December 2, 2015  
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FACES & PLACES POW                                                                                  
Hundreds of gifts and valuable silent auction items were brought to Norris Conference Center last week as more than 350 people were generous with their donations for low-income families at the Cowboy Santas Holiday Mixer. Special thanks to Brett Jeffreys, Handyman Matters; Carolann Morris, Inwood Bank; and Rev. Kyev Tatum, Attendance Institute, for their leadership, as well as the Cowboy Santas committee and the Chamber Action Ambassadors.  It's not too late to donate.  Nearly all Fort Worth police and fire stations are dropoff points.

See more photos from Cowboy Santas mixer here.

(Advance through the Chamber photo gallery using gray arrows upper right.)
PRESS YOUR LUCKPrizes
Click on the links below to enter for prizes

A fine feathered friend: Tim Carter, turkey caller. Mr. Carter, the top Fort Worth teller for Southside Bank, can hook you up with the BEST smoked turkey in the state. Bank on it. Greenberg Smoked Turkey, a Tyler, TX tradition for four generations, is a client of Southside's. There are more testimonials for the company's smoked turkeys than gnats at an outdoor wine festival. The turkeys are seasoned with a family spice recipe and slow-cooked over a hickory fire. More than 200,000 orders come in during the holidays. Tim made the call - gobble gobble - and Southside is presenting a B2B Insider reader one 10-pound smoked turkey, which feeds 20-30. 

A Super kickoff luncheon: Charles Haley was a two-time All-American at James Madison University, but never played in a bowl game. He is, however, the only five-time Super Bowl winner on the planet, including three rings while with the Dallas Cowboys. Haley gets a shot at a bowl game when he keynotes the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Kickoff Luncheon co-presented by American Airlines Dec. 28 at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel. Is that enough aviation power for you? "Haley was a phenomenal player with strong ties in Texas and I believe having him here to welcome our participating teams and fans will be a great addition to our bowl week," said Brant Ringler, executive director of the bowl game. Better yet, Brant also said he had two pair of two luncheon tickets to welcome teams from the Big Ten and Mountain West conferences.   
 
The (Jim) Austin sound: The Ten Tenors will not be home in Australia for the holidays; instead, they will be Home for the Holidays in D/FW Dec. 18 at 8 p.m. at Verizon Theater. This will be a difficult ticket to get, no matter how well you sing, because the tenors have 16 years of sellouts, about 10 years longer than our Dallas Mavericks. The contemporary concert will include more than classical standards as these 10 have branched off and played with the likes of Andrea Bocelli, Keith Urban, Rod Stewart, Alanis Morissette, Willie Nelson and Christina Aguilera. Hum a few bars and you could win two seats in the jimaustiononline.com suite and a VIP parking pass courtesy of Norma, who helps run Jim Austin's suite of businesses.

Boys, boys, boys: How can you not enjoy holiday music? Texas Center for Arts + Academics presents its 2015 Christmas Festival Concert -- Personent Hodie -- December 14 at 7 p.m. at Arborlawn United Methodist Church. The Texas Boys Choir has performed Christmas concerts since 1946 and some of those boys now are men, very old men.  Personent Hodie roughly is translated to mean "On this Day Earth Shall Ring." You'll be singing merrily if you win one of these two pair of tickets.


Congratulations to Nov. 18 Prize Winners:
  • Jim Dickenson, Frost Insurance
  • Sue Holdridge, Barrett, Howard & Williams
  • Nedra Cutler, Meals on Wheels
  • Sherry Flow, National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame 
  • Landon Brim, Southside Bank
  • Michelle McKelvey, Justin Brands
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
 
  
HE SAID, SHE SAID, THEY SAIDSoundBytes
Ol' Twinkletoes: The Texas Center for Arts + Academics spring performance is (Mike) Napoli, the Ballet.

Print this, please: Kelly Pilkington has spent 31 years in the printing business and has become a devoted Chamber member. When she recently joined Logan Graphics, she demanded (negotiated?) a Chamber membership as a perk. Kelly's very first print client way back when was Colonial Country Club.

No False Move: A Bill Paxton meet and greet broke out during the Lone Star Film Festival. Fort Worth actor Paxton met Fort Worth General Counsel/public affairs consultant Paxton of The Eppstein Group. "He (SAG Paxton) was extremely nice, couldn't have been nicer," said CG Paxton. After some ancestry talk, SAG Paxton figured they both were related to Sam Houston. CG Paxton is from Louisiana and came to Fort Worth as a kid to watch his dad in cutting horse events.  When the chance came in 2008, he moved to Fort Worth. He said he was "tempted" to sign Bill Paxton autographs during the film festival.

Hot stuff: Baylor's Bears are bullish on Renfro Foods, naming it the Small Family Business of the Year. Doug Renfro, whose mango habanero salsa makes Mr. B tango, says the best thing about a family business is knowing "someone has our back; we can travel for work or pleasure without worrying nearly as much." And the worst thing?  "I hate to attempt that, but there is no such thing as a family lunch because we can't help but discuss business the whole time - me, Becky, James, Bill and Jack."

Outdoor stylin': In 2011, Hana (Teneo Linguistics Company) and David Laurenzo (Synergy Home Care) decided to build an outside living area -- pool, deck and kitchen.  After a lot of research and multiple designs, they started construction. A little more than a year later, it was a reality. It turned out to be a venue ... it holds 50 people, rain or shine. The centerpiece is a wood-fired brick oven.  David once tossed pizzas. He says "cooking great pizza requires not only a higher temperature (around 650 degrees), but also an oven that provides convection cooking to give the toppings, crust and the cheese that great char. We cook all kinds of stuff in it -- steaks, lasagna, chicken, turkey. Pizzas are ready in about a minute and a half."

Play @Work: At the franchise @Work Personnel Services' annual business conference, Christi Ketcham acted as a TV show producer during a murder mystery dinner night. Franchise owner Jonathan Jenswold was Gordon Ramsey from the TV cooking show.  "I fired him because he was difficult to work with," Christi said.

Multi-lingual Mayor: "I speak two languages, English and Texan," says Mayor Price Is Right. "At the Lockheed plant in Abu Dubai, a worker came running out and asked if I would just say 'Howdy.' He said he misses howdy."

He has a mean byte: Rob Brunner is Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, which helps solve problems for businesses in crises mode with use of data. Lots of data. Terabyte on terabyte of collected data. Brunner spoke at the TCU Neeley School of Business Executive Breakfast Speaker Series recently.
  • Data for business-to-business is not so much in use, but business-to-consumer is huge.
  • On ethics, Brunner says consumers apparently are choosing personalization of advertising over their privacy.
  • Risk for consumers is when their data is not protected or allowed to be used by third parties for re-sale.
  • Data is a valuable asset that most large companies are not maximizing. Most companies have CIOs; few have data officers.

"I started my first business at 8 and it's been uphill since."

                                                -- Sherry Green, 9, Technology Team, on entrepreneurship

Safe & healthy: Dana Burghdoff, Deputy Planning Director for the City of Fort Worth, was a panelist during the U.S. and Fort Worth Chambers' Better Health Through Economic Opportunity conference. She said potential sidewalk penetration in Fort Worth is just 40 percent; with $10 million from the 2014 bond vote, she said areas that promote safety (schools) are first priority to get sidewalks. She also said the city is working with the food policy group of Blue Zones to encourage "urban agriculture."

Ouch! Sports injuries are a booming recovery business. SporTherapy Southwest PC purchased the last tract on Harris Parkway near Texas Health Harris Methodist Southwest and will build a 13,000-square-foot Private Practice Physical Therapy clinic. Owners Steven and Cassie Lackey have plans to utilize one acre for a new SporTherapy facility and develop the remainder with other medical services. Its current location will become SporTherapy for children.

Sigh, another award: Sy Sohmer, the only executive director of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas until his replacement reports Dec. 15, will receive the 2015 International Award of Excellence in Conservation from BRIT Dec. 9. Sohmer led BRIT from 1993-2014.
  
7th heaven: Starlight Symphony, a 5-minute music and light show presented by Pinnacle Bank, is occurring nightly on the hour from 6-10 p.m. at West 7th through January 6. Until Jan. 2, there are free horse and carriage rides from Crockett Square. West 7th hogged Santa for two breakfasts with kids, Dec. 12-13, at a Brazilian steakhouse. If you thought Santa was a bit portly, imagine two breakfasts at an all-you-can-eater.

We'll drink to that: If they (whoever they are) are going to pronounce it bar, why spell it barre? Maybe Chamber Am-Bass Adorables, who will pirouette over to The Barre Code-Fort Worth at 900 Museum Way today for a ribbon cutting, can ask owner Katherine (not Washington Post) Graham. Tomorrow at 4:45 p.m., in their continuing effort to stay fit, the Adorables will run to Orangetheory Fitness Fort Worth-Montgomery Plaza. Well-toned manager Clint Shumate won't need scissors. He'll just scare the ribbon apart. Photos from many Chamber ribbon cuts can be seen here.

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