2007-08-30 BUSINESS POST
Business Expo attracts many local companies
by Scott Sowers	write the author
September 06, 2007 More than 60 local businesses made their way July 19 to the new West Forsyth High School for the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce's Sandler Sales Institute Entrepreneur Confer­ence and Small Business Expo. This is the second year for the conference and is one of the chamber's marquee events for the year. John Heath, the chairman of the chamber's Small Business Service Center was very happy with how the event went. "This is a way to reach out to area businesses to let them know what the chamber and SBSC are all about. We designed this so that anyone interested could come out and network with people from Forsyth County," said Heath. The day was jump-started by the keynote address from Hubert Humphrey, the founder and CEO of World Leadership Group, which was attended by more than 100 people. Throughout the day there were three breakout sessions designed to help small business owners get the most out of their company and employees. Allen Harrell with Exhibitwise, a sign company based in Norcross that serves the entire Metro Atlanta area, seemed to really enjoy the event. "We've been going to all the local chambers to get the word out about our business. I think Forsyth will soon be a really great market for a business owner due to its tremendous growth over the last few years," said Harrell. Jeff Stewart, the business banking relationship manager for the Bank of North Georgia in Cumming loved the event as well. He said that his bank is continuing to expand in the area because of the potential growth of many new businesses. He specializes in giving loans to people interested in starting small businesses. But this event was not only for established companies. Several people were at the event to promote their start-ups. They were happy for an expo like this so that people could learn about their new ventures. "I've got an idea for something that's not out there right now," said Brett Prentice, the founder of Carmazuma. "I will act almost like a real estate agent for people buying cars. I do all the legwork and the customers never have to visit the dealership except to pick up their new car. " His motivation for getting into this business is that it's something he has always done for friends and family and he saw a potential market for it. For more information on upcoming Cumming-Forsyth Chamber of Commerce events, visit www.cummingforsythchamber.org.

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