Five student business owners showcased their brands to the university Thursday, using the St. Thomas University Entrepreneur Fair as a springboard to the greater Fredericton market.
Business owners like Sawyer Hannay were looking for exposure and networking opportunities.
“A fair like this will provide exposure to residence of the community and also students,” said Hannay, part owner of Country Liberty, a country apparel company.
“[It provides] a visual aspect you see the product and recognize the apparel.”
Michael Pallotto and Santiago Chavez organized the event in James Dunn Hall on March 19. The fair featured student run businesses ACN, Country Liberty, Weego, Notebookpeace and RemindMe.
“The hardest part, myself and Santi (Chavez) were interested in starting this and being part of the fair. We were supposed to find people who were like-minded and get them to come out,” said Pallotto, a first-year student at St. Thomas University.
Pallotto asked Chavez for help when he first had the idea to put on this type of fair. Chavez, part owner of Weego, knew more about who to ask to set things up from places to even who to ask for tablecloths according to Pallotto.
“Putting together a central event allows you to attract people from the community,” said Pallotto. “A good way to bridge the gap between the community and the university.”
Hannay was looking to get some general recognition with in the St. Thomas community, while other owners were looking to do some research.
“A crucial part of this is what type of phones people using,” said Patrick McCullough, a fourth-year student.
McCullough’s business, RemindMe, is developing an app that allows the user to track their inebriated steps the night before, and connect with people while they’re out on the town. McCullough was hoping to find out if more people were using Androids or iPhones. Their initial product would only feature Android apps because of the difficulty of programming for the IOS system.
“This kind of event is good to get word out on what we do,” said Pallotto.
