ASHTABULA – It was hard to make a stranger and easy to make a friend at the Business-to-Business Showcase Thursday, March 26, at Kent State Ashtabula.
Sponsored by and hosted at the university in the gymnasium, the Greater Ashtabula Chamber of Commerce event featured 30 participants, according to Greg Church, executive director of the Greater Ashtabula Chamber of Commerce.
“It gives you the chance to make a lot of connections in a short amount of time,” Church said. “So, you build that initial relationship and then you can build on it.”
Businesses and organizations took part in the unique opportunity, described as “a fast-paced speed dating style event that is a lot of fun.”
Each participant sent two representatives, one of whom stayed at their table to highlight their business or organization over and over as a bell dinged every few minutes.
“Every table is going to have somebody at it,” Church said.
The other person, meanwhile, traveled from table to table making connections with all the other businesses and organizations present, according to a description of the event.
Participants were encouraged to bring their business cards and marketing materials to make fast connections to follow up on later.
One person who took part in the event, Jen Bagliore, operations manager of Go Geneva, said the Business-to-Business Showcase was interesting and fun.
“And it’s a great way to be involved in meeting people because the odds of running into these people in real life is very slim,” she said.
Gary Hayes of WKKY, another participant, said the event was great.
“It’s fantastic to get a chance to know some of the other people,” he said.
Sarah Anderson, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of L.C.E. Federal Credit Union, said she was enjoying taking part in the Business-to-Business Showcase.
“I’m excited because I actually live in Ashtabula and I work at L.C.E. in Painesville, so I’m excited that we’re able to get into my community,” she said.
She told the other participants that L.C.E. was expanding.
“We’re planning to have a branch hopefully in Ashtabula County by the end of December, and we’re working on getting a branch in Chardon by June,” she added.
Church thought the showcase went really well.
“It’s a popular event,” he said. “The folks come out and have a good time. A lot of good connections are made, too.”
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