On Friday night, April 14, before the start of the Bull-a-Rama, there was plenty to do in Byemoor. At 6 p.m., several booths were set up in the arena for the Byemoor trade show, while down the road, the Byemoor Hotel offered up steak supper to around 80 people.
The trade show is “a great little thing to get some people in the community out and get their names out there,” said trade show organizer Paige Jones, who is also a Tupperware, Scentsy and Epicure distributor.
A lot of the businesses in the trade show were home-based businesses, Jones explained, which made the trade show a good opportunity for people to showcase their businesses to the public, especially in the community.
On display were items such as clothing, accessories, and skincare products.
Some vendors like Jones acted as distributors, while others were selling their homemade products.
Rhonda Munns of Cattlemuns Ranching was one of the vendors who took part in the trade show.
Munns runs a tea house and gift shop in the Endiang area.
Although her business has a home base at the tea house, she still makes a habit of attending local trade shows as a way to support her business.
“It’s all advertising,” Munns said. “It’s a good way to support local business.”
Running the trade show in conjunction with the Bull-a-Rama meant that there were many people from out of town in attendance, but all of the vendors had a Byemoor connection.
“Everybody is from the area or related to somebody from the area,” Jones said.
The Byemoor Hotel also benefited from the out-of-town draw of the evening.
At the steak supper, “there were a lot of strangers,” said hotel owner Joyce Campbell, adding that there were a few familiar faces as well.
Jones, who was organizing the trade show for the second time this year, noted that while the event was a business one, it was also a good opportunity to socialize and get to know people.
“I spend a lot of my time going around talking to everybody,” she added.