Greg Perry’s EXCEL TECC marketing class hosted the third EntrovationCLE Expo on April 30 at BHS.

The expo featured 180 Cleveland-area businesses. Exhibitors displayed their services and sold products including 3D printers, hot sauce, Cleveland-themed art and different kinds of food.

“Any business that showcased innovation or entrepreneurship and was also Cleveland-based was invited to be a part of our business showcase,” senior Sophie Schoen, who is Vice President of Human Resources for Entrovation, wrote in an email.

Perry was pleased with this year’s event.

“The crowd and exhibitors were fantastic this year,” he wrote in an email.

This year’s event exceeded the number of vendors at last year’s event, which was more than 170, according to the Entrovation web site.

“To find this year’s exhibitors, we used our spheres of influence and researched the new and upcoming businesses in Cleveland,” Schoen wrote.

Perry listed eight steps in the process of preparing for the event:

“Production, marketing, researching and connecting with exhibitors, branding, leadership training, setting budgets and site evaluation.”

Almost everything is organized by students.

“Students run Entrovation as a company,” Perry wrote. “Aside from the CEO’s, the students work in the departments: sales, marketing, finance, human resources, communications, production and corporate responsibility.”

We are a class of 44 students from nine different schools,” Schoen wrote. “We had a lot of connections with many business owners and entrepreneurs, so we definitely took advantage of that.”

“We would call the businesses and tell them about the event and what we were trying to achieve,” she added. “They could either purchase a booth or become a sponsor for the event.”

This year’s event raised around $70,000 before expenses. Vendors paid from $195-350 for their stalls, and sponsorships ranged from $1,000-10,000.

The students donated $3,500 of the proceeds to Youth Outdoors to provide outdoor adventure activities to Cleveland’s inner city youth. They also use the money to pay for a nine-week leadership training program for marketing students and a professional conference in Florida. The rest of the money is saved for next year’s company.

“I personally love EntrovationCLE,” Schoen wrote. “I think the event was the perfect way to show our city how much we love it, and it was a great way for others to see how much Cleveland is growing… It also gave young entrepreneurs a chance to show the adult business world how much they have achieved.”

“No one can imagine the amount of work and details involved in planning the event,” Perry wrote. “Everyone needs special attention. The physical setup is very demanding. There are countless emails & phone calls.”

“But now that it’s over, the amount of follow-up work is also staggering,” he added. “One of the most important things the students do after the event is handwriting thank you notes.”

Next year we can expect some changes to the event. Perry and his class are changing the name from EntrovationCLE to NOISE, which stands for Northeast Ohio Innovative STEM Expo.

The focus will be on math and science projects, and the target audience will be students and teachers.

“It will be a hands-on expo geared towards youth,” Perry wrote. “NOISE will also feature a STEM Marketplace and keynote speaker- Apollo Robbins.”

According to his web site, “Robbins is a performer, speaker, consultant and one of the world’s leading experts on pickpockets, confidence crimes and deception.”

Photos by Gabriela Covolan Costa