Wilmington Business Alliance

Wilmington Business Alliance is a new business networking group that meets weekly on Tuesdays at 8:45AM at the also new Cameo 1900 restaurant (used to be Cameo Nightclub) in Lumina Station (off Eastwood Road on the way to Wrightsville Beach) in Wilmington, NC.

Suzi Immordino of Tastefully Simple and Lori Rooker from Waterpoint Realty.



Cellular Sales Jeffrey Ahladis and Tim Brill of Brill Branding.




Steve West of N2 Publishing and Brad Walker of Cape Fear National Golf Course at Brunswick Forest.



Brad Walker of Cape Fear National Golf Course.



Stephen Haire with Carolina Specialties.





Stephanie Williams of Edward Jones and Walter Isaksen.



Not sure of the gentleman's name on the left (help me out folks), Vince Prisco (the founder of Wilmington Business Alliance(, and Robert Merz, CPA.



Nick Arbia of ADT and George McCutcheon of Olympic Mortgage.



Barbara Nelson of Northwestern Mutual and Stephanie Williams of Edward Jones.

Carolina Creations Ribbon-Cutting

One of Brunswick County's premier landscaping companies has joined the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce and yesterday we had a ribbon cutting for Carolina Creations.

In the photo below are NBCC Executive Director Dana Fisher, NBCC board member and publisher of both NBM and SBM magazines Justin Williams with Scott Schmidt and Will Hickman, both of Carolina Creations.


Carolyn Pirnat of Asset Storage, AFLAC's Mimi Kronkowski, and Dana Fisher.


It was just a bit rainy so we gathered at the end of the building under cover to do the ribbon cutting (and take photos, as usual there were plenty of cameras on hand).


NBCC board member and Nancy Hall Publications Associate Editor Jeff Harvell with Justin and Carolyn.


Two good guys, Scott Schmidt of Carolina Creations and ADT's Nick Arbia (Nick even came an hour and a half early to get a good seat!).


Monica Clark of Cape Fear Business Services with Will Hickman.


NBCC board member Tony Vlach (he's a commercial insurance broker with Nationwide) and Carolina Creations John Thrift.



NBCC Ambassador Ken Schiess of HdVest with proud new father Dave Seaton of Pestco and Dana Fisher.


Yet again a successful ribbon cutting. No joke, that's pretty tough ribbon (and maybe the giant scissors are a bit dull) but sometimes it takes a long time to cut. Not this time, though, they mowed right through it.

So give 'em a shout for landscaping in Brunswick County, or check them out at www.carolinacreations.biz.

True North Design and Production Ribbon Cutting

True North Design and Production,LLC, a Wilmington, NC company, recently joined the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce and had a Leland ribbon-cutting at the NBCC office.

Below True North Creative Director and Partner Tony Woodrich explains their company vision to chamber members and staff.

NBCC Board Member Tony Vlach of Nationwide Insurance and True North Graphic Designer and Partner Jim Milanese.

It was Tony's birthday so we gave him a ballon. To his left is Alice Razzano of the Newcomers Club and to his right is Jamie Shoemaker of Cape Fear Merchant Services.




Tony held the hat for the raffle drawings of True North hats and golf shirt.

The ribbon-cutting was successful. Note the lady on the right, she's Alyx Quincey of Dessert First baking in Wilmington. Alyx provided the awesome baked goods we had at the ribbon cutting. Thanks, Alyx!


Welcome, True North, we're proud to have you as members of the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce.

John Formica, the "Ex-Disney Guy" Brings Business Magic to Brunswick County

Yesterday my new friend John Formica wowed the crowd at Brunswick Community College's Making Business Magical seminar sponsored by the Small Business Center. This free seminar, including breakfast, didn't have an empty seat or a frowning face in the room.

I'd heard that John, better known as "the Ex-Disney Guy" gave good seminar and now I know it for sure. I won't even attempt to summarize his message, in part because it's impossible without John's essence and energy. The room got it, though, from the secret meaning of "DREAM" to the wonder of working in a place where managers and employees all buy into the true purpose and use that understanding to create a great experience for customers and clients.


John meeting people before the seminar.












Among the enthusiastic attendees were Misty Doan and Ann Parvin of Plantation Builders in Southport, NC.

The Small Business Center's seminars, counseling and coaching are all offered for free and are a great county resource.

Want to know more? Call (910) 755-7380.

Or, click on this link to go to the BCC Small Business Center page or this link for a listing of the Spring 2010 free seminars.

Oh, and in case some folks don't quite get it, these seminars and services are for small businesses (startups and existing) and there is no charge. Cool, huh?

Run Your Small Business Like Disney - Free Seminar

Important details:

Free seminar sponsored by the Brunswick Community College Small Business Center.

John Formica, "the Ex-Disney Guy" presents Small Business the Disney Way

Tuesday March 16, 2010
Networking Breakfast 7:30-8:00AM
Seminar 8:00-10:00AM

Held at the Odell Williamson Events Center, BCC Supply Campus
Register by phone (910)755-7380 - call now, operators are standing by!

BNI Business Attractors - Meeting 3/10/10

This week's BNI Business Attractors meeting was a lot of fun.

Guest and prospective member Roxanne Shurcliff of Mona Vie extolled the virtues of that product




Guest of London Williamson of Easter Seals UCP was a substitute for member Scott Schmidt of Carolina Creations, Inc.




Bookkeeper Terri Andress (who also keeps the books for the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce) was substituting for Vice President Ken Schiess of HdVest.



Member Mimi Kronkowski from AFLAC didn't duck her 10-minute presentation duties but gave us the lowdown on some new AFLAC products.



We meet every Wednesday at 8AM at Antonio's in Leland, NC. The coffee's free and guests are always welcome.

There's a New Sheriff (Office) in Town!

Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram hosted and officiated at the ribbon-cutting/grand opening of the new Sheriff's Department Office Substation in front of Brunswick Forest, conveniently next to Port City Java (okay, so I stole that joke from Sheriff Ingram, who also said he hoped a donut shop didn't open next door).

Right up front it bears saying that the developers of Brunswick Forest have donated the office space for use by the Sheriff's office. Developer Jeff Arp was on the scene but as usual stayed in the far background. Many companies and people donated services, supplies and equipment, including BB&T Bank, Walmart, Brunswick Electric Membership Corp., and Holmes Security who donated the security system (and as Sheriff Ingram also joked, "I sure hope someone doesn't try to break in to our office.")

The turnout was unexpectedly huge. My quick count/estimate was 150-200 people including so many photographers that we even got bored taking photos of each other! There was a color guard with a presentation of the colors to formally open the office and even a tent to keep the rain and sun off spectators.

One of the coolest parts of the whole deal from my perspective was they used crimescene tape instead of the usual big red ribbon for the cutting.























(You'll notice there are no donuts on these tables. There were some, but they went fast.)
























Blog note: You may notice I didn't do my usual name-every-person-I-identify thing with this blog post. Some are named in the Facebook album for the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office Grand Opening and please feel free to tag more people's names in that. I let the photos do most of the talking in the blog post. - Bruce Brown

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