Exhibitor Kit
The change you’ve been craving
Dear restaurant owner, craft brewer, vintner, cider maker, sponsor and spirit maker,
It is with great pleasure that we are announcing the return of Crave, Ottawa’s premier Food & Wine Festival to be hosted at the Shaw Centre and participating restaurants. As hospitality and entertainment engineers in the National Capital Region (NCR), it was essential for us to revitalize the downtown core with an epicurean festival that truly fosters the long-term engagement between the Ottawa consumer and the hospitality industry.
Crave’s goal is to bring together the culinary arts enthusiasts and the local cuisine for a tasteful week of showcases, masterclasses and activities at participating restaurants leading up to a 2-day food and wine show.
The Crave Week (November 6th to November 9th, 2023) is your opportunity to create culinary activities and experiences with wine and spirit partners hosted at your restaurant and promoted and sold through the Crave website and show program. All show participants have the ability to host an event.
All the participating restaurants, craft brewer, vintners, cider makers, sponsors and spirit makers join together at the Shaw Centre on November 10th and 11th to proudly showcase their talents and products.
We are thrilled to invite you to join us and celebrate what Canada the National Capital Region have to offer to gastronomes.
CRAVE WEEK
We’ve built turnkey experiences to host right from your establishment with quick access to partners for customized collaborations. This allows our partners to benefit from a one-on-one experience with food enthusiasts and the Crave network with events such as The Art of Pairing (learn principles behind the art of pairing dishes with the perfect glass of wine or cocktail) and Beef & Blues (smokehouse tasting menu with live entertainment).
For those who have concepts ready-to-go or would like to create their own experience, our website can promote and sell your activity as part of the Crave Week. We hope to create
a sense of ownership and unity across all participating businesses throughout the Crave Week which will organically magnify the reach beyond your regular network.
The Crave Week goal is to make Ottawa a gourmet destination for locals and tourists for the week of the event. The Crave events and host-businesses at the forefront of the marketing plan is the first and most important segue to communicate that there is something to fit everyone’s palette.
Crave SHOW
In order to truly raise the experience for visitors, we will be creating an immersive festival space for Crave – Food & Wine Festival. We want to capture and engage all visitors by designing themed aisles that would regroup culinary categories.
Our goal is to upgrade the traditional booth display into an interactive moment that showcases your business’ personality. We believe adding diversity to the sampling experience will foster interactivity throughout the festival and set an environment prone to conversation and discovery.
Beyond different showroom concepts, the festival will have cooking presentations for both visitors and exhibitors, live entertainment, and mixology demonstrations.
The festival will run on a coupon system where attendees must use coupons (1 coupon = $1.00) to purchase samples. The number of coupons necessary to purchase a sample is set by the exhibitor. The exhibitor receives 0.80 / 1.00 per coupon.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Both Ottawans and visitors have a big appetite for culinary events. At Crave, we understand the necessity of combining different intimate events to stir up a city-wide happening. Our target demographic profile is a professional between 25 and 55 years old netting a yearly household income of $120,000 a year.
Based on our experience and festival goer attendance pattern assessments, we estimate that each converted customer will be accompanied by an average of 2 people.
Crave Showroom
A fun and functional directional system will guide the guests through the Crave showroom. The showroom will be divided into themed aisles representative of the different food and wine categories.
The showroom layout and activations aim to transform the attendee’s visitation pattern. We want to create an ambiance that strengthen the interaction with the visitor. The guest is not only hosted by the exhibitors, but is invited to judge and participate in activities that translate into a longer and more fulfilling time spent on site discovering as well as enjoying food and beverages prepared by local talent.