Thousands Meet, Greet and Connect at B2B

Dan Kligerman of the Bucktown area of Chicago has been working in the tumultuous world of real estate since 1990s, so he enjoyed living through the boom years and has had to endure the bust.

So Kligerman is ready to try something else--possibly in accounting--and he found himself in Skokie last Thursday at major networking event for small businesses.

“I’m just looking to see who is here and what develops,” he said.

Kligerman was part of a crowd of nearly 2,500 people who roamed a section of the Holiday Inn in Skokie to see what they could find not only in terms of a job leads, but opportunities for small businesses. It was all part of an event that featured more than 100 vendors, 30 employment recruiters, some local politicians as long with scores of people who were looking to find a job or make connections came together

The project was spearheaded by Skokie resident Shalom Klein, the publisher of the Jewish Business News.

“Small businesses need to grow,” Klein said. “So many people that have small businesses need to meet people. The best way to do that is by meeting people and by connecting.”

Klein talked about the problems on Skokie’s major thoroughfares such as Dempster and Oakton streets right now as the village tries to come out of the economic doldrums facing the rest of the country.

“We need to fill those vacant storefronts and the best way to do it is by helping people find new business and help people grow their operation,” Klein said.

The nearly 100 vendors present last Thursday afternoon were courting people to look at their services. Unlike a traditional job fair, this event featured small businesses looking to show off their service assets.

One of the more unusual displays was the booth highlighting Networkingmonkey.com, a portal for people to find networking events in the Chicago area.

Company president Steve Fretzin and his marketing director, Daniel Delmonte, enticed people to come over to their booth by giving away bananas.

Arnold Shenkman, who traveled from Ann Arbor, MI, was intrigued by the display. Shenkman said he trained people on how to trade commodities and stopped to talk with Delmonte.

“He’s a young guy and he knows some people in the commodities business,” Shenkman said. “Besides I needed a free banana to keep my potassium up.”

Klein estimated attendance was about 66 percent business owners and the rest job seeker. The 22-year-old, who was once studied to become a rabbi but eventually joined the family’s networking business, has been working on getting B2B events going June 2010.

“I’ve always been organizing and putting these things together,” he said. “The best way you can help someone is to help them earn their own livelihood. It’s better than giving somebody a dollar out of your own pocket; it’s better to help them earn their own dollar.”

Besides the job seekers and small business operators, several local politicians arrived to gauge the business climate and the attitude among their constituents.

“This event shows the resilience of people,” said U.S. Rep Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). “They want to keep trying, and it is indicative of a very difficult economy.”

Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen thought such events were needed.

“At a time when the economy is stagnant, it is good to have an opportunity where small business people can show potential clients and potential employees what they have to offer,” he said. “Small businesses are the backbone of the country, and the men and women here today are exactly that.”

State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who was the chairman of the Illinois Job Creation Task Force, wished such gatherings should be a model for other small business owners and job seekers.

 “If we could do these all over the state, we would put a lot of people to work,” Lang noted.

As for Kligerman who was not sure what to expect when he entered the Holiday Inn, he was feeling more encouraged as the day moved on.

“Soon after I came. I ran into an accounting company and I talked about getting an accounting position with them. They are going to give my resume to their HR [human resource] people and we’ll see what happens.”

Kligerman summed up his experience with the words the organizers were looking for.  “It always helps to meet people.”