#3,323 – Regular Person Expo
May 22, 2025 by Craig Shames
In the course of planning my upcoming wedding I’ve attended four wedding expos, and I’ll probably check out a few more in the months to come. An expo for a wedding makes sense. There are a lot of vendors vying for business and hopeful brides and grooms need a place to connect with everyone they’ll need to work with from photographers and florists to DJs and dress makers.
But these vendors aren’t the only people with something to sell. So, what if we were to create a regular person expo? Providing anyone in a given community with something to sell or a story to tell a place to hawk their wares, foster connections, and drum up business.
What I’m imagining is an expo that would give small businesses in your area a chance to market on the cheap. Instead of taking out expensive ads, paying for search engine optimization or relying purely on word of mouth they could come out to the expo and meet the customers in their area. Gyms could give out free trial memberships, tire repair shops can let you know about their free tire rotation with oil change special, and that new restaurant that just opened up down the street can bring along some samples.
But this isn’t just a small business expo. It’s also meant to be a regular person expo. A place where people can promote themselves, network, and try to turn their side hustles into full time employment. Part wedding expo, part job fair, part show and tell, the Shames Regular Person Expo would be a place for shameless self-promotion in pursuit of bettering yourself and strengthening your community.
For example, if I was looking to become a vendor at this expo, I might get a table to try and sell copies of my book, promote this blog, book speaking engagements or seek employment as a futurist. Or I could try to sell some of my books and express my desire to open up a library, making connections with fellow collectors in my area.
There would be plenty of opportunities to form social connections as well. If you just moved to an area, you could get a table just to introduce yourself to everyone. Single people could even set up shop to put word out that they’re available.
Local groups could get in on the fun as well. Book clubs could promote themselves and look for new members. Poetry slams could recruit new poets. Softball teams could sign up new players. Pickle ball tournaments could solicit signups. The list goes on and on.
As a member of the community this would be a great opportunity to find out about upcoming events in your area and meet your neighbors. You’d learn when the next farmer’s market is and find out about the community garage sale. You’d get a bunch of freebies from local businesses and in return expand your horizons when it comes to picking a place to eat. The regular person expo would be a one stop shop for learning about everyone and everything in your area.
I know I would attend. But at this point I might just be addicted to getting free stuff.
Is a regular person expo the Greatest Idea Ever?