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#495424 09/06/14 05:36 AM
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry once again will be hosting the Annual Expo Belize Market at the ITVET Compound on Freetown Street tomorrow and Sunday. This marks the 18th year of the Trade show and this year it is expected to be even bigger and better than last year. There will be many small and medium businesses that will be promoting their products and services to the public. Love News met with BCCI, Expo coordinator Yorshabell Cattouse who spoke more about this year's expo

YORSHABELL CATTOUSE

"This year marks eighteen years since the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been organizing Expo Belize Marketplace. This weekend it takes place at the IT VET grounds on Freetown Road Belize City starting from 8am to 5pm. We have tickets on sale; it is 5 dollars adults, 3 dollars kids. If you want to buy your tickets in advance and not stand in the lines you can do so at our office on Coney Drive at the Western Union office and also at Doony's on Albert Street and Totos on Orange Street. Tickets will be sold at the ticket booth on Simon Lamb Street starting seven thirty Saturday and Sunday. The Expo gets bigger and bigger. This year, each time you purchase a ticket you get a free raffle and an opportunity to win twenty three different gate prizes, the biggest being a round trip ticket to the US courtesy of United Airlines. We have accommodation prizes, massages, phones, assortment of beverages so you can look forward to that when you purchase a ticket. We have a little over a hundred businesses and we're still selling booths, we have very small table spaces. It's a variety of businesses; from all sectors; from the micro businesses, we have vehicle displays, we have the phones as usual, the groceries, the electronics, live musical entertainment for both days. The music will be provided by MJ's Vibrations, Sweet Payne Band, Super Furia and different artists for both days. We also have live fashion show for both days and it's a family event. The children can come out, we have entertainment for them. There is this new launching called Walking on Water for kids, we have trampoline, Wood Stop will be having a park, lots of food and drinks."

YORSHABELL CATTOUSE

"We have an online automated process. If you were interested in our booth you would have had to go to our website and apply. A copy of the map is there, you get to know which areas are beverages as we have it divided, food areas, commercial areas. You choose your both then there is a payment method. Set up started yesterday and today. This year exhibitors started earlier, they actually started putting up t heir backdrops and decorations since yesterday. Usually they do that on Friday so this year I am sure they will be well prepared, every year they go all out to try and do something new to attract visitors to their booth and its quite a challenge to organize a big event like this. This is the largest trade show in the country of Belize and we have a variety of businesses so we look forward to a successful Expo. Last year we had nineteen thousand people in the combination of both days but every year we have more people. We have invested a lot in security. It will be really fun day. The Chamber coordinates the event but it wouldn't be possible without our sponsors as this is an event for them, they are the ones who requested it eighteen years back and also the business community who have supported the event for so long. "

The official ceremony will take place on Saturday morning.

LOVEFM


Marty #495506 09/09/14 04:57 AM
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Despite the Rain, Expo Drew Record Crowds

One of the main highlights of this weekend was the 18th Annual Expo at the ITVET compound. While last year many businesses had to adapt a more creative approach to their marketing techniques to accommodate the major clash between expo and carnival, this year, carnival was not in the way. Here is Courtney Weatherburne with the story on Expo 2014.

And indeed the rain didn't affect the turnout.

According to the Chamber of commerce Over 19,000 people attended Expo this weekend. That's much more than last year - when only fifteen thousand visited.

Channel 7 showed about 13 hours of live expo coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

Channel 7


Expo 2014 - waterproof!

Not even Saturday morning's torrential rains could keep Belizeans away from the annual Expo Marketplace organized by the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

BCCI ticket sales show over 19,000 Belizeans visited the Expo at the Institute for Technical Vocational and Employment Training (ITVET) in Belize City on Saturday and Sunday, September 6-7

They came in search of deals, and no bargain could beat Belize Telemedia's offer of a cellphone for $9.00 - including a SIM card, when you purchased $33 top-up! The SIM card alone was a $22.00 value EXPO visitors queued up by the hundreds and this throng waited in line several hours to buy one of these $9.00 phones; Telemedia sold over 700 of them, while supplies lasted. The company even posted a sign: "Keep calm - get assistance here."

For young people on the go checking Facebook and other social media from the smartphones, the next coolest deal was the new cellphone app introduced by Channel Broadcasting Corporation to allow their subscribers to watch television sports channels on their phones, so you never have to miss big game again, no matter where you are.

Farming is one way to adapt to rising sea levels caused by Climate Change, and the Placencia Producers Cooperative Society Ltd is right at the forefront of this cutting edge technology. They are replacing the harvesting of seaweed which grows wild in the sea, by now growing "farmed" seaweed which has a range of uses in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, smoothies and plain old seaweed, the way Belizeans consume it with milk, cinnamon and nutmeg. They dry their product for export but also packaged in consumer-sized parcels for the local market which they offered at the Expo. The Placencia seaweed project is supported by The Nature Conservancy. Also thumping the drum to manage our marine resources sustainably was the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, who also had a booth at the Expo.

The coop offered free samples of their seaweed smoothies, which could also be flavored with a Belizean rum; a need that Travellers liquors has stepped up to fill with a new product to add to its family of liquors: "Belizean Rum." Travellers' aim was to produce a rum with a flavor that can compete with Bacardi, Appleton and other more well-known names; the new rum comes attractively packaged with a choice of labels. The old Paslow Building which was destroyed by fire is now resurrected like a phoenix from the flames on to the Travellers' Belizean Rum label, by while other bottles are labeled with one of three other different Belizean icons: Xunantunich, the Blue Hole or the jaguar.

The Expo is not a beer fest, but thirsty visitors certainly had their choice of brews: the Belikin brewery was introducing their new bottle, while St Lucia's Kubuli beer, which had introduced Belizeans to Kubuli Gold last year now had challenger in Presidente Beer, imported by Grace Kennedy Belize Ltd, which also imports Carib Beer from Trinidad, while Karl Menzies Ltd had special offers on Heineken Beer, also produced under license in other CARICOM territories.

Expo visitors also vied for a chance to make some fast cash with the promoters of the new lottery game show: "Make Me Rich!" How long would you hold your hand in freezing cold water and ice to make $500? Belizeans of sterner stuff than this writer happily put their nerves and hands to the test. With all that money changing hands for this cornucopia of new products and services, security was an important issue; and the Belize police department was out in full force, including the Gang Suppression Unit in their trademark digital camouflage green fatigues.

Entrepreneurs big and small introduced their wares, Ms Donatila Chu displayed her handicrafts and jewelry, while Genis Contreras' company - Mayan Empire world Ltd displayed their line of jade jewelry. Others offered personalized Belizean cellphone cases for a range of smartphone models.

Ms Elaine promoted her hot "Tambranero Sauce", while Bel-Mer Winery offered their line of Belizean wines in a wide assortment of flavors for the more discerning palate.

The Reporter



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