Last Thursday Kaitlin, Laura, and I attended a trade show / conference organized by the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs (OAME) at the Oregon Convention Center. 

The trade show provides a great opportunity for public agencies and private companies to network and seek partnerships with Minority, Women and Emerging Small Businesses (MWESBs), market their businesses, and look for project opportunities.    

As you can see from the photo, our booth was decked out with some fine MacKay Sposito bling! We also had a drawing at the end of the day to give away some Monster card cell phone chargers. Our booth was located right next to the silent auction tables that OAME had set up to help raise money for their Youth Entrepreneurship Program which they initiated to inspire future business leaders. There were several desirable items up for grabs in the silent auction and somehow I controlled my urge to bid higher on the autographed Blazer basketball as the day went on and the “freight” went up on that one. 

There were 130 exhibitors at the conference this year and many more people who participated but didn’t have a booth. We took turns being “on duty” at our booth, greeting people and answering their questions – the most common was “What does MacKay Sposito do?” 

We also took time to venture out and meet many of the other exhibitors and learn a little about their businesses and how we might interface. It was an interesting dynamic as our role switched back and forth between courting and being courted.  

It was a day filled with many opportunities to engage with other agencies, private firms, and individuals who all were generally looking for the same thing – to build relationships.