Strictly Business - Reel Cafe - 10-14-09

It was a dark and stormy night, err, afternoon, when Dave Murray and I set out for the Strictly Business networking event (sponsored as always by The Big Talker FM) in benefit of Wilmington Downtown, Inc. at the Reel Cafe on the corner of Front and Dock Streets. The event was held outside under the Reel Cafe's canopy (plus some additional tarps) and, while the crowd was likely lessened by the incessant rain, the diehards plus some new faces showed up!

Below are Dave Murray, a friend who recently moved to our area from Albany, NY, Terry Hall of RSVP, and the always smiling Reggie Shropshire of ActionCoach.

Rebecca Powell of Coastal Mail, James Arnold of South-Eastern Commercial Services, and Reggie.

Rick Huston of United First Financial and Curtis Wright, the event host and Big Talker morning guy.

James Arnold and Elaine Huston of Prepaid Legal.

Reggie, first time visitor Angelina Sereno of SkyBox Creative, and yours truly.

Dave and Angelina.

Anna Scharff of Boys and Girls Homes of North Carlina and James.


Sea-Comm Media (they own The Big Talker FM) sales guy Derek Sellers.

Paige Freeman, photographer for Sea-Comm Media.

Josh Caine of Past Present Future Digital and Reggie.
Djenana Ninkovic of Moxie Floral Design Studio and Tim Patton of The Upper Room.
Nikole Howard of Jerry's Food, Wine & Spirits, Lee Ann Haggerty of Wilmington Downtown, Inc., and Ronnie Anderson of RBC Bank.

Elaine Huston and Mary Bennies of TownPlanner, sitting dangerously close to the rain.


David Merrill of Hertz Rentals (and also the guy that set up and maintains the Greater Wilmington Networking Calendar) and Shannan Bowen of the Star-News literally came in out of the rain.

Here's a better shot of Shannan.

Dwayne Starks of PC Doc Onsite (facing the camera) seems to always get caught in conversation by people with computer problems or questions.

So it was wet, but it was still a successful event. You can check online at David Merrill's calendar, or directly at The Big Talker FM Strictly Business event page for each week's location.

It Was Strictly Business at The Reel Cafe in Downtown Wilmington

So it looks like Curtis Wright (the morning guy) and Derek Sellers (the sales guy) aren't kidding about holding Strictly Business networking events on a weekly basis. This week the event was held at The Reel Cafe at 100 South Front Street in downtown Wilmington. The cause/charity/organization that got the nod for this week's sponsorship was John Hinnant's www.WilmingtonDowntown.com

The Reel Cafe is a cool place to meet (well, generally, it was kinda hot and muggy yesterday because that was the weather), on the corner of Front and Dock Streets.
Before the event got started I talked a bit with Barbara Dill Jordan of Dill Upholstery (www.dillupholstery.com), Wilmington's oldest upholstery business, started by Barbara's Dad 54 years ago. She was at a table with our mutual good friend Sam Nguyen of Samantha's Coastal Interiors (www.samantascoastalinteriors.com).
When the clock struck 5 and people started arriving in mass I went outside and one of the first people I saw was Steve West of N2 Publishing. Steve's a real good guy so it was appropriate to see him at the Reel Cafe. (ouch)
Accupunturist Kris Peterson is enthusiastic about pretty much everything, which makes it a pleasure to see him. In this case he was enthusiastic about the watermelon.
Ethos Studios Eleazar Herrara and Sea-Comm Media (The Big Talker) sales guy Derek Sellers (don't you love it when people's names reflect their occupations?).
Donna May of Party Lite.
Jon Hicks of Ethos Studios. I first met Jon a couple of months ago at a Wilmington Professionals Group event. He and Eleazar and the other folks at Ethos do impressive work. Go check out their web site www.EthosFirm.com just to see the pleasant designs. Nice.

Local SEO guy Klif Kinnamon coming through the crowd. He's a good guy and his wife Melissa, a stylist at Nsalo Salon is the person I blogged about a couple of days ago. At the end of this post is a short video with an oyster experiment.

OK, so maybe this post is a bit heavy with plugs for Jon and Eleazar's Ethos Studios, but they truly do rock.
Mary Bennies of the Town Planner laughing with The Big Talker's Curtis Wright (on the left) and Derek Sellers (you may recall he's the sales guy).
Here's Mary Bennies again (she's around town a lot talking about her new-to-the-area event calendars which are well-established in other parts of the country. Check out her Town Planner site. To Mary's right is Paul Salone of Pest Xperts.
And now a series of crowd shots at Strictly Business.







Our buddy Klif Kinnamon was on hand and let me film him in his first experience eating a raw oyster. Let's just say he's not yet a big fan.


Next week's Strictly Business event is at Port City Chop House on Eastwood Road - see you there from 5-7PM. Check each week on www.thebigtalkerfm.com and look under Events/Strictly Business for that week's location.