Asian American small business expo set for Oct. 14

The Asian American Small Business Expo will be held in Alhambra, California. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO — The 18th Annual Asian Small Business Expo, hosted by the Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program (API SBP), is back on Saturday, October 14 in Alhambra, California with workshops, exhibitors, and speakers.

The expo is the only one of its kind that engages the Asian business community of Southern California and connects it to mainstream services and resources.

Featured guest speaker of the expo will be Jonny Hwang, founder of 626 Night Market, and California Board of Equalization Member Jerome Horton will be a special guest at the event. There will also be a Women Entrepreneurs Panel featuring Judy Han of EkoEats, Noree Pia of Luv2Eat Thai Bistro, and Kristine de la Cruz of Creme Caramel.

The yearly gathering was kicked off by API SBP Executive Director Ron Fong, elected officials, business professionals and community members on Wednesday, October 4 at Wing Hop Fung in Arcadia.

Horton praised small businesses as the “backbone of California” and shared his continued support for the expo.

On Wednesday, winners of the API SBP 1st Annual Business Plan Competition were announced: Michelle Kim and Nancy Roy of Clementines Mandarin Preschool (1st place); Ying Butler of Y2Y Global LLC who started the Porta Stepper, a low-impact portable exerciser (2nd place); and Josh LaQuet of Bar-B-Qusion, Kansas City BBQ & smoked meat fusion food truck (3rd place).

U.S. Bank, which is the title sponsor of the expo, also backed the competition.

“We are delighted to support Asian Pacific Islander small-business owners as they start or expand their companies. U.S. Bank has long been a trusted financial partner for entrepreneurs throughout the Los Angeles area, and we are excited to see the variety of businesses that will be involved in this competition,” said Darrell Brown, senior vice president and Greater Los Angeles Coastal Region manager for U.S. Bank, at the kick-off.

Victor Parker, district director of the Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Los Angeles district office, was also present on Wednesday.

“It’s really a collaborative effort…it’s not just another opportunity for us to provide resources to our lending community and resource partners. But it’s also businesses to businesses. I encourage you all to come to the expo — it’s a networking opportunity to build relationships with lending partners and other businesses,” he said.

Formed in 1999, the API SBP is a collaborative of five community organization: the Chinatown Service Center, Koreatown Youth & Community Center, Little Tokyo Service Center CDC, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans and Thai Community Development Center. Our partners share over 170 years of service between them, are well known and respected for the quality of their work, the impact of their services and their standing in the community. The mission of the API SBP is to assist the development of small and micro businesses in Los Angeles with a particular focus on the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai and Filipino business communities, especially those of low-income immigrants.

The 18th Annual Asian Small Business Expo will be held on Saturday, October 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Almansor Court (700 S. Almansor Street, Alhambra, CA 91801). It is free to attend. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.apisbp.org/expo.