Free goodies lead to great connections

The Portage County Business Expo, held Tuesday, March 4, at the Ramada Stevens Point, offered local businesses an opportunity to show off their services and good for other people in the business community.
For those attending, it was an opportunity to get free stuff. People were given a plastic bag when they registered and it could be used to load up on many of the goods businesses were giving away to promote themselves.
I had the opportunity to be on both sides, handing out copies of the last two issues of the paper at The Portage County Gazette booth and grabbing a few goodies for myself while walking around to see what other businesses had to offer.
I confined myself mainly to food samples, letting my stomach serve as my bag. Cookies, cake, popcorn, beer, deviled eggs, southwest chicken casserole – an endless buffet was available to me, in addition to the great lunch provided at the event.
Food was used as an enticement to draw people to a lot of booths, although the majority of them using food did not sell that product.
It worked, since I found myself talking to quite a few people at a number of booths that I normally wouldn’t talk to. Honestly, I’ve got a great bank and would never change, but the popcorn another bank was giving away was great. If they would have had a movie playing and some soda, I might be transferring money from my current account to that bank.
At times I felt like a little kid in a grocery store that gives away a lot of sample product. It took me back to when I was a young lad going up and down aisles, taking multiple samples even though I didn’t have any money to purchase the items. Back then I wondered why the store clerks never prevented me from doing so, but they were smart. They knew I went back to my mother and told her to buy those products because they were good. It’s the same reason many commercials are aimed at kids.
The main purpose for the Business Expo isn’t to necessarily sell products; it is meant to help business people establish contacts with other businesses and learn better ways to operate.
For me this meant meeting people in the business community that could provide ideas and subject material for future stories. I met a number of these people and gave them my business card. I’m expecting some phone calls in the near future, which means our readers can expect even better business coverage in this paper – a win-win situation from the Business Expo.
In addition to food samples to draw people to booths, many businesses gave away a variety of office supplies and other little goodies. I took home just two things – a calculator and a slot machine gumball machine. Calculators are always useful, but the gumball machine was more for my son. I’m going to fill it with candy and allow him to take a spin when he’s a good boy.
Other than those two items, the rest of the goodies would have been clutter to me. And clutter is something I can do without, especially since I’ll be moving someday in the near future after the sale of our house is finalized.
I’m thankful my father-in-law didn’t come to the Business Expo, though. He has an uncanny ability to attract clutter. It’s an ability he got from his father and hopefully one that will make him rich someday when he decides to hold a massive rummage sale to eliminate the clutter.
I saw a few other people with this same ability, including one lady that had three bags full of stuff. I’m betting she made more business connections than anybody else and will soon be super successful.