Since September – when we received this project – we have been working countless hours, non-stop to make this trade show come to life. We’ve attended many meetings, connected over the phone, and sent hundreds of emails. We’ve planned, refined, and then planned some more. We’ve been counting down the days and have had sleepless nights. We can’t believe the day is finally here! To say we are nervous is an understatement – but with the nerves come seas of excitement and of hope.
You see, we were handed this trade show as a project, but it has become much more than that for us. We have been presented with many challenges whilst organizing this trade show; a global pandemic, being stuck inside, uncooperative technology, the list goes on…but we never let it get to us, because this trade show is fueled by a passion to do something different and something innovative. COVID-19 presented us with a unique opportunity to take this online for the first time ever, and it was a challenge we were eager to take on! Rather than seeing this as a loss, we viewed this as a chance to make this bigger and have more people attend. Sure, it won’t be in person, but having it virtually means anyone who wants to attend can!
Our vision has been to make this a learning experience for us as organizers, but also for our wonderful vendors who have been working hard to allow you the opportunity to learn more about their selected charity. Behind the scenes we have been navigating our website, created from scratch, to make it flow well and make it user-friendly so it is easy for you to use. We have made pages and refined them, done whole system updates, and done a trial run to ensure everything is perfect. From the first day we have learnt so much. So firstly, we want to thank all our vendors for being patient and working with us, and for giving us the opportunity to gain this experience on how to create and have a virtual trade show in the middle of a pandemic.
We have rigorously emailed local businesses asking for sponsors, and we have had an overwhelming amount of replies. It has been so heart-warming to see how many people are keen to support our learning as we do something for the first time ever. So secondly, we would like to thank all our wonderful sponsors, without whom this trade show would certainly not be the same.
We’ve had meetings upon meetings with our professor, we have emailed him and messaged him over and over. So thirdly, we would like to thank our professor for supporting our vision and for entrusting us with such a big project. We also want to thank all our faculty who have been advocates for this trade show and for showing their support and excitement.
This trade show is to help us learn, but it is also in place to benefit charities picked by our vendors. We really hope through this trade show you are able to learn something new and connect with a charity and help them during this tough time. We would like to thank the charities for allowing us to work with them and for supporting us in our project.
We have posted on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, we have emailed, and we have reached out to media outlets in order to get the word out and build an audience. So, finally, we would like to thank you for registering and allowing us this opportunity to learn, without you this would not have been possible.
So whether you are a vendor, a sponsor, a professor, faculty, a charity, or a registered attendee, we want to thank you for allowing us to use our creativity and innovation to make a unique online trade show. We have been working on this for months and it is so exciting to see all our hard work come to life. We hope you enjoy the Marketing for Good Charity Trade Show, and thank YOU for giving us this amazing opportunity.
– from Terry, Emily, and Bismah