Over 50 companies and organizations came to the University yesterday for the fifth annual Northwest Ohio Technology Fair.

The fair, held in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom, offered students from the University and area high schools a look at cutting-edge technology.

One of the 13 companies new to the fair was Shoemaker Motion Picture Co. Although a newcomer to yesterday’s event, the business is no stranger to the University.

“We were one of the early vendors of video to the University,” company representative R.J. Ward said. Ward, who has been with the company for 30 years, said that Shoemaker has been working with the University since the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Shoemaker’s history with the University made it impossible to turn down an invitation to attend the fair, so Ward and an associate made the three and a half hour drive from Indianapolis, Indiana, to attend.

Their long trip was worthwhile, Ward said, as the exhibit proved to be pretty popular.

“We’ve had a mix of student traffic and department people,” he said.

The more popular Shoemaker products presented included a projector that projects still objects as well as produces streaming video and a pen that, when written with, creates a document of the exact image of the written words.

“Everyone is having a good time with it,” Ward said.

The products at the fair were only a sampling of those offered by Shoemaker.

“We brought products [our competitors at the fair] don’t have,” Ward said. “We do everything from soup to nuts.”

Businesses weren’t the only exhibitors set up at the fair. Other organizations, such as The Visual Communications Technology Organization. They were recruiting new members as well as distributing information about its group and workshops it will be hosting.

In addition to having 57 exhibitors set up in the ballroom, three “breakaway sessions” were held, covering the topics of McGraw-Hill’s student response system, the Xbox/Linux project and computer security.