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 include: Artistic Pops, Aubrey's, Bruster's, Chadwick's Creamery, Chick-fil-A Foothills Mall, Daddy O's Fresh Filipino, 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'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, 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.
MARKETING PLAN WORKSHOP
Make a plan to make a plan with Epic Nine. A marketing plan is the compass of your business's marketing efforts. Without one, you risk getting lost in the forest of boosting Facebook posts, or stranded on the mountain of inefficient Yelp ads. Join use Sept. 18 for our
DIY Marketing Plan workshop. At the end you will have a marketing plan that will help you reach your best customers, stay focused, create goals and measure results.
REGISTER HERE.
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.
ENJOY A LUNCH BREAK AT GREEN MEADOW COUNTRY CLUB
Join us for a Power Connect Lunch on September 25 at 11:30 a.m., at Green Meadow Country Club (1700 Louisville Rd, Alcoa). Meet, Mingle, Lunch, Connect, Nibble, Engage and Network with other influential professionals.
While you (and the other guests) will have an opportunity to introduce your business, current areas of focus and/or anything you could use help with, all I ask is that everyone shows up with a focus on how they may be able to add value for the other attendees.
Open to ALL Blount County Chamber members, but you must RSVP online. This is a Dutch Treat lunch.
Event chair Tony Saddy of Get Fit Maryville will lead the event.
REGISTER HERE.
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS BRIEFING
Join us as we
hear from Superintendents; Brian Bell, Alcoa City Schools; Rob Britt, Blount County Schools and Mike Winstead, Maryville City Schools to give us an update on what is happening in our local public education systems. The event takes place Sept. 21 from 8-9 a.m. at the Blount Partnership (201 S. Washington St., Maryville).
EXPLORING THE NEW CURRENCY
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies: Exploring the NEW CURRENCY The number two most searched word last year in Google was Bitcoin. What is Bitcoin? What are Cryptocurrencies? Blockchain? John Cannon of Simply Data Centers, member of ETSU Innovation Lab, explains cryptocurrency foundation technology, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies. How do you use it? What are the tax implications? Explore cryptocurrency business opportunities existing in the new technology? Cryptocurrency has been described as the next generation of internet technology and has the ability to influence markets similar to the introduction of Google. Is this the future of Money?
REGISTER HERE.
SUPERVISOR'S TRAINING
Running a business is more than dollars and cents; there's a legal element that many human resource professionals, supervisors and managers deal with daily. To that end, the Blount Partnership, along with the law firms of Wimberly Lawson and Lewis Thomason, is hosting a three-part supervisors training - human resource/legal seminar on Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 from 8:30-11 a.m. at the Blount Partnership office located at 201 S. Washington St., Maryville, Tenn.
Topics to be covered include the Worker Comp/ADA/FMLA for supervisors presented by Lynne Peterson of Lewis Thomason. Kurt Greene of Arrow G Consulting will present Fire Them Before They Start and Howard Jackson of Wimberly Lawson Wright Daves & Jones will discuss Interviewing/Hiring and Conducting Performance Evaluations.
The cost is $50 per person for non-Chamber members and $25 per person for Chamber members.
REGISTER HERE. If a chamber member sends two more employees, registration is $20 per employee.
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 Relocation Division, 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 1975 was "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell. It was one of six songs released in 1975 that topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts. The other songs were "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender, "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" by B. J. Thomas, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "I'm Sorry"/"Calypso," both by John Denver, and "Convoy" by C. W. McCall.
Come join us for the
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.
Join us for the
