Business Growth Tradeshow aims to provide ones-stop shop for entrepreneurs looking to connect

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on October 22, 2024.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

Community Futures Entre-Corp is pleased to be returning with its Business Growth Tradeshow for a second year, giving local entrepreneurs a chance to connect and grow as a community.

The show was born, said business adviser Jordan Pomrenke, from simply taking a step back and really appreciating how busy most business owners really are.

“Quite often we find that entrepreneurs are so busy working in their business that they don’t have time to work on it,” said Pomrenke. “From our perspective, we’re a service provider that supports entrepreneurs, and we see not only us, but lots of the other service providers in the region.”

He explained that while lots of great supports are available to entrepreneurs, because of how busy they are, sometimes that connection just doesn’t happen. And that is where the need for an event like this comes in, as well as the idea for it.

“The goal is to get all these different service providers and organizations that support entrepreneurs and business owners in the region into the same spot, to make it really easy for entrepreneurs to come and learn about everything that’s available to support them,” said Pomrenke. “It’s kind of a one-stop shop for an entrepreneur to learn about just what is actually in the region.”

With the inaugural event being a success, with roughly 180 attendees and a sentiment among exhibitors that they were able to make valuable connections, bringing the event back again was the obvious choice, said Pomrenke.

One kind of unintended benefit was just the opportunity for all the service providers to be in the same room and the networking opportunities, said Pomrenke, as even though they’re all working together these entrepreneurs don’t actually get to cross pollinate and talk to each other that often.

“Both during the setup and the takedown period, exhibitors were just talking with each other, and it was a really, really great time. And so we’re looking forward to having that again,” said Pomrenke.

The trade show will run from 5-7 p.m. at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede auditorium on Oct. 23. There is no fee, and no registration required for attending. Attendees will have the chance to connect with roughly 40 exhibitors as well as each other, and gain valuable insight into potential next steps for their business.

“We only do this once a year, so it’s not something we do on a regular basis. So business owners who have the time, we really encourage them to take the opportunity,” said Pomrenke.

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