THE inaugural Casterton Community Expo has gone “above and beyond all expectations” in promoting the district’s organisations and businesses.


The brainchild of a small committee of volunteers from the Casterton Community Centre, the expo was aimed at promoting district services, not just to new residents, but anyone who was unaware of what was available in their community.


“There are plenty of new businesses around the district, businesses who offer services that people are not aware of and organisations who are constantly looking for new members and volunteers,” the community centre’s Lisa McDonald said in the lead-up to the event.


“We thought an expo would be a great opportunity for people to find all of those things in one place.”


While initial uptake of the exhibit sites, offered at no charge to participating groups, was slow, fear of a lack of participation went unfounded as more than 50 sites opened for business at the Casterton Town Hall on Saturday morning.


“It’s just incredible,” Ms McDonald said.


“It’s an absolute credit to Sharron (Gill) who did all the hard work, contacting all of these organisations, sending reminders, getting them all on board.


“And one of the things we did not really think about, but what we saw on the day, was all of the exhibitors themselves, moving around different tables, networking and getting communication going with other organisations.


“It was wonderful to see.”


The question of ‘will the community want to come?’ was also quickly put to rest on Saturday morning, with people lining up at the town hall doors even before the official opening time of 11am and crowds filling the floor right up until the 3pm closing time.


“We just cannot believe the crowd that has attended … it just goes to show that people really are interested in what their local community has to offer and we thank everyone who has come along today,” Ms McDonald said.


She also thanked the centre’s Peter Green, who had been instrumental in organising the exhibitor floor plan and centre committee members, who helped with catering, on the day.


“We have a great group of volunteers here and they have all done an outstanding job of putting this together.”


Feedback from exhibitors and visitors has already initiated discussion for future, regular expos.


“We think there’s the potential for this to happen every two years – long enough the businesses and organisations have something new to show or there are new visitors or residents to discover what’s happening in the town, but short enough that nothing gets missed,” Ms McDonald said.