MANDEVILLE, Manchester — More than 30 women in this south-central parish will on Sunday showcase their businesses in a revamped Made in Manchester Expo following two years of event restrictions.

The expo will be held in the Scotiabank parking lot on Caledonia Road.

Conceptualiser Annette Salmon reflected on the success of the expo, which originated from the recognition of 200 women at another event in 2015.

“Out of that event itself I realised that most of the women who were in the room, more than 90 per cent of them had no knowledge of each other even though all the women were from Manchester,” she said.

“You had so many women in businesses — micro, small, medium size — from different sectors of the economy, yet most of them did not know each other,” she said.

That brought about an opportunity to host an event that would get the women together on an ongoing basis to raise their visibility.

“… Highlight what they are doing and put the spotlight on them, which would afford them, in the end, to literally grow their business, because it would create more sales,” she said.

The expo started in 2016 with 30 exhibitors and has grown annually. In 2018 it had 60 exhibitors.

“We have continued to add business owners who are interested in raising the profile of their businesses,” Salmon said.

The onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic forced the event to be limited to online for two years.

“We interviewed business owners and they shared via Zoom and other streaming platforms to the Manchester audience, which is on our Facebook and Instagram pages,” said Salmon.

She said the event is rebuilding itself as there will not be the usually high number of exhibitors, given that some businesses were affected by the pandemic, while others boomed.

However, she said people are eager to return to normal business operations.

“Now, more than ever, I am really inviting women to not be timid… but to literally step up their game in terms of how they build their brand and how they go forward,” she said.