A happy tea crew gathers by the Serendipitea booth including Lisa Boalt Richardson, Linda Villano, Thomas Shu, and Kirsten Kristensen
PHILADELPHIA, Penn.
The inaugural World Tea East proved to be intimate and effective based on the comments of vendors and attendees.
"It was a smaller scale, but for a first time it still had great vendors who had much to offer. We enjoyed being across from Harney and Sons! What a fantastic family and business! Over all we felt it was a terrific show," writes Hope Hilby, an exhibitor and owner of Tea Tangent in Reading, Penn.
"It was my first time attending the World Tea East and I found it very beneficial. The people were super friendly and welcoming.... thank you!" writes Celia Tully, CMO of Natural Body International in Atlanta, Ga.
“I thought it was a good show… small but very focused. It was friendly, fun, and very informative. I also like Philadelphia so much more than Las Vegas... better vibes,” writes Judith Krall-Russo, a Food Historian and Certified Tea Specialist based in New York.
“We measure the success of any event we produce by the return it provides our exhibitors, and the value it delivers to our attendees, And overwhelmingly, we had positive feedback from both," said World Tea Media President George Jage.
"This was a new venture for us to offer a regional event on the east coast and we had some very serious concerns with the massive rainfall and flooding and how it would affect the event," said Jage, who organized the event. "We did lose a considerable percentage of registered attendees to the weather, road closures, cancelled flights and the like, but a strong enough audience turned out to make the event highly successful for all. The most frequently asked question I got was: "when will you announce next year’s east coast event?' "
“I enjoyed the fact that it was so small. I got to really spend time with people which I definitely wouldn't have been able to do at a larger expo, writes Nicole Martin,” who is a writer and creator at Tea for Me Please who does demonstrations for Stella & Chewy's.
“Although it was smaller scale, I felt the same vibes and I had more personal time with each of the vendors, writes Victor Leung, a tea enthusiast and IT Security Consultant in New York. “It was great to catch up with some of the tea folks that I met in Vegas last year.”
“Our gratitude hats are off to Mr. and Mrs. Jage; their various World Tea East sponsors; volunteer educators from the STI whose program dovetailed with the Expo; World Tea East educators; and Expo exhibitors for their combined efforts and investments of time and money,” writes David W. Greene, owner of Greene Brothers Specialty Coffee, in New York.
“We're quite fortunate to have this less expansive but still excellent tea education and tea business opportunity here in the East.”