September Non-Profit: The United Way

AAF-Knoxville has begun a program whereby we invited area non-profit organizations to our lunch meetings for a brief presentation on their services and efforts. For September, we're featuring The United Way of Greater Knoxville.

United Way of Greater Knoxville advances the common good by focusing on education, income, health and basic needs. Its goal is to create lasting change while working to prevent problems from happening in the first place. The emphasis is on helping individuals become self-sufficient, and have the skills and resources needed for personal success.

The United Way supports 45 agencies in East Tennessee, including groups as diverse as The Salvation Army, the Girl and Boy Scouts, Child and Family Services, Second Harvest Food Bank, and the Knoxville Volunteer Emergency Rescue Squad.

This year's United Way Campaign has just kicked off, with a goal of raising $11.8 million between now and November. John Lansing, President of Scripps Networks, is the Chairman of this year's campaign, and events slated to help with the fundraising include a telethon on Monday, September 21, featuring the Food Network's Guy Fieri. There is also an online auction planned with some surprising (and very exclusive) items to be offered, and hundreds of meetings, presentations, spare change drives, and other efforts that support the biggest and one of the most important community service events in East Tennessee.

Representatives from the United Way will tell us more at our luncheon on Thursday. We're delighted to welcome them.

Fall TV Premier Coming Up Fast

This year, we're making our Fall TV Premier an evening event. Be sure to mark your calendar for Wednesday, August 26 and be at the coolest place in town--The Square Room, beginning around 4:30 pm. We'll have food, networking fun, and probably other kinds of fun.

Then at 6pm, the local TV networks will give us an exclusive sneak preview of all the new Fall shows. It's the only event in town where you can see all the networks in one place, and if TV is part of your media mix (or if you just want to see what's new), this is the place to be.

Visit www.aafknoxville.com for more details.

Bowled Over!

We knew Ad Fed In The Gutter Would Be Fun. But Nothing Like This.

What a great turnout on Thursday! The first Ad Fed In The Gutter Bowling Tournament was a rousing success. Thank you to everyone who came and played a hard game of trash talking and ball throwing. Here are the final stats: We had almost 120 bowlers on 18 teams. When the pins had settled, here are the final scores:

1. Tombras - Lane 28 - 265.8 - GOLD Trophy
2. BlueGill Creative - Lane 26 - 236.5 - SILVER Trophy
3. Tombras - Lane 27 - 227.6 - BRONZE Trophy
4. KNS - Lane 23 - 226.5
5. DesignSensory - Lane 15 - 220.4 - Most Creative Award

6. KNS - Lane 22 - 218.8

7. DoubleJay Creative - Lane 24 - 203.6 - Most Rowdy Award

8. Nihilists - Lane 20 - 203 (Didn't really matter to them, though. They belief en notzing.)
9. Tombras - Lane 29 - 198.1
10. TradeMark - Lane 19 - 191.5

11. KNS - Lane 21 - 189.6

12. Pellissippi - Lane 30 - 186

13. WVIK - Lane 16 - 182

14. DoubleJay Creative - Lane 25 - 181.8

15. DNP - Lane 31 - 176

16. DNP - Lane 32 - 166 - Worst Losers Award (you put up a fight but it was a small one)

17. WBIR - DNF*

18. WBIR - DNF*

*WBIR gets the coveted post tournament "Dude" award. They took a break between games, and ran out of time before finishing their second game. We take comfort in that--Channel 10, out there takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. We know it came straight from the heart. (PLEASE NOTE: There would have been a trophy, but in the spirit of the award, we never got around to finishing it.)

By all accounts, it was fun for everyone.

And a note from AAF-Knoxville President, Brian Potter, who owns his own bowling shoes: "I want to send out a special thanks to Sarah Mills of Trademark and her team of Gutter Balls: Wayne Bowman (BrainPosse), Andrew Dill (Orange Apple), Josh Loebner (Trademark) and Courtney Hendricks (Conway Marketing). And a special thanks to Susie Norris of Orange Apple for all the design work and to Michael Torano of N8 Promotions for donating the great T-shirts."

This Bowling Thing Is Really Taking Off

Our "Ad Fed In The Gutter" bowling event for July 23 is sparking a lot of interest. So far, more than a dozen teams are indicating they'll play, and we expect more to sign on in the next few days.

You can learn more about the event, the trash talking behind it, and the sport of bowling in general by visiting www.adfedinthegutter.com.

And watch for some interesting videos coming in the next couple of days to support this remarkable event.

A Flash Mob. Southern Style.

You know what a flash mob is, right? A group of people get notified to show up at a certain place, and have an almost-impromptu pillow fight, or dance, or poetry reading, or whatever, then disperse in a matter of minutes.

That's the old-school flash mob. Then there's the AAF-Knoxville Southern style flash mob.

With our flash mobs, things are a bit more civil. People tend to linger, visit with each other, get to know one another. Instead of performance art, they exchange stories, ideas, and--often--business cards. People come and go as they please, and thanks to a few libations and snacks, people tend to mark the date for the next flash mob on their calendars (Hint: it's every second Tuesday of the month.)

If you haven't been to an AAF-Knoxville flash mob, drop by for a few minutes. It's an experience you'll want to have. Typically every time it rolls around.

See ya Thursday at Aubrey's at Northshore. 'Round 5:30, let's say. Look for us out on the patio.

_________________________________________________________________

Web - Facebook - Twitter - District - National

OK, What’s KO?
Knoxville Overground has an ambitious mission to foster entrepreneurship in Knoxville. See what this means to you on June 25.

Alex Lavidge of Knoxville Overground will show us how his unique organization is designed to help new businesses prosper - and how this integrates with the East Tennessee Marketing and Advertising Community. Join us for this fascinating look at how to help ideas grow.

Thursday, June 25th
Peerless Steak House
11:30 Networking
12:00 Installation of 2009-2010 AAF-Knoxville Board of Directors
12:15 Lunch and Presentation

$20 AAF Members with RSVP
$25 Non-member with RSVP
$30 At the door with no RSVP
(Visa & MasterCard accepted with $1.25 fee)

RSVP by June 22nd to Karen Taylor: email or 742-4838.
If you do not RSVP, you'll be forced to pay more moola.

_______________________________________________________________________

Web - Facebook - Twitter - District - National

National ADDY® Awards

Congratulations to Knoxville's Tombras Group for winning two National ADDY® Awards! A Gold ADDY® Award was given to Tombras for the Festival Events Microsite produced for the Smoky Mountain Convention & Visitors Bureau. A Silver ADDY® Award was given to Tombras for its own Portfolio Website. The event took place this past weekend in Washington DC.