Summing up the summit: low turnout

OK, not the actual picture-but close to it.

Looks like Laredo's first Small Business Summit had a lot of spare chairs in the room. Blas Castaneda, speaking on Pro 8 news, admitted that he wasn't happy with the low turnout but still seemed hopeful for eventually getting more people to attend any such future events.

Personally, I would liked to attend the summit if they had some truly helpful information. For example, a listing of all the small business ventures licensed in Laredo in the last, say 3 years, juxtaposed with a list of those that actually are still going. I think that would give people a true picture of the percentage of successful small businesses by categories and location. This, of course, applyies to businesses just starting up. I realize that the summit was also targeting existing businesses and the possible federal & state contracts they could profit from. The trick is finding that "niche" that no one else has thought about. No word on whether the government has any contracts with Beer Runs.