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Young Guns
“ When we expanded the event to be the energy expo, it was with the commitment to making sure we benefited as many of our local and state businesses as possible, regardless of what specific energy format they operated within.”
Damian Ferek
Damian Ferek, president of The STICK Company, STICK Tattoo Company and CasketWraps. com and member of the Young Guns Class of 2016, has always been known as a risk-taker and innovator willing to carve his own path.
A life-long entrepreneur, Ferek, along with his team at The STICK Company, started a new venture in 2011 by founding the West Virginia Oil and Gas Expo, a business-to-business trade show that focused on the natural gas industry throughout the Mountain State. The event was a huge success and continued to grow until 2016 when the natural gas industry hit a low point. Due to the industry’ s downturn, the decision was made to suspend the event for the year. Like any true entrepreneur, Ferek didn’ t see this break as an obstacle but rather as an opportunity to reassess the event and look for new growth opportunities.
“ We were able to take a deeper look at the expo, the industry and the overall value and decided to make some changes we felt would be more beneficial moving forward,” he says.
As the 2017 event was planned, the biggest changes made were the inclusion of products, services and technologies from all energy platforms, not just those from natural gas, and the incorporation of a new name: the West Virginia Energy Expo.
“ As one of the country’ s top five energyproducing states, we can all recognize the opportunities in the natural gas industry and the challenges with our coal industry,” he says.“ But there is also growth and importance with additional industries such as solar, wind and renewables, as well as alternative fuels and energy efficiency.”
Another modification attendees saw at the 2017 event was the type of vendors that were represented.“ When we expanded the event to be the energy expo, it was with the commitment to making sure we benefited as many of our local and state businesses as possible, regardless of what specific energy format they operated within,” he says.
With the help of two new co-hosting sponsors, the West Virginia Department of Commerce and the West Virginia Economic Development Council, presentations were also given at the event to help reinforce the goal of educating the broader audience.
With the revamping of the West Virginia Energy Expo, Ferek stresses that there are advantages to both attending the event and being an exhibitor.“ The benefits in exhibiting and attending are focused around the power of networking,” he says.“ The event presents an environment geared toward expanding your network as well as reconnecting with existing friends and colleagues.”
Ferek’ s main goal in hosting this event has been to display the dedicated workforce here in West Virginia.“ This event was purposely designed to showcase those local and regional companies that operate and are headquartered here,” he says.“ While there is value to working with companies throughout the country, this event was created to ensure our exhibitors and attendees are aware of the assets available here.”
According to Ferek, there are two main challenges he faces every year in planning an event of this caliber.“ The first is working to provide a first-class event while keeping the cost as affordable as we can. We are constantly juggling how to add new aspects, amenities and value while making sure the prices remain reasonable,” he says.“ The second is bringing awareness. We continue to work each year to ensure we reach as large of an audience as possible through various marketing channels such as radio, billboards, digital, social media and email.”
Despite the challenges faced by both the industry and the energy expo, Ferek is optimistic about the future.“ 2017 was a great transitional year with the new branding and new audience,” he says.“ We have received a lot of positive encouragement and support for the changes, as well as some valuable suggestions moving forward to guarantee that the 2018 West Virginia Energy Expo is the most valuable one yet.” •
MAGGIE MATSKO TYLER WILLIAMS
WWW. WVEXECUTIVE. COM WINTER 2018
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