EXPO 2008 Seeks Early Birds to Exhibit at Annual Trade Show
Organizers of EXPO 2008 are offering a good deal to businesses and agencies who sign up early to exhibit their products and services at the annual trade show, which will be held in Vance-Granville Community College’s Civic Center on Tuesday, Oct. 14. An “Early Bird” discount is being offered to those who register for EXPO prior to July 20. Members of the chambers of commerce of Vance, Granville, Franklin and Warren counties will get spots in the Civic Center for $200, $25 less than the cost of registration after that date. At either cost, area organizations have decided that participating in EXPO is a worthwhile investment.
Norlina Town Commissioner Herbert Burrows said that he looks forward to representing his town at EXPO again this year. The town of Norlina has participated in EXPO for about ten years, Burrows said, because “it provides good exposure for what we have here in Norlina, such as our museum and park.” He added that the town can recruit businesses to locate in Norlina and it can invite individuals to visit and do business there, at the same event. Visitors to Norlina’s EXPO booth have also enjoyed receiving the yardsticks the town gives away as promotional items. “It’s a fun time,” Burrows said, “and you never know what will come of it, what opportunity will present itself.”
Melissa Paul has enjoyed participating in EXPO for many years as the representative of the local Servpro franchise, which serves the Vance-Granville-Franklin area from a central office in Henderson. Having a booth at EXPO gives the company greater name recognition with potential customers, so that they will call upon Servpro to deal with fire damage, water damage, carpet cleaning or duct work on their property. “Two years in a row,” Paul recalled, “the day after EXPO, a businessperson we met called us needing our services, and they wouldn’t have known about us without EXPO.”
Hal Muetzel, owner of the local Express Employment Professionals franchise in Oxford, said that his business is returning to EXPO again this year, and it has even signed on as a Silver Sponsor for the event. Muetzel has participated in EXPO every year since he became the owner. “It is a venue in which we are able to meet both potential candidates for jobs and potential business clients, who are looking to fill jobs,” he said. Muetzel added that he looks forward to EXPO because it will help boost name recognition for his business, which recently changed its name from Express Personnel Services and has added new services. He will be able to talk with as many as 80 other organizations about how to “partner with them to make their businesses more efficient.”
The VGCC Small Business Center, Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce, Granville County Chamber of Commerce, Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Warren County are the organizers of the 19th annual event. Each year, EXPO provides an opportunity for organizations that do business in the four-county area to set up exhibits and show off their products and services to the public and to other businesses. About 1,000 area residents are expected to visit the six-hour-long event. The last two hours of the trade show are designated as a “Business After Hours,” which brings even more business operators in the four counties to the event.
Members of area chambers of commerce should have recently received registration brochures for EXPO 2008. Organizers urge recipients to participate and to send in registration forms early. Businesses do not have to be chamber members, however, to exhibit at EXPO. Forms and information are available from the chambers of commerce and from the VGCC Small Business Center at (252) 738-3240 or (252) 738-3275.
