Blount Partnership News and Events

 


YOUR TRAVEL ANSWER: If you know where you want to go, or are looking for somewhere new, then check out the latest edition of The Dialogue at the bottom of this email where we visit with a new Blount County Chamber member. So, here we go with our 115th installment visiting with Eric Moser, owner of Gold Crown Vacation Club.

 
RIBBON CUTTING TODAY
Join State Farm agent Misty Castiglia for a ribbon cutting and grand opening of her office at 729 Watkins Rd., Maryville, August 6 at 4 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.
 
NETWORKING TRAINING CLASS
Networking got you nervous? Come to this free networking training class, August 7 from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Blount Partnerhsip (201 S. Washington St., Maryville) and learn from an expert on the way to make better connections and quit making cold calls.

Raeus Jae Cannon uses everyday traffic signs to fuel-up audiences. Turn on the lights as Raeus shows you how to quit making cold calls and drive more prospects into your funnel.

Raeus' vision is to clear the highway of the "dreaded cold call." She has not made a cold call since 1998 and she can show you how to easily never make one again, yet build stronger relationships that drive higher profitability.

Raeus is highly energetic and enthusiastic as she asks you to "read the signs" on the networking highway. Enjoy learning common sense driving tips and techniques you can use before you leave and continue to use for years to come.
 
CREATING POWERFUL LANDING PAGES
The Tennessee Small Business Development Center presents a free workshop about creating powerful landing pages for website on August 16 from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Blount Partnership (201 S. Washington St., Maryville). What is a landing page? Why is it important? Landing pages are one of the most powerful conversion tools available to the small Business owner today! Learn key strategies to increase sales from your existing online traffic, feed your sales funnel and convert prospects into profitable customers. RSVP HERE.
 

CITY OF ALCOA BRIEFING
Mark Johnson, Alcoa City Manager will be giving an update on the City of Alcoa on Friday, August 17 from 8-9 a.m. at the Blount Partnership (201 S. Washington St., Maryville). He will discuss priorities, budget challenges and their vision for the future for our community. The briefings provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen and build new partnerships between members of the business community and local government officials.
 
REGISTRATION FOR DISCOVER BLOUNT IS OPEN FOR FALL 2018
Designed by Leadership Blount and in collaboration with community partners, Discover Blount is an introduction to Blount County showcasing tourism, health, education, industry, history, and non-profit organizations. The program introduces participants to resources in our county and identifies opportunities to become more involved.

Forty participants will be accepted on a first come-first serve basis. While anyone is welcome to participate, the program is aimed at emerging leaders, those new to Blount County, and anyone who wants to be more involved in our community.

The Discover Blount program will consist of six, 5 hour class days with one social and one service opportunity.

Class Days will be held on the following dates from 1 p.m.-6 p.m. on September 11, 25, October 16, 30 and November 13, 27.

All classes will begin and end on the Maryville College campus unless otherwise noted. A tour bus will provide transportation during the Class Day. The cost for the program is $325. Registration can be done online at www.leadershipblount.com for the Fall 2018 class.
 
CHAMBER BOARD NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
The Blount County Chamber of Commerce is accepting nominations for Director of Manufacturing, Wholesalers & Agriculture, Director of Hotel/Accommodations, Restaurants and Recreation and a limited number of One Year Directors for its 2019 Board of Directors until August 17. Please complete the online form to nominate an individual you think would make a good board member. Self nominations are also accepted.
 
SOFT SKILLS SESSION FOR SEPTEMBER
soft skills 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.
 
AUGUST MEMBER-TO-MEMBER PROMOTIONS
Member-to-member promotions are here for August. Submit to the email below. Check out the offers from Gold Crown Vacation Club and United Community Bank. 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 [email protected]. 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
 
JOB LISTING
Quickflight, the service provider for Frontier airlines in McGhee Tyson Airport, is seeking at least five people for customer service working the front ticket counter selling tickets, checking in passengers and collecting any fees due at the time of check in. These same individuals will be cross trained to also work the gate to board the aircraft.

At least five other individuals are needed to work the ramp operation which is handling the actual aircraft itself. These duties include parking the aircraft, loading and unloading bags and pushing the aircraft out of the gate. All training is provided by Quickflight and Frontier.

Starting pay is $12 per hour and the job is part time with 12 to 15 hours weekly. There are flight benefits for employees. Employees must be 18 years of age or older and have a high school diploma.

Email Joel Alexander for more information or call 865-556-1390
 
REMEMBER TO SHOP LOCAL
Think local first + Buy local when you can = Being a local!
 
Shopping in a local business district means less infrastructure, less maintenance, and more money available to beautify your community.
 
Find what you're looking for in the Chamber Directory.
 
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 1969 was "In the Year 2525" by the duo of Zager and Evans. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks commencing July 12, 1969. Zager and Evans were a one-hit wonder, recording artists who had a number one hit and then never had another chart single.

Zager And Evans - In The Year 2525

Events

 

August 6-12

 

 

August 13-19

 

 

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The Dialogue

This feature is a question-and-answer session with a new Blount County Chamber member. So, here we go with our 115th installment visiting with Eric Moser, owner of Gold Crown Vacation Club, which was created to provide the best family & business vacation options and prices.
 
Gold Crown Vacation Club sounds interesting, can you tell me more?After spending time with some of the largest hospitality organizations in the world, Gold Crown's executive team recognized a need for a fair, transparent and straight forward hospitality organization that puts INTEGRITY first. Families and businesses, who know the importance of getting away and taking a vacation do so hoping that those self proclaimed experts they turn to with there hard earned vacation dollars have their best interest in mind. To often this is not the case and those so called "Experts" are truly just interested in maximizing their own incomes rather than truly providing the best vacation experience at the best price to hard working families. Gold Crown Vacation Club was formed out of distain for those who assume the title "The Very Best In The Hospitality Industry" without requiring the very best from themselves. Gold Crown Vacation Club Guarantees to perform day to day operations with the highest standards in INTEGRITY while providing the very best pricing, best location, best amenities and 100% transparency so our clients can rest assure their vacation dollars our getting the most value.
 
How can one get more information?We would like to present our product and we are willing to put our money where our mouths is. Any business, or individual willing to give us a honest 45 minutes to understand Gold Crown and our product we will give a complimentary 3 day 2 night vacation just for listening. We are confident once you have seen our prices and business structure you will feel more than confident in doing business with us....We are also offering a SNEAK PREVIEW into our vacation platform. Please be sure if you take the time to look at Resort WEEKs in the main menu it is a vacation game changer. Log on: www.goldcrownvacationclub.com and enter username: [email protected] with password: demo123

We are offering the best price in the Nation right here in Blount County......75% off list price for all Chamber Members offer expires Aug. 31, 2018. We look forward to talking soon as we will be calling to introduce ourselves to and our services.
 
How did you get started? I started in the hospitality industry working in companies like Westgate, Holiday Inn, Wyndham and Summer Bay Resorts. I spent a brief tenure within these organizations to better understand their respective product offerings and identify true vacation value. One thing that was obvious in each one of the organizations is that the real value was in the club.....The problem was each developer (Resort) would only offer a one year membership in their respective club in an effort to bring you back the following year and sell timeshare once again. Once you bought timeshare you had access to the club but by that point you were on the hook for 40k in timeshare. The truth of it, most people end up using the club more than their 40k dollar timeshare. I saw an opportunity to bring the club directly to the public but also went a step further and created a business program that caters directly to businesses and their employees. This is the first of its kind available in East TN.
 
What is your background? My resume has 25 years of executive experience: Sunset Direct 1992-2000 Director of Sales Ultrak Security 2000-2002 National Sales Manager Frankwell Investments 2002-2004 Senior FOREX Advisor Dell Computers 2004-2007 Product Specialist Home Depot Supply/Trane 2007-2009 Territory Sales Manager Longhorn Oil & Gas 2009-2015 Owner/Operator The Father Rights Movement 2013-2017 Advocate/Volunteer Westgate, Wyndham, Holiday Inn & Summer Bay Resorts 2017-2018 Vacation Counselor Gold Crown Vacation Club 2018-Present
 
Who is your mentor? Thats easy my parents.....I have met amazing people throughout my career but my greatest source of inspiration and my anchor has always been mom and dad. A few honorable mentions would have to be Doug Monahan (Owner Sunset Direct and Entrepreneur of the year multiple times) Ken Newman (VP of Sunset Direct and lifelong friend)
 
Describe your customers. Anyone who travels or vacations at least once a year and does not want to spend 40k dollars the next 10 years doing it.
 
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