The Expo Experience – Traveling with purpose. 

A weekend of fun times and connecting with friends, reptile expos are more than just going to find a new animal; they now have a new meaning to some of our crew members. For the past two weeks, our team visited NARBC Dallas and LA Reptile Show- two back-to-back major events that had us smiling from ear to ear as we headed back home. You see, it's not about coming home empty handed from us selling out of bugs but more so watching many people confined in our reptile and insect education. That feel good emotion of teaching others how to confidentially care for and become even better keepers.  

NARBC is an abbreviation meaning “North American Reptile Breeders Conference”, in other words, an event you've got to attend at least once if you're into reptile keeping. These shows range mostly all over the United States but featured in the same major cities, making it easy to plan for. When you walk into the doors of any of those locations, it's almost like you can taste it in the air that you're officially at NARBC. Each booth dressed for the best, filled with happy owners and excited guests; you can tell by it all! As we’ve progressively experienced all the different regions of expos, the city of Dallas has some of the most ranged keepers. For this expo specifically, we asked our social media followers to stop by and share with us your new, niche pet and you guys did not disappoint. From specialty spiders to large monitors, we became just as excited as the new owners.  

Let's start at the beginning, where we began our crazy two-week travels at NARBC Dallas. We had a lot of fun with this expo specifically because we started a new tradition that might be worth bringing back in the future. Everyone loves the game of an easter egg hunt but this time we added a twist to it, we made it all about the scales! During set up, we hid three critter figurines around the expo hall with winner tags, all with surprise values. Tori was excited to get the news to our visitors, so we quickly posted information about needing help finding these escapee figurine critters.  

When purchasing tickets for NARBC, they allow guests to have the option to upgrade tickets to the VIP hour of the expo. This is an awesome chance for those who like to get first peeks and claim those awesome deals. Our first lucky winner happened to be a VIP guest, which made the experience all that much better. A dad and his son came up to us with such excitement, holding one of our small animal figurines. Since it was VIP hour, we gifted these two awesome people a brand-new Fluker enclosure. Before you knew it, they were on their way, smiling ear to ear! 

Not long after, normal guest hours came around in which followed with our lucky winner #2 and then #3. What was special about these two winners was giving them the ability to spend a visa gift card how they would like. One of the winners purchased his first personal reptile, since all his siblings already had their first! He showed us his adorable new pet sulcata tortoise. The two smiled back at each other just as much as we did. Creating these moments is what visiting expo’s is all about, putting smiles on others faces, even the critters! 

We left from Dallas NARBC and practically turned right around to head off to the other side of the states, California. California has an amazing expo hall that is easily the size of a football stadium. The LA Reptile Super Shows are some of the most diverse expos to find the species of animal you've never seen before. From black headed pythons to bells phase lace monitors and even your niche bugs like emerald roaches, you're bound to see something new. 

Our team very excitingly arrived and immediately became fascinated with the Anaheim set up and people. Everyone being so welcoming and friendly just made the excitement that much more. We set up our booth with the Chewy crew and set for a weekend of plenty of fun. Something fun that we did at our table was doing five-dollar spins on our winner wheel. All of the proceeds ended up going to USARK which made the game that much more fun! Not only would we have to potentially pay more to the donation box in different increments, but we also ran a Fluker enclosure give away specifically for the spin wheel participants. Luckily, we had such a good turn out that quite a few people spun and won a sign up for the giveaway. Naturally having kids spin something for the fun of it also made for a memorable time, we taught them the importance of USARK and why it's important to support such organizations. 

Altogether, expo’s have made such a great place for keepers of all sorts to come together. Whether that's local or out of state, it's worth seeing these shows!