New downtown Dayton venue spotlighting small businesses
July 13, 2019
White House Event Center, the newest addition to downtown Dayton’s venue lineup, is spotlighting small businesses.
Brainchild and entrepreneur-duo Brandon White & Veronica Jones, White House Event Center’s first Small Business Spotlight will be this Saturday, July 20, from 10a to 2p at 101 E. 2nd St, Dayton. The event will repeat the third Saturday of every month.
“We know there’s a lot of people that have small businesses, a lot are our friends, who waste a lot of time running around trying to meet people to make it convenient for them to get their product,” Brandon said.
But there’s often a charge to participate in a pop-up shop, he added.
“We just thought, we know what small businesses go through, and we have this platform, and we don’t have to charge,” he said. “You can’t always be looking to get something, sometimes you’ve got to give.”
The spotlight will give these businesses space for a day to have customers meet at a central location to pick up products. It will also give those small businesses exposure to other customers who already buy local, he said. And, of course, it gives Brandon & Veronica a chance to showcase the new space.
The venue, featuring the all-white surfaces its name suggests, has a capacity of about 150 people seated banquet-style or 225 people cocktail-style. Primarily designed to host weddings — a bride can bring in any color palette, and her choices will pop in the space — it has already hosted birthday parties, baby showers and similar gatherings since opening in June.
For the Small Business Spotlight events, the space will fit 20 to 25 vendors seated at 6-foot tables. The vendor spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, and there’s already a waitlist. After announcing the event on social media, the center’s inbox rapidly filled up with about 70 requests, Brandon said. Those who don’t fit in the lineup for July will have first dibs in August, then September, so that every one has an opportunity to participate before businesses are repeated.
“We knew it was needed, but we didn’t know it was this needed,” Brandon said.
If you’re going, you can park on the street (meters are free on weekends), or in the Stratacache Tower (formerly Kettering Tower) parking garage or Masque parking lot for $5.
For more info on the venue, visit whitehouseeventcenterdayton.com.
