News & Notes | Awards, events and announcements
Weekly roundup includes a groundbreaking in Chattanooga, an event in Kingsport, and Launch Tennessee's announcement of the five start-ups getting funding for next month's SXSW festival.
From Knoxville:
“We’ve hosted open houses and guided tours of Real Good Kitchen (RGK) many times, but last month we introduced a new opportunity to get a peek inside our space: bi-monthly kitchen tours,” Founder Bailey Foster writes. “By hosting these tours every second Saturday and fourth Thursday each month, we hope to create a more casual, no-pressure experience. No matter if you’re just getting started or ready to scale, these drop-in tours are open to local food entrepreneurs and makers of all stages and sizes.” The next two are this Thursday (February 23 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.) and March 11 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Click here to register.
From Chattanooga:
- The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga held a groundbreaking ceremony last week for its new Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing Application Center (I-AMAC). Located on the 700 block of M.L. King Boulevard, the new facility has two purposes. One is giving senior students the spaces and tools to work on capstone projects they must complete to graduate. The other is to provide ample, hands-on access to additive manufacturing techniques for all engineering and computer science students, to prepare them for the systems and technology awaiting them in industry. Construction will take place in three phases. The first two will be 5,000 square feet each, and the third will be 10,000. The first phase is expected to be finished this year.
- ChattaMatters has an interesting article about the initiative announced last fall to build a commercial quantum network in the Gig City. As noted in this November 30 teknovation.biz article, EPB has partnered with Qubitekk, a San Diego-based company with a Chattanooga office, to build the network that is scheduled to go online this summer as a subscription-based service available to researchers and private industry.
The Sync Space Entrepreneur Center in Kingsport has announced a “lunch and learn” for February 23 featuring Leighton Hart with Market Street Media. The event from 12 noon to 1 p.m. will be held at the Holston Business Development Center‘s Training Classroom, 2005 Venture Park, Kingsport.
During the discussion, participants will:
- “Get the skinny’ on strategies and tactics that are working for businesses on social media in 2023 . . . and discover which outdated activities it’s time to retire;
- Learn real insights that they can put into practice right away to help attract the desired audience, engage them with the business’ content, and entice them to deepen their relationship with the enterprise;
- Discuss what’s going on with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn; and
- Have plenty of time for Q&A to help participants level up their social media.
Click on this link to register.
From Northeast Tennessee:
An effort to create a larger multi-county economic development initiative for the region is not garnering the support of Sullivan County or its incorporated cities.
On Thursday night, the County Commission voted 22-1 with one abstention for the resolution that said Sullivan County would not offer any financial support or memberships to the Northeast Tennessee Regional Hub (NETNHub). That initiative was announced with much fanfare last April (see teknovation.biz article here) as a vehicle vision is to elevate the region’s profile to both national and international companies to locate in those counties, as well as to attract, retain and support talent.
Just hours before the vote of the Sullivan County Commission, media reports say that the Northeast Tennessee Regional Economic Partnership voted to become a part of NETNHub, as the new umbrella organization is known. The partnership is the economic development agency providing support for Washington, Carter and Unicoi Counties. Sullivan County apparently wants to continue to rely on another organization with yet another acronym – NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership – to handle its activities,
From Nashville:
- TennBeat, a relatively new online newsfeed based in Music City, spotlighted Jessica Walker, a seasoned healthcare technology professional, and her start-up named Care Sherpa in this post. Founded four years ago, the rapidly expanding company is focused on helping physician practices capture, qualify and convert prospects for elective surgery into patients. TennBeat reports that Care Sherpa has been adopted by national, regional, and private healthcare practices in 38 states and reported a 50 percent uptick in revenue in 2022.
From Nashville but with Oak Ridge Ties:
Bob Eby, a resident of Oak Ridge, has been elected Chair of the Tennessee State Board of Education and will serve a two-year term. The longtime champion of education is the former Site Manager of the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant, later served as a Director for Centrus Energy Corporation, and currently serves as Senior Consultant to Navarro Research and Engineering.
