Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology will host the 2009 NCET Entrepreneur Expo, which will feature about 100 exhibitors and more than a 1,000 small-business owners.
The event runs from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in the second floor Grand Ballroom.
The expo is free to attend and designed exclusively for small businesses and for people planning to start small businesses. The expo will feature speakers and panels, in English and Spanish, that provide the resources and expert advice needed to successfully start or grow a business.
From 8 to 11 a.m., there will be a condensed English-language session combining marketing finance and a guide to resources to help small- or aspiring business owners.
Dave Archer, CEO of NCET, said about three or four of the workshop sessions would be held in Spanish, because "I thought it would be a good idea."
"As I watched the merger of the Sparks and Hispanic chambers, I realized I didn’t know how many Hispanic businesses there were out there," Archer said. "It made me appreciate the depth of the Hispanic business community."
He said three or four sessions will be presented entirely in Spanish.
It will probably be the core issues, such as developing a business plan, raising money and how to market, he said.
Getting back to basics is what all small businesses face in the current economic challenges, including branding and networking.
The NCET touched on similar topics at its second expo in Las Vegas in late February, which was attended by about 1,000 people.
"What we learned there was what we expect to see here: that because of the economy there will perhaps be more people attending because of the economy who are unemployed or underemployed and looking for ways they can launch a new business," Archer said.
Exhibitors will include professional services such as attorneys and accountants, federal, state and local agencies that assist small businesses, funding sources, agencies offering advice and training to small businesses, educational institutions with programs designed for small businesses and consultants who address marketing, management, IT and other critical areas.
"Why take the risk and not make any money for that first year if someone’s offering you a job? But no one is offering me anything right now, so I have to make business for myself."
