In Networking Show, Ingenious Cast of 98 Fishes for Customers
Overhead, loudspeakers were broadcasting shouted offers for free duplicate house keys, complimentary manicures and drawings for courtesy chimney sweeps.
Judi Trevor was hearing none of that Friday night, however.
Trevor was snuggled into an egg-shaped “sensory” chair that snuffed out the distracting noise of the San Fernando Valley’s first business networking trade show.
Stereo speakers hidden in the chair soothingly instructed Trevor to close her eyes and relax and let the stress flow out of her body. A monitor hooked up to register her skin temperature on a colorful graph suggested that she was following instructions to the letter.
The demonstration of biofeedback was by a Calabasas firm called the California Institute of Health. A representative of the company, Sheila Goldman, eagerly urged onlookers to stop in at her office sometime to sample the process for themselves.
It looked like about 2,000 people were visiting the exhibits set up in the Warner Center Marriott Hotel. The 98 businesses in the Executives’ Assn. of the San Fernando Valley hope that a lot of them will become customers.
A Referral Service
The aim of the 8-year-old group is to keep business circulating among members of the group through a referral service in which a merchant always recommends a fellow member. To that end, it has only one real estate or hairdressing business or hardware store at a time in its ranks.
Such exclusivity means that Anthony Quevedo and Cathleen Robinson, a Studio City husband-and-wife team, could clean up.
They own the association’s only janitorial service, and they were offering discounted housecleaning to everyone dropping their name in a goldfish bowl.
To attract attention, they were handing out $500 worth of free can openers and plastic coasters with the name Integrity Cleaning Service printed on them.
‘Somebody’s Friend’
“It’s well worth what we’ve spent on these,” Robinson said, displaying the magnet on the bottom of the can opener. “We could be becoming somebody’s friend for life.”
A few aisles away, clinical psychologist Lynn Millikin Varela of Woodland Hills was holding court in a booth decorated to resemble the “5” psychiatric booth in the Peanuts comic strip.
Varela said she has averaged one new client a week in referrals from other association members since she joined last November. At the trade show, however, she handed out free ballpoint pens with her name on them instead of clinical advice.
What It Costs
Richard E. Ecker, executive director of the association, said businesses pay a $190 initiation fee and dues of $65 a month. Eighty companies paid another $125 to participate in the show.
Each member was entitled to invite 100 persons to the trade show, Ecker said.
Agoura resident Ollie Cutler said she was invited by her locksmith.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there is a great variety of exhibits here,” Cutler said in front of a veterinary center’s booth, holding a complimentary glass of champagne in one hand and a goblet of wine in the other. Her champagne hand had a balloon attached to it.
Chatsworth lumber company employee Chuck Smith handed out carpenters’ pencils--and a suggestion--to visitors to his booth.
“Call me when you build your next high-rise,” he said.
