Homewood Nation

The Homewood-Brushton Business Association's second annual Business Expo will be held tomorrow (Saturday), Nov. 18, at the Homewood-Brushton YMCA.

The full-day event is divided into two major parts. A set of workshops for business owners will run from 8 am to noon. The workshops were scheduled with pre-registration, but business owners can still register onsite for $25.

Then, from noon to 4 pm, the expo will be open to the public.

HBBA president Vernard Alexander said that former board member Marteen Garay was "pretty much the catalyst that got the ball rolling" for the first expo, which was held last year. Fleshing out the idea happened through a partnership with Penn State University and Urban Innovation21.

There were 25 vendors and another 15 businesses that participated as sponsors, Alexander said. This year, there are again 25 vendors, but fewer sponsors, about 10.

Still, Alexander sees this year's expo as an improvement on the first in at least a couple of ways.

First, four of this year's sponsors will offer youth activities, to make this year's event more family-friendly.

"While the parents were shopping, so to speak, we wanted to make sure that we had activities for kids, to keep them engaged."

Second, this year's location, the YMCA, is more centralized than the site of last year's expo, Bridgeway Capital's 7800 Susquehanna building.

"There's going to be a lot of foot traffic (in the YMCA) already," Alexander said.