More than 30 businesses and organizations gathered at Beaufort County Community College on Wednesday for the annual Business Expo.

Organized by BCCC and the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce, the event is meant to bring awareness to the resources locally available, as well as to support economic development. Anything from nonprofits and local businesses, to local colleges and media companies were invited to set up as exhibitors.

Lentz Stowe, director of BCCC’s Small Business Center, said in the event’s handful of years at the college, this year had the most exhibitors.

“It’s been very well attended. We were very thankful that we were unaffected by the weather,” Stowe said. “Just in terms of execution, we keep getting better as far as that goes.”

Sally Love, director of United Way, which was an exhibitor, said the expo is a good way to meet new people in the area and see what’s out there.

Love said she had some interested visitors asking questions about United Way. One year, United Way gained a board member because of the expo.

“My goal is to make people more familiar about the United Way and what we do because people know the name, but they don’t always know what we do,” Love said. “It’s also a good networking opportunity.”

Stowe said the partners involved in organizing the event were vital to its success, and everyone pulled his own weight.

More importantly, the expo continued its mission of promoting business, highlighting organizations and offering information on educational opportunities.

“It is grassroots economic development,” Stowe said. “Just before we started, I was talking to one of the exhibitors, and this kind of sums it all up to me. They said, ‘Well, we were here last year, and while we were here, we picked up four new clients.’ … Maybe those contracts, those four contracts, created one or two jobs.”