Women’s expo coming to Carson City

A mainstay event in Reno now operated by Sharron Angle and her daughter is coming to Carson City in October.

The Nevada Women’s Expo will feature retailers, service providers and non-profits as well as a farmer’s market and car show for two days, Oct. 13-14, at the Carson Mall.

“We’re hoping to get some food trucks and we’re trying to arrange a sock hop for Friday night,” said Joye Kinkade, co-owner and coordinator.

The expo will run from 3-9 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. on Saturday, and include vendors such as Mary Kay inside the mall and booths selling homemade and homegrown items outside as well as a judged car show on Saturday in the westside parking lot.

The goods and services should appeal to women, but the businesses don’t have to be run by women.

“We have contractors and handymen, solar rooms and window guys,” said Kinkade. “They’re men-owned businesses, but they know women make most of the decisions.”

Kinkade bought the business in July and now runs it with her mother, the former Nevada Assemblywoman and current candidate for U.S. Congress.

“She’s very involved. She takes on half the responsibility and does as much as I do,” said Kinkade. “I’m so grateful she’s my partner.”

Kinkade has held two other events, last October and in April, both at Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort, where the expo was more than just a marketplace.

At the spring expo, for example, Kinkade hosted a wedding for five couples who were simultaneously married on stage.

She received 150 applications and whittled it down to five, mostly by choosing couples who spanned the generations, including one older couple who rekindled their romance after losing touch for 30 years.

She got the idea because in 2014 she and her husband were one of 16 couples who were wed in a similar ceremony on the ferris wheel at Scheels.

Kinkade decided to host an event in Carson City after she was unable to book the Grand Sierra, which is undergoing remodeling.

“Why not have it in the capital, with Nevada Day coming up,” said Kinkade.

The move also reduced event costs so the Carson City Nevada Women’s Expo is free admission and vendor booths are about half the cost: $60 for the homemade and homegrown space outside and $495 for a 10-by-10 foot spot with electricity inside the mall.

Most of the proceeds will go to several charities, including Supported by Hope, an organization Kinkade founded after her son was born a year ago with Edwards Syndrome.

“I want to have a place for parents to connect with state and community resources,” said Kinkade. “I had to find all of these things on my own and it was scary and it was exhausting.”

Kinkade said the goal is to provide a ready guide to resources for parents, who are consumed with fighting for their child’s life.

The experience also led Kinkade and her mother to write a book, which Kinkade hopes to have published in time to be available at the expo.

“We’re trying to change the way the medical community deals with people with conditions not compatible with life,” she said. “And to give some hope and faith to parents.”