It's time for the Townsend Fall Hertiage Festival, so head to the Townsend Visitors Center this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 23-24, for great Bluegrass music, over 40 crafters, scrumptious food and many other cool demonstrations. The is no admission fee, but parking is $8 at the venue with proceeds benefiting the Townsend Volunteer Fire Department. There's also a free shuttle running from Cades Cove Cellars to the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center which allows you to park and ride.

 

Read our 44th and 45th installments of The Dialogue at the bottom of this email where we visit with John Cockfield, owner operator of JKC Custom Furniture and Trevis Gardner, CEO & General Manager of Rocky Top Shock Youth Sports.

 

WOMEN IN BUSINESS MEETING TODAY

Get out today and attend our Women in Business meeting at noon at the Airport Hilton. The topic will be "Time Management- Meaning And Its Importance" by Sharon Hannum.

 

This will be a Dutch Treat lunch from Cooper's Restaurant. You can either do soup or salad bar for $8.95 + tax, this includes drink, and dessert or the whole buffet for $12 (including tax) and includes drink, buffet and dessert.

 

NASCAR HALL OF FAMER RUSTY WALLACE TO SPEAK AT BEST OF BLOUNT AWARDS

Get ready to rev up your engine with Rusty Wallace, a member of NASCAR's Hall of Fame, as he takes the pole position as the guest speaker for the Blount Partnership's Best of Blount Awards, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m., at the Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus.

Tickets go on sale Monday, Sept. 26 by calling the Blount Partnership 865.983.2241, online or at the Partnership office located at 201 S. Washington St., in Maryville.

The Best of Blount Awards focus on the Blount County community as a whole rather than only on the business sector. It celebrates those individuals and businesses that give their time and resources to make this area an outstanding place to live and work.

Awards will be given for Philanthropist of the Year, Community Impact Award, Bright Future Award, Business of the Year and the Tourism Award.

 

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION EVENTS

The Small Business Administration is coming to the Blount Partnership on Thursday, Sept. 22 to present two programs. The first is entitled Financing Your Business the SBA Way (9-10 a.m.) and the second is Understanding the Affordable Care Act (11 a.m.-noon). Both seminars are free. RSVP to Jacqueline Merritt if you wish to attend.

 

GET YOUR MEMBER-TO-MEMBER PROMOTION IN FOR OCTOBER

The call is out to get your October Member-to-Member promotion in this week as the new list will be sent out Sept. 26. In the meantime, check out the  member-to-member promtions for September. New offers are being posted weekly, so check out the Blount County Chamber of Commerce Member-to-Member promotions online. This Member-to-Member Promotional Program offers you and your company the opportunity to market your products and services to the membership.

 

Here's how it works:
1. Submit a PDF of a service, product or discount you'd like to offer to the Chamber membership to [email protected]. Be sure to include an expiration date.
2. An email with all the promotions will be sent out on the final Monday of every month to our member database.
3. All promotions will be posted on www.BlountChamber.com

 

USING SLN TO ITS FULLEST: CHOOSING KEYWORDS

Once you verify your business with Save Local Now, its essential to utilize each feature of its platform to maximize Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. One part of our business profile page are the embedded keywords which thy allow you to select. Read more here.

Learn more about marketing your small business in a digital world, ask questions about social media, and take the time to discuss future campaign ideas. What are you waiting for? It's free with your chamber membership. Schedule your FREE session today.

 

If you have any questions regarding your free digital marketing member benefit ( Save Local Now), your digital platform, or online marketing in general please reach out the Blount Chamber's Rachel Coffman. She is here to help you in the year ahead and will keep you on track as you fulfill your resolutions in 2016.

 

REMEMBER TO SHOP LOCAL

Think local first + Buy local when you can = Being a local!

 

Small local businesses are the largest employers nationally.

 

Find what you're looking for in the Chamber Directory.

 

GOT AN EVENT OR NEWS? 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

"Hard to Say I'm Sorry," by Chicago spent its second and final week atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week in 1982. It was their first top 50 hit since "No Tell Lover" in 1978.