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JMU SWaM Vendor Fair

The SWaM Vendor Fair will offer a wealth of contacts for marketing your goods and services and provide an opportunity to make personal contact with some of the 600+ JMU departmental buyers. The event is scheduled to take place at the James Madison University Festival Center on Tuesday, August 1st 2023. The morning will begin with a networking luncheon to meet with other SWaM vendors and the JMU Procurement Services buyers. As the fair gets underway in the afternoon, you’ll meet with many JMU departmental buyers and faculty as well as numerous buyers from other state, local, and private organizations.

Event Theme:“Back to the Future”
SWaM Vendor Fair Table Registration: $75

Event Website:https://www.jmu.edu/procurement/vendor-fair.shtml

American Craft Breweries: Getting the International Deal Done

In this final episode, the hosts will discuss financing and logistics considerations that come into play when exporting craft beer. Attendees will learn the necessary steps to successfully execute and international order, as well as strategies for leveraging their relationships with freight forwarders, importers, and small business lenders in support of a sustained and profitable export program.

Co-sponsorship Authorization# 23-22-C. The SBA’s participation in this cosponsored activity is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products or services of any cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least 2 weeks in advance of this event; please send an email with the subject header ACCOMMODATION REQUEST to reasonableaccommodation@sba.gov.

American Craft Breweries: Market Selection, Partner Identification, Export Strategy

Once a brewery has confirmed that it’s equipped to pursue international markets, the next question is where to sell its products. It can be daunting to assess the potential of the many markets and partners looking for American craft beer, and there’s no one size fits all approach for market selection.

In this webinar, breweries will learn about available tools and strategies to help weigh different opportunities and develop an export strategy that suits their specific goals.

American Craft Breweries: Global Market Opportunity, Export-Readiness, and Key Trade Issues

American craft breweries are respected around the world for their quality and innovation, yet it can be difficult for a small independent producer to know how to approach potential international sales.
In this initial episode, the hosts will discuss what it means to be an export-ready brewery and what a brewery needs to know in the key areas of compliance.

The Brewers Association will close with some insights into the contours of top foreign markets for American breweries.

Co-sponsorship Authorization# 23-22-C. The SBA’s participation in this cosponsored activity is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products or services of any cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA programs and services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least 2 weeks in advance of this event; please send an email with the subject header ACCOMMODATION REQUEST to reasonableaccommodation@sba.gov.

Navigating Your Way to New Global Market Sales

The “Get Back Out on the Trade Road” webinar features U.S. companies that are successfully navigating export sales and embracing the “new normal” through more direct participation in different types of events.

Are you ready to take advantage of Federal resources that can facilitate direct client engagement to grow your global market sales?

Attendees will:

  • Explore the value of face-to-face interaction with foreign buyers to build relationships, including at trade shows and missions.
  • Discover how to get involved with Commerce’s Industry Teams, office network, and the specialized assistance and unique opportunities and resources they provide.
  • Learn about SBA and EXIM grants, financing, and export insurance that can help facilitate participation in trade events and consummate international business success.
  • Gain insights on leveraging federal government export services – everything from export counseling and matchmaking to trade shows, trade financing, market intelligence, trade data and more.

A business is never too big or small to export, but many need export resources and assistance along the way. The good news: there’s plenty of help available through the federal government and its partners.

This is a no cost webinar, but advance registration is required.

SEO & Social Selling

Overview of the Live Webinar

The following will be covered during this live webinar:

  • Power of SEO and social media for attracting customers, including local SEO to precisely target your market.
  • Website optimization for lead generation. How personas, message maps, and content calendars help to make your website and social media footprint more attractive when integrated.
  • Social selling as an amplifier of your existing sales and marketing strategy. Learn to build an omni channel presence and customer journey for faster wins.
  • What your digital channel strategy needs, to be effective in terms of content, technology and investment.
  • How to effectively use paid media and advertising. Cost savings of optimizing your website and SEO to maximize paid media spend and ROI.

Speaker: Hussain Shah, Subject Matter Expert – Digital Marketing, Mason SBDC & Timm Johnson – Director, Mason SBDC

Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce

Cancellation Policy: Contact the Center regarding cancellation 24 business hours prior to the event. Kindly email – help@masonsbdc.org (preferred) or call 703-261-4105 to notify the team.

Special Instructions: This live webinar will be presented via Zoom. Webinar access details (Zoom invitation) will be provided after registration.

SEO & Social Selling

Overview of the Live Webinar

The following will be covered during this live webinar:

  • Power of SEO and social media for attracting customers, including local SEO to precisely target your market.
  • Website optimization for lead generation. How personas, message maps, and content calendars help to make your website and social media footprint more attractive when integrated.
  • Social selling as an amplifier of your existing sales and marketing strategy. Learn to build an omni channel presence and customer journey for faster wins.
  • What your digital channel strategy needs, to be effective in terms of content, technology and investment.
  • How to effectively use paid media and advertising. Cost savings of optimizing your website and SEO to maximize paid media spend and ROI.

Speaker: Hussain Shah, Subject Matter Expert – Digital Marketing, Mason SBDC & Timm Johnson – Director, Mason SBDC

Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce

Cancellation Policy: Contact the Center regarding cancellation 24 business hours prior to the event. Kindly email – help@masonsbdc.org (preferred) or call 703-261-4105 to notify the team.

Special Instructions: This live webinar will be presented via Zoom. Webinar access details (Zoom invitation) will be provided after registration.

Vishing – The Sneaky Phone Scam

This session will introduce you to the world of vishing – the latest technique bad actors are using to scam grandmothers and small businesses out of their hard-earned cash.

Learn how hackers target small business owners and compromise their bank accounts, sometimes without even knowing they have been scammed! With new developments in Artificial Intelligence, it’s getting harder and harder to separate fact from fiction.

In this interactive session, we demonstrate popular variations on this technique, so you will be more aware and able to spot the con. Don’t fall victim to a common and growing social engineering ploy.

Who should attend: Small business owners who want to prevent scams and cybersecurity attacks targeting their company.

Speakers:

  • Dr. Teresa Piliouras, CEO and Founder, Technical Consulting & Research, Inc., is an IT consultant, educator, inventor, and author. She holds a BS from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Iona College, a PhD from NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
  • Pui Lam (Raymond) Yu, Executive Vice President Engineering at Technical Consulting & Research, Inc., has over 20 years of industry experience in Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering. He received his BEEE and MSEE from Stevens Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively, and his MSCS from New York University Tandon School of Engineering.
  • Santhosh Chandraboasc, Cybersecurity Analyst Intern, Technical Consulting and Research, Inc., received his MS in Cybersecurity from Fordham University, and his BS in Information Technology from Pace University.
  • Curtis Rowe II, Cybersecurity Analyst Intern, Technical Consulting and Research, Inc., is currently pursuing a BS in Cognitive Science at University of California, San Diego.

Co-sponsor(s) & Partner(s): Prince William County Department of Economic Development & Prince William Chamber of Commerce

SBA Business Virtually – Doing Business More Securely in Cyberspace

Learn about doing business more securely in cyberspace. Operating safely in cyberspace is crucial for small businesses to protect their data, finances, and reputation. However, most small business lack adeqaute resources to fully protect the IT infrastructure. This presentation will provide cost-effective solutions to doing business more securely in cyberspace.

Biography:

Mr. Webster serves as Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cybersecurity State Coordinator (CSC) for the state of Virginia.

SBA Business Virtually – Making Better Business Decisions with Analytics

You spend hours marketing your small business, but how do you know if your efforts are working?

Marketing analytics provide valuable data on audience behavior, online ad success, site traffic sources, and more. Two of the most widely used analytics tools are Google Analytics and Facebook Insights.

In this session, marketing strategist and SCORE mentor Cheri Bales will explain how these two analytics tools can guide businesses and marketers with strategy, implementation and evaluation.

You will learn:

• Why you need to use marketing analytics

• Which metrics to follow and what they mean

• How your audience behaves

• Customer acquisition costs (CAC)

• Ad cost per click rates (CPC)

• How to find the data to measure your ROI