Our kind of New Year’s!

For the past 11 years, we have been celebrating News Year’s Eve with two other couples: Richard and Dawn Ford and Jackie and Ray Fisher. Sometimes we go out to eat, sometimes we go to a party, and sometimes we watch the ball drop at Market Square.
This year we did all three. And we saw [...]

Convention Center turns its annual Christmas reception into a fun marketing opportunity

I apologize for being such a poor blogger the past few weeks. Work has been just crazy busy. Besides, I still get a bunch of hits just by leaving the photo of Allison Burchett in that dress on the blog’s first page! Ha!
But Christmas season has been rushing by like the water out of a [...]

Knoxvillians hear fun history and check in with former mayor during visit to Governor’s Residence

One of the hardest things to get used to after being elected Tennessee governor, according to Gov. Bill Haslam, is not being able to ride in a car alone with his wife, Crissy. “Just think about it,” Haslam commented over dinner recently.

Pilot Celebrity Pumpers raise funds — and spirits

The annual Pilot Pumpers fundraiser for the United Way last month raised a record $63,478. Here’s the deal: during the three-day promotion at all area Pilot convenience stores, Pilot donates to United Way five cents for every gallon of gas sold and 10 percent of all in-store sales. To drum up interest in the event [...]

Knoxville’s bachelor mayor finally takes the plunge

2011 has been quite the year for Dan Brown. First, the freshman City Council member was elected by his peers to fill the unexpired term of former Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam when Haslam was elected governor. Seven months later, Brown, a long-time bachelor, took the plunge and this past Saturday became a married man again.
When [...]

Turkey Creek Public Market: Wow!

Turkey Creek Public Market opened at 10 this morning and I’m still recovering! What a whirlwind of commerce that place is! It’s a combination of Southern Market, First Friday and Tennessee Valley Fair all rolled into one, if you can imagine. Whew! And it will be open every weekend. Click here for the website with [...]

Political year gives Follies plenty of material

Election years always provide the best material for the good folks from the Society of Professional Journalists who are writing and producing the annual Front Page Follies shows. The shows, performed largely by local journalists and PR people, are designed to raise money for journalism scholarships. The strategy: Serve cocktails and dinner. Have an auction. [...]

300 of our closest friends step back to 1947 with us at our client party in the historic Miller’s Building

To celebrate the great time we are having in our new offices in the historic Miller’s Department Store building at 445 S. Gay Street, we made “coming back to Miller’s” the theme of our annual mid-winter client party this year.
The invitation had historic photos from Miller’s in its heyday. And we chose the time setting [...]

Jim Haslam on business, politics, and keys to success

When Jim Haslam was just getting started in the gas station business more than 50 years ago, his average station sold about $12,000 worth of gasoline, cigarettes, motor oil, soft drinks and food per month. Today, the average Pilot Flying J Travel Center grosses more than $3.7 million per month and sells, as Haslam puts [...]

Taking a short break from business to be inspired

If you want an annual opportunity to be inspired, let me strongly recommend to you the Leadership Awards Luncheon put on by the Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemorative Commission. Extremely well-attended (more than 500 people this year), the event features a keynote speaker who rarely fails to either bring the audience to tears or to its [...]