11th Annual B2B Expo a Huge Success!

Georgea May 9, 2018

The 11th Annual B2B Expo, New Mexico's largest Strategic Networking event & Business-to-Business Expo, was a huge success last week with a packed house of 920 in attendance. This year we used Addmi's new Technology App, making it easy to track attendance and attendee preferences. The event broke previous attendance records with 836 attendees and 138 exhibitors representing more than 46 industries. Additionally, over 132 people attended educational round tables prior to the Expo's kick off!

"Given our record numbers, it is obvious business people are looking for an opportunity to network, learn and make important connections," said DJ Heckes, founder of the Expo and CEO of EXHIB-IT! "There are many industry trade shows, but nothing dedicated solely to business. We have already secured the date for next year's event Tuesday April 23, 2019 with many returning Sponsors already committed."

The event started with the Educational Roundtables with 12 Award Winning Presenters:

Mark Herman, CEO of Dion's
Andy Lim, Owner of Addmi, Inc.
Sandra M. Bustamante, Payment Solutions Market Manager with U.S. Bank
Diane Villegas, Owner of Big Picture Marketing
Ryan Cangiolosi, Director of Economic and Community Development of UNM Health Sciences Center
Annemarie Henton, Director of Communications and Marketing with AED
Dale R. Dekker, Founder of Dekker/Perich/Sabitini
Chris Moore, Strategic Director/Partner of 3 Advertising
Chris Schroeder, Chief Operating Officer of Real Time Solutions
Ernie C'deBaca, CEO of Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce
Kristelle Siarza, CEO of Siarza Social Digital
Mark "Pardo" Gonzales, Owner of Mark Pardo SalonSpa

Next was the Main Event that started off with a VIP Meet & Greet with 41 Candidates in this year's election. The Candidates were available to meet with all attendees throughout the evening.

1	Libertarian	A. Blair Dunn	Attorney General
2	Republican	Michael Hendricks	Attorney General
3	Democrat	Jeff Apodaca	Gubernatorial Candidate
4	Democrat	Joe Cervantes	Gubernatorial Candidate
5	Democrat	Michelle Lujan Grisham's Campaign Rep.	Gubernatorial Candidate
6	Republican	Steve Pearce's Campaign Manager	Gubernatorial Candidate
7	Republican	Michelle Garcia Holmes	Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidate
8	Democrat	Billy Garrett	Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidate
9	Democrat	Rick Miera	Lieutenant Gubernatorial Candidate
10	Republican	Janice Arnold-Jones	Congress (CD 1)
11	Democrat	Pat Davis	Congress (CD 1)
12	Democrat	Deb Haaland	Congress (CD 1)
13	Democrat	Dr. Jesse Heitner	Congress (CD 1)
14	Democrat	Damian Lara	Congress (CD 1)
15	Democrat	Damon P. Martinez	Congress (CD 1)
16	Democrat	Paul Moya	Congress (CD 1)
17	Libertarian	Lloyd Princeton	Congress (CD 1)
18	Democrat	Antoinette Sedillo Lopez	Congress (CD 1)
19	Republican	Dr. Gavin Clarkston	Congress (CD-2)
20	Republican	Jerald Steve McFall	Congress (CD-3)
21	Libertarian	Chris Manning	Congress (CD-3)
22	Libertarian	Aubrey Dunn's Campaign Rep.	U.S. Senate
23	Democrat	Martin Heinrich's Campaign Rep.	U.S. Senate
24	Republican	Mick Rich	U.S. Senate
25	Republican	JoHanna Cox	Secretary of State
26	Libertarian	Sandra D. Jeff	Secretary of State
27	Republican	Wayne Johnson	State Auditor
28	Republican	Arthur L. Castillo	State Treasurer
29	Democrat	Tim Eichenberg	State Treasurer
30	Democrat	Garrett VeneKlasen	Land Commissioner
31	Democrat	Day Hochman-Vigil	State Rep. D-15
32	Republican	Jim Dines	State Rep. D-20
33	Democrat	Melanie Stansbury	State Rep. D-28
34	Republican	Jimmie Hall	State rep D-28
35	Republican	John L. Jones	State Rep. D-30
36	Libertarian	William Wiley	State Rep. D-31
37	Republican	Monica Youngblood	State Rep. D-68
38	Republican	Natasha Hadrych-Rosier	County Commissioner D-5 (Bernalillo County)
39	Republican	Lou Golson	County Sheriff (Bernalillo County)
40	Democrat	Sylvester Stanley	County Sheriff (Bernalillo County)
41	Democrat	Brianna Zamora	Candidate for the NM Court of Appeals

Best Local Brand Winners were announced after LIVE Voting ended at 6:30 PM at the event. New Mexico Pion Coffee won first place in our Commercial Category, and LifeRoots took first in our Nonprofit Category. Each of our winners took home $6,825 in marketing Prizes!

Best Local Brand Commercial Winner: New Mexico Pion Coffee

Best Local Brand Nonprofit Winner: LifeRoots

The event was full of strategic networking with attendees and exhibitors throughout the event. You could feel the excitement in the air while walking the event and see people truly interacting.

See below for some of our more recent Testimonials provided from Survey Responses, which we plan to ask each one to recap in a video in the near future.Top 5 Comments:

"The event was a great adventure where I gained information about different products and services that are out in the market place and met just a whole group of nice and educated people."
"I was able to make a very important business connection by attending a roundtable discussion being conducted by my prospect. Thank You"
"[The roundtable sessions were] very informative and a great way to get in front of potential clients."
"I was able to make connections with companies I didn't think I would have relations with."
"If you are business minded, this is the place to be. The conversations I had with everyone were absolutely amazing experiences!!!"