HOUSTON — The inaugural Food Truck Owners Expo (FTO Expo) was held July 29-30 at the Humble Civic Center.
Co-Show Managers Sheldon Kaye, CEM, Vice President of Events & Technology at ConvExx, and Cassandra Stock, ConvExx’s Vice President of Attendee Services & Registration, were inspired to create the expo in February 2023 after discovering a need among food truck owners and a niche in the market.
“When we started diving into some of the data behind it, it turns out that like 60% of food trucks fail within the first year,” Kaye said. “We thought we could adapt some of the models we were already using and kind of help them succeed business-wise … [and] put them in touch with the right suppliers and vendors.”
Planning and Partnerships
The show’s team interviewed a wealth of food truck owners to learn how to best facilitate their success. Kaye and Stock also visited the National Restaurant Association Show to look for potential exhibitors.
A major early priority was finding partners who could help them create a database of potential attendees and enhance the show. Two instrumental partners were Where’s the Food Truck and Roaming Hunger.
“We made sure we partnered with individuals and companies who are respected and are working towards the best interests of the food truck community. With their knowledge and expertise, we knew we could create an atmosphere for networking and learning at the highest level,” Stock explained.
The show’s team discovered that the majority of potential attendees were 45-55. This informed the show’s marketing, with the team embracing Facebook and finding ways to appeal to the age-range through email campaigns.
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Kaye shared that their biggest anticipated challenge was many food truck owners’ unfamiliarity with trade shows. In response, they decided to choose non-traditional event venues, such as civic centers, providing a festival-like atmosphere that would likely be more familiar to attendees.
Interviews with food truck owners seemed to indicate that they were reluctant to travel more than three hours to attend an event. Subsequently, FTO Expo was given three variants across the country in 2024: one in Houston, one in Orlando and another in Costa Mesa, Calif.
When registration was launched, however, the first FTO Expo began to receive registrations from across the country. According to Kaye, this demand will inform decision-making for future shows.
Houston Event
A hurricane in Houston in the weeks leading up to the inaugural FTO Expo was an initial cause for concern. Luckily, the Humble Civic Center was unaffected.
Health departments in the Houston area were busier than usual due to the storm, but still made time to attend the event. Also, vendors who were still recovering made it to the expo, with some running promos on the show floor to help make up for their closures during the hurricane.
The inaugural FTO Expo reported approximately 400 attendees and positive feedback from food truck owners and exhibitors. According to Kaye, its networking and educational opportunities were well-attended.
Wordly, a cutting-edge AI technology, was used to provide live Spanish translation for the event’s programming, projected on a screen. Additionally, attendees could use its mobile app to live-translate the programming into other languages.
“It was hugely successful,” Kaye said, sharing that he plans on expanding this technology to other ConvExx shows.
On the show floor, the expo’s team also learned that attendees were very interested in hearing first-hand from successful food truck owners.
The next editions of FTO Expo are scheduled for Nov. 12-13, 2024 at Osceola Heritage Park in Orlando and Dec. 3-4, 2024 at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, Calif.
“Many owners were not familiar with the benefits of trade shows and the response was even greater than we had hoped … Everyone we spoke to is excited for the future of what FTO Expo can continue to bring to the food truck industry. Food truck owners have all said they are a ‘family first’ community and we endeavor to be a part of that community,” Stock added. “Our immediate goal is to continue to build the FTO Expo brand within the food truck community. We hope that FTO Expo can grow with this industry and be a resource for all owners and suppliers.”
Learn more about FTO Expo here.
