Ester Venouziou
Ester Venouziou (CAS’92, COM’92) of St. Petersburg, Fla., is the founder and president of LocalShops1, the area’s “buy local” organization, which was founded in 2008. She writes, “We opened LocalShops1’s first brick-and-mortar location. In addition to office space and displays to spotlight our local business members, it includes a monthly resident artist and space for pop-up businesses, so entrepreneurs can test out a new market or launch a new product. The space is in downtown Gulfport, Fla., in the historic waterfront district, about 5 miles from St. Petersburg and 20 miles from Tampa. We organize buy local/eat local/live local campaigns, networking events, cross-promotional advertising, and large-scale events that bring businesses and shoppers together, like Top Local Chef, the Shopapalooza Festival, and Tampa Bay Community Awards. LocalShops1 also contracts with local journalists and former journalists to offer affordable writing, design, web design, and marketing services for local businesses.” Contact Ester at ester@localshops1.com.
From the Summer 2017 issue.