Great Turnout at the Celi-Act Gluten Free Vendor Fair

Today, I attended the Vendor Fair in Knoxville, TN with a very good friend.  I went representing our 'Living with Food Allergies and Celiac Disease' site and promoted the book review and give-away that will be my post on Friday, March 18th.  We also represented 'Chews4Health' multi-vitamin, which is a gluten/allergy free and vegan multi-vitamin.

The fair had a wonderful turnout, with well over 1000 people in attendance!  How fantastic to have the opportunity to share Michaela's story with other parents of children and adults that also have Celiac and/or allergies.  Everything in the building was gluten-free and I have to say that it did feel a little strange to be somewhere where all the food was 'safe'!  Unfortunately, Michaela still has the flu and wasn't able to attend, but I made sure that I brought her back a bag stuffed full of gluten-free goodies!







I had to venture upstairs of the convention center and realized that this would be the best place to take my pictures and be able to see the most.  I'm not quite sure how many vendors attended, but I would guess it was over 50, and 90% of them were giving away some type of sample.

This was our table and I felt we were placed in a great spot!  We were right on a corner and had close access to an electrical outlet which saved on the computer battery.

The man at the table is my friend, B.  He is the wizard when it comes to answering questions regarding the Chews4Health multi-vitamin.  I'm introducing him into the world of the internet and blogging, but it is all still very new to him.

Now, I have to let you in on a little piece of knowledge about myself.  I don't particularly do well in large groups of people.  I can let my fingers do my talking all day long here and in groups, but I have to really discipline myself to maintain eye contact and converse with someone when there are more than just a couple of people around me.

And that definitely was the case for me today!  I mean, just look at all those people in the picture!  A couple of times, when people were crowding in around our table, I just jumped up and told B "I'll be right back!" and off I went.  I just have to step away and recompose myself.

All and all, I thought I did pretty well.  I had the opportunity to meet A LOT of new people, hear stories about people's experience with their diagnosis, and best of all, found several people that enjoy cooking and chit chatted about favorite recipes!

I was able to promote my book review this Friday in hopes to receive more entries into the give-away and in doing so, increased awareness in the area about our site.

We met all of our goals today, and it went so well, that we are considering attending other Gluten Free Fairs in the future!  If you live in this area, and were able to attend today's fair, please share your story with us.  What did you find most interesting?  Did you learn anything new?  Did you share stories with others?  What was the highlight of your visit to the fair?