The event took place on Thursday, 23rd June, 2011 at the portion of Central Street which stretched from the Development Bank building and New Street, which was blocked from vehicular traffic and a string of tents erected, which provided temporary spaces for participating business.
Farmers, beauticians, printing companies, clothing stores, cooks and many others brought their products, goods and services to the market place, set out their designated areas is ways they felt would attract customers and they conducted their usual business from that spot.
In addition to receiving opportunities to purchase items from the businesses represented at the market, customers were also fitted with information about the Development bank and its services and various tokens including pens, water bottles and coin purses.
MiyVue.com spoke with Marketing Manager of the Development Bank, Marva Bryan-Burroughs who explained the concept behind hosting such an event.
“This is part of our 30 anniversary month of activities. We thought it would be a good idea to get our clients from across different portfolios to get hands-on involved in celebrating with us. We thought it would be a good idea for them to get some exposure and so we thought that a market day would give them an opportunity to come out and showcase their services and their products, demonstrate, sell, give information, take orders. We asked a number of clients from different portfolios to some. So as you can see food, agriculture, we have industry, commerce…
“Development Bank did it some years ago and we decided to improve on the idea and make it more like a festive environment to attract passersby and clients – while under one roof – an opportunity to interact with each other as well. So you would find we have several farmers, several factors owners…so they could bounce ideas off each other.”
Commenting on the response to the event, the Marketing Manager described it as “tremendous”.
“We gave out letters telling the clients what it would be about and we thought they might have shied but as a matter of fact, it was totally different. They were onboard, they were calling, booking the spaces, booking the tents and they were out on the spot as early as 7:00 and as soon as they unpacked, the selling and the buying began. I think we have set the bar high so we have to maintain a high standard when it comes to highlighting our clients. So I can say we will be improving on this.”
The St. Kitts Nevis Development Bank 30th anniversary celebrations continued on Friday with a similar event being held in Nevis and will continue with a number of community outreach activities and will culminate on 2nd June, with an awards banquet. Borroughs indicated that at the banquet, both the staff and customers will be shown appreciation for their support of and dedication to the institution over the years.