Wilmington Downtowners Meet and Mingle at Front Street Brewery 12/2/09

Wednesday this week I went to three Wilmington area business networking events before my weekly mastermind call. The first event was the Wilmington Downtowner's Meet & Mingle, which is held the first Wednesday of each month on the third floor of Front Street Brewery from 5-6:30PM.

Below Shannan Bowen of the Star News (left) and Ellie Craig of Front Street Brewery (right) listen as Joan Loch of Crescent Moon glass gallery in the Cotton Exchange talks about locally produced glass art.

Ellie Craig is Front Street Brewery's Marketing Director. She introduced me to Carrie Egerton, FSB's new Community Outreach Marketing associate.

Here's a better photo of Shannan, who covers Social Media and Breaking News for the Star News.

Nick Arbia of ADT and Mike Eakins of WWAY TV3.

Joan Loch talking with Richard Davis, the owner of Browncoat Pub & Theatre, Wilmington and actually North Carolina's only non-profit location that serves alcohol. All profits benefit the arts.

Some folks from Edge of Urge clothing boutique talk with Jenn Beddoes of Glynne Soaps.


Susan Seltzer of Wrightsville Builders and Joan Loch.

Here's another shot of Joan - the reflection of the flash on the monitor looks like an appropriate holiday star.

Ana Ribeiro of the Star News.

Carrie on the left, Jenn in the background, Brooke Foreman of Right Left Studios and Gayle Tabor of Glynne's Soaps.

Good guy Jim Ware of the Star News.

These are the folks from Edge of Urge, located at 18 Market Street (between Kilwin's chocolates and the dog boutique). Manager Jessica Young and Merchandising and Sales guy Dustin Slemp.

Doug and Marg Erickson of C.W. Worth House (an historic district bed and breakfast).

Shannan and Brooke.

Thanks again Front Street Brewery, as usual this was a very nice event and it's good to have a regular event with a downtown theme.

For those interested in business networking in the greater Wilmington area, be sure to check David Merrill's Wilmington Networking Events calendar regularly.

Downtowners Meet & Mingle at Front Street Brewery

Yesterday the Downtowners Meet & Mingle at Front Street Brewery met for the first time in a new location, this month on the third floor of the brewery, in what's called the Beam Room (so named in honor of the new beer they make that's stored in re-purposed Jim Beam whiskey barrels). If you haven't seen this room yet, you've got to check it out - it's spacious and capacious with several large flat screen TVs and one huge pull down projection screen (note to self, ask Marketing Director Ellie Craig for the projection screen dimensions).

The first folks I spoke with at the event were brand newly elected Wilmington City Councilman Kevin O'Grady. Kevin and his wife Diane were meeting with Front Street's Event Coordinator Christi Rohde planning a post-election celebration and thank you party for his supporters.


Liz Medina, a Fitness Consultant from the Racine Drive Gold's Gym was there, talking with Doug Erickson co-owner with his wife Margi of the C.W. Worth House bed-and-breakfast in the Historic District.

My friends Lindsay and Aaron Aiken moved to Wilmington from Pennsylvania just this week and were looking forward to meeting people at networking events. Here they are with Front Street Brewery's Ellie Craig.

Lindsay and Aaron also met (in person) Jenn Beddoes and Gayle Tabor of Glynne Soaps - they already follow the soap company on Twitter.

Jennifer Caslin of the Central and Eastern North Carolina Food Bank.

Gayle and Ray Baca, the proprietor and co-owner of the already successful, just opened The River Room at 18 S. Water Street (directly on the Cape Fear River).

Ray, Christi, and Ray's business partner Brian McArtan of DJ Professionals & Video.

Steve Purcell of 17th Street Deli and Amanda Rason of Time Warner Cable.


Dr. Tricia Delp and Dr. Fred Ireland of the newly opened CORE Physical Therapy in Leland, NC.


The room was filling even more as I left. Yet another successful Meet & Mingle - thanks, Front Street!

Downtown Wilmington Meet & Greet at Front Street Brewery

Another successful Downtown Meet & Greet at Front Street Brewery late yesterday afternoon. Each first Wednesday of the month from 5-6:30PM Front Street Brewery hosts a social and networking hour (90 minutes really) for folks who live, have businesses, or work in downtown Wilmington, NC. FSB provides hot hors d'oeuvres and the first drink is free.

Yesterday it was pretty hot in our area (I saw 100 degrees F!) and people who ventured out were happy to slip into FSB for some cool air, cold beer, and sparkling personalities.

Speaking of . . . . two of the first people I saw were Sarah Barbee (@fussbudgetpromo on Twitter) of FussBudget Promotions (among many active, successful ventures) and fellow REALTOR and powerful financial planner Katherine Hunsley. The cool thing, IMHO, is that Sarah and Katherine, downtown habituees active and well known in their respective circles, hadn't met before. (Of course you'd never sense that from the photo below I took within 5 minutes of their meeting each other - and before either had a drink! It's a Wilmington thing - people are just flat out friendly.)


ActionCOACH Reggie Shropshire and performance diagnostician and career brander Sabina Newman of SCN Insight had a chance to chat as well.

An FSB feature is beer tasting, with samples poured from Growlers (the bottles, not the women). Two of FSB's beertenders were ready to pour and quick to strike a pose.

The mezzanine level at Front Street Brewery started to fill as more people arrived.

Jim Bitto of Cape Fear River Watch had a small display and was eager to talk about the organization's many programs focused on protecting and improving water quality of the lower Cape Fear River Basin. Front Street Brewery also participates in a benefit program for CFRW in which a donation is made for every serving of Organic Hefeweizen beer brewed right at FSB.

There was also a display of blown glass art at the event. Below Mike Loch (glass blower and co-owner of Crescent Moon gallery at the Cotton Exchange in Historic Downtown Wilmington) and local actor and accomplished glass artist Richard Bunting spoke about the state of the glass blowing art in our area.

The fabulous piece below was the work of several artists working simultaneously .

The gentleman in the white shirt below is Rick Harris. Rick has two companies, Cape Fear Green Solutions, a integrated landscaping concept company, and Cape Fear Rain Water Harvesting, Inc.

The device below demonstrates one of the technologies used in rainwater harvesting.

Just before I left Wilmington Star-News reporter Shannan Bowen (on the far left, @shanbow on Twitter) introduced me to three women at the event. Shannan may have the most interesting position at the Star-News, covering crime, breaking news, and social media. I confess I didn't get their last names, but Lindsay, the woman in the yellow top is a graduate student in UNCW's writing program, Elizabeth works in the court house, and Catherine is a pediatric nurse.

This was only the second Downtown Meet & Greet at Front Street Brewery but it was another well-attended event - even on an uncharacteristically hot day. See you next month at 5PM on August 5th at Front Street Brewery.