Celeebrate Us Gift Baskets presents a spring Business Start-Up Expo and Pitch Contest on Saturday April 23, 2016 at East Point Mall.

Register to attend and pitch your business idea to top sector leaders. Your winning entry could land you a chance to win  cash, gift cards and a grand prize of a mall Kiosk for two months. You must submit a written submission and a video submission. Submissions should be emailed to : celeebrateus@yahoo.com .

You can only submit a pitch once you have registered.

If selected, you will get 15 minutes to pitch your business idea to expo judges. Register below:

REGISTER

Keep reading for event details.

When:

Saturday, April 23, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (EDT)

Where:

Celeebrate Us @ East Point Mall 7839 East Point Mall, Baltimore, MD 21224

16/17 SEASON OF DARK PLAY AUDITIONS

IRON CROW THEATRE:
Baltimore's only professional queer theatre. Producing queer theatre for a queer city. Sean Elias, Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer; Heather Peacock, Director of Production; Ann Turiano, Director of Education & Literature; Jeanette Wooten, Public Relations Manager & Outreach Coordinator.

JOB SUMMARY

Ticket Agents represent the face of the BSO and are responsible for all aspects of customer service, including but not limited to subscription sales, single ticket sales, exchanges and resolving customer issues by phone, e-mail/web, mail, fax and in person for all BSO venues, including the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Music Center at Strathmore. Ticket Agents must possess a friendly, service oriented demeanor and be willing to go above and beyond to assist BSO patrons. Must be flexible and willing to work evening and weekend hours.

JOB SUMMARY

Ticket Agents represent the face of the BSO and are responsible for all aspects of customer service, including but not limited to subscription sales, single ticket sales, exchanges and resolving customer issues by phone, e-mail/web, mail, fax and in person for all BSO venues, including the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and the Music Center at Strathmore. Ticket Agents must possess a friendly, service oriented demeanor and be willing to go above and beyond to assist BSO patrons. Must be flexible and willing to work evening and weekend hours.

The part-time Visitor Services Assistant performs basic functions of the visitor services department in order to provide a high level of customer service to the Maryland Historical Society’s members, visitors, volunteers and staff. This position also has responsibility for security functions including monitoring the safety and security of MdHS facilities. Evening and weekend hours are required.

Duties include assisting full-time staff in the operation of the Visitor Services Desk and Museum Shop:

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has the position of Box Office Associate available. This position will assist with upcoming subscription renewals, daytime box office sales, group sales, evening box office management, and marketing support, in its friendly and exciting new Downtown Baltimore home AND at our summer home in Ellicott City. Seeking friendly, patient, outgoing person good with computers and details. Box office experience preferred. PatronManager experience a serious plus. Approximately 15 flexible hours per week varying between days, nights, and weekends.

1. The idea
1. 25 years old, playing professional lacrosse and selling health care benefits in Annapolis, Maryland 
2. Comes home one day to find that his mother's homemade salad dressing was stolen by a friend 
3. Decides there must be an appeal if someone goes through the trouble to steal the dressing, so he sets up a meeting with a local Whole Foods' for a tasting. 
2. The brand 
1. Lies about having an established company, and brings the store's supervisor a Tupperware container with lettuce doused in his mother's dressing. 
2. Supervisor is confused but likes the taste and sets up a meeting with Annapolis Wholefood's directors for Vetter. 
3. Vetter tries the same Tupperware idea again to avoid admitting he has no packaging, and bluffs his way through serious questions about manufacturing and logistics. 
4. Meeting goes well and they ask him to send his legal documentation, and he bluffs his way through all the requirements because he doesn't understand half of them (He gets his HACCP from a Google Search on HACCP plans for dressing companies). 
5. Gets the contract anyway 
3. Sales and Marketing
1. Sells 4 cases of a dozen bottles at a Wholefoods demo in just 30 minutes.
2. Ends up breaking a national record by selling 650 bottles in less than five days just at demos. 
3. Made the dressing with his two brothers in the middle of the night at a ribs restaurant by hand for two years. 
4. Expansion
1. Demoed across the country in various Whole Foods stores
2. Expanded to Costco and Safeway and had to expand product options to adapt
3. expanded product line to all condiments. 
4. Expanded to 150 employees in 7 years 
5. Struggles and Lessons
1. "Never give up" 
1. spent 2 and a half years manufacturing everything by hand in the middle of the night, but he never let that put him down
2. "Knock down 7 times, get up 8"
1. Got a small business loan for a piece of manufacturing equipment that went to waste because they didn't have the rest of the equipment to make it work. 
3. Be practical
1. His car was repossessed because he didn't pay himself, and couldn't make his car payments.  
4. "When it rains, it pours"
1. After two and a half years of struggling, every time something good happened, it ended up being a huge blessing (Safeway contract happened the week after the car was repossessed).
5. Prepare for the journey and appreciate it
1. 86% of consumer packaged brands fail, so it's worth being humble about success that can be so volatile
6. Be Authentic
1. The ability to sell an emotion will knock them down every time. Tessemae's is a homemade family recipe that's made by three brother's by hand out of all natural ingredients. It's one of the very last few condiment companies that make condiments that actually need to be refrigerated like real food. It's something that makes them stand out and be remembered. 
7. "Master the minute"
1. Being able to not waste time during the day by organizing, planning and acting and half of the struggle. Everyone has the same number of hours in a day, and people that are successful are those who make the most of them.