Commerce Show Planners Mean Business

he Commerce trade show has come a long way in just a decade.

The fall event, which now includes members from seven area chambers of commerce, had its beginnings in a modest setting - the Chicopee hotel now known as the Plantation Inn - with a modest number of exhibitors and attendees.

Now, nothing about the show can be desibed with that adjective.

Commerce 2000, to be staged Nov. 2 in the massive pull-through hangar at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, will feature about 250 exhibitors, and should attract its largest audience to date, according to Chicopee Chamber President Gail Seklecki, one of the organizers.

In fact, attendance is one of the top …