Published: July 17, 2008 11:14 pm            

More vendors, more traffic attend Business Expo

Whether you wanted to firm up your bottom or your bottom line, the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce’s fifth annual Business Expo was the place to be Thursday.

“We’ve got about 120 different exhibits,” said the chamber’s Beth Morrison. “We’ve probably had 400 or 500 people walk through already.

Morrison described both those numbers as “significantly higher” than last year.

“Our theme this year is ‘Get Your Business in Shape,’” she said.

The Expo was held at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.

Hamilton Medical Center was on hand providing blood pressure checks and other services.

The Dalton-Whitfield chapter of the American Red Cross was also present.

“We are here primarily to make sure that businesses understand we provide (first aid and CPR) training,” said Red Cross executive director Lane Ashworth.

Ashworth said executives from several businesses had spoken to Red Cross workers and he hoped the contacts would result in more training contracts for the agency.

“The traffic is much, much better than last year. There are more vendors, more traffic,” Ashworth said.

Carol Lumpkin of Cohutta Banking Co. was helping people looking for advice on estate planning, investment advice and other financial matters.

“We’ve also got all sorts of services for small businesses,” she said.

And people seemed to be interested in those services.

“Things have been very steady. We’ve seen lots of new faces,” Lumpkin said.

In fact, one entire section of the Expo was devoted to small business.

“We have resident experts who are volunteering their time to answer questions entrepreneurs might have,” said Melanie Suggs, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority, which sponsored the small business section.

The authority brought in a number of agencies that provide help to small businesses as well as officials from the city and county building offices.

There were dozens of local businesses represented at the Expo.

Rick Zeisig, for instance, had an exhibit advertising his services as a disc jockey.

“We’ve had a good flow of people, and I’ve had a lot of fun being able to talk to people,” he said. “I do wedding receptions, class reunions, company Christmas parties. I’ve had people ask quotes and prices and dates available.”

        

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