The National Women’s Show – Spring 2015 – Review

A few weeks ago I announced that I was going to the National Women’s Show as one of their official bloggers. While it is not something I was asked to do, I wanted to give an honest review of what I thought about the event. Also, if you want more information about the event check out my first post OR see the National Women’s Show website.

Now, onto what I thought about the show! I decided to attend with my friend Zahra who blogs at livingthelovely.com (try her brownies). This was her first ever show or convention and she was blown away at the size of the show. There was a section of booths dedicated to food stuff (my favorite part), a row for travel, several rows for services and items for sale, a cosmetics sale area, and a beauty bar for onsite makeovers (which was quite popular).

I went to 3 of the demonstrations or workshops in addition to looking at every booth. First stop was the Nygard Slims fashion show. To be honest, we originally only stopped at the fashion show to give our feet a rest but we ended up seriously contemplating purchasing some. The only reason we hesitated was the lack of places to try on the Slims, I don’t buy without at least a try. Then I saw two culinary workshops: the microwave cooking with Tupperware workshop and the Cooking with Flax by Omega Crunch workshop. The Tupperware one impressed me by cooking an entire meal (side, main, and dessert) by using one Tupperware container in the microwave for 30 minutes. I can vouch that the berry crumble made was amazing! Omega Flax showcased their flavoured flax seed products by putting it on all sorts of food as brought over by other vendors. Chicken rolled in flax, flax on berry crumble, flax on ice cream, and even flax dusted on a pure blueberry juice. Why flax? Well the big reason is it gives you Omega-3 in just 1-2 tbsp a day versus one of those stinky fish oil pills.

 

Speaking of Omega Flax, I should probably mention my favorite products of the day. First, Omega Crunch flax products. From my first taste these guys sold me! I ended up going home with a shaker of each flavour, my favorite one so far is the garlic flax which is amazing with cream cheese and crackers. The maple flavour is also a good pairing with curried foods, that sweet and spice mix we all love.

The next product I took home was Bad Monkey popcorn in Twister and Crême Brulée Caramel flavours. The caramel was the first one I tried and I loved how it was not sickly sweet, rather they made it a smoky caramel flavour that you just cannot get elsewhere. Twister was a suggestion from one of the founders. A blend of salt, vinegar and BBQ sauce. One taste and I knew I was taking it home too!

What else was at the show?

• Lots of people crowded around the Majic booth every time they had a giveaway. I saw one person walk away with $500!

• The travel booths were fun to go around, makes me want to travel all that much more!
• Gift bags! With items like soap bars, soy milk, snacks, parenting goods, coupons & deals, etc. These bags were a great treat and just what you need before going into the show and collecting even more freebies from the booths!

Now, I want to be an honest blogger and many readers have told me that like how personal and truthful I am so even though I was an official blogger for the National Women’s Show I am going to tell you what I think can be improved.

1. There needs to be a better guest of honour. I cannot tell you how many people told me they were disappointed with the choice of Dean McDermott as the VIP. I agree with these people, I get that he is a celebrity and has some links to the show but I would have much rather have one of the HGTV or Food network personalities show up. Get me Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Ree Drummond, Mike Homes, Scott and McGillivray, Samantha Pynn, Sarah Richardson, the list goes on.
2. Boost the workshops and demos. I felt like these were under promoted and underused. Workshops and demos should be things people are lining up to see but most of the time I had my pick of seats which was super disappointing. I often felt bad for the hosts when I saw a nearly empty audience.
3. Find ways to encourage people to STAY at the show. I contacted some of my winners and they stayed for less than a half day whereas it took me at least a full day to see everything I wanted (I went both days). People should want to see what is on stage next, people should be running from contest to contest hoping to hear their name, and people should want to interact with the booths. While some of this stuff did happen, I do think there are ways to make it even better.

Nevertheless, I had a great time at the show and I hope to more shows like this. My friend Zahra has expressed interest in going to more shows too after learning how much fun they can be. And here are some words from some of my ticket giveaway winners:

“The Women’s Show was an awesome experience there was a lot of helpful information for women, a totally enjoyable experience.” -Barb

“…it made for an awesome day out! We had a brilliant time! Even got our hair cut.” -Angela

P.S. The National Women’s Show is back in Ottawa October 24 – 25^th so don’t worry if you missed out this time!