San Diego’s Greater San Diego Business Association (GSDBA) hosted its second annual Business Expo at the Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center in Mission Valley last week. The new venue afforded the GSDBA with more space for presenters as well as more attendees.

Overall attendance for the Expo increased from 300 people last year to an estimated 500 this year and 82 businesses had information booths at the expo (up from 50 last year). There was a waiting list this year for businesses hoping to be involved.

One of the goals of the Expo was to expand the GSDBA’s reach and image to the mainstream community. Joyce Marieb, executive director of the GSDBA, said that goal was accomplished, but she would have liked to have seen even more businesses from the mainstream community participating.

“It was our attempt to reach out beyond the borders of our own community,” Marieb said. “The GSDBA is trying to do that more and more. That’s our goal – we have an identity as the LGBT chamber of commerce, but we want that identity to be all over the city and to do business with everybody. That’s what we attempted, and we didn’t have as many people as we would have liked, but we did have many straight businesses come and be very interested in what we were doing. I would just like to see more.”

The keynote speaker for the Expo’s luncheon was author Deepak Chopra, whose address on success in business went beyond monetary success and looked at spiritual and emotional success. Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins attended the evening mixer and recognized the GSDBA for its 25 years of service to San Diego.

“I thought [the Expo] was a really great success,” Marieb said. “Everybody commented on how professional it was. We were able to have a larger space than we did last year and that allows for a better flow among the booths that we had. I think everybody got to exhibit their things in a better format. The lunch was great. … The mixer at night was a great deal of fun. I think all in all it was a nice, complete package.”

One of the GSDBA’s planned methods of reaching more mainstream businesses included distributing the Expo program through local mainstream papers in the San Diego area. Marieb said this plan was partly ruffled at the last minute when the San Diego Business Journal made a last-minute decision not to include the program.

“We had done all of the advertising with the program that the [Gay & Lesbian] Times did for us in the North County Times,” Marieb said. “But we were disappointed when the San Diego Business Journal, after we had signed a contract and paid them, … decided they would not put the program in, even after they had reviewed the mock-up on it.”

The insert that was to be included in the Business Journal would have been distributed to an additional 16,000 readers in San Diego.

Despite that, GSDBA organizers believe that many local businesses have recognized the value of not only the Expo, but also of the GSDBA overall.

“When I got involved with the GSDBA was when a bunch of the board members of the GSDBA were already my customers, and they came and they wanted to move the GSDBA accounts and they wanted to see if I would join,” said Cindy Lehman, manager of the Hillcrest branch of California Bank and Trust, which was an Expo sponsor. “For years, people would say, ‘Does the bank know what you’re doing?’ Because I guess it seemed like it was a wild thing. But it’s very normal now and if you notice, all the banks are here [at the Expo] and everyone wants to support the GSDBA, and hopefully it’s because it’s the right thing to do.”

Lehman added: “When the directory comes out, my phone rings off the hook. I get business from this organization and I give as good as I get.”

Sponsors for the 2004 GSDBA Expo included California Bank and Trust, the GSDBA and the Gay & Lesbian Times. For more information, visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the GSDBA web site.