Women's Show: free and informative: women have opportunity to learn and grow through show.(Alaska This Month)

Alaska's women have created a lasting mystique as survivors, creators and adventurers through the state's history, such as Iditarod champions and frontier women like the Sisters of Providence who had their own ways of making life in the north what they wished. T-shirts and bumper stickers these days proclaim "Alaska Women Kick ..." well, you know.

This month the 14th Annual Alaska Women's Show at the Sullivan Arena will celebrate all those things Alaska's women love, crave and want to learn--from career advancement and education to fitness to food and remodeling the home.

"It's a blast," said Annie Chavez, production manager for Aurora Productions Inc., the organizer of the Women's Show. "It is a trade show, but it's not a boring trade show."

The show brings in more than 13,000 visitors and is free to the public. This year it runs from April 20 to April 22 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. People can pick and choose what they want to attend, including seminars, cooking demonstrations, and health and fitness demonstrations, Chavez said.

The list of presenters and vendors is large. There will be gourmet-cooking demonstrations throughout the weekend put on by celebrity chefs as well as a presentation about recipes for cooking with beer, she said. Local breweries take part. This also brings up the point that you don't have to be female to attend.

"You see all age groups," Chavez said, from teenagers to moms to seniors.

The show itself began years ago in the wake of what had been an annual bridal fashion show. As the show grew, the numbers and types of people and businesses wishing to take part snowballed into what has become the Alaska Women's Show, Chavez said.

These days, sections of the show concerning home improvement have become a big draw. There also are representatives from Alaska's hospitals with information about careers and health care subjects for women. The Anchorage Police Department and the Alaska State Troopers now also use the show as a means of reaching out to women interested in law enforcement careers.

There is a main stage set up where fashion and fitness will take place. Fine arts and crafts are also there to round out the schedule. Whatever an Alaska woman may want probably can be found somewhere in the trade show, Chavez said, and organizers are always willing to listen.

Since 1984, Aurora Productions has presented consumer and other trade shows that are run for exhibitors by people with exhibitor backgrounds. Nearly 80 percent of Aurora Productions' exhibitors return each year, so key locations for the shows go quickly, organizers said. Some of the shows they produce include the Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival, The Great Alaska Sportsman Show, the Anchorage Home Show and The Alaska Winter Recreation & Travel Show.

For more information about the Alaska Women's Show events schedule, becoming a vendor at the show or for a layout of the arena, check online at www.auroraproductions. net or call 562-9911.

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