3/23/05

Holly Springs One of Few Towns Attending Business Expo
Town Hopes to Continue Drawing Business Prospects through Expo

The annual Business Expo in downtown Raleigh offers a day of networking and making business contacts, of spreading ideas and touting services, of meeting prospects and attending informative seminars. And, the Town of Holly Springs and Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce will be in the middle of it. In fact, Holly Springs may well be the only town represented as an exhibitor.

Business Expo '05, organized by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, will be held Thursday, April 7, from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Raleigh Convention and Conference Center Complex. The expo draws hundreds of business representatives looking to network, strike deals and get the inside edge on the marketplace. This will be the fourth consecutive year that the Town of Holly Springs will partner with the chamber to set up a booth at the expo, using it as an opportunity to entice businesses to Holly Springs. Past years' expos have produced tangible results for the Town.

“The reason for our presence at the expo is to present business development opportunities in Holly Springs,” said Holly Springs Economic Development Coordinator Irena Krstanovic. “It's a great opportunity to spotlight Holly Springs and business opportunities here.”

While the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce always has a booth at the expo, seldom do other municipalities attend the expo.

“We are one of the few towns to have a booth at the expo, so it's really unique for us and for everyone else to come and see us there,” Krstanovic said. “We've seen high traffic in our booth in the last three years and have had visitors to our booth actually open a business later in Holly Springs.”

This year, the chamber is planning on an “Under Construction” theme for the booth, complete with orange construction barrels and cones. Town and chamber officials manning the booth will wear hard hats and tool belts. The town will hand out maps that show economic development activity in Holly Springs. Other flyers will profile the town, giving demographics and updates on Town developments. The chamber is planning on handing out coupons from Holly Springs businesses.

“The coupons are a way to increase the customer base for Holly Springs businesses while bringing more traffic to Holly Springs,” Krstanovic said.

For more information on how you or your employees can attend the expo, contact the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce at (919) 664-7036. For more information on the Holly Springs Economic Development Department and business opportunities in Holly Springs, call (919) 557-3923 or visit the department website at http://www.hollyspringsnc.org/.

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us