Theresa Cheek of Gallery Main Street mains a picture during the 26th annual B2B Expo Thursday Jan. 19, 2017 held at Harvey Hall Convention Center in Tyler. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Harvey Convention Center was buzzing with business owners and their employees Thursday during the 26th annual B2B Expo. The event brings East Texas businesses together for one day to discuss and learn about each other and what each has to offer.

“The business expo is extremely good for the city and the area for businesses to connect. For us, that means any business that we talk to because we do drug testing for all types of organizations,” said Craig Adams with Drug and Alcohol Testing Compliance Services. “It’s just a good place to network.”

The business expo opened with a business workshop seminar based on avoiding mistakes with employees in 2017. Attendees paid a $75 fee to attend the business workshop and a $25 fee for the luncheon and speaker. Seminar attendee Jessica Whitehead with Carter Blood Care in Tyler said the speaker was an excellent choice for Thursday’s event.

“This year’s speaker Christine (Cashen) was very encouraging about bringing joy into your workplace,” Mrs. Whitehead said. “She was enthusiastic and had us standing up doing motions with her.”

After a catered luncheon from Traditions, attendees were able to get into the business expo for free with presentation of a business card. Cashen spoke about “getting what you want with what you have – stop global whining” during the catered luncheon.

“This is a great group of people, I knew before I even got on stage that this was going to be a lot of fun, not because of me but because of them,” said Cashen, a public speaker and author of the book “The Good Stuff.”

“It was a lot of fun today,” she said. “I talked about stopping global whining, so it’s really good to be talking about something that is a universal term. It’s fun to watch the people hitting each other in the arm saying that’s you. This audience could relate and it was fantastic.”