ARTICLE
OWOSSO – The Shiawassee Regional Chamber of Commerce is expanding the focus of its annual expo. The SRCC 2025 Business Expo is set to take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 1 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 2 in the Owosso High School gymnasium, 765 E. North St., its usual yearly location. Formally called the SRCC Home, Garden & Business Expo, the SRCC’s marquee event will showcase a broader range of businesses and industries from across the region. Attendees of the family-friendly business expo can expect local nonprofits, health and wellness providers, retail and service businesses, home improvement experts and more. Having been at the SRCC helm since August, President and CEO Jordan Hankwitz said he would like this year’s expo attendance to surpass last year’s turnout, gradually growing it back to its visitor amounts of the past. “Attendance was 750 people last year according to the information I’ve got,” Hankwitz said. “Pre-covid, years past, upwards of 3,000 people (attended). The goal is to get back to that. This year I have been confidently letting our exhibitors know that they’re going to have more than 1,000 attendees.” Last year’s expo was the SRCC’s first since 2019, the year before COVID-19 changed American life for the near future. Ruth Liagre, the chamber’s former interim executive director, told The Argus-Press at the 2024 event that the SRCC wished to start out small and expand over the next few years. A list of all the entities attending the 2025 expo is not yet available. Admission prior to the event is $2 for adults and free for up to three children ages 17 and under. Entry for additional children is $2 each. Interested parties are encouraged to visit the official expo page at shiawasseechamber.org, call the SRCC at 989-723-5149 or email [email protected] for tickets. From 10 a.m. to noon March 2 is Kids Day at the Expo. Admission is free for children. Kids who attend will be treated to creative play, physical activities, educational exhibits, demonstrations and interactive learning. Hankwitz noted the transition from a home and garden expo to a business expo was the chamber’s proper evolution. “We are very welcoming of the home and garden community and what they have to offer, and we’re going to have a lot of representation,” Hankwitz said. “But we also want to be able to broaden, to be able to highlight and showcase the business community who we serve as a chamber, whether it be for-profit or nonprofit businesses.” The regional nonprofit community is described by Hankwitz as being “very strong.” “We have a lot of nonprofits that are going to be participating in the expo and we have a specific rate that we charge that we discount for nonprofits,” Hankwitz said. “We do everything we can to make it accessible for them to get their word out to the community, to the audience that’s going to be participating in and attending the expo. There’s a lot of uncertainty as far as what implications that are happening in Washington, DC are going to have on a nonprofit here in Shiawassee County. We’re coming up with strategies of how we can bring awareness to the communities, the individuals that are benefiting from and are impacted the most from these nonprofits.” The expo is supported by sponsors Memorial Healthcare, Owosso Speedway, Alderman’s of Lennon, Weather Vane Roofing and Lansing Automakers Federal Credit Union. The expo’s broadcast partner, WJSX Z92.5 The Castle, will broadcast live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 1. With so much in line for the expo, Hankwitz said he feels the event is already a success. “I think that the energy that’s coming along with it, the breadth of businesses and nonprofits that we’re going to be highlighting and giving a platform as well as the sustainability component that we’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback and traction on … I’ve got to execute, we’ve got to execute,” Hankwitz said. “(Office manager Erin Huska) and myself as ambassadors, our board of directors, the chamber’s got to execute. We’re in a position to be very successful.” With the expo’s first-ever sustainability sponsor, Great Lakes Resource Recovery, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about and engage with eco-friendly initiatives and resource management in the region. “With the sustainability component, we’re really highlighting the things that are going on in this region from a sustainability perspective and the circular economy,” Hankwitz said. “We can take materials in this region, and instead of putting them into landfill we can use them in this region. With Great Lakes Resource Recovery, they are taking the glass bottle that my family puts into a recycle bin then takes to the Greater Lansing Recyclers, and pulverizing it down into a material they’re able to sell to a manufacturer here in Shiawassee County that’s being used for sandblasting material. So when I buy a glass bottle and consume what’s inside, that bottle’s not leaving our county. It’s not going to a landfill or getting on a truck going to another county, another city, another state or another country. It’s being used in multiple places here in our county. That’s a powerful thing that’s happening here in our own backyard.” Hankwitz said his goal is to double the amount of nearly 40 vendors from 2024. As the expo draws near, and its results still in pending status, Hankwitz is already looking ahead to next year. “I’ve been collecting a lot of information just in the course of conversation with businesses,” Hankwitz said. “What are some things that are preventing people from going? It may be the price. It may be time constraints. For a two-day expo, a small business that’s trying to staff Monday through Friday, now having to get somebody to staff the tables Saturday and Sunday is a challenge. We’re trying to collect as much data as we can on the expo for this year to improve upon the expo for next year.”
OWOSSO – The Shiawassee Regional Chamber of Commerce is expanding the focus of its annual expo.
The SRCC 2025 Business Expo is set to take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 1 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 2 in the Owosso High School gymnasium, 765 E. North St., its usual yearly location.
Formally called the SRCC Home, Garden & Business Expo, the SRCC’s marquee event will showcase a broader range of businesses and industries from across the region. Attendees of the family-friendly business expo can expect local nonprofits, health and wellness providers, retail and service businesses, home improvement experts and more.
Having been at the SRCC helm since August, President and CEO Jordan Hankwitz said he would like this year’s expo attendance to surpass last year’s turnout, gradually growing it back to its visitor amounts of the past.
“Attendance was 750 people last year according to the information I’ve got,” Hankwitz said. “Pre-covid, years past, upwards of 3,000 people (attended). The goal is to get back to that. This year I have been confidently letting our exhibitors know that they’re going to have more than 1,000 attendees.”
Last year’s expo was the SRCC’s first since 2019, the year before COVID-19 changed American life for the near future. Ruth Liagre, the chamber’s former interim executive director, told The Argus-Press at the 2024 event that the SRCC wished to start out small and expand over the next few years.
A list of all the entities attending the 2025 expo is not yet available.
Admission prior to the event is $2 for adults and free for up to three children ages 17 and under. Entry for additional children is $2 each. Interested parties are encouraged to visit the official expo page at shiawasseechamber.org, call the SRCC at 989-723-5149 or email [email protected] for tickets.
From 10 a.m. to noon March 2 is Kids Day at the Expo. Admission is free for children. Kids who attend will be treated to creative play, physical activities, educational exhibits, demonstrations and interactive learning.
Hankwitz noted the transition from a home and garden expo to a business expo was the chamber’s proper evolution.
“We are very welcoming of the home and garden community and what they have to offer, and we’re going to have a lot of representation,” Hankwitz said. “But we also want to be able to broaden, to be able to highlight and showcase the business community who we serve as a chamber, whether it be for-profit or nonprofit businesses.”
The regional nonprofit community is described by Hankwitz as being “very strong.”
“We have a lot of nonprofits that are going to be participating in the expo and we have a specific rate that we charge that we discount for nonprofits,” Hankwitz said. “We do everything we can to make it accessible for them to get their word out to the community, to the audience that’s going to be participating in and attending the expo. There’s a lot of uncertainty as far as what implications that are happening in Washington, DC are going to have on a nonprofit here in Shiawassee County. We’re coming up with strategies of how we can bring awareness to the communities, the individuals that are benefiting from and are impacted the most from these nonprofits.”
The expo is supported by sponsors Memorial Healthcare, Owosso Speedway, Alderman’s of Lennon, Weather Vane Roofing and Lansing Automakers Federal Credit Union. The expo’s broadcast partner, WJSX Z92.5 The Castle, will broadcast live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 1.
With so much in line for the expo, Hankwitz said he feels the event is already a success.
“I think that the energy that’s coming along with it, the breadth of businesses and nonprofits that we’re going to be highlighting and giving a platform as well as the sustainability component that we’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback and traction on … I’ve got to execute, we’ve got to execute,” Hankwitz said. “(Office manager Erin Huska) and myself as ambassadors, our board of directors, the chamber’s got to execute. We’re in a position to be very successful.”
With the expo’s first-ever sustainability sponsor, Great Lakes Resource Recovery, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about and engage with eco-friendly initiatives and resource management in the region.
“With the sustainability component, we’re really highlighting the things that are going on in this region from a sustainability perspective and the circular economy,” Hankwitz said. “We can take materials in this region, and instead of putting them into landfill we can use them in this region. With Great Lakes Resource Recovery, they are taking the glass bottle that my family puts into a recycle bin then takes to the Greater Lansing Recyclers, and pulverizing it down into a material they’re able to sell to a manufacturer here in Shiawassee County that’s being used for sandblasting material. So when I buy a glass bottle and consume what’s inside, that bottle’s not leaving our county. It’s not going to a landfill or getting on a truck going to another county, another city, another state or another country. It’s being used in multiple places here in our county. That’s a powerful thing that’s happening here in our own backyard.”
Hankwitz said his goal is to double the amount of nearly 40 vendors from 2024. As the expo draws near, and its results still in pending status, Hankwitz is already looking ahead to next year.
“I’ve been collecting a lot of information just in the course of conversation with businesses,” Hankwitz said. “What are some things that are preventing people from going? It may be the price. It may be time constraints. For a two-day expo, a small business that’s trying to staff Monday through Friday, now having to get somebody to staff the tables Saturday and Sunday is a challenge. We’re trying to collect as much data as we can on the expo for this year to improve upon the expo for next year.”