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The 2020 Washington Small Business Fair (Biz Fair) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. You may find out more about the fair by browsing this section (FAQs), the
2019 exhibitors list and the
2019 seminar schedule.
We will post more information on the upcoming fair in the early summer of 2020, as it becomes available, so please keep checking back.
No pre-registration is required or accepted for the fair or the seminars. Please check in when you arrive at the fair to get the final seminar schedule with room assignments, class times, and a campus map.
Where you will check in depends on the time you arrive:
The Washington Small Business Fair (Biz Fair) is a free, one-stop shopping event for new and existing business owners. The purpose of the fair is to provide a wide spectrum of information that small business owners need, in a non-sales environment. The fair has been held once a year since 1997 on the Renton Technical College campus. About 35 exhibitors participate each year, providing information to small business owners and answering their questions. About 40 seminars are offered throughout the day, with topics such as marketing, financing, import/export, record keeping, legal issues, taxes and licensing, building a web site and more.
The exhibitors are government agencies or non-profit organizations, such as trade or business associations and chambers of commerce. No private businesses or vendors are allowed to exhibit, sell or pass out information.
No. The planning committee provides one table and a tablecloth for each exhibitor. Exhibitors may make arrangements for electricity and for larger booth displays (as space permits).
Contact us by email at
info@bizfair.org or call 206-946-3703.
The
seminars are taught by a variety of local business experts from both the public and private sector.
No. Speakers volunteer their time, and also incur the cost of producing handouts or other materials for their seminars. Speakers are allowed to tell attendees which business they work for (or own), and are allowed to put business cards and a brochure about their business at the back of the seminar room as well as at the Speaker’s Table in the Resource Center (exhibit area,
Building I). However, speakers are strictly prohibited from making their seminars a sales pitch for their (or any) company’s products or services.
Contact us by email at
info@bizfair.org or call 206-946-3703.
200-600 people attend this free fair each year. Most attendees are from the Puget Sound metropolitan area, but each year a number of people come from other parts of the state.
There is no single sponsor. A fair planning committee puts on the fair, and Renton Technical College donates the use of their space. The planning committee is composed of 10-20 representatives from federal, state and local government agencies, business and trade organizations, and small business owners.
• It’s free, and no advance registration is required.
• The focus is on getting small business owners ALL the types of information they need to start or expand their business.
• No private vendors or selling is allowed.
The primary marketing tools are our website,
www.bizfair.org, social media channels and printed brochures. The brochures are distributed by agencies and organizations on the planning committee to their constituents or to targeted groups. Exhibitors are also provided with brochures and asked to distribute them to their clients. In addition, agencies on the planning committee and many of the exhibitors and speakers place a link to
www.bizfair.org on their web sites and market it through their social media channels. The publicity committee sends out news releases, places articles and editorials in newspapers, and maintains a Facebook page, Twitter account, and a blog.
Food and beverages will be available for purchase at the college.
Since the fair planning committee is not a separate “entity”, there is no official “fair budget”. All costs (such as printing and mailing of brochures and posters) are borne by one agency or another, and the fair is truly produced on a shoestring budget. Speakers, moderators, and panelists all donate their time (or may be compensated by their agency/company, but not by the fair committee) and cover the cost of producing their own handouts/materials.
Evaluations on the overall quality of the fair are distributed to all participants. Evaluations are also collected from seminar attendees for each seminar and speaker. Most participants have been in business less than 2 years, and the majority are between the ages of 30 to 50. See our Testimonials section for reactions to the fair from some of the participants.
