The Sparta Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors announced in October 2012 that the Sparta Business Expo Event is officially retired.

Prior to the Expo in 2012, the Sparta Expo Committee spent dozens of hours reformatting, refocusing, and collaborating to ‘enhance’ the image of the expo to keep a fresh spin on the event, keeping the public interested in attending, focusing on the importance of small businesses in our community, and making a positive impact for vendors.

The Chamber Board considered the survey responses from 2012 vendors, vendors who participated in previous years but did not participate in 2012, of the general public who have never attended the Expo before, and of the general public attendees who regularly attend the Expo.  It was apparent that although marketing efforts and the value of the booth space increased through the efforts of the committee, the overall impact of the showcase of businesses had become slightly stagnate.  Although still successful pulling in potential customers through the doors to meet with local business owners, it did not have the “pizazz” that the Chamber works for in all their events.  Additionally, the level of participation of Chamber Members who reserve booths at the Expo had slowly declined.  Rather than continuing to pursue changing the current format of the Business Expo (selling vs. non-selling, changing the time of year/date the Expo was held, etc.), the consensus was changing the event would not bring the exciting result needed to capture new potential customers for our members and showcase local businesses, which was the original intent of the Expo.

The Sparta Chamber is a group of extremely creative and driven professionals who are already excited about replacing the Sparta Business Expo with another business-focused event that will draw in crowds and attention to member businesses. As part of the decision to retire the Expo with a positive reflection rather than continue an event that may slowly lose its value to the public and vendors, the Chamber agreed that a “business to customer” focused event is an important part of our yearly calendar of events.

The Chamber Board is pleased to announce plans for the 2013 *NEW* Business-to-Customer focused event that will be taking shape over the next three planning months.  We look forward to presenting you with the details of the new event that is penciled in for the Start of Summertime in Sparta on Wednesday, June 19, 2013.

If you have any questions about the past Sparta Business Expo Events or about the upcoming NEW event in June 2013, please contact the Sparta Chamber Offices at (616) 887-2454.