Keen Innovations LLC of Greensboro went to the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce 2008 Business Expo yesterday to get the word out to local businesses about what it does best.
This was the company's first time exhibiting at the annual expo, which drew more than 1,000 people and 160 exhibitors to the Benton Convention Center in downtown Winston-Salem.
The business-to-business expo, which was presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, gave companies in the Triad the opportunity to network, sell and showcase their products and services.
Dustin Keene, Keen's founder and chief executive, said just before the expo closed that his company had benefited in two ways -- it met businesses in Winston-Salem and gained leads on possible ways to collaborate and do business with a lot of companies.
"We talked to a lot of folks," he said. "I think this is a huge success for us."
As a film and video-production company, Keen is in the creative and people business. It recently won the 48-Hour Film competition at Filmapalooza in San Jose, Calif., for its film JoBeth. A representative from Keen will take JoBeth to the Cannes Film Festival for a screening there next month.
The company operates with four people at its studio at 520 S. Elm St. in Greensboro. It also has alliances and partnerships with a variety of businesses, including MadMonk Interactive, a Web-development company in Greensboro, and Image Creations, a photographer and videographer in Greensboro.
The company opened in March 2006 as SchoolKid Chronicles LLC in Greensboro, but it quickly outgrew its name as it expanded its business and product services.
Clients range from schools to homebuilders. Services include full-service production, Web-site design and video hosting, DVD copying, animation and motion graphics, photography, training videos, promotional videos, infomercials and movies.
Part of Keen's core business is focused on producing video content for clients' marketing initiatives.
It also produces its own documentaries, including Adoption Chronicles, through a partnership with the Children's Home Society of North Carolina. Adoption Chronicles provides videos and profiles of children waiting to be adopted. There is also SchoolKid Chronicles, which documents children over the years growing up, Legacy Chronicles and Anniversary Chronicles.
Keen is working with the Guilford County Schools' Mission Possible program, a recruitment and retention program for the school system's 30 hardest-to-staff schools. The company will prepare promotional videos for all of the schools to be put on the Guilford County Schools' Web site.
Dawn Bland, the company's president, said that Keen's Chronicles business has been successful because it focuses on an area that is "near and dear to everyone" -- their kids.
One of the new exhibitors
Keen was among 41 exhibitors attending the expo for the first time.
Anderson-Moore Builders Inc. in Winston-Salem, for example, primarily does renovation and remodeling work.
Owner Erik Anderson did not know much about the expo until he joined the chamber a few months ago.
"From our standpoint we do a lot of residential work," Anderson said. "I was thinking business-to-business is not us, but when you get here, it kind of is because people have homes and they need to have them renovated."
‘Very positive comments'
Expo organizers said they were happy with the turnout.
"I have been walking around all day, and I have had very positive comments," said Angela Kalamaras, the chairwoman of the expo and a broker with Coldwell Banker.
"People found the flow of traffic was great, the attendance was good," Kalamaras said. "Everyone just seemed to be very upbeat and positive. I was thrilled."
The chamber tries each year to offer a new concept and this year's offering was a silent auction to benefit "Grants for Great Ideas," a chamber initiative that awards mini-grants to classroom teachers for innovative projects that enrich the learning experiences of students throughout Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.
■ Fran Daniel can be reached at 727-7366 or at fdaniel@wsjournal.com.
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