Bizapalooza Connects Businesses with Consumers

The Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Fall Bizapalooza Thursday allowing business owners to connect with consumers.

Members of Outback Steakhouse present samples to visitors of the Fall Bizapalooza event hosted by the Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce. (Photo: Logan Weaver)

Dianne Callahan is the Vice President of Organizational Development at the Chamber.

“We just believe that building relationships builds good business,” Callahan said. “It builds trust. You like to do business with who you know, you like to have knowledge about the business. People get to go to the different booths and they know what their needs are. They find out if their needs can be met by that business, by that product, [or] by that service.”

Callahan said Chamber events like Bizapalooza give both the consumers and local businesses the opportunity to interact face-to-face.

“You read about a business in the paper or you see a billboard,” Callahan said. “You talk to people on the telephone. You get on their website. There is not anything like face-to-face, and this brings us all face-to-face.”

Kyla Anderson is the General Manager of Tennessee Legends Distillery on Spring Street. She said the event gives them a chance to meet new people.

“It’s really awesome because it really expands our customer base,” Anderson said, “and two, it helps us introduce [ourselves] to other businesses maybe for events that they may want to have and things like that… Hopefully we can serve everybody, small or large groups.”

The Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce gave local businesses – like Turdcules – the opportunity to present unique ideas and products (Photo: Logan Weaver)

For those like David Darnell and Bo Cunningham – Co-Founders of Turdcules bathroom deodorizers – the event gives them the opportunity to put their products on display for the first time.

“There’s a lot of shock value, that’s always a lot of fun,” Darnell said. “People talk about how it could be a gift for them and the different uses. You never know where the conversation is going to go. There’s always a pun at the end of some sentence at some point.”

Businesses from across the Cookeville and Putnam County area were able to showcase their companies to chamber and non-chamber members. Credit unions, banks, marketing firms, and restaurants were on hand for the event.