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FACES & PLACES 
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 Girls just gotta have fun: While introducing Mayor Price Is Right for her State of the City presentation last week, Vernon Bryant, President and CEO at Southwest Bank, had an unplanned, yet funny, pause. "She grew up in Fort Worth as a girl ..." Laughter ensued. First words from the Mayor? "Vernon, last time I looked, I've been a girl all my life." View photos from the event here. Click the gray arrows upper right to advance through all photos. |
Down(ie) with Jay: Not looking to cast aspersions, but anyone else think March is really the beginning of hops season and not March Madness hoops season? Beer...here! Men's college basketball, St. Patrick's Day, Texas Rangers opening day and finally, Main St. Fort Worth Arts Festival April 9-12. What's new with the world's best art-music-food festival? A new presenting sponsor -- Blue Moon Brewing. A new Craft Beer Garden featuring 12 local craft brewers. Don't cry in your beer; there's also juried artists and food for all tastes and stomach sizes. Music, too, including Green River Ordinance, Tito Puente Jr. and The Atlanta Rhythm Section. Claire Bloxom Armstrong of Pavlov repeatedly dogged Jay Downie, the festival organizer for Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives, and came away with an "Art & Music Lovers" package for Thursday and Friday nights. Each night includes admission for two to the VIP Skybox -- hors d'oeuvres and cocktails included -- that overlooks the UT-Arlington MAIN Stage at 9th and Main. Green River Ordinance plays Thursday night and Brave Combo/Robben Ford Friday night.
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Bagels with Barry: TCU's He's A Homer Erekson, dean of the Neeley School of Business, procures the impressive list of speakers for the Tandy Speaker Series breakfasts. None gets paid, though some have asked. Many have no affiliation with TCU. Barry Davis does. He's a TCU grad, the President and CEO of EnLink Midstream and the breakfast speaker March 17. Davis has a list of energy companies he has founded -- Ventana, Comstock and Crosstex. He serves on the board of the TCU Energy Institute. Have the energy to take a seat for the 7:30 breakfast? It will be a gas.
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 Good Vibrations: Mike Love, in about his 530th year as lead vocalist for the Beach Boys, is still Surfin' and still having Fun, Fun, Fun. In fact, the original and not-so-original band members had a new album reach #3 on the Billboard charts just two years ago. Jim Austin is old enough to remember all those hits and there are a lot of them because the band sold more than 100 million albums. If you and a guest want to join the singalong Thursday March 19 at Verizon Theater from the jimaustinonline.com suite, you better get around quickly.
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Songs in the key of life: Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts received a $100,000 grant from a trust at PlainsCapital Bank last month that will be used to purchase a performance piano and fund a complete lighting and sound system for the theater. B2B Insider would like to say right now and very loud that "It LOVES PlainsCapital Bank." Hopefully our check is in the mail. The theater upgrades probably won't be in time for the March 27 Singing Girls of Texas spring concert. All three choirs participate in a night of great song. You can sing for these two tickets. Congratulations to Mar. 4 Prize Winners:
- Chad Snyder, Case Commercial Real Estate
- Crystal Forester, GM Financial
- Elaine Cole, TCU Neeley School of Business
- Cara Kennemer, Underwood Law
- Nathan DeWitt, Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors
Winners will be announced weekly
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HE SAID, SHE SAID, THEY SAID
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He might need a Lyft: Fort Worth City Manager David Cooke lives at The Tower downtown and usually walks to City Hall. He often goes home for lunch. Says his only problem is "I can't always remember where I parked my car."
Tossup comparison: Cyndy Tonniges with IT company TriQuest Technologies compared "bad IT" to having kids at home during three ice days in one week.
Das Boot: Chamber membership mama Teresa Pearson had a reunion of sorts (ok, it was a funeral) of her dance mates. She had a bit too many moves during Latin Ballroom strutting and "Ah, Cucaracha!" she has a stress fracture in her right foot.
Kudos: ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), the Chamber Small Business of the Year winners announced last week were Emerging Business -- Altitude Trampoline, a fun park to bounce to your heart's content; 1-10 Employees -- Precise Energy Products, which provides equipment, including nitrogen, cementing, wireline and coiled tubing units to the oilfield services industry; 11-50 Employees --Broadie's Aircraft, an aviation maintenance and repair center for corporate, private and charter aircraft; and 51-100 Employees -- Interconnect Wiring, which manufactures aerospace products and performs military aircraft rewiring. Congrats to all the finalists and thanks to event sponsor NORTHSTAR BANK OF TEXAS.
Leave the driving to us: Fort Worth Bike Sharing stations soon will be solar powered, thanks to a $35,000 donation from the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club. Wonder if Green Mountain could create or pay for our pedal power?
 Watch what you say: Monthologist and marketer John Fletcher points out the Ides of March (March 15) also is True Confessions Day.
5-year plan a lifetime plan: Buried deep in the Berkshire Hathaway annual letter are the principles established at its beginning 50 years ago, including the Chairman would choose all CEOs of important subsidiaries, he would fix their compensation and obtain from each a private recommendation for a successor in case one suddenly was needed. Acme Brick's Dennis Knautz says there is more: he has had to suggest an emergency, immediate, short-term solution AND a long-term choice as CEO successor. Justin Brands, Burlington Northern Railway and TTI are other Tarrant County Berkshire companies.
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"We used to work at the same bank years ago ...Well, every banker could probably say that."
-- Cynthia Sandler, Bank of Texas,
introducing Comerica Bank's Jeff Vincent
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I wanna be in pictures: Lena Pope Home third graders were, thanks to a field trip to meet Red Sanders of his namesake production company. Students are working on a project about building a business. Red and company filmed them for a commercial promoting their business idea.
Hope they have cushions: Instead of sending metal off to be recycled, Melinda Reitman, President of new Chamber member The Wahl Company, has started using it to make custom furniture.
 Guns a-blazin': You couldn't have scripted this much better. Defender Outdoors, the everything for guns, ammunition, archery, knives, hunting gear, apparel and on and on, is groundbreaking a shooting range next Wednesday at 11:15. Am-Bass-Adorables, dressed as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, will be there. And where will they be? 2900 Shotts Street. Another cutting-edge event, 30 years in the making, is the Lamar-Hemphill Connector between Lancaster on the north and West Vickery on the south. It's next Wednesday at Hemphill and West Vickery and it's open to the public.
Never know who's watching: Technology Team is living proof that networking is great, but quality work is even better. President Sherry Green related this story -- "After installing all the computer systems in the Network Operations Center (NOC) for an airline to the east, we heard American Airlines was building its new NOC. For a year, I called upon all my networkers and their networkers trying to earn an introduction. Turns out, the engineers of the communication system were so impressed with Technology Team's work out east that it hired us to do the installs at American!"
Crazy coupon guys: The City of Fort Worth (Jack Dale) buys $300 million annually through its purchasing department, Tarrant County (Jack Beacham) about $200 million. Are you a vendor? It's easy to register and get bid notices at either's website. In addition, winning bid prices are exposed to 402 other municipalities as part of inter-local agreements.
Idol thought: As the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau marks its 50th year, Mr. B is wondering about Fort Worth's most famous visitors. President Kennedy would have to rate at the top. Babe Ruth? Warren Buffett? Sally Ride? How about Bonnie & Clyde?
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS
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NEW! 2015 GREATER FORT WORTH MEDIA DIRECTORY
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The only comprehensive news media directory for the greater Fort Worth area. It covers print media for the Fort Worth metro area (Tarrant, Johnson, Parker and Hood counties), as well as television and radio contacts for the DFW Metroplex. Online news and local blogs too. Listings include e-mail addresses, fax numbers, circulation figures and distribution areas. Available in PDF, Exel or combo (both PDF and Excel versions). Purchase it today! Prices begin at $30.00*
Contact Christine Gores to purchase or for additional information. *Member price. Price excludes tax..
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