'Open for Business' Expo scheduled for April 2
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - The 17th Annual Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce's "Open for Business" Expo will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday April 2 at the Doubletree Hotel.

"The Open for Business Expo is the best four hours a person can spend networking and gaining access to the region's top business leaders displaying their products and services," said Karen Chapman, vice president of the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce. "It will allow people to discover the products, technologies and systems that can lead to improving their own business success."

More than 115 area businesses from the Corridor Nine region will be exhibiting and showcasing their latest products and services. Those businesses will represent retail, service and educational entities and include banks, colleges, hotels, marketing/ public relations firms, information technology consultants, caterers, the post office, nonprofit organizations and fitness clubs.

Persons or groups looking for the opportunity to build strong relationships with some of the region's top decisionmakers and generate qualified business leads should plan on being among the attendees at the expo.

The Open for Business Expo is a business-to-business trade show. In anticipation of the event, the Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce has extended more than 7,000 invitations to businesses in Worcester County and the Interstate-495 corridor area. Another 3,000 invitations have been placed around the region in banks, hotels, health clubs, town halls and libraries in, but not limited to Westborough, Northborough, Southborough, Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Grafton and Framingham.

More than 1,000 people attended the expo last year, and visitors to this year's event will be able to sample and enjoy award-winning cuisine from the Doubletree Hotel - the expo's host sponsor - as well as from the Apple Spice Junction, Pepper's Fine Foods Catering, Cyprian Keyes, the Grafton Inn, Struck Catering, the Courtyard by Marriott in Westborough and Marlborough, and the Willows at Westborough.

Attendees will also be eligible to win thousands of dollars in prizes.

Admission to the expo is free; only a business card is required for admittance.

The corporate sponsor of the expo is Penta Communications Inc., which provides world-class marketing solutions to accelerate clients' success.

The media sponsors of the event include the Community Advocate, the Worcester Business Journal, the Buzz, and radio stations WTAG (580-AM) and WSRS (96.1 FM).

Supporting sponsors of the expo include Curry Printing, Fallon Community Health Plan, and Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple P.C.

Providing signage for the event is the Sunshine Sign Co.

"The Corridor Nine Open for Business Expo is unique because it's a one-day, fourhour show as opposed to the traditional one- or two-day trade shows," Chapman said. "Because of that, attendees will find the expo busy during the course of the entire show.

"Parking isn't a worry either because arrangements have been made to shuttle visitors to the front door of the hotel if they can't get parking in the main lot … Knight's Airport Limousine will be providing shuttle service," Chapman said.

For more information on the Expo, or to view a complete list of exhibitors, log on to www. corridornine.org.