Long Island, NY - September 14, 2017 - In today’s competitive Island business scene, companies are often vying for any possible leverage in a bid to achieve necessry success; luckily for them, the BOOM Business Network is here to lend a helping hand in an altogether big way.
The BOOM Business Network will be holding its second bi-annual BOOM Business to Business (B2B) Expo and Executive Speaker Conference event on Thursday, October 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Huntington Hilton in Melville. The event incorporates near-limitless networking opportunities and informational conferences that can assist business owners and professionals to develop and grow, according to Frank Gargano, BOOM Business Network President and Founder.
“The Expo is really an event that seeks to bring together the Long Island business community so we can all invest in one another, help support each other's businesses, owners, entrepreneurs, and executives,” he said. “Our goal is to keep as many of the financial resources on Long Island as we possibly can by investing in local businesses. That's really what the mission statement of the Expo is all about.”
Frank Gargano, BOOM Business Network President and Founder. Photo Credit: BOOM Business Network
The first Expo, held this past April, was an unbridled success, attracting over 100 business exhibitors, 50 speakers, and 50 partnering business organizations, in addition to at least 2,500 attendees. Only a half year later, Gargano said, and the BOOM B2B Expo has already grown by leaps and bounds, offering more education and networking opportunities to Long Island business owners than ever.
“In October, we’re planning on anywhere between 130 and 140 business exhibitors this time, and somewhere between 75 and 90 executive speakers,” he said. “Overall attendance should at the very least mirror the April event, if not exceed it, as word of mouth about the Expo has been spreading across the Long Island business community.”
The October 19th event is slated to start with an executive breakfast first thing in the morning between 8 and 10 a.m., featuring speakers consisting of local politicians and the Supervisors of numerous Long Island municipalities, including Oyster Bay, Huntington, and others.
In addition, another vital part of the BOOM B2B Expo is the speaker conference, which gives a wide variety of executives and business owners from Nassau and Suffolk Counties a voice to communicate about their products, services, and expertise in the marketplace; this way, Gargano said, they are able to promote themselves and their company to a very receptive audience.
With the business climate in the United States – and especially New York – becoming more difficult to navigate, Gargano said that Long Island especially presents a unique series of both benefits and obstacles for local business owners, thus necessitating the existence of an event like BOOM.
“The BOOM Business Network was originally founded three years ago, and eventually I was asked to consider putting together an event such as this by more than a few of our members...in fact, our entire business network has been, in part, created through the suggestions of our membership,” he said. “It was suggested by members that we produce some sort of all-day conference, and I really wanted it to be about the speakers. Out of all of the business-to-business expos I had personally attended, it seemed more about the exhibitors and less about the speakers...I wanted to put them all on an even playing field for attendees, and I wanted to put a focus on established business owners and decision-makers that people wanted to connect with, and that could really make a difference in their business.”
The BOOM B2B Expo consists of networking opportunities and informational conferences that can assist business owners and professionals to develop and grow. Photo Credit: BOOM Business Expo
The current plan is for the Expo to be held as a bi-annual event, which Gargano said is necessary to properly address the fast-paced and ever-evolving economic and business scene on Long Island.
“Right now, there will be two BOOM Business to Business Expos every year, one in the spring and one in the fall, as opposed to just having one huge annual event,” he said. “When you have just one massive event a year, you could lose the quality of your attendees and your participation.”
The inaugural BOOM B2B Expo was held at the Huntington Hilton, which Gargano said was a perfect venue for such an event; going forward – and with continued success – it is his wish to continue holding the Expo there for the foreseeable future, providing Long Island’s entrepreneurs with the means of staying ahead of the competition and achieving the success they so richly deserve.
“I'm very comfortable with our relationship with the Hilton…they do a terrific job, and what I like about it is that it's a professional environment,” he said. “It's very classy and upscale, and it speaks to our membership and our following. The philosophy behind planning this event is to have somewhat of a smaller venue, and to keep it that way...as long as the business community wants BOOM to continue organizing the Business to Business Expo, we're going to continue to do it.”
Sponsors of the event include PSEG Long Island, Investors Bank, and LongIsland.com.