More than 13,000 businesses have registered for the first fall edition of the Small Business Expo at the Javits Convention Center, a new addition to New York City's event calendar set for next Thursday, Oct. 15. The free, all-day show runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and marks the first time the expo has held two separate New York City events in a single year.
A New Fall Show Joins the Spring Edition
As reported by EIN News, the fall show represents an expansion of Small Business Expo's New York City schedule, which previously held just one annual event in the city. The expo's own city page says it is expanding to two shows in 2026 and 2027, bringing both a spring and fall expo to the Javits Convention Center.
The expansion follows a spring 2026 event held May 7 at the Javits Center during National Small Business Week, which drew national sponsor support, per prnewswire.com. The spring show offered business owners another opportunity to come together. That spring show was also listed on Eventbrite under the address 429 11th Ave., though that listing carries lower confidence than the official event page.
What's On the Agenda at Javits
The fall show will include more than 130 exhibitors and 35-plus combined keynotes, workshops and seminars, according to thesmallbusinessexpo.com. General admission is free and includes access to the exhibit floor and keynote presentations, while speed-networking sessions and industry meet-ups require an eligible upgraded badge. Sessions are billed as covering marketing, finance, sales, operations and scaling strategies relevant to businesses operating in urban markets, per the same source.
Programming this year leans heavily into artificial intelligence alongside more traditional small-business topics like customer acquisition, employee hiring and operations. Natalie Hirsch is slated to present “The Small Business AI Playbook: How to Put AI to Work This Week,” while Joe Santiago will lead a session on AI-powered productivity with Adobe Acrobat, according to the expo's listings. HP representatives Jon Klipstein and Christopher Kingston are set to present “HP AI Advantage: From Everyday Tasks to Business Impact,” and Verizon Small Business Digital Ready will headline a keynote titled “AI Is an Accelerator,” the expo's city page states. Amazon Web Services, Adobe and HP are each listed as leading practical AI workshops.
Entrepreneurs and Shark Tank Alumni Take the Stage
Takicha and Warrick Roundtree, who represent The Brand Amplifiers, are featured in a session titled “AI Is an Accelerator, Not a Strategy: How Small Businesses Can Move Faster Without Scaling Confusion,” according to thesmallbusinessexpo.com. Author John Formica is scheduled to deliver a talk called “If Disney Ran Your Business, What Would It Look Like?”
An 11 a.m. panel called “Shark Tank Success Stories” will bring together Juan Salinas, Vlad Smolyanskyy and Nicole Denise, per the expo's event page.
The exhibit floor is expected to feature Adobe, Amazon Hub Delivery, Citibank, HP, Gusto, Justworks, Paychex, RingCentral, SiteGround and Verizon, according to thesmallbusinessexpo.com. Platinum sponsors include American Express, GEICO, RingCentral, Verizon Business and Vetano, while gold sponsors include Adobe, Citi, GotPrint.com, Lenovo, PressRelease.com, Red Argyle, SiteGround and SmartMode AI.
Why the Timing Matters for New York's Small Businesses
Small Business Expo describes itself as a national platform for small-business education, networking and business-to-business connections.
The AI-heavy agenda arrives as small businesses across the state navigate a mix of economic pressures. The NFIB Research Center's Small Business Problems and Priorities survey, released in July 2025, received responses from 285 New York small-business owners; state business-income taxes, unreasonable government regulations and electricity costs stood out as greater concerns in New York than elsewhere, according to osc.ny.gov. A separate report from the same office found that just 44.7 percent of New York's state jobs were at small businesses in 2023, below the reported national average of 47.5 percent.
The Oct. 15 show will bring together business owners, entrepreneurs, founders and decision-makers from the five boroughs and beyond, according to the expo's city page. Small Business Expo has expanded its New York schedule to include spring and fall events in 2026 and 2027.
