Wilmington Professional Group - on the River! July 8, 2009

The Wilmington Professional Group meets on the second Wednesday of each month. July's meeting was both on and by the Cape Fear River in Downtown Wilmington. Sponsored by Ayres and Thurman Burgess of Jubilee Snooze and Cruise Bed and Breakfast on the Riverwalk and Ray Baca of Baca Photography at Evolve Image Studios located at 18 S. Water Street, the monthly meeting was well attended at both venues.

Below, the foredeck of Jubilee's 45-foot Sea Star provided at good spot to see and be seen.


Inside the airy and hip Evolve Image Studios Ray Baca, the guy with the black shirt below, kept moving to be sure people had plenty to eat and drink.

Sarah Barbee of Fuss Budget Promotions and Ray Baca. Sarah helped promote this event via social media. Sarah works hard and does a fine job wearing many hats in promoting Wilmington area events, especially downtown-focused happenings.

Ayres Burgess of the Jubiless, with a bright smile, good food, and happy people.


Michael Bird of Word Wright Web website design firm.

Shannan Bowen, social media beat reporter for the Wilmington Star News and Sarah. Shannan is a great friend who covers the use of social media in all aspects in the greater Wilmington area. In her spare time she also covers crime and breaking news.

Jennifer Warren of Warren Consulting and Shannan. Jennifer was an early business owner in Internet commerce and who now runs a powerful business consulting and service operation.

Designer Brooke Foreman of Right Left Studios. Brooke's a west coast transplant who does simply wonderful design work.

Award-winning videographer Matt Davis of Your Best Sales Person (he and his wife Melissa also do killer wedding throughout the southeast). I met Melissa a couple of years ago, but had only communicated with Matt before online, it was great to see him in person.

The ever-grinning Dr. Arian Kelley of Choice Healthcare.

Jon Hicks, Director of Design at Ethos Studios. I met Jon for the first time at this event. His firm focuses on multi-layered product advertising, marketing, and design.

Meanwhile, on the boat, Pierre Smith made sure everything was cooking nicely!

Jennifer Warren stopped by the boat's banner for hopping aboard.

Shannan Bowen and Heike McDoniel of Ocean Thoughts Yoga. Shannan and Heike have traded messages on Twitter for months and months but had never met in person. I was happy to finally meet Heike, too!


Jenn Beddoe and Gayle Taybor of Glynne's Soaps. Their soaps were just featured on Chris Brogan's fantastic social media marketing blog .
As I left the Wilmington Professional Group meeting, I said good-bye to the boat last.

This networking event had all the right ingredients. Some interesting new folks to meet, some good friends and previous acquaintances to see again, a couple of real live folks I'd only previously known online, great food and drink, and a scenic, cool locale. Add it all up and it works for me.

Bed & Breakfast on the Cape Fear River

Where's Marge in the photo below? She's on the top deck of a 45' 1966 Columbia yacht docked at the Riverwalk in Downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. The ship's name is the Sea Star and you can learn a whole lot more about her, her owners Thurman and Ayres Burgess, and the cruising, dining, and bed & breadfast services and experiences to be had at http://www.jubileesnoozeandcruise.com/.



To get to the Sea Star, proceed down the Riverwalk from Market Street along this wooden path.

Just before you get to the docking space of the Henrietta III, you'll notice a gate with a walkway down to a floating dock.

From the walkway you can see the Sea Star.

Here's Marge going through the gate down to the dock (in the background you can see the Henrietta III and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge).

Once we boarded we spent some pleasant time talking with Ayres and Thurman.

There are several dining areas on board, this is the aft area, ready for an informal meal. Tables can also be set forward.

The full-service galley below decks is where the meals are prepared.

This is the main stateroom - there are two other staterooms and two heads.

Here's the main salon, just forward of the galley.

The huge sundeck is probably where I'd spend most of my time, with a book or chatting with passersby on the Riverwalk.

Here's the foredeck where additional dining can take place.

Here's a view of the Henrietta III from the Sea Star's starboard side.

And here is Ayres' welcoming message.

And Thurman's parting message.

Countdown to the HoeDown - 7 Days to Go!

OK, folks, get yer costume ready, slap on some monster makeup, and party on the river on Halloween Eve. October 31st, Riverfront Wilmington, North Carolina. It's called the Halloween HoeDown and part of the Downtown Sundown Concert Series. Featured groups include The BarnRaisers with Woodwork Roadshow. Special guest appearances by the Cape Fear River, lots of cool folks, and you! So you've got to be there, we're counting on you.

Produced and sponsored by the Downtown Business Alliance with a lot of help from a bunch of other folks. Here's the official list:

Sponsors of the 2008 Downtown Sundown Concert Series: Part 2 include Coors Beer, Waterford of the Carolinas, Dish Network, MADD, 106.7 The Penguin, encore, 103.7 The Bone, The Star News, Slice of Life, Loose Lucy's, Wilmington Downtown, Inc., and Blu Zeus Interactive Marketing. Support services provided by the City of Wilmington.

Costume prizes, door prizes (which since there's no door might be hard to win), and the chance to be silly and have fun in public.

The usual rules apply: no outside booze or beverages, no coolers, no pets, no pets in coolers, like that. You can bet everything but coolers and pets will be available for purchase, so don't let that stop you.

Questions? Call Katie Lucas of DBA Wilmington at 910-343-4114 or e-mail
katie@dbawilmington.com .

Pepper Loves Downtown Wilmington

Sunday was such a glorious day! Marge, Pepper and I took advantage of the great weather to hang out in downtown Wilmington for a few hours. As usual Pepper made lots of friends. Marge and I pretty much gravitate toward Kilwins at 16 Market Street whenever we're in downtown Wilmington. Yesterday I had an excellent (and generous-portioned) single scoop cup of Turtle ice cream - my only complaint was the plastic spoon was kinda flimsy which slowed my progress. We also bought some of their nifty chocolate-covered stick pretzels to fuel our progress around town. Spent some time in Native Soul Indigena at 25 Market Street and Marge bought some very pretty pink shell earrings.

Pepper loves to pose for the camera. Ever since she was a puppy she learned to sit and stay when I would take her picture, and she still is great about that. Even though there were a lot of people around the river front river walk I put Pepper on the walkway and told her to stay while I took her picture with the river in the background and she was great about it. Pepper is a strong people magnet.