Mr. Berkeley runs www.eating4eternity.org and his wife, a trained nurse and nutritional coach, is the business product, teaching people a holistic approach to wellness. He was one of more than 500 attendees at last week's Destination Success, a day of educational sessions, one-on-one business coaching and a government services and market tradeshow.

Mr. Berkeley attended the entire day of events at Destination Success, pausing from the day of learning only briefly to call his wife and rave about how much he was learning. He said it was too bad his wife couldn't come with him but she was home caring for their baby. He said he wrote furiously throughout the day, taking notes on everything he could possibly want to tell his wife about.

"I loved it, this was so good, there was so much good information," he said.

He said he was also able to use the day for networking, finding a mentor amongst one of the panelists from the education tutorials.

Even for those who already have their business up and running the day proved they were doing things right. Nancy Wensink owns an auto repair shop franchise. She attended educational sessions throughout the day.

"I am either doing what they say I should be doing or I am about to implement the strategies they suggest," she said. "It's good to know I am on the right track."

Jennifer Morrison, manager of economic development for the Town said she knew there was a demand for a day like this in Durham when she realized she was getting 10 people a month into her office asking for help starting a small business in town, wondering what government services were available to them.

"It evolved from that," she said.

But she said she didn't imagine the first-time event would be as popular as it was. There were more than 140 booths at the tradeshow and 100 people were on a waiting list to have a booth. Mentorship times were full and even filled up when more were added, she said.

The feedback so far has been amazing, she said.

"I have already had 27 e-mails from people saying they really hope we will do this again," Ms. Morrison said two days after the event.

The planners attracted attention in innovative ways, like using facebook to register people for the individual mentoring times, she said.

Mayor Pat Perkins opened the day addressing a large crowd. The first session was so busy Ms. Morrison said the mayor had to be squeezed through all the people there to learn.

"This was a great idea," said the mayor. "And she (Ms. Morrison) did a great job of pulling it together."

She said the initiative is an important one for Durham.

"We need to help businesses survive and these things do help," Mayor Perkins said.