The third annual Brantford Business Trade Show will take place at Brantford’s Best Western Hotel and Conference Centre on Thursday, January 22, 2026.
Sam Gernhart, event organizer and owner of Clarity Marketing and Design, said she originally created the event as a way to fill a gap in the market.
“Our community doesn’t have a lot of trade shows or events like this that are specifically for businesses,” she said. “The only other ones around would be the Chamber’s trade show that they do during Small Business Week in October, as well as the trade show portion of the Women in Business Expo that I put on in March, and so I just felt like our community could use another one.”
As far as the decision to hold the annual event in January, Gernhart said it provides an opportunity for local businesses in the surrounding area to start marketing their products and services, network and make connections with other businesses, and ultimately set themselves up for success going into 2026.
“I thought January was the best time to put on this event in the sense that you get to start the new year off right,” she explained. “After the holidays, a lot of businesses will say, ‘okay, it’s a new year, I’m going to get this done, I’m going to do this, and I’m going to market more;’ sometimes they even have a New Year’s resolution of putting more time and effort into the business, or making this their biggest year yet, and so I always think this is just a great event to kind of kick-start the year, and hopefully they make connections that they can utilize for months to come.”
Speaking to the uncertainty of running a business during the current economy, Gernhart stressed the importance of utilizing different marketing strategies like a trade show.
“Over the past two months, I saw a lot of local and surrounding community businesses announcing that they were closing at the end of 2025, so there’s a lot of talk on social media about the uneasiness and the unpredictability of what 2026 is going to bring right now. I don’t think a lot of us are thinking about adding new services or adding new products, I think we’re just trying to keep the doors open and keep going,” she said. “We all have competitors–there’s always going to be someone cheaper–so how do you sell yourself? How do you sell that product or that service if you aren’t the cheapest in town? You’ve got to sell yourself differently. It’s out of so many of our comfort zones to even post on social media, and it’s time consuming, but sometimes you have to pick and choose where your time and energy is going to go marketing wise because we can’t do it all.”
“We can’t be everywhere all at once and so maybe this year, for some people, it’s more like, ‘Hey, I’m going to network and go to trade shows and do my social media,’ continued Gernhart. “So you have to sort of pick and choose a couple of things that you’re going to try this year if you want your business to stick. We’ve all got to market our business somehow and so this is an opportunity to do that face to face, to kick off the new year, and network and meet others in our community and surrounding areas because you never know who you’re going to meet and who will need what you have to offer.”
While Gernhart said that while she has utilized her own social media and email list to organically grow the event over the past couple years, she’s been able to extend her reach this year with the addition of an event sponsor.
“Events haven’t quite been doing well in the last year for numerous organizations, and I don’t want to be one of those whose event isn’t growing, right? So I’ve really looked into what else I can do and try this year marketing wise,” she said. “This year, Broadway Manufacturing has come on board as a sponsor; they operate a range of state-of-the-art CNC machines, offering high-quality machining services including precision milling, turning, and surface grinding. They’ve been around since about 2023, so they’re still kind of new and I think their support as a sponsor is not only a great way for them to get that exposure, but it’s also allowing me to send a direct mail out to over 4,000 businesses in Brantford too. I’m looking forward to seeing what that can do growth wise because I don’t want it to remain at that status quo, so I’m hoping that extra marketing will increase not only those who are coming as vendors but public attendance wise as well.”
As far as what to expect from the event, Gernhart said that attendees will get the chance to discover various industries from the area.
“The goal is always to have a variety of businesses from different industries with different products. So we’ll have everything from finance to cleaning business, home staging, home renovation and home decorating, we’ll have lawyers, real estate people, a masonry business, a label and print company, a couple non-profits and some trade businesses too,” she explained. The goal is really to make sure that this event really feels like a neutral space where everyone can feel welcome in the sense of getting a table and attending. It’s not just corporate services that you would normally see at a trade show, there’s really a variety of businesses and entrepreneurs that take part.”
New to this year’s event, is the addition of professional headshots.
“I was approached by J&J Sports Photography, they’re a local business and they do a lot of headshots for sports, but also for corporate uses too, and they actually pitched me the idea. So during the event, anyone who is there, be it the vendors or attendees, will be able to get a digital headshot that they can use for things like LinkedIn, their socials or even their website. For $25 you can get a new headshot on a single background, and for $40 you can get one image with multiple background options. We can all benefit from having a headshot, so I think this will be a great feature for the people who come out on the day.”
For those businesses interested in having a table at the event, Gernhart said that while it depends on how much space is available, she’ll be keeping applications open until a couple days before, and that they can apply to register for the trade show or as a sponsor, by visiting the website: https://www.brantfordbusinesstradeshow.ca/
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
