Expo 2003 prepares for crowd

With no shortage of things to do this weekend organizers everywhere are pitching hard for a crowd. But the men and women behind this year’s Expo Belize aren’t worried. According to officials of the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, they’ve got a hundred and ten booths set up, albeit in various stages this afternoon, but every one of them has got a business with a give-a-way. And according to the Chamber’s President, Mark Lizarraga, that’s going to translate into a captive audience.

Mark Lizarraga, Pres., Bz. Chamber of Commerce & Industry

“It gives businesses an opportunity to showcase new services, new products, to expose consumers to new ideas maybe, promotional items, giveaways that sort of thing. It gives businesses an opportunity to meet lots of people over the course of two days, listen to them, share with them.”

Janelle Chanona

“What’s it like out there? What’s the feedback from businessmen and women out there right now?”

Mark Lizarraga

“I think that most people are accustomed to the general slow that leads up to September. Most people that I have spoken to have said that this trend has not changed. Every year we go through a seasonal slow down in business when people are out on vacation, when people travel, kids coming back to school, you have to buy books, you have to buy uniforms etcetera. So there’s traditionally a slow down for businesses leading up to September. But traditionally again, business improves in September and then we go up to Christmas where that’s a peak.”

Opening ceremonies for Expo 2003 were held earlier today and activities will run until five on Sunday evening. The Expo is held annually at the S.J.C. Gymnasium in West Landivar. One highlight of this evening’s ceremony was the presentation of a cheque to the Chamber for five hundred and eighty thousand dollars by the British High Commissioner for a project to improve trade between Belize and Guatemala.