Expos, competitions and awards
Updated
The hot sauce category has a busy circuit of festivals and awards, and producers spend heavily on it without deciding what they want from it.
What they are actually for
Three different things, and a single event rarely does all three well. Direct sales to consumers. Trade contact with buyers and distributors. And credibility, in the form of an award you can put on a label.
Decide which one before booking, because it changes what you bring, how you price and who you talk to.
The cost of a booth
Booth fee, travel, accommodation, stock, and the sauce given away as samples, which at a busy festival is a serious quantity. Then two or three days not producing and not selling anywhere else.
Work out what you must sell to break even before committing, and be honest about whether the crowd is buyers or browsers. A consumer festival full of people collecting free samples is not a trade event.
Competitions
Entry fees are modest and the judging is subjective, which is not a criticism: it is a panel of palates on a given day. A sauce that places in one and not another has not changed.
Enter categories honestly. Placing a mild sauce in a superhot category to stand out wastes the entry, and judges know the category better than the entrant usually does.
Using an award
A medal on a label is a genuine differentiator on a crowded shelf and it is the main commercial value of the circuit.
State it accurately: the award, the year, the category. An unqualified "award winning" is weaker than a specific claim and, if the award was for a different sauce in your line, it is a misstatement rather than a rounding.