Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Nearly two dozen people showed up for what was billed as a corporate innovation luncheon on December 9 at 121 Tech Hub in Knoxville’s Old City.

The attendees ranged from individuals like H.M. “Hash” Hashemian, who is the current President of the American Nuclear Society and Co-Founder of Knoxville-based AMS, and Wes Stowers, a past Chair of the Knoxville Chamber, to John McNeely, Co-Founder of Sword & Shield and the Knoxville Technology Council who now leads the McNeely Group, Marty Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PYA, Tim Matthews, longtime CEO at JTV and now with Stall Legal, and Nadim Jubran of the PIER Group.

Others have various roles in the technology, innovation, and entrepreneurial community.

For roughly two hours, they heard initially from Brandon Bruce, Co-Founder of 121 Tech Hub, a co-working site, talk about the history of innovation from Knoxville area companies. They included well-recognized names like Pilot/Flying J, Clayton Homes, and Pet Safe/Radio Systems as well as lesser-known companies like Ministry Brands.

The event was co-sponsored by CGI and PYA, the power behind teknovation.biz.

Bruce noted that the region is particularly adept at government-funded innovation but could do better on the corporate innovation front.

Over the past several months, he reached out to a number of those in the corporate sector who told him three things:

1. We don’t know our local peers who are involved in innovation and want to connect with them.
2. We’re traveling to big cities to attend innovation events and would like to see some of those held in Knoxville.
3. We need to talk more about artificial intelligence.

The balance of the time was devoted to participant introductions and their thoughts on innovation. Next steps will follow in 2026.

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