FAIRLEA — An announced 85 booths filled the West Virginia Building at the state fairgrounds Thursday evening, promoting everything from educational and medical innovations to catering and real estate agencies.

Staged by the Greater Greenbrier Chamber of Commerce, the annual event dubbed the Mega Business After Hours drew several hundred participants and visitors.

Manning a booth filled with River City information, Ronceverte Main Street director Doug Hylton said, “This is a good way of promoting what we have going on in Ronceverte.”

He noted, “Some of our newer businesses can’t afford (to rent table space at the event), so we represent all of Ronceverte. We’ll display business cards or brochures — whatever they have.”

Both Mountain State University and New River Community and Technical College sponsored booths featuring their latest educational opportunities.

Jerri Hartsock, MSU’s enrollment coordinator for southern West Virginia, said, “There’s quite a bit of interest in our programs here. This spring, we’ll offer programs in leadership and nursing at Greenbrier East High School.”

New River’s newest offering is table games training, essential for those planning to seek jobs in The Greenbrier resort’s casino, slated to open April 1, or any of the state’s other gaming establishments.

Amy Criddle, owner of PostNet in Lewisburg, described her business as “like a UPS store or a Kinko’s.” Known best for its shipping service, PostNet also offers a wide range of printing services.

“I’ll bet we’ve had 10 people stop by tonight who didn’t realize we do printing, too,” Criddle said about an hour into the three-hour event.

Some of the most popular booths with visitors were those featuring sample sizes of food. At the Fruits of Labor station, owner Tammy Robertson encouraged everyone to try some of the array of tempting pastries from her catering and bakery business.

“This is our second year here, and it’s been very good for us,” she said of the chamber’s after hours event. “We cater parties of all sizes, mostly corporate and weddings. We do lots of events in both Beckley and Lewisburg, and some in Summersville and Princeton.”

The bakery, located at Grassy Meadows, just off the Dawson exit of Interstate 64, is open every Tuesday from 3 to 7 p.m.

Iris Kirby, manager of the H&R; Block office in Fairlea, said, “This gives us an opportunity to network and connect with the public.”

Kirby handed out fact sheets on some of the significant changes in tax law this year, including the extension and expansion of the first-time homebuyer credit, which now extends to existing homeowners.

The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine’s booth featured one of the Lewisburg school’s 14 human patient simulators, robots that can be programmed to mimic symptoms and even to react to treatment and medication in the same way a real patient would.

Visitors to the booth were invited to feel the robot’s pulse and watch him blink and breathe.

“Students can intubate (insert a breathing tube into) him, and we can make it easy or difficult, depending on how we program the simulator,” explained Angie Amick, an LPN who serves as a program assistant in the school’s clinical evaluation center.

“They can draw blood, start IVs, take his blood pressure. He even responds to oxygen the way a person would,” Amick said. “A lot of our students have no medical experience, and that’s where a nurse can help with their training. This is like a nurse’s dream job.”

— E-mail: talvey@register-herald.com