• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Regional business expo aims to give business a boost

Organizers of the 2010 Rock Regional Business Expo hope to build off last year’s first countywide event, which featured nearly 150 exhibitors and attracted some 2,000 people.

Event coordinators are expecting a similar turnout at this year’s expo, which will be held Oct. 21 at the former Menards building, located at 2700 Pontiac Place in Janesville.

Bliss Communications companies will participate, including WalworthCountyToday.com, the Walworth County Gazette and Gazlo.com, as well as the CSI Media publications.

The site isn’t as large as the 700,000-square-foot Helgesen Industrial Center that housed the expo last year, but the space is big enough to accommodate vendors and crowds, said Jennie Krajeck, Forward Janesville’s director of events and small business services.

“With it being the Rock Regional Business Expo, we needed space bigger than what the banquet facilities in our area offer,” Krajeck said. “It just so happened the Menards building was a vacant building.”

Krajeck said this year’s event will be a “comfortable” fit.

“Last year was huge,” she said. “Some people struggled to see all the booths.”

Krajeck said organizers hope the event can also serve as a showcase for the building and possibly attract a future tenant, which is what happened with last year’s host building.

The expo is put on by Forward Janesville but brings together chambers of commerce in Janesville, Beloit, Milton, Evansville, Edgerton and Brodhead.

Vic Grassman, economic development director for Janesville, said the expo is a chance for area businesses to come together and break down communication barriers.

“This is another really good example of Rock County, that we’re all in this together,” Grassman said. “We need to have more businesses know about each other.”

Dan Topel, vice president of sales for A.M. Mailing Services in Edgerton, said the regional expo is superior to a smaller, similar event held in previous years. His company’s booth took the best booth award at the 2009 expo.

Topel said he didn’t have time to put together a booth for this year’s event because of the election season, but he will be attending.

“Right now, our business is booming,” Topel said.

The regional business expo gives the companies like A.M. Mailing Services a chance to gain more exposure in the county, he said.

A.M. provides high-volume, high-tech direct-mail services, both locally and nationally.

“I think the event brings businesses together,” Topel said. “We’re more nationally known than we are locally.”

The luncheon will feature Janesville native Lori Schneider as keynote speaker.

Schneider became the first person in the world with multiple sclerosis to climb the world’s seven summits.