Why We're Bringing Agentic Growth to the Chicago Small Business Expo

On June 10, Clarvos will be at the Chicago Small Business Expo at the Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum at UIC. This is our first expo as Clarvos, and it will also be the first time we publicly preview new product developments built specifically for SMB owners and growth marketers.

That timing matters because the conversations we are having with small business operators all point to the same challenge: growth is not failing because people are not working hard enough. It is stalling because the systems they rely on to make marketing decisions were not built for the way small teams actually operate.

For many SMBs, marketing has become a sequence of disconnected steps. One platform shows performance. Another helps build creative. Another manages audiences. Another handles execution. By the time a team pulls the information together, decides what to test, builds the campaign, and gets it live, the opportunity that prompted the work may already have moved on.

That is the problem Clarvos is built to solve.

The Problem We Keep Hearing From SMBs

When you talk to small business owners about marketing, the details vary, but the pattern is consistent. They are running ads, posting on social, emailing prospects, testing offers, and watching dashboards. They are doing the work. What they often do not have is a clear answer to the question that matters most: what should I do next to drive growth?

The issue is not a lack of tools or even a lack of data. In many cases, SMBs have more data than they can reasonably act on. The problem is that the data is fragmented, delayed, and difficult to translate into timely decisions.

Should they prioritize a different audience? Change the message? Shift spend? Test a new creative direction? Move faster on an emerging trend? Too often, the answer comes down to educated guesswork. Even when the guess is a good one, the process takes time, and in digital marketing, timing is part of the strategy.

Clarvos helps small teams move from guesswork to a more coordinated decision loop: identify the right customers, understand what is likely to resonate, test campaign ideas before spend is committed, and move into execution without stitching together a half-dozen disconnected systems.

The goal is not simply to reach more people. It is to reach the right people with the right message while the opportunity is still live.

Join Us for Smarter Growth with AI: No Guesswork, Just Results

At the Expo, Katie Camacho-Smith, our GTM leader, will lead a hands-on workshop: “Smarter Growth with AI: No Guesswork, Just Results.”

Katie has worked through several major platform shifts in marketing, from the early days of ecommerce and email at Zappos to paid social strategy for some of the world’s largest brands, and now to helping advertisers break through on TikTok. She has seen what happens when a new technology changes the pace of decision-making. The businesses that learn how to use it well do not just move faster; they make better growth calls earlier.

AI is creating that kind of shift now, especially for SMBs. But the value is not in adding another tool to the stack. The value is in using AI to simplify the decisions that determine whether campaigns work.

Katie’s session will focus on two areas where that shift is already becoming practical for small teams:

Precision. Growth starts with knowing which customers are most likely to matter. That means moving beyond broad demographic assumptions and looking at the signals that actually shape intent: what people care about, what they are trying to solve, and when they are most likely to act. As Katie puts it, “You’re not looking for more leads. You’re looking for the ones that are already leaning in.”

Experimentation. Testing should not require SMBs to spend weeks and budget just to learn what does not work. AI can help teams compare more message variations, learn from real-world signals faster, and narrow in on the ideas most likely to perform before a campaign is fully launched.

The session is designed to be practical. The focus is not on AI as a concept, but on how SMBs can use it to make clearer decisions, reduce wasted spend, and build campaigns with more confidence.

A Sneak Peek at What’s Coming From Clarvos

The Expo will also be our first opportunity to preview what is next for Clarvos in person. We have been building new capabilities that help SMB advertisers understand who their best customers are, what those customers care about, and which campaign ideas are worth acting on before budget is committed.

That includes smarter audience recommendations, faster creative testing, and more confidence before launch. Each capability is part of a larger shift toward agentic growth: a workflow where AI helps coordinate the movement from audience discovery to message development to campaign execution.

For small teams, that coordination matters. It reduces the operational overhead of marketing and gives owners and marketers more time to focus on the decisions that actually shape growth.

If you will be at the Chicago Small Business Expo, we would be glad to meet you. The Expo runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 10 at the Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum at UIC. Clarvos will be at Booth 608.

Stop by the workshop, visit us at the booth, or connect with our team about how AI can help your business grow with more precision and less guesswork.

Join our Early Access Partner program and get exclusive access to our Agentic AI marketing platform and follow us on LinkedIn for updates ahead of the event.

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