Over the past year, you may have been one of the many people who tuned in to Cooperator Events’ popular webinar series—but did you know that Cooperator Events also produces Cooperator Events Expos, a series of must-attend annual and biannual trade shows in markets from Chicagoland to South Florida to Las Vegas? For 2021, Cooperator Events has expanded its range of educational and informational offerings yet again—this time to include our new Chicagoland Virtual Expo, taking place on Wednesday, May 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. CDT,  and Thursday, May 27, from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. CDT. The Chicagoland Virtual Expo is FREE to attend; simply visit chicago.yrexpos.com to register.

Thousands of board members, managers, condo owners, and co-op shareholders attend Cooperator Events trade shows every year, making personal connections, learning about new products and services, and gathering invaluable information and insight from the best and brightest professionals in the industry—all at no cost to them. 

This latest addition has been in the works for a while, says Yale Robbins, president of Cooperator Events and publisher of CooperatorNews: “We’ve worked hard to deliver a virtual experience that’s immersive, educational, and provides attendees and exhibitors alike the ability to meet, engage with people, and ask questions of experts in the field, either one-on-one at their booth, or in the group seminar setting.”

The virtual exhibit hall is a graphical environment accessed via a web browser that attendees can explore by clicking the signs posted for different events, or on the booth of an exhibitor they wish to visit. While the idea of an all-online expo may be new territory for attendees who make a point to visit Cooperator Events’ on-site trade show every year at Navy Pier, Robbins says, “never fear”—along with the same features that make the in-person shows must-attend events, the virtual version brings an unprecedented level of convenience and flexibility.

“We wanted to give our attendees an experience that’s familiar, but that also takes advantage of the convenience, flexibility, and versatility of an online format over an on-site event,” says Robbins. “With our virtual format, attendees can participate at their leisure, at whatever pace they like. They can go anywhere in the virtual exhibit hall almost instantaneously, and pop in and out whenever something of interest to them is going on, whether it be a seminar, a product demo, or a roundtable discussion.”

And, adds Robbins, “being freed from the constraints of physical space and all the challenges that go with it—things like noise, coordinating foot traffic, equipment set-up, and so forth—we can offer twice the number of seminars we’re able to offer at our on-site events."

The Virtual Expo is accessible from any desktop, laptop, or mobile device, enabling attendees to interact with exhibitors in real time, sit in on educational webinars, and network—or just chat—with peers from co-op, condo, and HOA communities all over the region. Just like Cooperator Events’ in-person shows, the Chicagoland Virtual Expo is FREE to attend; simply visit chicago.yrexpos.com to register. You’ll get a confirmation email with a clickable link that will activate when the show opens, giving you unlimited, on-demand access to the webinars, exhibitor booths, and everything else the event offers.

Exhibitors and panelists are being added to the Virtual Expo roster all the time, so stay tuned for more information and announcements as the big day gets closer. We look forward to seeing you—virtually—at the show!