Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Companies Exhibit Optimism at Chamber Business Showcase
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Stacey Razonsa, executive event coordinator for Blue Wolf Events & Catering, is upbeat about her company’s business since recently moving into the Maronite Center on the West Side of Youngstown.
“It’s going really well,” she remarked. “With the move to the new venue, the Maronite Center, we have been able to do a lot of the bigger weddings and all of that kind of stuff.” With the economy picking, people are starting to spend money again. “This season is always the most busy time for weddings and graduations but it does seem to be looking up.”
Blue Wolf was among the 86 exhibitors at Business Showcase 2014, staged following a hiatus in 2013 at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center here. The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, which sponsors the event, “took a break last year” to revamp it and “make it more fun and exciting,” said April Stanislaw, director of special events.
“With any event you have to keep changing it up or it gets stale,” she remarked. “We decided how we could do it bigger and better.” This year’s event included the addition of onstage attractions and demonstrations, and craft beer and sandwich competitions.
Many of the exhibitors, when questioned by The Business Journal, voiced optimism about business conditions.
“We’re up about 15% on last year already in the first quarter and last year was good. So things are rolling along pretty good now,” reported Bryan Blakeman, general manager of Valley Office Solutions, Boardman. “The technology is good. I think the economy has bounced back a bit and people are feeling better about the investment they’re making.”
Valley Office Systems demonstrated new technology at its exhibit by allowing visitors to dress up using props on hand and either use their mobile devices or a photo booth to make selfies. The opportunity turned out to be a crowd-pleaser as visitors flocked to the company's display.
Business is beginning to pick up at Mastropietro Winery, Berlin Center, driven at least in part by cabin fever, president and winemaker Daniel Mastropietro reported. “After that wild winter, everybody wants to get out and relax,” he said. “We have a great atmosphere and we have the live music Friday and Saturday evening so everybody just wants to get out a little bit, relax and have a glass of wine.”
Bruce Neff, president of Multi Media Farms and its spinoff, LED3, which sells light emitting diode -- or LED -- displays, reports the new venture is doing well, doubling in size over the past two years. Used extensively outdoors, LED displays “can also be used indoors for large displays. You can have a meeting with the lights on and still have a screen that will be completely readable,” he said.
The Magnuson Grand Hotel, which had operated until about two years ago as the Avalon Inn in Howland Township, has seen its wedding and golf business increase, reported Faye Kouvas, sales director. The property has renovated 71 of its 115 guest rooms, and with the Chophouse Restaurant and golf on site, “once you get there, you never have to leave,” she said.
Business is particularly strong on the commercial side, said Robert Maker, enterprise solutions manager for fiber-related products at Armstrong Cable Co., North Lima. “The demand for bandwidth just continues to grow and evolve,” he said. That demand is coming from the need for bandwidth for different types of applications and software programs, he said.
Several exhibitors also commented on the opportunity the Business Showcase provided for them. The event puts Alexis Santangelo, account manager for Innovation Exhibits in Boardman, in the middle of the target market for her company.
Innovation Exhibits imanufactures, stores and manages exhibit programs for clients locally and in the Pittsburgh and Cleveland areas. The showcase provides the opportunity to meet the other exhibitors “who clearly have a need for what we offer and just get our presence out in the community” she said.
Bernie Appugliese, manager of the Youngstown Playhouse in Youngstown, used the event to showcase the Playhouse’s upcoming 90th anniversary in 2015. “We are the oldest ongoing community theater in the United States of America. People don’t realize that,” he remarked.
The Playhouse also aims this year to stress the “community” part of “community theater,” he said. “It’s not so much getting the community to come to us but going back out into the community and being more of a resource center,” he emphasized. Additionally, he wants to lower the cost barrier that may prevent people from coming to the playhouse.
“For us to give the Youngstown community – and Trumbull County, Lawrence County – the quality of entertainment that they’re used to, we have to buck up our business end, and that means lowering our prices, but in order to lower our prices we have to get more people in,” he said.
The event also provided an opportunity for a new company, Landers-Lewis Insurance Agency & Consulting, Boardman, to get its face in the public eye. The company, which started in October, offer business and personal insurance products, and provides consulting services for new businesses or companies that are going through a merger, said Melanie Landers, account executive.
“The Regional Chamber’s been helping us get started” and recommended exhibiting at the event, she said. “We’re happy to be here.”
The event also provided the opportunity for the city of Youngstown to tell businesses about a program Google offers to get businesses online that don’t have a website.
“You’d be surprised at how many businesses don’t have a website,” said Tom DeAngelo, coordinator in the city's economic development office. For most businesses, the barriers are cost and the time they have to put into it if they have to do the site themselves.
“The setup by Google is very simple. It’s what’s known as a content management system so there’s no coding involved or anything like that,” he said. “If you could operate the keyboard and the mouse, that’s all you pretty much need to set up this website," DeAngelo said.
Google will host sites created by the program for one year free of charge.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
CLICK HERE to subscribe to our twice-monthly print edition and to our free daily email headlines.