More than 500 local home improvement businesses will showcase their products and services at the Maricopa County Home Show at the University of Phoenix Stadium this month. A survey by Maricopa County Home Shows indicates 43 percent of attendees will hire a contractor within 60 days after a show, and are more likely to spend their combined budgets of more than $148 million with businesses they interacted with at the event.
“Exhibiting businesses are exposed to tens of thousands of qualified homeowners throughout the course of one weekend. We even have some exhibitors who literally operate all year long solely off the customers they are introduced to at each of our [five annual] home shows,” says Rene Smith, who founded MCHS in 1992 with $8,000 borrowed from her mother. Prescreening exhibitors for licenses and BBB rating, MCHS hosts 12-13 percent of the booths to new exhibitors to keep the shows fresh with new and innovative products. Of the nearly 90 percent of returning companies, more than 65 percent sign up a full year in advance.
