By Klieon John
St. Kitts Reporter
A multitude flocked to the ballroom of the Marriot Hotel over the weekend to attend the highly anticipated Kittitian Expo 2007.
The scene was packed with persons anxious to get a look at the numerous stalls on display from various companies throughout the island. Companies such as Digicel, Chippie and Cable and Wireless were there to promote their mobile phone services, while other smaller companies offered giveaways to attract customers to their businesses.
Also present, were some of the stalls from the Columbian Expo, held in St. Kitts from the 11th to the 22nd of October.
The Observer spoke with the organizer of the event, Val Henry, CEO of Vh Communications, organizers of the event. The company is essentially a marketing agency which provides public relations, marketing research, advertising and event planning for various companies. He shared his vision for the event, which he said was to help businesses promote their services.
“Kittitian Expo was born out of a desire and need to help some of the companies in St. Kitts and Nevis find markets for their products and services. Also, we wanted to create more exposure for them because even some of the long-standing businesses do struggle to find customers for their services. You can imagine the difficulty that new, struggling businesses are having for people to understand that they exist and also for people to appreciate what they have to offer to customers. Vh Communications has created this expo to help satisfy those needs; thus the theme: Creating markets and exposure.”
Most companies would have heard of the expo via several advertisements, and then applied for participation while others were invited directly; in the end there were a total of thirty-eight businesses occupying the fifty stalls. Stall rentals cost EC$875.00 and EC$975.00 for late registration. Henry emphasized that they did not organize the expo at a level that would turn a huge profit as this was just the pilot event and thus the registration fee was at a price that most companies could afford. The event ran a bill of about EC$30,000.00.
The expo featured a wide range of companies, from oldest to newest, largest to smallest; each with the intention to market their own services to the people of St. Kitts. It was an all around success according to the positive feedback from the many businesses that took part.
“What they have said to me is that it was a great opportunity to do good business as some did business directly on the floor while others made transactions that would continue into the ensuing weeks,” says Henry. “It was not an easy task, however. One of the major difficulties was sharing the vision so that people can have a concept of what it is youÌre talking about when you say ‘expo’. Also, hosting it so soon after the Columbian Expo did not help the situation, in that it confused people as to what to expect from Kittitian Expo. The cost was certainly also a great challenge to overcome as well as ensuring we had adequate promotion for the event.”
He took the opportunity to thank his staff, however, which had a major role in organization of the event, and its major success.
The company is considering putting on the next Kittitian Expo at around the same time next year in order to provide a launch pad for businesses to push their Christmas promotions; this time including businesses from other islands as well. It will also feature a wider entertainment component even outside of the venue itself.
