The Organic Expo featuring The Green Show

Food Glorious Organic Food! The Organic Expo featuring The Green Show was open to the General Public and on Sunday, 26 July, 2009 , REB, Carlton we convinced the children that their sustainable future lay behind the Royal Exhibition Building's doors (no response) and that the plaza outside offered perfect scooting conditions (a positive response). No one was disappointed: The scooting was good, there was a sense of expectation as the smell of cooking food emanated into the queue and we readily fulfilled our heightened senses by consuming every tempting morsel of food we were offered!

The highlight was the bug man at the Creepy Crawly Garden who was a multitasker. Whilst eating organic corn chips he showed me the life cycle of a lady beetle - not as glamorous as I had supposed. The life cycle of aphids, which consisted of having your guts sucked out by said lady beetle and hiding from said lady beetle so said aphid could retain it's guts. He was also happy to see his produce graze nonchalantly about on the marketing sheets (the ecto eaters) and your purchased bugs are conveniently sent through the post. He even showed me the post packaging with warning sticker live biological specimens inside. This is the first year I am hoping my vegetable garden is infested with aphids. It could be worth the investment just to be sent a package with that sticker attached to it. The Creepy Crawly Garden man then went on to describe the lethal efficiency of Neem on the life cycle of head lice. One Mum shrieked declaring her children haven't had lice - give it time.

The kids were entertained by the Animals on the Move farm pen who have been to our house for a birthday do. They are great and gave their honest opinion about working and marriage - a continual state of unresolved tension. After prising the children away from the rabbits we ventured into the trade hall.

Caution: If you are thinking about leaving your job and producing organic skin care products - think again. Your time may be better employed producing packaging materials for the number of organic skin care producers assembled at the Royal Exhibition Building!

Caution: The baby organic market is also saturated.

Wow: Victoria has some savvy organic producers.

Wow: The New Zealander's are coming.

Wow: The audience were diverse and the momentum of building a consumer base looks very rosy. There were many products that end up in my shopping trolley, not because they are organic but because they taste fantastic.

Wow: Loved the marketing for organic boy girl.

Wow: Loving Earth chocolate rocked.

Note: Must try out Miss Organics - in my other life as a highly paid executive.

Downside: Wayfinding. When are expo organiser's going to embrace simple way finding ideas like visual maps with product branding to view while waiting in the queue? It's a difficult proposition to buy your ticket and be forced to walk without any reference. The trade mag was close to hopeless. Finding your way around a system of numbers, some with added letters, then trying to find the producer is a nightmare. What about using the technology we have in our pockets. Please, please someone introduce a system of information through your phone!

Coat closet: Walking around with scooters was not conducive to a completely enjoyable day. The helpful people at information referred us to the Melbourne Museum, however, having been through one queue the desire for another was very low.

7/10 I'll go next year.