CAYSHOP 2012 took place at the Arts and Recreation Centre at Camana Bay and attracted thousands of visitors during its three day run in late October. The rebranded event formerly known as the Chamber of Commerce Business Expo hosted nearly 60 businesses including, for the first time, several cottage industries and agricultural vendors.

Acting Governor, the Hon. Franz Manderson, Acting Chief Officer for the Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Development, Mr. Samuel Rose, LIME Country Manager, Anthony Ritch, Chamber President Mr. David Kirkaldy and Chamber CEO Mr. Wil Pineau, CCE opened the event with a ribbon cutting ceremony on the invitation only grand opening on Thursday night. Chamber members and guests enjoyed a complimentary champagne upon entrance and hors d’oeuvres catered by Mise en Place.

CAYSHOP was opened to the public on Friday and Saturday.  From local crafts to electric cars, from donuts to flu shots, from real estate to boats – there was a diverse range of retail and service businesses on hand to share their expertise and merchandise at the most affordable prices of the year. Prize drawings and product demonstrations continued throughout the two days.  Everyone who attended CAYSHOP and visited at least 10 exhibitors were entered into a drawing to win a shopping cart of prizes donated by participating exhibitors. Mr. Ayon Baxter was the CAYSHOP Grand Prize winner.

“CAYSHOP has achieved what we had hoped for. The new location and the new focus on offering the widest variety of products and services at the lowest annual cost for consumers generated thousands of dollars in sales for our exhibitors. It is important for us to promote, support and protect the interests of the Chamber membership and to increase their marketing exposure to the widest cross section of the Cayman Islands community. We are pleased that the Cayman’s cottage industries participated in CAYSHOP. Small businesses and entrepreneurs are vitally important to the ongoing success of the Cayman Islands economy.  Special thanks to Caymanite sponsor, LIME, all exhibitors, the general public, the hard working team at Camana Bay, especially Jeffrey Wight and Davina Tressider for allowing us to host the event at the state-of-the-art facility and Chamber Events Manager Leanna Jarvis for her hard work and the CAYSHOP organizing committee,” said Chamber CEO Mr. Wil Pineau, CCE.

“CayShop 2012 was a superb show from LIME’s perspective,” said Julie Hutton, Marketing Manager for LIME.  “We were delighted with the number of visitors to our booth and we were busy from the opening evening until close on Saturday. It was great to get back to a full Business After Hours on the Thursday evening and nice to see so many business customers come out to support the event.  The show exceeded all our expectations and targets and many other exhibitors I spoke to felt the same way.“