Expo-ing with my YOLOs

I'm back at my desk after last week spent at Homemakers Expo, my first time exhibiting our YOLO Compost Tumblers at this event. I was very fortunate to have my mom with me. She was at Decorex with me last year so she knows the ins and outs of expos and demonstrating compost tumbling.

We went through to JHB on the Tuesday afternoon, staying with friends in Fourways. We took our dogs with us; the were very well looked after by our friends during the day. In the mornings my mom would take Rusty and Tansy for walks within the estate and each evening when we got back from the show I would take Rusty for a good hard run. The estate has a lot of rabbits hopping around; Rusty was delighted. We would slowly walk up to the bunnies and got to within 20cm of them a number of times.

On the Wednesday morning, mom and I went through to setup. We had one compost tumbler unit of each size and a bunch of decorations. My new acquisition includes six block-mounted photographs of our customers' YOLO Compost Tumblers. My favourite 'decoration' was the window, which I made from insulation tape (I got the idea from a search on Pinterest).

This is a before-and-after of our stand.

This is the 25th year of Homemakers Expo and the 20th at the venue, The Dome in Northriding. The Thursday and Friday were quiet overall - not a lot of people milling in the corridors. Nonetheless, we had a reasonable flow of people coming to find out what our compost tumblers were all about.

The Saturday and Sunday saw the crowds coming in and there was a bigger volume of people at the venue. We had a number of direct sales during the event. With experience from Decorex, I know that sales and enquiries will continue over the weeks and months to come.

On Sunday, two of our factory workers came through to see the show. Joseph has worked on YOLO from the start and he has been primarily responsible for moulding, finishing, assembly and boxing. Stoney has worked with Celliers in the past and she has only recently joined us again. She is very good at finishing and assembly and has come on board to work with Joseph so that he can focus on the moulding. We're at that stage in our growth curve where we need more hands.

I was really glad that they got to see our YOLOs nicely presented on the stand. From a bucket of plastic powder to a finished product, Joseph and Stoney create each and every YOLO Compost Tumbler.

Liz, Stoney, Joseph and Lisa

Our overall experience was very positive and it echos our experience from Decorex last year. People are trying to do better with their waste. They're thinking about what they're throwing out, they're separating their trash and they're looking for options that are clean, tidy, efficient, effective and convenient. For organic waste, YOLO ticks all of the blocks.

We had great interactions with visitors, learned from the experience and we look forward to being at Decorex again in August 2018 at Gallagher Convention Centre.