ANAHEIM, CA -- Following the lead of several countries and other U.S. growing districts, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California created a pavilion-type concept for its members at the Produce Marketing Association convention, held Oct. 26-28, here, and invited competitors to display their products together.

"It worked out better than we could have ever imagined," Jim Bogart, president of the association, told The Produce News. "We had great participation from our members and they reported increased visitation to their booths."

Mr. Bogart said the idea was spearheaded by Lorri Koster, co-chairman of the board of Mann Packing Co. Mann was joined in the 1,600-square-foot booth by fellow Salinas Valley firms The Nunes Co., Church Bros., Sunsation Farms, Greengate Fresh, J. Marchini Farms, Royal Rose and SureHarvest. The very attractive, modernistic booth, featured separate sections for each firm.

Sure the idea collectively saved the exhibitors hundreds of thousands of dollars as opposed to what they would have spent if each had exhibited alone, but it also allowed for new exhibitors who haven't been part of PMA before.

Jarrod Domingos, vice president of sales and marketing for Monterey, CA-based Sunsation Farms, said that his firm had never exhibited at PMA before, but this shared format allowed them to participate. He added that it went "very well," and they were very happy with the flow of traffic.

Mr. Domingos said that exhibiting alongside competitors was not a deterrent in any way. "This is a relationship based business," he said, indicating that side-by-side customers are not actually comparing product, but rather meeting with the people they do business with.

He added that exhibiting jointly allowed the firm to be a PMA exhibitor while leaving the planning and the execution of the booth space to someone else.

That someone else was mostly Abby Taylor-Silva of the Grower-Shipper Association, who planned the booth and organized the participants. She agreed that it worked fabulously this year and expects to increase the booth size by at least 25 percent next year. She has already signed up for a bigger booth and changed the configuration to be more square than rectangle.

"We had a lot of members come by and express interest for next year," she said. "We will see how big a space each of the participants (from this year) want next year, but we expect that we will have even more members participating."

Mr. Bogart said that participation was open to all members and that the association has exhibited jointly at the last two United Fresh Produce Association conventions as well.

"Next year (at United) we will have our biggest booth yet," he said. "I think we have 10-12 slots and have doubled our footprint."

Ms. Koster of Mann couldn't have been happier at the results. "On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 10," she said. "We saw everyone we always see and when you add in the cost savings, it was a tremendous win."

Gina Nucci, another member of Mann's senior management team, summed up the firm's participation in the booth by saying "it made great sense for us." Besides seeing buyers, Mann also uses its booth to connect with its grower community and other suppliers.

Ms. Koster reiterated what she has maintained for the past year while supporting the pavilion concept: the produce industry has changed with grower-shippers like Mann making frequent calls on retailers at their headquarters to introduce new products and set up programs. Conventions are great to reconnect with customers but Mann does not need a huge booth to display all of its offerings.

The pavilion concept, she said, is frequently used in many international conventions as a great way to regionalize participation.

Matt Seeley, vice president of marketing for The Nunes Co., said that his firm also found the idea to be very workable this year. "The pavilion was excellent," he said. "I think all pavilion members experienced strong traffic on the first day and enjoyed the first year of this new concept. We will definitely be participating in the pavilion next year and based on comments from others on the Central Coast, I fully expected the pavilion to grow significantly in size in the coming years"

He added: "It's a cost-effective way to reach our customer base, without spending the dollars of years past. Combined with the regional and other retail trade shows during the course of the year, the PMA convention is just one of many different formats used to reach our customers."