Large and small businesses alike had a chance to interact and network this week thanks to the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber once again welcomed its Showcase Como event to the Columbia Expo Center on Wednesday, where national businesses with offices in Columbia, local large-scale businesses and local small businesses were featured.
“We have had this event going on for a number of years, well over a decade,” said Chamber President Matt McCormick, adding there was an exception during the COVID-19 years. “It was nice to be able to bring it back. The thing I enjoy most is getting to talk to all our vendors, but also just hearing the stories of, ‘Hey I got to meet so-and-so, or I met this company and we are now doing business together.'”
The chamber also celebrates local small businesses with 25 or fewer employees in the autumn with its Small Business Festival. While there was some overlap of which organizations participate with Showcase Como and the Small Business Festival, the showcase is about celebrating all Columbia businesses, McCormick said.
More:Second annual small business festival celebrates ‘backbone of Columbia’
The driving force behind Showcase Como is Jamie Martin, chamber director of membership engagement, he said.
“She does a great job and works on this for the better part of the year to help put this together and working with the different vendors,” McCormick said.
The showcase features a wide variety of Columbia businesses. Any type of business you can think of had a booth, table or even just a person walking around handing out business information.
It was a daylong networking event, not just for business to business, but business to consumer as well, McCormick said.
The day started with the chamber’s quarterly membership breakfast, which featured an address by Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, before transitioning to the showcase starting at 9 a.m. There was a break from 11:00 to 1 p.m. for the Showcase Women’s Network professional development luncheon.
That event featured Dr. Saundra Dalton Smith, founder of Restorasis, “a professional development agency dedicated to restoring wellbeing in the workplace through work-life integration and burnout prevention strategies,” according to chamber event information.
The Showcase got started back up at 1 p.m. and ran until 6 p.m. Food vendors were featured in the last two hours of the day to provide a happy hour atmosphere to the end of the showcase.
“All the goods and services you will need, you can get right here in Columbia. This is a place where you can start that,” McCormick said, adding this applies to individuals and businesses. “We have different vendors for all kinds of things.”
The variety of businesses Wednesday ranged from health care, including mental health care, insurance, retail, construction, IT companies, banks and nonprofits, among others.
“(The showcase) gives me a chance and gives all of us a chance to maybe meet some people we didn’t know that are here for companies. Maybe we have met their main rep, but not their other team members. So, we get a chance to meet some of their other team members,” McCormick said, adding chamber membership itself continues to grow each month. “It is a good chance to really sit and talk with our new members.”
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.