Greetings to you as a potential 2024 MITES Commercial Exhibitor! I hope this invitation finds you and your business well! My name is Rob Lindsay, I am the Commercial Exhibits and Journal Advertising Chairperson for the Michigan Industrial & Technical Education Society (MITES).

​

Currently MITES has over 335 members, with over 6,000 student project entries in the May 2019 Professional Development and Student Competition, and over 1,200 attendees participated at our 2022 state convention. Attendance and participation is always a huge success with new participants and families seeing what students have created. With increased membership and the yearly exposure, the MITES Conference is anticipating record attendance again at the 2023 convention. The MITES conference includes opportunities to interact with our participants for 2 days and reach an audience of more than 6,000 high school students, along with their teachers, school administrators, and parents from CTE and Industrial Technology programs from all over Michigan. This is the ideal place to promote your products and services to the technical education marketplace. It is also the place where students and company representatives may exchange information and talk about employment or post-secondary education and training opportunities. With so many prospective customers in one location, this year’s MITES Conference will surely give your company the exposure one is looking for in terms of prospective talent and business opportunity.

 

This year’s MITES Conference will be held at the Ellison Center - 150 Dale Drive, Gaylord, MI 49735. There are many opportunities are available for commercial exhibitors to connect with teachers, potential future clients, and the most talented industrial and technology high school students in the state of Michigan. There will be a Commercial Exhibits Social time on Thursday, May 9, 2024 where business partners will have the opportunity to collaborate with secondary teachers to foster business partnerships between schools and industry.

 

Event                                                                              Date/Times

Commercial Exhibits Check-In and Set-up       Wednesday, May 8 - 12:00 PM-5:00 PM

Commercial Exhibits Check-In and Set-up       Thursday, May 9 - 8:00 AM-2:00 PM

Project Judging and Exhibition Day One             Thursday, May 9  - 2:00 PM-5:00 PM

Commercial Exhibits Social                                   Thursday, May 9 - 5:15 PM-6:00 PM

Public Viewing and Exhibition Day Two              Friday, May 10 - 9:00 AM-3:00 PM

Exhibition Day Three                                              Saturday, May 11 - 8:00 AM-Noon

 

Educational Sessions

The mission MITES is to provide exclusive professional development (PD) opportunities to our teacher members, and none are better than those sessions that bridge the gap between education and industry. Commercial Exhibitors have the first opportunity to select (PD) session slots and determine the topic they wish to present. If you have a session idea that educates teachers, provides information about your products or industry, or how your session can benefit teachers and students, please contact our Convention Chair, Mr. Adam Carr at (269)845-5211 or by email at conventionchair@mites.cc This is a great opportunity to have educators work with new products, find out about new promotional offers, or show how to improve the connection between education and industry.

​

Commercial Vendor Package

The Commercial Exhibits Package includes one 10’ by 10’ booth, one 2’ by 8’ table, two chairs, a digital copy of our membership list, a business card size color advertisement in the MITES journal and a direct link on the MITES website. The registration cost of a Commercial Exhibits booth is $410.00. If additional space is necessary, the cost is $310.00 for the second booth.

​

Please let me know if there is something additional not listed that is necessary, and I will work to accommodate requests. If you need something additional for your booth please let me know and I will look into your request. Please use our membership list to help promote your presence at the convention by developing a sales flyer, special MITES promotions, or a simple newsletter telling the membership about what services you offer and how you can help industrial-technology teachers in the classroom.  You never know when your flyer might end up in a non-member’s classroom getting you a sales referral! Remember, education budgets are replenished July 1, many of our budgets are shrinking, so any incentive helps, something as simple as free shipping with orders placed by September 14th might hook an order or new client!! It is MITES desire for you to leave this year’s convention with record sales, please let me know how I can help!!

​

Educational Exhibitor Package

MITES offers an Educational Exhibits Package for schools or institutions whose primary desire is to expose students to educational opportunities and not selling a product, service, or merchandise. The educational exhibits package includes: one 10’ by 10’ booth, one 2’ by 8’ table, two chairs, a digital copy of our membership list, a business card size advertisement in our journal and a link on the MITES website. The registration cost of the Educational Exhibits booth is $225.00.

​

Advertising

Commercial exhibitors that wish to purchase additional advertisement or increase the business card size advertisement that is included with the vendor package are welcome to do so. See the attached MITES Advertising Information/Contact Sheet for ad size upgrades. Please remember our journal goes to every member.

​

Friends of M.I.T.E.S.

MITES has developed a program known as “Friends of MITES” (See attachment). Depending on the level of donation to the MITES organization or the MITES Foundation, an exhibitors booth may include, corporate name on awards or at various locations throughout the exhibit floor. Attached is an invitation letter to review if you are interested in becoming a Friend of MITES Sponsor. Please contact Rob Lindsay at (734)612-1426 or by email at advertising@mites.cc for more
information on how to take full advantage of this tax deductible opportunity

​

Best of Show Awards

THANK YOU for your support of MITES, our member teachers and their students, and families. If you have any questions or would like to get registered, please contact me via email, by phone, or online. I look forward to working with you soon!

 

Rob Lindsay

Commercial Exhibits Manager

commercialexhibits@mites.cc

(734) 612-1426