Participants Praise Exposure Businesses Get From Expo; 1999 Event Set May 20
“A lot of people who didn’t even know we were here became acquainted with our business.”
That type of exposure was highly beneficial to The Peanut Roaster, said Carol Monahan, who with her husband, John, runs the peanut cooking, packaging and sales business on Zeb Robinson Road in Henderson. The Peanut Roaster had only been in Henderson a couple of months when Expo ’98 was held, and the Monahans found participation was a great way to meet people and show off their products.
Expo ’99 is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 20 at the Vance-Granville Community College Civic Center, and registrations are being accepted from area businesses who wish to participate.
The annual event is being offered as a joint promotional effort for businesses in Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties to give them an opportunity to display their products and services for the general public and for other business people. Booths for about 80 exhibitors will be available inside the Civic Center, and spaces outside the center can also be reserved.
Several types of participation are available. A Premiere Sponsorship entitles a business to have its name on all publicity for the event, gives it a choice of exhibit space, including electrical hook-up, and lunch. Chamber of Commerce members who sign up by March 1 qualify for the ‘Early-Bird Special,’ which is registration for the reduced rate of $180, plus four box lunches.
After March 1, the registration cost to chamber members will be $200. Registration for non-chamber members is $360. Electrical hook-up is an additional $10.
Information and registration forms are being sent to members of the Henderson-Vance and Granville County chambers of commerce and to other businesses that have participated in past years. Other business operators who may be interested in Expo ’99 may call either chamber office or the VGCC Small Business Center for information and to obtain a registration form.
Two Henderson travel agencies will give away “getaways” at this year’s Expo. A-1 Travel is donating a trip to High Meadows Bed & Breakfast at Scottsville in the mountains of Virginia, and Henderson Travel is giving a trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C. Everyone attending Expo ’99 will be able to register for a drawing to win one of the two trips.
A wide variety of businesses are represented at Expo each year.
Alice Satterwhite and her husband, Doug, had just started Excel Independent Representatives, offering long distance, paging and Internet services from their home in Henderson when Expo ’98 was held. “We got a lot of exposure with different people from different areas who didn’t know what we are all about,” Alice said.
“We also talked with a lot of people in other businesses and got out there among people who are making it happen,” she added.
Todd Hock of Triangle Computers said he made several sales as a direct result of contacts made at Expo ’98. “A whole lot of people came through, and we got to sit down and talk with many of them about what we offer,” he said. Located in Crossroads Shopping Center in Henderson, Hock plans to move his computer sales and service business to North Cooper Drive this month.
“I would certainly recommend Expo as a way to get your products and services out before the public,” Hock said.
James Bowie of Image Technology II of Highway 15 in Oxford received an unforeseen benefit from Expo ’98. While his business manufactures toner
cartridges for laser printers, he brought along his wife, a masseuse, to give massages at the Expo. She passed out business cards and got several customers as a result.
Most of these Expo ’98 exhibitors say they plan to return this year.
