LLCEO Tradeshow

Land of Lincoln CEO tradeshow puts the icing on the cake of a challenging yet good year
Part one: Overview of the tradeshow
 

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[May 02, 2021]  On Wednesday evening the Class of 2021 Land of Lincoln CEO students hosted their annual tradeshow with an in-person format at the Lincoln American Legion Post 263. Last year’s class was not permitted to have an in-person tradeshow because of the coronavirus restrictions.

This year there are eight students who will complete the school year course in business leadership and ownership. The young entrepreneurs each came up with a business idea and then developed it into an actual business with guidance from class facilitator Britta Langley and the mentors who help the students along the way.

The mentors are business owners and managers from the area who invested their personal time to help the students learn the ins and outs of business including cultivating an idea and developing via research, creating a business plan, and learning how to market the business, and much more.



The tradeshow opened with a team of greeters handing out this year’s annual report including the current LLCEO Board Chairperson Kristi Powell.

 



Inside greeters were handing out the cards for the annual drawings. Visitors had their card initialed at each student’s table.

The CEO program is provided and monitored by the Midland Institute. That organization sets the guidelines for the CEO program and the qualifications of students who are accepted into the program.

The program specifies that students may enroll in the CEO program for one school year only either during their junior or senior year of high school. However, there are also special allowances provided for repeat students.

According to Powell the coronavirus in 2020 created a special circumstance and last year’s juniors were permitted to take the class for a second time.

Two students did a second round of CEO education. Eli Hewitt at Lincoln Community High School and Ruthie Ruhl, a homeschool senior affiliated with Mount Pulaski High School.



Guests were encouraged to visit each booth, then offered some sweet treats as they exited the tradeshow.

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At the Community Investor Suite those who are involved in this year’s program visitors could pick up the annual report, as well as other information about the CEO program and getting involved in future years.





Social distancing was suggested and face masks were required. Some of the young business owners had products available for sale, while others were taking orders for the delivery of product at a later time.

Guest Michelle Bauer had done some shopping and held up her bags to show off her support for the young entrepreneurs.

In all, it was a good evening for the young business owners. Many enjoyed sharing their stories with guests and promoting their products or services. Some also talked about why they chose a particular business and what their future plans would be.

One young business owner, Alena Reed noted that her year with the CEO program had shown her that she can be successful in Lincoln. She said that she had thought going into the program that she would graduate high school, go to college, then move on to a larger community. She felt she would need to do so in order to be successful. CEO has taught her that success can be achieved at home. Her future includes going to college, and returning home to expand the business she has started for CEO.

[Nila Smith]

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