Expo Final Report

North Peninsula Building Association

Final Report______ Prepared by: FaLeana Wech, NPBA Executive Officer

2011

14T H ANNUAL BUILDING, REMODELING & ENERGY EXPO 2011: FINAL REPORT PREPARED BY FALEANA WECH, EXECUTIVE OFFICER April 25, 2011 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The fourteenth annual Building, Remodeling and Energy Expo presented by the North Peninsula Building Association was held at Sequim High School on March 11 and 12, 2011. The Expo focused as usual on what was best, newest and most efficient in the building and remodeling business, as well as focusing on Energy Conservation, Renewable Energy Solutions and Building Green Techniques and products. 

75 exhibitors (80 in 2010, 84 in 2009) purchased a total of 90 inside booth spaces, the same as in prior years and 4 outdoor spaces which was down 5 booths from both years ’09 & ’10. Only 1 inside booth was sold to a nonprofit organization.

 Hours were 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM on Saturday; 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM on Sunday.

For 2011 the NPBA offered 3 premium levels of sponsorship:  Capstone-$9500  Keystone-$5000  Cornerstone-$2500 Clallam County PUD came in as the Capstone Sponsor. Cornerstone Sponsors included Angeles Millwork and Lumber Co. Inc., Bliemeisters’ Wood Works, Built Green Clallam County, First Federal, Hartnagel Building Supply, KSQM FM, Sequim Gazette and WAVE Broadband. Attendance numbered approximately 3,000 – 4,000 over the two days. Live demonstrations and presentations took place in the cafeteria area and were partitioned off by pipe and drape.

A children’s birdhouse building play area, sponsored by Bliemeisters’, a top making demo, a high school concession staffed by students, a live building competition, re:structure re:design was sponsored by Built Green Clallam County and a Shopping Spree Drawing sponsored by Ferrellgas were among the event’s highlights. The show also included world famous Garden and Landscaping expert Ed Hume. Attendees were able to attend two free presentations on Natural Landscaping and Vegetable Gardening over the course of the Expo. They also had an opportunity to visit with Mr. Hume before and after his presentations while he signed books.

For 2011 the NPBA took planning in house and did not utilize the services of an outside consultant. A big thanks is owed to the volunteers on the committee who made this possible. Kim Beus, Expo Chair and the Expo Committee: Mike Howe, Patricia Mitts, Karen Nordstrom, Steve Perry, Shoshanah Wright. NPBA Staff Members, Clair Kirkman and FaLeana Wech worked diligently to assure the show would be a success.

ATTENDEE DEMOGRAPHICS Demographic data was taken from self‐completed prize drawing coupons turned in for the Shopping Spree Drawing. An estimated one in 3‐4 persons filled out a drawing ticket. The weather was cool, windy and rainy. Sunday outdoor

2

exhibitors were rearranged with one exhibitor moving indoors because of damage to his display. Attendance was greater on Saturday than Sunday. Participants for the Shopping Spree were eligible to submit a ticket on both Saturday and Sunday, but only one ticket per day. The total number of tickets filled out might have counted the same person twice but it would have shown their presence on two different days. NPBA Board members and exhibitors were not allowed to enter the drawing.  A total of 942 shopping spree forms were completed by attendees in 2011, compared to 986 shopping spree forms completed by attendees in 2010.  558 tickets were completed for Saturday, compared to 633 in 2010.  386 for Sunday, compared to 353 in 2010.

Of those counted: Location Sequim Port Angeles Port Townsend/Ludlow Forks/West End Kitsap County I-5 Corridor Eastern WA Outside State of WA

2011 63% 27% 5.7% .5% .1% 2.3% .3% .8%

2010 60% 29% 3% 1% 7% included all others

2009 62% 30% 1% 1% 6% included all others

SPONSORSHIPS A sponsorship brochure was prepared which outlined the levels of premium sponsorships offered. Sponsorship benefits included: • Enhanced marketing opportunities • Name recognition • Radio and TV mentions • Inclusion on printed materials • Logo and link on Expo Website • Complimentary booth space for pre-determined levels of sponsorships • Special coverage in the Official Program Guide Capstone Sponsors was:  Clallam County PUD Cornerstone Sponsors were:        

Angeles Millwork and Lumber Co. Inc. Bliemeisters’ Wood Works Built Green Clallam County First Federal Hartnagel Building Supply KSQM FM Sequim Gazette WAVE Broadband

RECOMMENDATION FOR SPONSORSHIPS FOR EXPO 2012: It is suggested that seeking out and confirming sponsors be an area for the NPBA Board of Directors to focus efforts for the 2012 Expo, making use of their personal contacts and influence to fill the sponsorship gaps. There are several

3

Exhibitors that check marked on evaluation forms that they would be interested in a sponsorship, these exhibitors should be contacted and followed up with no later than July 30, 2011

FACILITIES Pipe and Drape Services Pacific Party Canopies supplied show furnishings, carpeting, and booths. The crew was professional, work was done in a timely fashion, and the price was competitive: $42.00 per booth package, same as in 2011.

Electricity was provided to booths according to exhibitor requests with specific wattage, etc calculated. This year, we had very minimal power problems. This was due in large part to efforts on the part of PCC, who provided an additional electrical box to preempt problems. Chris from PCC should be commended for being so easily available and responsive to our needs.

Inside Booths Each booth consisted of an 8’ deep x 10’ width space draped with black curtains. Each booth was provided with electricity as requested. Booth ID signs were available by request and 8 signs were made for exhibitors. Individual exhibitors were responsible for other furnishings such as booth carpet, tables and chairs. They ordered these directly from Pacific Party or provided their own accessories. NPBA and Expo provided aisle carpeting through PCC. Exhibitors complimented the black and grey color palette.

Outside Booths Each outside both consisted of a marked off area 10 x 20’ in size, with power laid in if requested. There were a total of4 outside booths , this was 5 less than in 2010. The weather on Saturday was conducive to conducting business although it was windy and the general feedback from exhibitors was positive. On Sunday, Defining Edge relocated his display indoors after it received wind damage in the early hours of Sunday morning. Mystery Bay Seafood also lost their canopy and moved under the protective cover of the entrance of the building. Wilder Toyota also moved their truck display closer to the entrance of the building for protection from the weather.

Information Booth Pacific Party Canopies provided an Information and storage area for NPBA staff and volunteers. Information Services were provided by Patricia Mitts, Trina Stern, NPBA personnel and volunteers. The booth was consistently busy and feedback on staff was overwhelmingly positive. An evaluated score of 4.85 out of 5, the highest score of any evaluated item was received.

Flooring Gym floor covering went down successfully with the assistance of 4 Port Angeles High School Students and NPBA Board Members help. The gym was cleared in timely manner after the ball game was finished up by Sequim HS students and teachers. Pacific Party Canopies ran slightly behind schedule for set up but this did not impact the exhibitors in any way.

The grey carpet purchased by PPC for the Expo was still in like new condition and it went down smoothly on top of the gray flooring that NPBA volunteers installed; some areas though present problems due to folding during storage.

Sound System Expo made use of the school sound system as usual. Rhys Crawford, demo-tech assisted with the set up and operation and therefore everything went very smoothly as he is an AV expert. Instead of having to make separate announcements in each gym, Rhys was able to configure the system so it could be heard in exhibit halls at one time.

Signage NPBA hung main hall banners, street signs and also re‐enlisted the help of Lakeside Industries’ flashing and lighted sign for the highway. The Lakeside sign was very effective and was lit up March 9 thru March 13 Onsite signage included: Map of Exhibit Areas with Exhibitors which included Sponsor logos and large format Demonstration and Presentation

4

Schedules were also produced and placed at the entrances to each hall. Road signs went out around Sequim by 9 AM Saturday morning. Street banners were up in both Sequim and PA for 2 weeks leading up to the Expo.

Demonstrations: Two Demonstration areas were located in the School Cafeteria. The location worked well as weather was not a factor.

The areas were partitioned off by pipe and drapes on opposite sides of the cafeteria. There was initial concern about competing noise from each area but it proved not to be a factor in attendees ability to hear speakers clearly in their respective halls Each demo area was set up with a projector screen, laptop and projector. Many of the demo leaders took advantage of the technology. Rhys Crawford was hired to be the “demo technician” and he did an excellent job traveling back and forth, making announcements and making sure the presenters had everything they needed and ensuring that the technology stayed up and running. It is highly recommended that we employ Rhys, again in 2012 and subsequent years.

Rhys’ duties included setting up the projectors and making sure all was working well, making announcements regarding demos in the exhibit halls, making sure the session leaders were where they were meant to be, on time that the time did not go over, welcoming the public and keeping the seating straight, etc. He also provided an expert level of technical support for all electronic equipment. He recommends in the future we require presentations to be brought to the Expo on a disc or portable drive to be used on the dedicated laptops for the show. This eliminates liability for the NPBA and also the rearranging of equipment between presenters. For 2012, the NPBA will procure in advance of the show 2 projectors, screens and laptops that will be solely used for the show and not be removed from the premises after set up on Friday night.

The Expo Committee and NPBA Staff should be commended for arranging a great line-up of Demos and Presenters for this year’s Expo. Presentations were well attended. Attendance on Sunday was up substantially over past years largely due to the presentation given by Ed Hume which had an attendance of 65.  2011 Demos Saturday 136, 2010 Demos Saturday 192, 2009 Demos Saturday 92  2011 Demos Sunday 170, 2010 Demos Sunday 135, 2009 Demos Sunday 65 See pages 10-11for topics and attendance results.

“Top” Gun Returning to the Expo was the spinning tops wizard ‐ John Elliott of the Peninsula Woodworkers’ Club. He set up his lathe in the main Expo foyer and attracted steady interest all day both days. Special thanks to John.

Bliemeisters’ Wood Works: Children’s Bird House Building Area: Bliemeisters’sponsored the children’s bird house building area for the13th consecutive year. The area was located inside the main expo entrance on the north side of the main gym. Future Builders students, FB staff and NPBA volunteers staffed the area from approximately 10:30 AM to 3:30PM each day. It was a steady draw and lots of happy kids (and birds‐we hope) resulted! In subsequent years, we need to make sure that the area is staffed from 10am – 3pm.

Food Service: Sequim Food Concession: The sophomore class of 2011 did a good job with the food concession outside the main gym.

Mystery Bay Seafood sold their famous chowder, chili and oysters and received rave reviews. Several of the exhibitors though mentioned they may like to have something other than seafood as an option and healthier food choices including salads.

Exhibitor Competition-Secret Shopper Judges: For the fourth time, we had “secret judges” for the competition. Categories were “best booth presentation” and “best customer service.” Secret Judges this year were Janet Lenfant and Miriam Talley. Both took this responsibility seriously

5

and put considerable effort into reviewing all the booths in order to make their decisions. The winning exhibitors receive a 50 percent reduced fee on one booth for the next Expo.

• Best Customer Service: Endless Efforts Limited • Best Booth Presentation: Alicia Interiors Shopping Spree: Ferrellgas sponsored the Shopping Spree Drawing for the Expo and 2, $250 gift certificates were awarded. The winning tickets were chosen on Sunday afternoon. The winners receive a $250 gift certificate for use at any one of the participating exhibitors; Dodd Emery from Ferrellgas drew the winning tickets.

Winners were: Lorna Blackmore of Port Angeles and Art Kelm of Sequim Public Access and Parking: • General parking was in the high school parking area northeast of the Exhibit Hall. Expo vendors were asked to park in the south parking area where the bus barn was formerly located or off site. In addition, the Museum and Arts site across the street was available for parking. This area will be available for Expo use in subsequent years as long as a hold harmless is in place with the Sequim Museum and Arts Center, this needs to be updated annually along with a current year’s certificate of insurance. Traffic flowed smoothly even though the Expo operated without the assistance of the Volunteers in Police.

• Monitoring of exhibitors parking in the north parking lot continued with just a few exhibitors having to move to the south parking lot designated for exhibitors. The use of the former bus barn as parking overflow was helpful and not many exhibitors were aprehended parking in the primary parking lot.

Volunteers: The Expo requires dozens of volunteers each year and Patricia Troxler graciously filled this position and did an outstanding job of filling the volunteer slots with the assistance of past volunteer coordinator, Carrie Sue Bennet and NPBA Staff Clair Kirkman. A total of 53 volunteers signed up to help with the various tasks at Expo without these volunteers it would not be possible to have such a high quality show and a great debt of gratitude is owed to all who participate. The NPBA Board of Directors would like to recognize and thank each person who participated.

Security: Security Services NW were employed for the fifth time. The guard came at 12 noon on Friday and 3:30 PM on Saturday.

FaLeana Wech, NPBA Staff, relieved the guard the following morning at approximately 7:30 AM (Sat) and 8:30 (Sun). The security service was reliable and affordable. It is recommended that the same company be contracted next year for the same kind of hours.

MARKETING AND ADVERTISING: Marketing targeted potential exhibitors and the general public as potential attendees.

RACK CARDS AND POSTERS  The Expo Committee made the decision not to print 15,000 rack cards in 2011 as they had in the past.

Instead, 800 4X6 photo cards were printed for insertion into billing statements of Hartnagels, Angeles Millworks and the Sequim Chamber of Commerce. The postcard was also included in the new e-newletter mailing for the Port Angeles Chamber as they no longer do paper mailings. Frick Drugs printed the photo cards with blank backs and on matte finish paper and matched Costco’s printing price of 11 cents each. .  120 color posters (11’ x 17”) were printed at Olympic Printers. They were delivered to locations throughout Sequim and Port Angeles area.

PRINT MEDIA  Official Program Guide, 28 pages with a distribution of 36,000 copies

6

    

8,500 Sequim Gazette 2,000 Forks at distribution various distribution points 9,000 Port Townsend Leader 14,500 solo direct mailed into Port Angeles 2,000 distributed at the event

 Local Newspapers: A local ad campaign was coordinated with Peninsula Daily News and Sequim Gazette.

Ad space was also purchased in the December Living on the Peninsula as well as Romancing the Home special publications. Sequim Gazette created all ad copy. The Gazette also published the Expo Program Guide so it would be an easy to read publication on the web. The ad campaign in the PDN began the week before Expo with ¼ page ads being run Sunday and Wednesday through Friday.

RADIO  NPBA staff worked to produce a 2 radio campaigns. Scripts were updated by NPBA Staff and Radio Station employees and volunteers and voiced by local voice talents, Steve Hoskins and Amanda Bacon. The KONP spots aired daily in 30 second increments the week prior to the Expo and KSQM spots aired in 30 second increments both increasing frequency as EXPO dates approached starting on March 7. KSQM also did a live “remote” from the Expo on Saturday and Sunday from 11am‐2:00. Various hosts were on site and they did updates according to the guidelines afforded a not for profit radio station. Response was very favorable and people enjoyed talking to KSQM and their participation in the show.  NPR Radio advertising was discontinued due to only 1.15 percent of attendees from 2010 attributing their knowledge of the Expo to NPR. TELEVISION  WAVE Cable came in as a media sponsor for the fifth time and we had 550 spots running on a variety of TV channels. JP Productions, recommended by Karen Nordstrom did a fantastic job of creating the spot with a custom jingle which we were allowed permission to use for Expo radio advertising.

STREET BANNERS  Copy Cat Graphics updated the street banners for Sequim and PA. There is stiff competition for street banner time in both Sequim and Port Angeles and reservations need to be made early. FaLeana Wech arrived at 5:00 am to Planning and Public Works City of Sequim. In order to get the dates requested arriving at this hour is a necessity. The sign in the City of Sequim was reserved for 3 weeks prior to the event rather than 2 weeks as in the past but a request was made by KONP for the banner space 1 week prior to the KONP show and this slot was given to KONP. DIRECTIONAL SIGNS  Directional signs were placed around Sequim on Saturday morning by Roger Wheeler. Lighted highway sign provided by Lakeside Industries went up on Wednesday and ran through Sunday. Other signage was placed around the Expo site.

NPBA DIRECT MARKETING TO MEMBERSHIP  Clair Kirkman continued to highlight Expo details among NPBA membership and prospective members.

Articles in the NPBA newsletter encouraged the membership to participate in EXPO for the sake of their individual businesses as well as for the overall building industry. The application, marketing opportunities and special training sessions were published in the newsletter and went out in the weekly Building Bulletins.

Regular announcements were made at NPBA dinner meetings reminding members of EXPO, encouraging participation.

7

WI-FI  Wi-Fi service was provided for exhibitors by Olympic Wi-Fi. For 2012 Expo will call upon the services of WAVE Broadband as they have a Wi-Fi connection set up for the show. The total number of exhibitors who utilized Wi-Fi was9. Many exhibitors were still unaware this service was available to them. NPBA staff will make this information more noticible in communications with exhibitors.

WEBSITE  FaLeana Wech updated the Expo website with pertinent information.

FACEBOOK  For 2012 Expo needs to have a Facebook presence. FaLeana Wech will post photos of the Expo on the Facebook Page and invite Exhibitors and Public and get this ready by June 1, 2011.

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE EXPO? The shopping spree coupons completed by the public showed the following in terms of marketing and how they heard about the Expo. Many checked several items. All figures are in percentages.

2011 2010 2009

TV >1 >1 4

KSQM 7.9 7.03 N/A

KONP 9.6 6.6 10

SG 24.6 26.5 21

SIGNS 4.5 No data No data

.COM 1.4 1.15 N/A

PDN 38.8 27 45

FRIENDS & FAM 12.4 12.8 (included in other)

NPR N/A 1.15 2

OTHER N/A 19 17

OTHER EXPO ITEMS EXHIBITOR EVALUATION: NPBA staff added new questions to the survey to collect additional data. NPBA Staff compiled and analyzed the data as follows.

TOTAL OF 48 RESPONSES (there were 56 in both 2009 and 2010) THROUGH COMPLETION OF AN EVALUATION SHEET ARE YOU AN NPBA MEMBER: YES: 43, NO: 5 INTERESTED IN BECOMING A MEMBER, YES: 2 Exhibitors generally rated the show well, some exhibitors commented that lower scores were due to the economy, not the show.

2011 Survey compared to years ’10 and ‘09

Did Expo Meet Expectations Anticipated Impact on Business Rate Traffic Flow to your Booth Expo Marketing Pipe and Drape Amount of Time for Set Up Expo Staff Sequim HS Concessions Outside Food Vendor

2011 Survey

2010 Survey

2009 Survey

3.97 out of 5 3.47 out of 5 3.45 out of 5 4.04 out of 5 4.30 out of 5 4.44 out of 5 4.85 out of 5 3.39 out of 5 3.53 out of 5

4.04 out of 5 3.73 out of 5 3.43 out of 5 3.93 out of 5 3.82 out of 5 4.09 out of 5 4.69 out of 5 3.80 out of 5 4.32 out of 5

3.89 out of 5 3.4 out of 5 3.19 out of 5 3.94 out of 5 4.05 out of 5 4.19 out of 5 4.73 out of 5 3.5 out of 5 N/A

8

How many leads generated percentage from returned surveys? 44 respondents

1-5 Leads 6-15 Leads 16-30 Leads 31+ Leads

2011 20.5% 40.9% 22.7% 15.9%

2010 19.23% 40.4% 19.23% 21.2%

2009 21% 46% 16% 5.73%

Will you return to Expo 2012? 48 respondents No 0 0 0

Maybe 7 8 12

Would you like to be a sponsor at Expo 2012?

Yes No 2011 13 17 2010 15 19

Maybe 3 8

2011 2010 2009

Yes 41 48 44

BOOTH PREPARATION WORKSHOP NPBA Staff, Clair Kirkman and FaLeana Wech held an exhibitor training workshop at the NPBA offices on January. Only two people attended the two‐hour workshop. The training included: tips for pre‐event planning, demographics of Expo, the importance of follow‐up contacts, scope of advertising offered by NPBA for exhibitors including the Official Program Guide for Expo, benefits of Sponsorship and testimonials from past exhibitors. “Booth Etiquette” was discussed and a flier was distributed. Although the group was small the two who attended found the training valuable.

CONCLUSION The North Peninsula Building Association’s EXPO continues evolution towards its future as a major trade show for exhibitors and the general public on the North Olympic Peninsula. The fourteenth annual EXPO was a success by most measures and the feedback by the general public was very positive. Expo continues to provide opportunities for area building industry related businesses to market themselves within the building, remodeling and energy venues while interacting with potential customers in a friendly, yet business-like and professional atmosphere.

9

10

11