Former business expo receives overhaul

Jennifer Jackson: Wilson Logistics Arena is the right-sized venue for SBJ Connect.

Marty Goodnight: The networking gathering serves as a greatest hits event of SBJ.

Mark McFatridge is an event participant after eight years away from Springfield.

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After making a return to the community in 2023 following a six-year absence, the Springfield Business Expo as it was known is no longer.

The expo, which last year provided networking and promotional opportunities for participants, along with a dozen seminar sessions on topics such as employee retention and cyber insurance, has been overhauled by organizer Springfield Business Journal. Now dubbed SBJ Connect, the event has changed its date, location and agenda. Set for Sept. 19 at Wilson Logistics Arena, the multipurpose venue at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds & Event Center, the event’s focus is on business education and networking, utilizing several flagship brands of SBJ. That includes its 12 People You Need to Know live interview series, a CEO Roundtable discussion with local regionalism experts and 60 Ideas in Sixty Minutes – an abbreviated version of its annual 90 Ideas in Ninety Minutes event that features a lineup of speakers sharing insights.

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce had previously presented the daylong business expo for years before stopping in 2017. SBJ resurrected the event last year, and while the publication’s owner, Jennifer Jackson, declined to disclose its financial performance, she said the first year of organizing the expo served as an educational opportunity for the business.

“It’s hard to be first out in an event that hasn’t been tried and true, especially with a new host and after a long break,” she said of the October 2023 gathering held at the Springfield Expo Center. “The people that agreed to sign on in that first year I think made it possible for us to be here looking at an entirely different event. They agreed to take that maiden voyage with us and invest in rebuilding awareness.”

When analyzing the first-year challenges at the event’s conclusion, SBJ officials recognized a new venue would better serve its purpose. The roughly $28 million, 164,000-square-foot fairgrounds arena at 3001 N. Grant Ave., which held its grand opening in January, was quickly targeted as an alternative option.

“I’m thrilled that as we were ready for a second go, Wilson Logistics was ready with a new facility, because truly for this event to be more and different than what it’s been in the past, it needed a new home,” Jackson said. “It needed a facility that was right sized to house the various activities that we want to include.”

Jackson dubbed SBJ’s first year organizing the expo as “an investment year for us as well as our exhibitors.”

“We did not lose money on that event, but of course it wouldn’t be something that anybody would advise us to do over and over again as our prime moneymaker,” she said.

Learning lessons
SBJ Publisher Marty Goodnight said the company learned a lot as any initiative should after a first year of hosting an event, and he noted leadership gathered feedback from attendees, exhibitors and the chamber that helped shape year two.

“It’s almost like the expo of the past that the chamber did and the expo that we did one year are really in the past,” he said. “It gave us the opportunity to really redefine and modernize this idea to what the community needs. And our event really turned into the greatest hits of SBJ. It’s like what makes us unique. We had to go through that process to differentiate this event from others.”

Andy Whaley, chief growth officer with JMark Business Solutions Inc., said he took the opportunity to provide feedback. His company was among last year’s 80-plus exhibitors that is on board to participate in SBJ Connect.

“Some of the feedback I gave was that it was difficult to connect with attendees when a lot of the conference sessions were in a different location,” he said of the seminars, which included 22 speakers among 12 sessions that took place throughout the day in small rooms off the expo center floor. “The exhibitors were twiddling their thumbs on their own and the event felt very segmented.”

Goodnight counts it among lessons staff learned in the event’s aftermath.

“People went into separate rooms and other areas of the building. That takes energy out of the room,” he said, noting SBJ Connect is keeping everyone on the arena floor for the duration.

Upon seeing the SBJ Connect agenda and the intentionality to keep all activities on the vendor floor, including food and beverage breaks, Whaley said he’s excited about the event’s prospects.

“I felt that it absolutely would be an environment that would create a lot of energy, allows for people to network – meet other people that they don’t know in the community,” he said.

Schedule setting
The event kicks off at 8 a.m. with the 60 Ideas in Sixty Minutes lineup, which includes Beth Domann with Springfield Little Theatre, Brandy Harris with Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield Inc. and Brad Thomas with Silver Dollar City. That’s followed by a 10 a.m. keynote presentation by Mike Girsch, general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, who will discuss using data to manage a major league team.

The afternoon session has the live CEO Roundtable discussion, which will run simultaneously at 1 p.m. with the Springfield chamber’s Biz Blitz, a speed networking event. At 2:30 p.m., several past interview guests of the 12 People You Need to Know series will take the stage.

Among those is Mark McFatridge, founder of Quade, an executive peer group for CEOs, business owners and entrepreneurs to provide support and collaboration in order to make positive changes in their lives, companies and communities. McFatridge, now living in Indianapolis, Indiana, was SBJ’s first-ever interview subject for 12 People You Need to Know in 2008. At the time, he was an executive for Regions Bank. He exited Springfield in 2016 to move to Little Rock, Arkansas, to continue his banking career and said SBJ Connect will be his first time back since then.

“It’s been eight years. And what a great excuse to get back and see some friends and hang out,” he said.

McFatridge said a phone call earlier this year from Kirk Elmquist, executive director of the Branson/Lakes Area Tourism Community Enhancement District, drew him to become an SBJ Connect participant.

“I’ve never turned down a conversation with Kirk Elmquist,” he said. “I answered it, and Kirk and Jennifer Jackson were on the phone and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this idea, and we’d like you to be a part of it.’ And so that’s how it all came about.”

McFatridge is the lone employee of Quade, which he launched in 2021, adding he also has six independent contractors who serve as facilitators of his groups. He’s been in Indianapolis since 2018, having previously lived in the city for 20 years before moving to Springfield in 2006. While he’ll be the only featured 12 People alumnus to no longer live in the Queen City, McFatridge said he remains connected to the Ozarks.

“Certainly, a week does not go by where I don’t get a text or an email or something from somebody in southwest Missouri,” he said.

Roughly 60 exhibitors are on board for the event, Goodnight said, adding booth registrations will be taken up until Sept. 18. Prices range $750-$3,350.

“Where we are right now, if we didn’t sell another booth, we’re going to have a great experience,” he said.

Goodnight said he has a goal of 500 attendees for the event, for which tickets cost $65. SBJ officials declined to disclose projected revenue.

“The digital ticket allows flexibility. People can come for a couple hours, go take care of something and come back,” he said, noting there also will be space available for attendees to work on-site, if the need arises. “Naturally, like anybody, we want to be able to grow, but we can’t do that until we grow the experience and make a phenomenal event for exhibitors, for sponsors and attendees. That’s where I’m focused.”

Tickets and exhibitor registration are available online at SBJ.net/connect.