A friend of mine and I attended together. I'll admit I had ulterior motives. I wanted to see if it was a viable outlet for my own doula and birth art business. Tulsa Baby Fest was the occaision, and Tulsa is a little bit of a drive from where I live. I'm not sure if it would be a good outlet or not. If it would really be cost effective.
Plus, I wanted to meet some folks, like Teachinmommaof4!
Heather makes the third
member I've met IRL.
Honestly, I was shocked at the level of freebie handouts! I expected some things but golly gee whiz. Babies R Us donated large shopping bags at the door, to carry all of your booty in, and you
needed a large bag. Some of the handouts that I received were:
lunchbox sized soft sided cooler
pens-lots of these
sticky note pads
snack container
wipe container
reuasable small shopping bag
candy, candy and more candy
ShamWow samples [fit in your auto cup holder]
growth charts for kids
kids ID kits [for law enforement in case of missing child]
essential oil for baby sample
soap for baby sample
pocket first aid kit
magnets/business card
Kids reflective safety necklace
magnetic heavy duty clip, logo on it
single packs of hand sanitizer wipes
crayons [my DD was with us as well, girls day out!]
coloring pages
coloring books
small soft sided balls
and lots of paper, brochures, fliers, handouts, etc etc.
There was also provided a diaper changing station and nursing area for moms,
. The health department was there doing free vacciations as well. I didn't get any of those freebies.
They also had a cutest baby contest which was super popular and the line was very long.
It was obvious that people were there to get free stuff.
I think that every single booth had a give away to register for. Most were quite expensive gifts as well. One was a radio flyer wagon full to overflowing with toys, and goodies from St Farm.
I'd like to win that one!
Most booths were manned by at least two people, some had up to 4-5. Most booths were simple, tables w/cloths, brochures and handouts to browse through. Some were more inviting than others. Some booths were so jammed full of merchandise, like one for bags & purses, that I felt like I would knock something off if I went in so I stayed away. Some booths were too cramped and you couldn't have more than one or two people inside at one time. Not so good.
There were so many people in attendence that most of the booth attendees were busy speaking with someone, I never felt that high pressure attack, which was good.
I enjoyed going through the babyfest w/the eyes of a possible vendor/doula instead of simply a consumer. I saw many things that I would not have seen otherwise.
There were two booths that I was particularly interested in visiting. One was for the new birth center in Tulsa, which is where Heather was, Renasaince Birth Center. And the other was Natural Lullabies, which is a boutique providing all sorts of goodies like baby carriers, cloth diapers, etc. And offers classes on just about every aspect of birth and parenting. The birth center also offers similar classes.
Natural Lullabies had the most inviting booth IMO because they had an area rug down, a comfy sitting chair for moms, a bookcase for product display along w/several tables. It gave the appeal of 'home' and made me want to come in and look around. They also had several samples of cloth diapers out of the packages so that you could really check them out. This is a great idea especially for those on the fence about cloth diapering.
I did note that there were no booths that were strictly doulas. I had hoped to see some, at least one. The birth center of course has doulas as well. So my doula brain is saying that it would be a great idea if I could get a few other doulas interested in hosting a booth next year.
we'll have to see if that pans out or not.
I attended a baby fest this weekend....a critique
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for sharing. I thought that for me alone it would be impossible, but perhaps 4-6 [or more] doulas going together might make it worthwhile.
