Visit our 118th edition of The Dialogue at the bottom of this email as we visit with Todd Roberts, President of JACO Limousine & Transportation.
Let the friendly competition begin.
Taste of Blount, a collection of savory food favorites from restaurants, caterers, food trucks and gourmet grocers, returns for its 17th year at the Theater in the Park in Maryville (across from the Blount County Courthouse) Thursday, Sept. 13 from 6-8 p.m.
Tickets, which are $25 for Blount County Chamber members, $30 for the public and $15 for students 17 and under or those with a college or student ID, are available at the Chamber office (201 S. Washington St., Maryville, Tenn.), by phone 865.983.2241 or online at
www.blountchamber.com. Tickets are available at the door the night of the event on a cash-only basis.
A new flare to the event is the addition of food trucks for the first time. Furthermore, culinary judges will present the "Culinary Excellence Awards" based on one item from each Taste of Blount vendor.
Ticket holders will still vote for their favorite appetizer, beverage, sandwich, main course, dessert, presentation and overall winner while tasting savory treats.
Participants at press time include: Aubrey's, Artistic Pops, Chadwick's Creamery, Chick-fil-A Foothills Mall, Full Service BBQ, Lambert's Southern Pies & Bake Shop, Mattie Moox the Coffee Camper, Metz Catering, Mother Earth Meats, Quick Fix Coffee, R.T. Lodge, REO Cheesewagon, Rocky Top Snoballs, Rocky's Jamaica Sunrise, Roland's Bistro, Savory Rootz, Small Town BBQ, Soup Kitchen, Sullivan's, The Artistic Bean, The Shrimp Dock, The Steel Room, The Walnut Kitchen, Vienna Coffee House and Which Wich.
The event is hosted by the Blount Partnership and sponsored by Reinhart Food Service, Cornerstone of Recovery, Food City and CBBC Bank. Silver sponsors are Express Strategic Services, Hyperion Networks and Knoxville TVA Credit Union. Media sponsors include WATE-TV, The Daily Times and WNOX 93.1 FM.
Two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and University of Tennessee All-America Peyton Manning is the guest speaker for the
Blount Partnership's Best of Blount Awards, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m., at the Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus.
Tickets are on sale for $70 (plus taxes and fees) by calling the Clayton Center at 865-981-8590 or
online.
The question and answer show format features queries provided by fans submitted at
www.blountchamber.com/ask-peyton prior to the event.
Awards will be given for Philanthropist of the Year, Community Impact Award, Bright Future Award, Business of the Year, First Responder Award and the Tourism Award. Nominations are open for the awards, so please submit the name of someone you think is deserving by logging on at
www.blountchamber.com until Sept. 14.
Event sponsors are Massey Electric, Pilot Flying J, Cherokee Millwright, Blount Excavating, DENSO, T.W. Frierson Contractor, C2RL Engineering, McCarty Holsaple McCarty, Stowers Caterpillar and First Tennessee Foundation.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN THE WORKPLACE
Make plans to attend our next
HR Focus Group on Wednesday, September 5 from 9 a.m.-noon at Cornerstone of Recovery, 4726 Airport Hwy, Louisville. The topic will be "Substance Abuse in the Workplace" by Webster Bailey of Cornerstone of Recovery.
Register Here.
In this workshop Webster will discuss the following Learning Objectives:
Can you see it?
To understand the difference between substance abuse, chemical dependency, and addiction.
To be able to recognize the behavioral stages of the addiction process
To be able to articulate the various types of treatment available for substance abuse
A Family Sculpture - We will also apply and adapt this to the workplace.
Learn the unspoken/unwritten "rules" of dysfunctional family systems
Be able to identify the roles that family members play in their family system
Understand the ways in which treatment improves the family system (not just the addict/alcoholic)
WOMEN IN BUSINESS
Make plans to attend our next
Women in Business meeting on Monday, September 17 at noon at Airport Hilton (Bar Area) led by Sharon Hannum. In order for us to have enough time for the meeting if you are planning on eating please arrive at 11:45 a.m. and go ahead and get your lunch and bring to the bar area.
This will be a Dutch treat lunch from Cooper's Restaurant. The menu is soup or salad bar for $8.95 + tax, this includes drink, and dessert or the whole buffet for $12 (Including tax) and includes drink, buffet and dessert.
Please RSVP by Friday, September 14 to
alawson@blountpartnership.com if you plan to attend.
LOOKING TO HIRE? LOOKING FOR A POSITION?
The Blount Chamber has revamped its Job Bank. The Job Bank is a self-service tool members can use to fill vacancies and search for jobs. By using the Job Bank, your association can be a conduit to increasing employment in your industry and community. The Job Bank is a self-service tool, which means members and website visitors may submit their own information via
BlountChamber.com.
Inside the
Employers tab, you are given the option to post a job or view job applicants. Job posters need their ID number and password to submit jobs to the Job Bank or to view resumes. If you have forgotten, click here to request your login & password.
Inside the
Job Seekers tab, this page displays all of the existing jobs that have been submitted and are still within their active date range. Jobs will appear and remove themselves from here automatically, based on their status.
SOFT SKILLS SESSION FOR SEPTEMBER
It's Your Career! That's the focus of four free soft skills sessions offered in partnership by the Blount County Public Library, the Adult Education Foundation of Blount County and the Blount County Chamber of Commerce that are scheduled over the next five months.
Registrations are currently being accepted online at
www.blountchamber.com for a class entitled Improving Your Presentation Style - Speaking set for September 28. This course qualifies for .2 CEU's awarded by Pellissippi State.
The other classes offered include Improving Your Presentation Style - Strategies for Engaging Presentations, Making Your Social Media Look Good and Creating Infographics for Promoting Your Business.
All classes are conducted in the Blount County Library's learning lab located at 508 N. Cusick in Maryville and limited to 50 participants. A complete class description is located on the registration site. All classes run from 8-10 a.m. with networking beginning at 7:30 a.m.
ALL THINGS GOOGLE
The "All Things Google" Lunch and Learn Technology Series is a professional development workshop series for adults who seek to learn about the Google platform, applications available through Google and how to access and use these applications (Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Drive, etc.) This technology series is offered by the Blount County Public Library with funding provided by the Tennessee State Library Archives Library Technology Training Grant.
This Lunch and Learn series meets in the new Learning Lab at the Blount County Public Library on Fridays each month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The $10 registration fee includes a box lunch and participants will have the opportunity to network. Each of the topics offered will be divided into 3-4 weekly sessions that can stand alone or be taken consecutively. A total of 50 classes will be offered with a new schedule released each month.
To register for classes in the Lunch and Learn Series please visit the Blount County Public Library website
http://www.blountlibrary.org/248/Technology-Classes.
SEPTEMBER MEMBER-TO-MEMBER PROMOTIONS
Member-to-member promotions are needed for September. Submit to the email below. Check out the offers from Home Care Assistance and Cell Phone Repair. See these and other promotions at
member-to-member promotions. New offers are being posted almost daily, so check out the Blount County Chamber of Commerce Member-to-Member promotions online. This Member-to-Member Promotional Program offers you and your company the opportunity to market your products and services to the membership.
Here's how it works:
1. Submit a PDF of a service, product or discount you'd like to offer to the Chamber membership to
jmuir@blountpartnership.com. Be sure to include an expiration date.
2. An email with all the promotions will be sent out on the final Monday of every month to our member database.
3. All promotions will be posted on
www.BlountChamber.com
REMEMBER TO SHOP LOCAL
Think local first + Buy local when you can = Being a local!
Local business owners often sell local products, which helps preserve the community's distinction and creates more jobs locally, as well.
GOT AN EVENT OR NEWS? WE'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT
Is your organization hosting an event in the community? Submit it
here on our community calendar. If it's a tourism event or any good news about your business, please
send it to us. We'd love to share it with the community.
REMEMBER WHEN
Topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week in 1964 was "The House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals. As a traditional folk song recorded by an electric rock band, it has been described as the "first folk rock hit."
Join the Blount Partnership staff and special guests for the first-ever Morning Brew at Vienna Coffee House (212 College St, Maryville, TN 37804) Sept. 12 from 9-10:30 a.m. This casual meeting puts you in one-on-one conversations with community and business leaders and industry professionals. No registration. Just drop by and enjoy a cup of Joe.
