8th annual North Central West Virginia Business Summit held in Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – This year’s North Central West Virginia business summit took place at the Bridgeport Conference Center on Tuesday.

Preston County, Morgantown Area Partnership, Marion County, and Harrison County host this event annually to discuss the current economic technologies that will benefit each business.

Tina Shaw, President of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce, shares the takeaways from this event.

“I think the takeaway is the people that are here are witnessing and hearing from speakers about focusing on what’s down the road, what’s coming, what they can plan for and the future growth of North Central West Virginia,” Shaw said. “For our chambers it helps us spread the word to all of our members and the entire business community and you know there are times where we have to pivot and switch and focus on other things and this just helps keep the business community stay abreast of everything that’s going on.”

One of the businesses that attended this summit is Apis Creative. The small-women owned business focuses on branding, marketing, and internal communications.

They have recently received an almost half million dollar grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences that will help develop a digital platform that will train the youth on health sciences and medical professions.

Bethany Hornbeck, President and CEO of Apis Creative, shares how appreciative she is and the plans for her program.

“I’m just pleased that you know this is something that is coming out of West Virginia and for me it’s really a win for the state,” Hornbeck said. ” I mean it really shows that West Virginia perseverance and commitment and grit that we know about here and that sense of community is really the foundation upon what this program is built and so I’m just really pleased to take this program out of West Virginia and take it to the rest of the country.”

Businesses from all over North Central West Virginia are taking away gems from this conference to better their business.

Next year, the hope is that even more businesses join.

Copyright 2023 WDTV. All rights reserved.