Showcasing Women’s Health in Fargo, ND
Mary J Markland MA, AHIP
SE Clinical Campus Librarian
University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Fargo, ND
The Harley E. French Library of the Health Sciences at the University of North Dakota has been seeking new venues for consumer outreach. Traditionally we have focused our outreach program on health professionals with a few smaller health fairs or public library events thrown in. After teaching a continuing education session at the Fargo Public Library, I realized that we needed to get out and talk about MedlinePlus and the other NLM consumer resources. With our Go Local North Dakota project reaching completion, it seemed like the perfect time to try a bigger consumer event. The Women’s Showcase 2008 was a great opportunity that was geographically convenient and had a wide variety of exhibitors.
The Women’s Showcase is sponsored annually by Forum Publishing, the local newspaper company. This was the 8th year. It is held in October and attracts attendees from the eastern third of North Dakota and the surrounding states/provinces. This year the Showcase was held on October 25th. The exhibits are designed to promote local resources and services that would be of interest to women. Traditionally, there is also a headline speaker of national recognition along with a variety of short programs. This year the special guest was Jo Frost, the Supernanny.
I began thinking about the Showcase during the spring and contacted the newspaper for pricing information. It was more expensive than our usual exhibits due to the booth fee, rental costs, and the need for more materials in bulk. There were also special marketing opportunities including a bag stuffer and display ad. Thanks to an Outreach Express Award from the GMR, we were able to have a booth with Internet access, plenty of materials to distribute and a display ad. We focused our booth on MedlinePlus, the new Go Local North Dakota site, Household Products database and Toxtown. We had information available on most of the other NLM resources including Native American Health, Senior Health, and Genetics Home Reference. MedlinePlus magazines were also available. The magazines were provided in bulk from the publishing company. We borrowed the large gray exhibit from the GMR office as it has lights. All the non-profit booths were located on the mezzanine of the Dome and the lighting is dim near the walls.
Many lessons were learned during the preparation before the Showcase. Of course, the one we learn over and over is to do things before the last minute. One of the marketing perks of the event was the possibility to put an item in each participant’s bag. However, I was surprised when they wanted 5000 items by the mid-September. This involved more expense than anticipated as we had to rush order our magnets from our Ohio-based supplier just when Ohio was undergoing their flooding and power outages. The company was unable to contact the production facility for several days so we didn’t know if anything would arrive in time. We also had many upfront fees to pay for our booth equipment (chairs, tables, carpet) and for utilities (electrical outlets and Internet connection). A special supplement is produced and included in the Friday edition of The Forum newspaper. This supplement reaches an audience of 80,000 newspaper subscribers. We purchased a ¼ page color advertisement. Fortunately, The Forum provided graphic design services in their fee so all we had to do was provide them with the images and text we wanted to use. With all the brochures, bookmarks, magnets, and magazines, my office was getting very crowded. It was helpful to have some of the printed items delivered directly to the Fargo Dome.
Other lessons learned at the booth are worth sharing. The Internet connection was expensive and really not necessary. People were in a hurry and didn’t want to stop for a demo. You really need to be aggressive about catching people walking by the booth. Our supply of chocolate helped. We also determined that people walking by within a 3-foot distance from the booth were fair game. Many moms and grandmas attended the Showcase. The Household Products database was a good tool to get them to stop. We also pushed the ability to find pictures of rashes in MedlinePlus. Everyone seemed interested once they found out all the information was free with no advertising. There were three librarians in the boot,h and it was busy from the minute the doors opened at 9am until the Supernanny started speaking at 3:30pm. The event officially ended at 5pm, and there was another small swell in visitors after the keynote speaker finished.
Serendipitously, our booth was located next to a woman selling sparkly jewelry with lots of display lights. That really helped us as we grabbed people attracted by the sparkles. While it took a lot more time to set up the booth than I anticipated, the GMR gray display unit lights were worth it. The booth on our other side had no lighting and there were significantly fewer people stopping there. However, if you have never used the gray exhibit from the GMR, get them to send you the video in advance. I found the set-up a little daunting. I was really glad I used my cell phone to take pictures while I was removing items from the case. The photos were very helpful when I had to pack it all back in.
Overall, it was a great opportunity and well worth the money and effort. The attendance was 4,500 and over 770 women stopped at the booth. There were 275 exhibitors. Our Go Local North Dakota statistics showed increased use in the week after the Showcase which has continued into November. This success is encouraging us to look for more consumer activities with exhibit possibilities.
This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago.
