It was Strictly Business at Old Chicago Pizza Wednesday. The weekly business networking event is held at varying locations in the greater Wilmington area each Wednesday starting at 5PM. Strictly Business is organized and sponsored by Sea-Comm Media's Big Talker FM. Other sponsors include Coastal Document Systems and eTelecom.
Below are Cynthia Hunt from Mary Kay, Patricia Pietropaolo of Permanent Makeup, and John Pietropaolo New Hanover Metro Treatment Center.
Ezell and Ann Willard of All Kinds of Stuff.
Cheryl McKee of CH2MHill.
U.S. Cellular's Jonathan Ennis.
Cape Fear River Watch was this week's nonprofit on display. It's pretty cool because the nonprofit at the event gets the proceeds from the drawing tickets. And the drawings are impressive!
Paul Whitehouse of Lopemedia and Stephanie Williams of Edward Jones.
Capt. Joseph Abbate of Cape Fear River Watch with Paige Freeman of Sea-Comm Media.
Ken Schiess of HDVest and Kimberly Brumsey of KB Aesthetics.
Our host and announcer for the event was Joe Catenacci from The Big Talker-FM.
Town Planner Calendar's Mary Bennies with Justin Vida of Fitness Together.
Jonathan Ennis, ActionCoach Reggie Shropshire and Candi Alexander of Lumina Hall.
Coastal Document System's Scott Ball with Paul Whitehouse.
The crew from ARC NC: Alexis Hinds, Brian Moeller and Joanne Cain.
Elaine Huston of Pre-Paid Legal and Sheetz! and Rick Huston of U First Financial.
Sea-Comm Media sales guy Derek Sellers.
Buff Master's Mark Johnson, Strickland Window Coverings Fred Kumpel and WWAY TV3's Vince Prisco.
Author Tim Dillinger.
Primary Mortgage's Mark Whitmarsh and Cheryl McKee.
Sea-Comm Media's Big Talker-FM Strictly Business networking event was back in Leland last night and it was the best attended ever.
This week the North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce was the featured nonprofit that received the benefit of the raffle ticket sales for donated goods and services from attending companies and organizations. Below, NBCC's Terri Andress ran the raffle ticket sales table with her usual precision and competence.
Janna Wojtech, Nolan Formalarie of Discover NC Homes, and Kathy and Jack Henderson of Side by Side Duo (highly entertaining entertainers).
Scott Schmidt of Carolina Creations and London Williamson of UCP Easter Seals.
Lauren Formalarie of Coastal Carolina Concepts and musician Ben Bagby of the acoustic guitar duo Too Far Away.
Clark Wilson and Stew Steward of Southern Sign Company.
PGA Pro Matt Gordon and Steve Haughey of Worldwide Express.
Elaine Huston of Pre-Paid Legal and Sheetz!
Casey Sherman of Waterford of the Carolinas and Nolan Formalarie.
Rick Huston of U First Financial on the move.
Casey Sherman and Bruce Brown (with my new stealth name badge).
Brian Moeller of ARC NC taking a business card for a drawing to Curtis Wright, the host of Strictly Business and the Big Talker-FM Morning Beat.
Jamie Shoemaker of Reliable Payment Solutions and Nick Arbia of ADT.
Oh-oh, two guitar players - Ben Bagby and Jack Henderson.
Mercer Johnson of JW Benefits.
Jason Wheeler of Pathfinder Wealth Consulting, George Murray of Murry Art & Frame, with a peek at Justin Williams of NBM and SBM magazines, and the back of Jonathan Peele.
Here's a much better shot of Jonathan Peele.
OK, are you ready for this? The crowd sang happy birthday to Jerry Ellis of eTelecom, the buy in the green shirt sitting opposite Elaine Huston
Here's a video of part of the singing:
Curtis, Scott Ball of Coastal Document Systems and Jerry Ellis.
Paige Freeman of Sea-Comm Media and Terri Andress.
Jamie Shoemaker, Marge Brown of Fat City Cards, Casey Sherman, and the ever-ebullient Russ Hauptmann (with the yellow tie).
Casey and I again. Notice how the lights were out in that part of the room but my name badge lit it up!
Good guy and great photographer Rick Ricozzi and Matt Gordon (he's the golf pro if you're losing track).
Marge with N2 Publishing's Steve West.
Curtis, Paige and Terri during the raffle drawings. Lot's o' good stuff given away each week!
Assorted characters in a lineup during the raffle drawing.
More of the same.
Kyle Myers of DW Project Solutions with Sea-Comm Media's Michael Snyder and Derek Sellers.
Awesome couple Nicole Wilkinson, professor of art at Brunswick Community College and Bratton Parker of Cape Fear Turf Management. Nicole is a young friend we've known for years but we just met Bratton last night. Happy for both of them. It's pretty apparent they are, too.
Matt Gordon and Steve Haughey with Paul Whitehouse of Lopermedia.
Crowd shot.
Another crowd shot.
US Cellular's Donna Rushing and Jonathan Ennis with Attorney Robin Robinson (she's running for District Court Judge).
OK, and not least, but this is the end, Justin Williams in a generous moment sang to Jonathan Peele, George Murray, Jason Wheeler and myself. What a guy!
This weekly event is easily the best business networking event in the area and obviously we have a good time, too! Next week Strictly Business is at Old Chicago Pizza in Wilmington on Market Street.
Another great turnout. A big thank you to owners Mike and Julie Czyl. For each week's location check the event schedule on The Big Talker-FM website.
