Community

Wheeling Chamber Holds Business Expo

Dozens of businesses from around the Ohio Valley could be found Thursday at the Highlands Sports Complex for the revival of the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce's Business Expo. Throughout the afternoon, people could wind their way around the various businesses' displays to learn more about them - and those businesses could network with each other at the same time.

The expo was a popular event years ago that, for some reason, faded away, said Brooke Anderson, the chamber's membership and marketing coordinator.

"We had a lot of businesses requesting to do something a little more broad that every business can participate in," she said. "I think our community was super excited, especially our business community. There's this wave of people wanting to get involved and be in their community and show their faces and sign up for things like this."

There were 52 tables set up for 50 businesses Thursday, Anderson said. Among them were companies like LeafGuard, Bath Fitter and the Wheeling Nailers. There also were local services like Easterseals, YWCA Wheeling and Crittenton Services.

Be Salon, Spa and Barber has not yet opened. The plan is to have its grand opening at its new Waterfront Hall location in a few months. Yet representatives there enjoyed the opportunity to show others what they plan to offer, as well as talk with other businesses to gather some ideas at the same time.

"You can compare similarities," said Be's Morgan Ondrick, "and then bounce ideas off of each other. It's great meeting other people for different opportunities, looking at different ideas and definitely implementing some new things in our practice."

Anderson said the chamber enjoys creating these types of opportunities for the businesses it represents.

"A lot of times, it's hard to make these opportunities for yourself," she said. "So we want to provide people with the opportunities to meet business owners, meet employees and meet the community."