This past Friday night, Kingpsort’s business community celebrated the 60th Kingsport Chamber of Commerce dinner at MeadowView Convention Center and after working in this business community for more than twenty years, it’s an honorable feeling to be associated with a professional and enduring group of businesses and friends.
It was cold outside MeadowView, the wind was blowing a few snow flurries around and there were plenty of people dressed up for the social hour that proceeds the dinner. As usual, basic black continues to rule for most events like this and my own personal fashion awards for the ladies include Jewel McKinney with Town and Country Realty in her royal blue sequined dress and Nicole Austin who set a new modern standard style among the crowd with a sassy brown dress that enhances her own delightful personality.
I met Lucy Fleming with Fun Fest at the door and we talked a few moments before I made my way to the bar. Not too impressed by that service as drinks were a bit overpriced for the evening and a bottle of wine was $28.00 table. Nevertheless, I had a glass of cold gin in hand and greeted Jeff Cates and Robert Pickle in the back of the auditorium who were running sound and lighting for the production this evening. Setting up the stage they have a tough job too as they are providing sound for the Symphony of the Mountains who perform each year – this year with a new conductor – Cornelia Kodkani-Laemmli.
Morgan King and his wife looked elegant together in black and it’s always a pleasure for me to see attorney/client Mike Faulk at this event. Walking through the crowd, it’s easy to find a friend too and it was especially notable for me this year to see a strong GenX faction in this crowd including Vic Brooks, Ben Mallicote and others who are growing their careers here in East Tennessee.
It wasn’t long before the announcer tried to get everyone’s attention that the program was about to begin. Like a football game there was a two-minute warning and their large overhead projection screens began the countdown for the opening announcements at 7pm.
For the past several years, Sarah Diamond and Josh Smith from WJHL serve has emcees for this event. Together with their CBS partners at WJHL, they enhance this social function with a comical/professional delivery of script and technology. There were multiple camera angles of featured speakers through the night on big screens on each side of the stage along with humorous video vignettes from local personalities and even a comical monologue from CBS darling Katy Couric.
It was a real pleasure to celebrate the return of Chamber Director Miles Burdine this year. Last year, Miles was serving in Iraq and his courage and bravery is something we’re all proud of. Miles was welcomed back to the Chamber social by Brad Hoover and Jack Dempsey, WJHL Station Manager.
Brad Hoover is the outgoing Kingsport Chamber of Commerce President and he opened the relevant business of the evening by introducing the Kingsport Chamber Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, the prestigious local award was presented to Ken Maness whom Brad described as “unselfish and talented, with over 35 years of service.”
Ken is a deserving native of our community whom I had the opportunity to work for at WQUT several years ago. He’s a graduate of ETSU, worked as a radio disc jockey and ultimately resolved his career with managing what is now Citadel Broadcasting and their affiliate stations including leadership roles in the TAB, NAB and AP Radio. His service to the community began in 1971 when then Chamber member Lou Sadler encouraged his participation. After 35 years he has been a key element to our communities success too. Ken was one of the primary leaders who was involved with bringing MeadowView to Kingsport. He asked the question, “where would we be now without MeadowView?” For a moment that was a scary thing for me to consider too because without this wonderful convention center, our community would have an underwhelming resource for events like this and other of the cities most popular gatherings.
In addition to this milestone, Maness was also one of the founders of Kingsport Tomorrow and has served on the Board of Mayor and Alderman for several years as well as vice-mayor and member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Tennessee. Ken as an intelligent futurist who loves technology too and we often talk about new gadgets when we greet each other. As a member of his staff in the early eighties, Ken brought the first computers to the area. He equipped WQUT and WKIN with fresh new Tandy 80 computers at that time and began one of the first music research and database programs that skewed radio programming by local data. He’s also got plenty of charm too and one of his signatures at events like this is his collection of classic bow-ties.
This year, the Kingsport Chamber has been successful in a number of business milestones and Hoover began his final address to the Chamber with a review of this year’s highlights including MeadowView’s 10th year anniversary, the success on East Stone Drive and the development of East Stone Commons, the work in downtown Kingsport renovating the State Theater, the summer concert series along with the excitement building about the higher learning center initiative in downtown. He ended this recap with the news that Kohl’s is officially coming to Kingsport
Hoover was passing the gavel tonight to the new 2007 Kingsport Chamber President, Tony Hewitt and right after this announcement, the projectors flashed a two-story picture of Queen Elizabeth and the Kingsport Symphony began to play ‘God Save the King’ to a sustained room of laughter. Tony is a transplant from Sussex, England and the commercial development manager of BAE Systems and best know for his glowing smile. He still talks with a distinct English accent, but together with his wife Jackie, they are delighted to call Kingsport “home.”
Tony is a far-forward thinking individual and has already had significant success rebuilding the properties around the old Holston Defense. They still manufacture munitions on this 6,000 acre track of land, but much of the road frontage has been redeveloped for commercial use and the plans they have for this part of our community are impressive and yet to be realized.
Tony had done his homework too for his acceptance speech. Citing the first Chamber President, Henry Dunning in 1958 and anecdotes by Einstein, Hewitt hopes to continue the success of the past stating that time is indeed relevant and the building of a community is more about progress and he will no doubt be a great catalyst for new successes in the new year.
Tony’s welcome and inaugural words gave way to dinner and the MeadowView staff began to parade from behind the curtains with platters of food which included the main entree – a seasoned bone-in pork chop dish with sweet potatoes, a salad and black forest or boston cream pie..
This year’s attendance at the Kingsport Chamber Dinner was a new record with over 1,400 people in attendance at an event that boasts a $50 ticket. It was an honor to share the night and celebrate another year of success here in our mountain home and it’s great to be in such good company.
After dinner, there is always some form of entertainment and this year it was Broadway. That’s great for some folks, but I’ve had plenty of ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Porgy and Bess’ and although the entertainers were talented, I still think that they should seek entertainment that would compliment more social time. The people in the back, near the bar were frowned upon for being loud, but I would have much preferred a small jazz group with folks sitting around sharing drink and conversation. Breaking it apart into small tables and delivering a Broadway production with a symphony orchestra is a bit too distracting.
Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable event and as always a perfect guidepost for the new year. The businessmen and women who represent our community are some of the best talent America could hope for with creative ideas, competitive business ideas and a spirit of volunteerism like no other community in East Tennessee. Here’s to another great year Kingsport! Cheers!