As winter comes to an end and spring nears, thousands were drawn to Tinley Park for the Home & Garden Show.
The event, held at the Tinley Park Convention Center on March 3 and 4, was a first for Omni Media who brought together over a hundred businesses to display products and give presentations. The Home & Garden Show typically provides a one-stop shop for people looking for any home improvement or home-related products or services.
“We do shows across the Chicagoland area, and this market was really hurting for a quality home show,” Omni Media co-owner Sandy Hardesty said. “We do large-scale events, we do Arlington Park race course, and we wanted to bring it here to Tinley Park.”
Hardesty said she is pleased by this year’s turnout for the Home & Garden Show hosted at the Tinley Park Convention Center.
“It’s a comfortable environment where people can talk face-to-face with the people who will be coming out to their homes, or the business owner,” Hardesty said. “It definitely allows a more comfortable experience rather than just calling somebody out to your home and saying, ‘Give me an estimate.’ It’s nice for people to be able to touch, see, and feel the products that they’re going to be working with.”
The Home & Garden Show aims to appeal to homeowners, gardeners and do-it-yourself enthusiast seeking the latest tools and even some tips of the trades. About a year ago, Omni Media, whose been in existence for nearly 20 years, began meeting with representatives for the Tinley Park Convention Center to set up the event.
“It expands our reach now all the way from the Wisconsin border to northwest Indiana,” Omni Media co-owner Scott Hardesty said. “We’ve got five shows in between this one and our Lake County, and we’re in almost every market in Chicago.”
Scott said they were anticipating to have between 10,000 and 15,000 people come to the Home & Garden Show in Tinley Park.
“We’re definitely setting a new standard,” Scott said. “We’re the smallest company doing it. Basically, a mom-and-pop shop, and we’re running the largest circuit of shows.”
“We like being able to do strong ad plans,” Scott said. “We like bringing out a great selection of 140 [or] 150 companies—there might be more—but we want to make sure people come out, they find what they need,” he said.
Scott said next year, the Home & Garden Show will be bigger and better.
“I think we’re using 40 to 50,000 square feet of this facility and there’s the hot tub expo and everything,” he said. “Next year, we’ll use the entire [space]. So, it’ll be 60,000 [square feet]. We’ll probably have 200 companies, so it’s a huge boost. Next year, even the people who come through this year, next year they’re going to see a lot of new, great things, you’re going to see a lot of bigger booths, and you’re going to see 40, 50, 60 companies that weren’t here, so it’s just giving them more every time.”
The event is anticipated to be held around the same time next year at the Tinley Park Convention Center.