The Pine Bluff Convention Center will be the place to be on Thursday.
It will also be the patriotic place to be, as the theme of this year’s Business Expo is “America at Work.”
Jennifer Kline, director of Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce, said the “construction-type” theme hits home this year, with several large-scale projects underway across the city.
“Watson Chapel high school, Pine Bluff high, the hotel and events center at Saracen Casino and the hotel adjacent to the convention center are all under construction,” Kline said. “Our theme is to take that unique situation and highlight it across the business community landscape. I can’t think of another time when we had this many significantly large projects going at the same time. It shows Pine Bluff’s strengths and resilience.”
The morning starts with breakfast during which several citywide awards will be handed out, all capped off with a keynote address by Bobby Gosser Jr., who is president and CEO of Baldwin & Shell Construction Co. Gosser started at the company as an estimator in 1987. He moved up the ranks to project manager, division manager and central Arkansas division president before taking the reins in 2022.
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The three main awards that will be handed out by the chamber, which has sponsored the event since the 1990s, are Business Person of the Year, Non-Profit Organization of the Year and Young Professional of the Year.
For Business Person of the Year, nominees are Kevin Bonnette with State Farm Insurance, Donna Dial with South Arkansas Business Solutions and Marshall Kelley with Brown Funeral Home.
For the nonprofit award, nominees are Jenkins Memorial Center & Industries and Targeting Our People’s Priorities with Service.
And for the Young Professional of the Year award, nominees are Zack Boyce with Suzano Packaging, Karletta Johnson with Saracen Casino, Calicia Tisdale with Saracen Casino and Sherita Womack with Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
After breakfast, which lasts from 7:30 until 9 a.m., the fun moves to the arena of the convention center where more than 90 vendors will have booths and meet with each other and the public.
“This event is one of the most important we put on each year,” Kline said. “When people talk about what they want out of the chamber, it’s the opportunity to network. It’s the reason we have a monthly luncheon – it’s the first Wednesday of each month – but it’s the Business Expo that really brings out the crowds and allows for nonstop networking because it puts these businesses in front of a lot of people.”
Kline said there are still availabilities to attend the breakfast and to have a booth at the event. Those interested were asked to call the Chamber of Commerce at (870) 535-0110