When faced with challenges in business, there are three choices: give-in, defend, or contend. The Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) is ensuring that its members have the tools they need to do the latter.

The Association, an affiliate of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation will today hold it’s inaugural annual Entrepreneur’s Expo, at the Hilton Kingston Hotel. The expo begins at 10:00 am and ends at 8 pm and is titled: “The Big Idea. Road Map to Success”.

The Expo aims to link entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs with key stakeholders such as members of the diaspora, venture capitalists and business leaders.

“As entrepreneurs we all came together to put on the first of its kind in the Caribbean,” Leighton Davis, Chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the YEA, told Sunday Finance.

“How we lay out the ballroom – the ballroom of the Hilton – goes along with the theme of the expo, it is like a road map to success,” he said. Davis explained that the booths are arranged in a manner which will take the young entrepreneur along the various value chains that lead to success, with financial, educational and other business services along the route.

The Expo will officially be launched by Karl Samuda, Minister of Industry, Investment & Commerce and will feature Break Away Sessions with special presentations on Entrepreneur-related topics from local and international companies. Cost of entry is $300.

The sessions, Outlook 2010, Entrepreneurial Financial, Proposal Writing and Insurance, the Entrepreneur’s Parachute are sponsored and presented by various companies. Davis said he was pleasantly surprised at the level of support the YEA Expo has received from corporate Jamaica, including National Commercial Bank, (NCB) Jamaica National Building Society, Scotiabank Small Business Banking, the Hilton and The Jamaica Observer.

“I think it came from when the Prime Minister had spoken about the entrepreneur as the way forward. They stressed that we are the future of Jamaica,” he said.

NCB contributed $350,000 towards the staging of the event, and will also present the session on Outlook 2010.Garfield Palmer of NCB’s SME Unit will address some of the ways that NCB’s products and services will help to maximise the potential of businesses. This breakout session takes place in the Hilton’s St Ann room at 1:30 pm.

“The youth of Jamaica are exceedingly dynamic, resourceful and savvy so it becomes a natural fit for NCB SME to support their efforts towards entrepreneurship, explained Mrs Bernadette Barrow, Assistant General Manager, SME at NCB. This will drive investment and growth in our own economy which is in sync with our broader corporate philosophy of building a better Jamaica,” she said.

Davis is encouraging entrepreneurs, and indeed everyone to attend the Expo and benefit from the opportunities it has to offer.

“It is important to be interdependent and not independent,” Davis said. “The major problem is that people are very selfish but they don’t understand that if you help each other in the long run you are also helping yourself.”