Despite Inclement Weather, 15,000 + visited the EXPO 

With clear skies on Saturday past, the EXPO Belize Market Place was launched with an Opening Ceremony held in the courtyard of the ITVET Campus. Ms. Kay Menzies, President of the Chamber, declared the event open, followed by the guest speaker Mr. John Greif III, owner of Tropic Air who provided an account of his experiences and solid advice for entrepreneurs. At the close of the Ceremony, exhibitors and the invited guests were given an official tour of the booths numbering 140.

Despite the inclement weather on Sunday, the event hosted just over 5,000 visitors. Business was brisk overall with some exhibitors commenting that their stock sold out on the first day of the event.
This year the Chamber implemented a new system to determine the best booth winner by asking the public to vote for the best booth using a computer program developed by Global Marketing that incorporated the following criteria - creativity, efficiency, professionalism and innovation. Grace Kennedy Ltd. won the coveted award, followed by the Atlantic Bank Ltd. The “Best New Exhibitor” Award was won by the Women’s Department.

A new initiative this year was the collaboration between the Chamber and ImagePro to provide Chamber members with Corporate Gift Bags. This was the Chamber’s way of recognizing its members at the event and thanking them for their patronage during the year. These Corporate Gift Bags were given away to members and potential members at the Chamber’s booth.

The top seven gate prizes out of a total of sixteen prizes were donated by Delta Airlines, The Villas at Banyan Bay, Tropic Air, Chaa Creek, Unicomer, First Caribbean International Bank, the Radisson Fort George Hotel, and Belize Diesel Equipment Co. Ltd.

Entertainment was provided by the Youth Connection Band and Summerville and the Brukdown band.
Corporate EXPO Sponsors for the event were RF&G Insurance, Grand Belizean Estate Island Co. Ltd., Quality Poultry Products, DFC, ImagePro, Bowen & Bowen Ltd., Karl H. Menzies, Western Union, Krem FM and Love FM.

Delta Airlines is the official Airline of EXPO Belize Market Place 2011.

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