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ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION TICKETS ON SALE NOW
 Tickets for the 95th Blount Chamber Anniversary Celebration are on sale now. The celebration is Friday, January 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Airport Hilton. It will be an evening of live music with Jessie's Girls, a national party band, food and networking with Blount County business professionals.
WE WANT YOUR #SELFIE
 Now's your opportunity to be featured during the 2015 Blount Chamber's Annual Celebration set for Jan. 30 at the Airport Hilton. We want your selfies. Any selfie of you, taken any time and any place. (Please take your pictures safely; especially not while driving.)
How it Works: Be a part of our selfie collage by following these 3 easy steps: 1. Take a selfie 2. Tag #BPAM2015 3. Post your pic to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or email. Don't forget to use the #BPAM2015 tag on ALL your selfies and look for them at the Annual Celebration!
BLOUNT PARTNERSHIP YEAR IN REVIEW
 The past year marked another year of innovative programming, well-attended events and unprecedented influence within the community for the Blount Partnership.
The Partnership planned and produced more than 40 events for over 4,000 guests during the past year, providing businesses the opportunity to network, learn and grow their business to contribute to the overall economic prosperity of the region.
It also launched two initiatives for small business -- Small Business Saturday and the Cash Mob -- while continuing to push forth educational and training opportunities through numerous workshops and seminars.
The Partnership also redesigned its three main websites -- blountchamber.com, blountindustry.com and smokymountains.org -- along with introducing a landing page for all three entitled blountpartnership.com. Although there were some hiccups, including the navigability of the tourism site, those issues were corrected by the end of the year.
 There were two large scale economic development announcements as K12 Inc., opened its family support center at the Tyson Center and Koide Tennessee expanded its operations in Stock Creek. K12 made an investment of $2.4 million and added 300 employees. Koide added 32 jobs while making a $10.1 million capital investment.
As a gateway to the Smoky Mountains, Blount County ranked eighth among Tennessee's 95 counties in visitor expenditures with $320 million in 2013 according to the Economic Impact of Travel on Tennessee Counties report issued by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. It represents an increase of over $8 million from 2012.
Tourism jobs, which number nearly 3,000, led to a payroll of $76.12 million and local tax receipts of $10.9 million, which was the sixth-highest total in the state and a 3.1 percent increase over 2012.
 On average, visitor spending in Blount County generated $877,781 in daily expenditures and created $28,863 in tax receipts.
A collective meeting of all three boards of directors crafted new vision and mission statements while establishing a list of core values.
Our future presents both challenges and opportunities for the Partnership, area businesses and the community as a whole. Program expansion and communication continue to be points of emphasis. As a united business, economic development and tourism community, we must present one voice of both fiscal responsibiity and encouragement.
With the continued support of more than 1,000 businesses, individuals and organizations that make up the Blount Partnership, we will continue to represent the voice for business in the community and drive economic prosperity for our county and region.
 Blount County continued to establish itself as a leader in business, economic and tourism development. We are positioned to build upon this momentum, with continued success anticipated for the upcoming year.
The Blount Partnership will continue to strengthen our regional economy while enhancing residents' quality of life. By investing in the Blount Partnership through Chamber of Commerce memberships, funding of the Economic Development Board of Blount County and the Smoky Mountain Tourism Development Authority, you are helping to create jobs, attract new business, recruit a talented workforce and improve Blount County's competitive positioning and economic prosperity.
The five-year goal of the Blount Partnership is to create primary, high-value jobs with competitive annual salaries with a significant capital investment. It also plans to work towards creating more opportunities for the business and family visitors as well as group travel while increasing educational and training programs for the business community.
 Through the Blount Partnership, more than 300 jobs were announced in 2014, bringing the total number of jobs to 2,234 over the last four years. Not to be overlooked is the $12.5 million capital investment which grows the total to over $431 million during the same time frame. We could not have achieved this growth without your investment and partnership.
Additionally, it also hosted educational training workshops and seminars while continuing to be an advocate for the business community with governmental briefings.
The Blount Partnership thanks you for your contribution to enhance our economy and quality of life. The importance of the role our partners play in the economic development of Blount County cannot be overstated.
GOT AN EVENT? WE'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT
Is your organization hosting an event in the community? Submit it here on our community calendar. If it's a tourism event, please email Ashlee so she can post it on www.SmokyMountains.org.
Also, please send us any news releases or good news about your business. We'd love to share it with the community.
REMEMBER WHEN
Let's celebrate with a Christmas song as we go back to this week in 1942 when Bing Crosby topped the music charts with "White Christmas." The song spent an amazing 11 weeks at No. 1. According to the Guinness World Records, the version sung by Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.
 | | Bing Crosby & Martha Mears - White Christmas (1942) |
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