History of the Music Expo
Founded in 2016 by Marc Belaiche, President of the Music Expo, this event started with an idea after a trip with a friend to Ottawa. On that trip, Marc's friend suggested that he do a consumer show of some kind as Marc's experience has been business shows but not consumer and it would be good to diversify.
After some thinking, Marc thought a Music show would be great given Marc's tremendous interest in music. After all, there's a cat show, a dog show, a travel show, a Zoomer show and many more shows but Marc didn't feel there was a show that targeted the Music Fan.
It didn't take long for GeneralMayhem.ca to come on board as the presenting sponsor of the Music Expo.
This is a summary of the events that have been held as of January 31, 2020:
Saturday October 1, 2016 - 1st Music Expo at Clarke Hall in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada. Created with Arlene Paculan, Kat Leonard and Jay Kana, this first event had 150 attendees, 6 speakers during the day including Jeff Woods, 8 exhibitors and 10 bands performed at night.
Saturday September 23, 2017 - 2nd Music Expo at the Rockpile in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada. In partnership with Demetrius Nath and Chris Wulff from Mississauga Music this event took it to the next level. With an attendance of 250+, this event featured 12 exhibitors, appearances by Alan Cross from 102.1 The Edge and Skye Sweetnam from Sumo Cyco. There were also 4 amazing bands who played amazing sets that night.
Saturday January 26, 2019 - 3rd Music Expo at the Mississauga Convention Centre. After retooling the event in 2018 and taking a year off, it was felt that moving the event to January as well as to a bigger space would be more appropriate. The event was also re-tooled to include musicians signing autographs for attendees and also removed the bands playing at night. At the event there were 15 exhibitors, 15 musicians and over 1000 people registered for the event. Some of the appearances included Gord Deppe (Spoons and Flock of Seagulls), Sandy Horne (Spoons), Michael Hanson (Glass Tiger), Brian Byrne (I Mother Earth), Steve Marshall (Teenage Head) and many more! Check out https://www.musicexpo.ca/autographs for a list of appearances.
Saturday January 25, 2020 - 4th Music Expo at the Mississauga Convention Centre. With over 1500 registrants, this event featured the Acoustic Stage performances all afternoon sponsored by the City of Mississauga and hosted by Matt Zaddy. There were over 35 musicians who appeared, 25 exhibitors and special appearances by Greg Godovitz ("Goddo"), Eric Alper (Music Publicist), Sharon Hampson (Sharon, Lois & Bram), David Boyd Janes and many more! There were also tremendous partnerships created with organizations like EA Public Relations, C To C Canadian Country Music Insider, Olive Media, Hook & Co and tremendous support from our Media Partner Modern Mississauga, snapd and many more. Lots of prizes were given away.
Saturday May 30, 2020 - The first ever VIRTUAL Canadian Music Expo takes place online. Including some incredible musicians performing, keynote speakers and more, this was an event made for the ages. There were over 75 musicians and speakers at the event.
Saturday September 16, 2023 - Canadian Music Expo live at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.