Good morning, May 20th

Strictly Business at Buffalo Wild Wings May 12, 2010

This week's Big Talker FM Strictly Business networking event was held at the Wilmington, NC, Buffalo Wild Wings on Van Campen Boulevard.


ARC's Brian Moeller and Frank Nichols of Wilmington Transmissions.


Steve Haughey of Worldwide Express and Lopermedia's Paul Whitehouse.


Host Joe Catenacci and sales guy Derek Sellers, both from Sea-Comm Media.


Beach-loving couple John and Patricia Pietropaolo.


Ross Simeon of Northwestern Mutual and David Merrill from Hertz Local in the back with Laura Moffitt and Nationwide's Erin Alderman in front. (Nice move, guys)


James Arnold of South-Eastern Commercial Servies and Anna Schraff of Boys & Girls Homes of NC.


Mike Czyll, owner of Old Chicago Pizza, relaxed for a bit at another restaurant.


Town Planner's Mary Bennies with Sea-Comm Media's Paige Freeman.


Artist Angela Johnson with N2 Publishing's Steve West.


Sea-Comm Media's Jackie Jordan holding court at a table of friends, clients, and colleagues.

This was the first Strictly Business held at the central Wilmington BWW and it was a well-attended success.

Downtowners Meet & Mingle - March 3, 2010

Each month Front Street Brewery at 9 N. Front Street in Wilmington, NC hosts the Downtowners Meet&Mingle for people who live, work, do business or just love Downtown Wilmington. The event runs from 5-6:30PM with free appetizers and a cash bar.

Shannan Bowen of StarNews Media and Front Street Brewery's Ellie Craig.




Early arrivals Joan and Mike Loch of Crescent Moon Gallery in The Cotton Exchange.

Sawgrass, a gift shop on Market Street had this display of wares.


Shannan and Joan.

Men Wanted to Do It Downtown!

Okay guys, so here's the deal. The Cotton Exchange is a pretty cool place to shop in downtown Wilmington because:

• you can park in the back for free while you're shopping there,
  
• you can find well made, well-crafted, very nice, no apologies needed gifts and artwork
• it's all in one building so you needn't run around too much
• the prices are fair
• the people who own and run the shops in the Cotton Exchange are very nice, they care about their work, they care about their customers and they want your business!

So check out the Cotton Exchange any time, but especially on February 10th from 5-8PM. Three shops in particular, each within hollering distance of the other, are sponsoring a Men's Night Out. The fine folks at

• Port City Pottery & Fine Crafts,
  
• Crescent Moon, and
  
• The Golden Gallery

will be looking out for you. If you know what you want, they've got good stuff. If you don't have a clue, they'll be honored to help you.

Makes it all easy, doesn't it? Of course you don't have to wait, you could go there today, tomorrow, or any other time before or after, but remember, on February 10th, from 5-8PM, it's Men's Night!

Oh yeah, and tell 'em Bruce sent you. It won't get you anything special, but they might laugh a little and I'm sure they'd like to know.

So guys, go on, I dare you to Do It Downtown!

David Merrill's Wilmington Networking Events Calendar 2.0

Want to build your business? How about relationship marketing? One of the best and fastest ways to grow a small to medium-sized business is to go to business networking events.



How to find and choose between networking events is often a concern. In the greater Wilmington, North Carolina area there's a great tool to help. David Merrill, who by day works for Hertz Local as an area manager, has created the Wilmington Networking Event Calendar, which you can find at WilmingtonNetworkingEvents.com.

David had an earlier version of Wilmington Networking Event Calendar that he produced with a Google calendar page, but the new web site has much more, including great descriptions of major area networking groups.

David calls the new release version 2.0 and is already working on 2.1 (I've seen it, it's very cool) but wanted to get 2.0 up and available to help people find where to go for networking in the greater Wilmington area.

So check out Wilmington Networking Event Calendar and if relationship marketing at networking events is in your 2010 business plan, make it a practice to check Wilmington Networking Event Calendar at the beginning of each week.

Wilmington Today Ribbon-Cutting at NBCC 12-15-09

Wilmington Today is an established regional promotion publication with a circulation of 15,000 that's placed in many hotel rooms and public gathering places in the greater Wilmington area. Today at the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce we were excited to have Tom Jones of Wilmington Today, one of our newest members, on hand for a ribbon-cutting. Tom is the Sales Director and his wife Hazel White Jones is the Editor and Publisher.

This is Tom, below, holding a copy of Leland's Local News and Review.

Board member Brenda Bozeman laughing with Tom before the ceremony.

NBCC Executive Director Terry Grillo.

NBCC President George Murray.

Board Member Connie Reeves and Asset Storage's Carolyn Pirnat.

Tom talking with our group about Wilmington Today.
Board members Pastor Jay Merritt and Tony Vlach.

The assembled group, ready to cut.

The ribbon is in the air!

Once again, we're proud of our growing chamber and both the existing and new members in our busy organization. Welcome, Wilmington Today.

Tweeting at Cardinal Lanes in Wilmington, NC

I arrived a bit late and had to leave early, but I was able to bowl two games at the Wilmington Tweetup held this month at Cardinal Lanes on Shipyard Boulevard. There were some seriously good bowlers present. And, then there was me. As a cruel joke a few years back someone gave me bowling shoes as a present (those are my shoes on the table, doing as much good there as on my feet when I'm bowling.

The group really got into it and had a lot of fun.

Gayle Tabor of Glynne's Soaps told the story of how her team won the league championship the first year and pointed to a plaque on the wall. She also explained the winning was based on most improved average and it was her team's first season ever bowling.

Sarah Barbee of FussBudget Promotions organizes the Wilmington Tweetups and always helps us have a good time in a nice place.

Renee Jones has her own bowling ball. It even has her name on it! Wow, my ball used to belong to someone named 'House'.

It seemed like every time I looked up, Renee was getting a strike! (Do you think it would be a good idea if we all bought balls with the name 'Renee' printed on it? Would we all bowl better?)

It was a good time. Thanks Sarah for organizing it and thanks to all who came out.

Strictly Business at Carrabbas, October 7, 2009

OK, Wednesday again, Strictly Business in a new location, Carrabba's in Wilmington. Check this networking event link for the weekly schedule.

I wondered before going in how the growing group of business networkers would fit in Carrabba's which is generally hoppin' at dinner time.

But obviously it worked out well. Right off I saw Barbara Gray (PrePaid Legal) and took this photo, after which joking that was all I needed and could leave, but I stayed.

Jon Hicks of Ethos Studios was engrossed in the news.



There's Curtis Wright, the Big Talker morning guy himself, in the dark striped shirt. Curtis is the host of the Strictly Business events.

Didn't get all the names, but for sure that's Michael Byrd of WordWrightWeb in the tie.

Here's the focus cause for this week.

Steve West of N2 Publishing was at both the Wilmington Downtown Meet & Mingle and at Strictly Business. Steve gets around. That our good friend Mary Bennies of the Town Planner on the right side of the picture.

There's another shot of Mary.

Paige Freeman, a photographer for The Big Talker (a real photographer).

Paige helped with the raffle drawings.


There's another bud, Derek Sellers, a sales guy with Sea-Comm Media, the dapper guy with the tie in the center of the photo.

Donna May of PartyLite Candles right in the middle of the action (and the photo).

The very able wait staff who took care of us at Carrabba's, Josh Taylor (leaning over the bar), Jana Parrish, Colin Wilson, and manager Jacob Peterson.


Another good time and successful business networking event. Next week at The Reel Cafe at 100 S. Front Street.