By GREGORY ZELLER //
A new Long Island Association networking initiative will focus on East End businesses.
As part of its larger outreach to regional small businesses, the LIA has introduced the East End Business Support Program, targeting entrepreneurs, startups and mom-and-pops in the towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Southampton, Southold and Shelter Island.
The program will connect those small-business owners with each other and with a host of LIA resources, with special focus on networking between smaller and larger companies, strengthening B2B relationships and promoting East End enterprises through the Melville-based business booster’s digital-communications apparatus and frequent member events.
Expanding its East End footprint is a logical move for the association, according to LIA President and CEO Matthew Cohen, who cited business development “from Floral Park to Montauk and everywhere in between” as Job No. 1.
Try the fish: East End stakeholders pack Riverhead’s Atlantis Banquet & Events April 20.
“The LIA’s goal is for all of the businesses on Long Island to be able to access our network of support,” Cohen said. “That’s why we are bringing the LIA to the East End, to continue to grow its diverse economy.”
The association announced the new initiative during The Future of Business on the East End, an April 20 luncheon-seminar held in downtown Riverhead at the Atlantis Banquet & Events aquarium/hotel (formerly Atlantis Marine World).
The event featured presentations by Cohen and Newsday’s nextLI project, as well as a panel discussion focused on East End economic-development issues featuring New York State Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Damali Wynter, Long Island Farm Bureau Board of Directors President Juan Micieli-Martinez and Discover Long Island President and CEO Kristen Reynolds, among others.
At the seminar, the LIA also announced the creation of its new East End Committee, to be co-chaired by Reynolds and fellow LIA Board of Directors member Kevin O’Connor, the president and CEO of Hauppauge-based Dime Community Bank. The committee will focus on the needs of the LIA’s eastern membership.
Connie Lassandro: Ready to rock in Riverhead.
Reynolds applauded the East End initiatives “as an LIA Board member and a representative for Long Island’s tourism industry.”
“[The programs] spotlight local businesses and the important impacts of the tourism economy on the East End,” she added. “I am honored to co-chair the LIA East End Business Committee, and I look forward to amplifying the needs of this critical economic driver.”
O’Connor noted he was “extremely excited” to lead the committee with Reynolds and said his bank – an “organization that has a 100-year-plus history of supporting neighborhood businesses” – would take the LIA’s promotional-messaging examples to heart.
“Dime Bank will be actively promoting LIA’s new program and membership options to our local customer base,” O’Connor said in a statement.
Calling Riverhead’s small businesses “the very backbone of our downtown and the surrounding towns,” Riverhead Chamber of Commerce President Connie Lassandro welcomed the LIA with open arms, suggesting “the gateway to the East End” and its eastward neighbors are ripe for an economic renaissance.
“The Town of Riverhead … has become a top destination, not only to visit but to conduct business,” Lassandro said. “Riverhead is a community rich in diversity, with an abundance of wineries, breweries, waterways and restaurants.
“These assets, along with great leadership, provide tremendous opportunity for businesses, entrepreneurship and residents to prosper.”
