Irresistible Gluten Free Food Show Melb 2009

In the meantime please ensure that you are signed up to our newsletter to be eligible for a chance to win one of the five fabulous gluten free hampers we are about to give away to celebrate our first year birthday and the gluten free show.

So what does it take to run a successful gluten free pages stand? Well besides all of the packing of stand materials, ordering of flyers, balloons and other products it takes a merry band of dedicated souls. To this I give thanks to the tireless efforts of Julie Pelar the director, Linda O'Sullivan (the other director who was unfortunately indisposed but there in spirit) and Mary Pelar who did two outstanding days on the front line of meeting visitors. A special thanks goes to Alan Kirke for his advice and hands on work with our videotaping sessions on Saturday!

One year ago when we first attended the show Australia had barely been touched by the global financial crisis and there seemed to be a few more interstate exhibitors. This year the show was packed with many national gf brands and seemed to be just as well attended by the general public.

While we don't have any specific statistics on the subject as yet, it seemed that the people that visited our stand and signed up to our specials newsletter were also a completely different set of people! This perhaps gives credence to theory that people are being diagnosed all the time, and the longer that people are celiac the more ‘complacent' they become in their search for gluten free food. That is, gluten free shopping becomes such a hassle that after we have found an adequate source of gf food it becomes a relief and it's easy to reduce our efforts in finding new sources.

This process is similar to the process people go through when house hunting. They search and search until they find an ideal suburb or they put a deposit on their house, then they can relax. But to carry this analogy further, after buying their house, some people continuously renovate, knowing what a rewarding experience lies ahead. In the gluten free world it is easy to stick to your safe restaurants, cafes' and retailers, however at Gluten Free Pages we continually seek new places and products for you to try so you can broaden your horizons, eating experiences and joy of life. We put in the hard work so you don't have to. Why not visit us often to find out the latest in the gluten free world.

Though many people were attracted to our show stand by the lure of winning one of the fantastic gluten free hampers that our kind sponsor Australian Gift Hampers has given us to give away ... many people soon realised what a great combination our free site and newsletter can provide them. As we said many times over during the day, the site provides you with ways of finding new eating options, while our newsletter solves the problem the gluten free expense by providing great specials every month.

This year along with people seeking gluten free products, we once again met many people seeking solutions to fructose intolerance and other allergies. We sympathise completely with any suffering caused by such allergies and diseases however as you can imagine, focussing on the plight of coeliacs and gluten intolerant people at the moment is still a full time task for us. Perhaps with time and demand we may be able to expand our site?

During the show we were also able to visit a few of our clients and other interesting gluten free stands with our video camera. We thought what better way is there to showcase the generous spirited people who bring us gluten free products and provide of all these invaluable services to our communities than do a little PR for them? Now it a may take a little while before we can edit these mini stories into easily digestible forms for you, but rest assured we and our technical advisers are working on it. We will let you know via our newsletters as soon as you can view these vignettes.

What does the next year hold for Gluten Free Pages and Gluten free in Australia in particular? GFP has a few top secret projects in the works for you. A recent article in our articles section shows that online demand in Australia is growing at about 10% per year. As coeliacs continue to be diagnosed off a low base, we only expect this demand to increase in the short and midterm which we hope only expands our gluten free choices.

With the ability to be only in one place at a time we would like to reiterate the message that we gave many people at the show. You know your area better than anyone, and in many places that you travel you are likely to find gluten free treasures that are not listed on our site. If you do, we urge you to either tell these gluten free places about our site or tell us directly via our contact page so we can list them for others. If you are one of the top contributors or ‘gluten free angels' as we like to call you, for the year, we will reward you some great gluten free gifts.