conshohocken-based Exceptional Events is a full-service plan-
ning company. “[They offer] a great way to meet a lot of different
vendors at one time.”
Kesselman said her company likes doing event expos because
they give her and her team a chance to meet potential clients face
to face and pitch Exceptional Events’ wares in person.

“Event expos are great. [They offer] a great way
to meet a lot of different vendors at one time.”
— STACEY KESSELMAN, EXCEPTIONAL EVENTS
At the same time, she said, she doesn’t expect herself or her
employees to close many deals at them.

“More often than not,” she said, “the people who do the
mitzvah expos … just got their date, so they’re really gath-
Photo: Weedezign/iStock/Thinkstock.com
26 MARCH 23, 2017
SIMCHAS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM




Jennifer Lawn of JL Original Designs wants to do more
than talk to you. she wants to show you her work.

Photos above: Biggunsband/iStock/Thinkstock.com
RE REC
N EN
OV T
AT LY
ED ering information and trying to find
the best vendors there for them.”
The fact that vendors at the expos don’t
expect to land many contracts at them is a
good thing for you if you plan on going to
one because it means you can request
information without getting the hard sell.

For example, Adam Weitz said when
his company, Southampton-based A
Sharp Production, sends a representative
to event expos, he expects the person to
hand out information and tell attendees
that if they find it intriguing, they can
make an appointment to get more details
at a later time.

Weitz also said that people interested in
A Sharp Production can get more infor-
mation about it from its website — and
many do.

“As the millennials have come of age,
they prefer [getting information online] to
going to an event,” he said.

Still, if you’re the type of person who
likes putting a face to a name (or a
company), event expos are for you.

“When you go to a party fair, you
become educated in a short period of time
about everything because they’re all there
to help you — and boy, do they want to
talk to you,” Weitz said.

JL Original Designs wants to do more
than talk to you. It wants to show you
its work.

Jennifer Lawn, the company’s owner,
said she used to go to event expos and give
elevator pitches, which are short
summaries of a company’s capabilities that
get their name because they’re brief
enough to be made and digested during a
chance encounter in an elevator.

Over time, however, she concluded that
most of the people at the events are so
W E C R E AT E .

Y O U C E L E B R AT E .

B A R / B AT M I T Z V A H C E L E B R AT I O N P A C K A G E
Five Hour Reception • Four Hour Open Bar • Sit Down Dinner
Custom Cake • Use of Peddler’s Village Gardens for Family Photos
In the heart of the beautiful Bucks County countryside.

Five miles south of New Hope, PA.

215-794-4078 • peddlersvillage.com
See Expos, Page 28
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MARCH 23, 2017
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