Local businesses show their wares

Alicia Robinson

Whether you’re looking for a chiropractor, kitchen remodeling or a

cruise, you can find it in Newport Beach.

Those and other types of local businesses were on display

Wednesday at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel for the annual Business

at the Beach exposition. Hundreds of guests visited booths for more

than 60 local businesses at the event, which was sponsored by the

Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Guests could enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks and enter raffle

drawings as they browsed the booths, and business representatives got

to meet potential clients.

“Most of our business is in Newport Beach, so we want to target

our community,” said Vincent Slepak, owner of Balport Lock & Safe.

Slepak was displaying a tiny safe and several locks at his table.

His company also provides security cameras and other safety

equipment.

One first-time exhibitor at the event was the Floor Guys, a

family-owned business offering carpet, tile and wood floorings,

painting, general home repairs and other services.

While many who attended were business owners or operators, that

didn’t preclude them from thinking of remodeling their homes, said

Jolita Perez of the Floor Guys.

“Most everybody that’s coming through is looking for their own

personal use even though they’re here for business,” she said.

Some of the exhibiting companies sold cosmetics, barbecued food

and resort homes, some chartered yachts, and some offered banking,

accounting, interior design and catering services.

For the energy-conscious, electricity provider Southern California

Edison’s booth fit the bill. A display showed visitors a comparison

of two kinds of fluorescent lights, one of which used 40% less

energy; and the company was offering free booklets for businesses

about legal issues, technology, financing and marketing.

“Our biggest interest is providing information for conservation

for our customers, how they can save money for their energy bill and

also help reduce the amount of power that’s needed in the state,”

said Jane Brown, Southern California Edison spokeswoman.

The company offers free energy audits and rebates to encourage

businesses to save money by switching to more energy-efficient

technologies. Brown said visitors were interested in the business

booklets as well as the rebate program.

One of the more unusual offerings of the expo was free biophotonic

laser scanning, which measures the amount of harmful antioxidants in

a person’s skin and gauges how well he or she is absorbing vitamins

and minerals from food.

The procedure was part of the display set up by Corona del Mar’s

Priestly Chiropractic, which was also offering free massages. The

antioxidant scanning was to collect data for a clinical study on the

presence of antioxidants in the country’s population and the

effectiveness of vitamin supplements, said Mary Snyder, an

acupuncturist who works with Priestly.

Luehrs said many exhibitors would reap new business by the time

they left the event.

“And if not new business directly on the spot, they will have

shared information about their business that will be helpful in the

future,” he said.

Exhibitors deemed the business expo a great success.

“It’s one of the biggest chamber events of the year and one of the

most talked about,” said William S. Flanagan III, who practices

acupuncture and Oriental medicine at Priestly Chiropractic.