Features

From Beer to Manufacturing, the Expo Has It All

Making It Happen

The final countdown is underway.

Indeed, the fifth annual Western Mass. Business Expo is now a month away, and the final details are falling into place. The show, which will showcase more than 150 area businesses and feature more than eight hours of programs that will be informative, educational, and inspirational, will bring together popular elements from Expos past, and introduce some new ones.

“Since we started the show in 2011, one of the slogans we’ve used to promote it has been, ‘why would you be anywhere else?,’” said Kate Campiti, BusinessWest’s associate publisher and sales manager. “And that’s especially true this year. On November fourth, the MassMutual Center is the only place you’d want to be.”

WMBExpo 2015 LOGOIf you were anywhere else, you’d miss what promises to be an enlightening and entertaining start to the day at the Springfield Regional Chamber’s October breakfast. It will feature Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Harpoon Brewery, in a “casual conversation” with BusinessWest Editor George O’Brien. Kenary will also take questions from the audience.

If you were elsewhere, you would miss a timely and thought-provoking talk by Alison Lands, senior manager in Deloitte’s Strategy & Operations practice. She served as a co-author and editor of the New England Council and Deloitte’s recently published report, “Advanced to Advantageous: The Case for New England’s Manufacturing Revolution,” which will form the basis of her talk at a lunch hosted by the Professional Women’s Chamber.

If you were anywhere else, you couldn’t take in any of the 16 educational seminars scheduled on four tracks: Sales & Marketing, Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship, and ‘Hottest Trends.’ The 45-minute talks, scheduled throughout the day, include “Building a Pipeline of Sales Opportunity,” “Inside Tech Foundry: Workforce in Progress,” “Bullying in the Workplace,” “How to Work with Humans: Harnessing the Power of Employees,” “Securing Your Business from White-collar Crime,” “7 Essential Elements of a Successful Business,” and much more.

And if you happened to be elsewhere, you’d miss a number of special features and programs; the return of last year’s highly successful Retail Corridor; the ever-popular Pitch Contest staged by Valley Venture Mentors; a Healthcare Corridor; a robotics demonstration by students at regional schools, including Pathfinder Regional High School; a Technology Corridor; the day-capping Expo Social (one of the best networking events of the year); and much more.

Comprehensive details of the show and a map of the show floor will be presented in a special Expo Preview to appear in the Oct. 19 issue of BusinessWest, and also in a special Show Guide to be inserted into the Nov. 2 issue of the magazine and distributed at the Expo itself.

The Expo will again be presented by Comcast Business, which has been the show’s lead sponsor since BusinessWest began producing it in 2011. Director-level sponsors are Health New England, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services, MGM Springfield, and Wild Apple Design Group. The Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst is the education sponsor, and 94.7 WMAS is the media sponsor.

Fast Facts

What: The Western Mass. Business Expo
When: Nov. 4
Where: The MassMutual Center, Springfield
Events and Activities: Breakfast hosted by the Springfield Regional Chamber, featuring Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based Harpoon Brewery; lunch hosted by the Professional Women’s Chamber; Show Floor Theater presentations; informational seminars; Pitch Contest; matchmaking opportunities; robotics displays; Business Support Center hosted by the Economic Develoment Council of Western Massachusetts; and more.
Exhibitor Information: 10’ x 10’ booths from $750.
For More Information: Call (413) 781-8600, or go to www.wmbexpo.com