70 Booths Expected for Ad Expo ’95

Ventura County’s small-town, laid-back feel has resulted in a migration of advertising professionals from Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley over recent years, said Whit Collins, president of the Ventura County Advertising Club.

Collins, a partner in Cook-Collins & Associates in Ventura, said in the eight years since he and his partners moved their ad agency from Downtown Los Angeles, the local competition for clients has grown steadily.

“There’s an inflow of communications people who want to live here and do business by modem or fax machine,” he said. “It’s because of the lifestyle. It’s Americana here, a slowed-down pace. Creative ambience is part of the thought process, and the ambience here is much better than in Los Angeles.”

Many of these local advertising businesses will be gathered Thursday at Ventura’s Colony Harbortown Marina Resort for Ad Expo ’95. About 70 public relations specialists, art directors, printers, photographers and others in the marketing field are expected to set up exhibit booths in an effort to promote themselves to local business people. Last year the expo drew about 700 visitors.