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WineEast EWE Preview The Lancaster County Convention Center will be home to most events taking place at the Eastern Winery Exposition. See a full schedule on page 72. Eastern Wine Expo Trade Show Is Full L Suppliers flock to first annual event in March; attendance for educational sessions still growing ancaster, Pa.—Demand is strong for wine industry products and informa- tion, as demonstrated by the trade show exhibit space selling out six weeks in advance of the inaugural Eastern Winery Exposition scheduled to take place in Lan- caster next month. Most industry trade shows start with 10 or 20 exhibitors, building gradually as years go by. At the East's first wine and grape trade show in Lancaster in 1976, there were just 24 exhibitors and a total atten- dance of 204. Times have changed, and the industry has grown. The Eastern Winery Exposition trade show will launch from a different level. Scheduled for March 7 and 8 at the Lancaster County Convention Center and Marriott at Penn Square in downtown Lancaster, the trade show will host a total of 136 exhibiting companies in 181 booths. The final exhibitor to sign up for a booth was Wausau Coated Products, 70 Wines & Vines MARCH 2012 Joe Fiola Mark Chien sity of Maryland Cooperative Extension. The Pennsylvania Wine Association will hold its annual meeting at the Lancaster Convention Center on March 6. The official sponsor for the Exposition a Wisconsin supplier of label stocks. Advance registration for attendees is also strong, and the total has passed 500. Ac- cording to show manager Bob Mignarri, at most trade shows 75% of attendees register during the three weeks prior to the show or arrive as walk-ins. In addition to the trade show and speaker sessions, EWE will hold a welcome recep- tion March 6, and there will be a New Grape Grower Workshop presented March 9 by Mark Chien of the Penn State Coopera- tive Extension and Joe Fiola of the Univer- is Wines & Vines magazine, with support- ing sponsorships from Practical Winery & Vineyard Journal, Wine Business Monthly, winejobs.com, the American Wine Society and the License to Steal National Wine Marketing Conference. Seven state winery or grower associations in Maryland, Massa- chusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania also are sup- porting sponsors. For additional information about the conference schedule and registration de- tails, visit easternwineryexposition.com. The Eastern Winery Exposition is being organized by Mignarri with Richard Leahy as seminar program director and Marcia Gulino as director of operations. —Linda Jones McKee