Trade Show - HELP?

Question

I am organizing a Travel Agency (Cruises) Trade Show, the idea is to find New Group Leaders that organizes activities for their members - we are looking for group leaders in this area or fund raisers.
To be honest with you, I’ve never done this before, but my bosses have the biggest trust in me, I don’t want to let them down, and even if they are helping me, I want to show them that I’m in the right track.
We already have the Theme (given by me) , the place, the date and the vendors
I need help with ideas of where I can find these people that would fit as our guests.
We are looking for the West Palm Beach Area in Florida

Answer 1

I've never had to do anything like what you're doing, but if I did, I'd start by contacting all the senior citizen centers/organizations, hospital auxiliaries, banks, garden clubs, business and professional groups, as well as area churches. Many of these organize tours or "caravans" for their members. Ask to be put in contact with the persons responsible for this.

Answer 2

Sort of putting the cart before the horse, I think. You first find the market, the audience, then tailor the program around their wants, needs, and ambitions. You've limited yourself by building the better mousetrap and are now trying to find people to beat a path to their door in order to present it.

Next time, build your social, cultural, and economic network first. Meanwhile, it is just like normal sales prospecting--what does my customer look like? where might my customer be? where do I then have to go to find my customer? But in your case, you need clusters, groups. I would approach civic groups and try to rent the mailing list from others who have had programs of similar lines of activity before, since you are in a rush.