Annual Expo and Trade Show gets a new name
The annual Expo Trade Show, which is organized by the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is one of the highly anticipated events when September rolls around. But this year, B.C.C.I. has announced a number of changes; the biggest being the name. The event is being called the Expo Belize Marketplace 2009 and the Chamber’s PR Officer, Vanessa Vellos, told us the new name better suits the event. It all goes down at the S.J.C. gymnasium this Saturday and Sunday and the gates will be open from eight in the morning to five in the evening. And there’s more than just money saving deals to look forward to. Vellos brought us up to speed on what’s new this year, including improved preparations and an upgraded website.
Vanessa Vellos, Marketing/P.R. Officer, Belize Chamber of Commerce
“The reason why we changed the name is because what we’re creating is a marketplace where buyers and sellers come together. And this is where you, as a participant, can come and showcase the best of what you have to offer in terms of your products and services. And so, this is a service that we’re actually offering to the members of the B.C.C.I. Then of course, there are those who are not members who are able to still participate in the marketplace. So, that’s one of the big changes that we have this year. Also, last year, as you know, we had a flooding situation on the grounds and last year, we had decide that we were still going to land fill and all of that, but we started a bit late and I think our mistake was that we were thinking, every year, we do landfill for the S.J.C. compound and we figured that by now we should have enough land fill to deal with those kinds of issues. But last year proved us wrong and so, we started very early this year by compacting and doing the proper land fill for the area. We installed a culvert, we cleared some of the drains to try and improve the drainage for the compound.
This year we have one hundred and thirty-seven booths. Some of the highlights for this year is, that in terms of entertainment, we have the Youth Connection Band. We also have the winners of the patriotic song competition. I think that is Herschel and BJ Armstrong. We also have Nu Generation Dance Band. That’s gonna be some highlights for the show and then apart from that, I don’t know if you’ve been familiar, but CISCO is raffling a house.”
The winners of the Lionman Triathlon will also be awarded their medals at the expo on Sunday. The entrance fee is one dollar for kids and three for adults
