Green Expo in Encino: FAIL

Last weekend I rolled on down to the Green Expo in Woodley Park. After getting past the alternative cancer therapists and the scientologists, I found the entrance.

They wanted $5.

Although it was billed as free in the LA Times and the sponsor website says FREE TO THE PUBLIC, FREE MUSIC and FREE FOOD in one spot and “Optional $5 donations are welcome for our non-profit sponsor” in another, I can tell you that there was no way they would have let me in without forking over the $5.

I later came across the Daily News reporting that “Most of the event is free, although $5 is charged for admission to an entertainment area with live music,” but that’s not what I found. The person next to me was complaining about false advertising but the bigger concern for me was that it just reeked of lack of professionalism.

This is the problem that besets the environmental movement: it’s a cottage industry run by people without any business sense. There is no way that homeowners with disposable income and a willingness to embrace change are going to attend expos like this if they are rinky-dink. I would have thought the companies exhibiting would be furious at the sponsors. Maybe they are? Attendees seemed pretty sparse.

In February the LA Times took aim (here) at the proliferation of green expos and conventions and concluded “Green trade shows are starting to feel recycled.” Exactly. But I would say it in stronger language.