Glowing Review For Procurement Fair / Trade Show

Private company representatives, like Jeremy McCoy from Humana, were offering to help businesspeople find affordable health care. Other firms were there to help businesses market themselves effectively, from unique advertising (e.g., Big Mouth Advertising’s fun “rolling billboards”) to, more subtle on-line word-of-mouth referrals (Cox’s www.Kudzu.com attracted 54 million searches last year). Some vendors, such as ASU’s Program Manager for University Business Services—Chester Yancy—were looking for a broad variety of suppliers. Others had a specific target audience in mind (e.g., Mike Fisher of Big E’s Tires was looking for school bus customers).

Within an hour after the doors opened, it was hard to move down the aisles, as so many animated participants conversed with attentive vendors. All the major cities were present, encouraging attendees to sign up on their procurement sites, like www.mesaaz.gov/purchasing. Al Gleason, a copywriter/marketing strategist, said he came to connect with government agencies. The Civic Center provided a rare opportunity to find many government representatives all in one place.

At least for one sunny morning in the Valley, both people looking for work and people looking for workers seemed to share some hope of success.

April 27, 4:17 PM    Phoenix Business Insight Examiner   Denise Meridith