An invitation

[mission vending]

Over the last couple of months I have received a couple of RFP's from school districts in Texas, nothing anywhere remotely near me and also seeking snack only services.

On Friday I received an invitation to purchase a booth at the TASBO (Texas Association of School Business Officials) as there were school districts asking if there were any snack vending companies attending the conference.

I have no intention of attending and spending $900.00 for a booth. These recent events have me thinking about at least sending a response explaining why I and most vendors for that matter have no interest in a snack only proposition.

Here is the body of the invitation request:

Good afternoon,

One of our members contacted me this afternoon asking which snack vendors would be in attendance at TASBO’s Annual Conference and Exhibits. He sent out an RFP to several companies and is looking for a new vending machine company for his district. I informed him that we do not have ANY snack machine companies coming to conference! So I thought I would contact a few companies that may have interest in getting your products and services in front of our attendees.

TASBO is the Texas Association of School Business Officials. All of our members work on the business side of Texas Schools. Job duties range from Purchasing departments, CFO’s, accounting, personnel, maintenance and operations, transportation, etc. We currently have 1,500 registered attendees for our annual conference.

Unfortunately, our exhibit dates are right around the corner…March 1st and 2nd. I know this does not leave a huge window for planning, but with an attendee specifically asking for such vendors I thought I would make contact and let you know that this could be a potential market for you.

I have attached the exhibit hall map to show you the few remaining booths and you can find the exhibitor contract and additional exhibitor information here: http://www.tasbo.org/training/conference/exhibitors In our exhibitor prospectus you will find tons of information about our conference.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can do to help you make your decision. I hope to see you in Austin in a few weeks!

END

So my question is, should I respond and if so what should I put in my response?

[Technivend]

Tell them that since you can only show a third of your product line that you should only pay a third of the booth space