PTI and surrounding cities have tossed SkyBus at least $650,000 if they will expand service from PTI. The incentive package could become very rich indeed if SkyBus turns PTI into another Columbus, OH or at least starts serving a direct flight from Greensboro to another city not currently serviced by an airline at PTI.

SkyBus is a "budget" airline running direct flights from Greensboro to Columbus, OH currently but to fly further, say Boston you pretty much have to stay overnight in Columbus with their current schedule.

http://www.skybus.com/#

I posted back awhile back that having T-Mobile buy in of the Suncom network was going to rattle some cages in the local wireless market and it didn’t take long at all for that to happen. Verizon will start selling the Samsung i760 on the 19th but it won’t hit stores until November. This is probably one of the coolest phones out there right now as it takes several key features of several phones and pulls them into one.

Along with the i760 Verizon will be releasing several other phones including the updated VX6700, now the VX6800, about time on that one.           Another big hit with users on other networks is the HTC Libra which Verizon will re-label the SMT5800.

If your clueless about SmartPhones they are a class of phones which can directly sync with both personal and corporate business emails, calendars, task and more. With the right phone and provider you can literally take your Outlook on the road.

Here’s some pretty big news:

RALEIGH, N.C. — The public financial incentives given to computer manufacturer Dell Inc. to build a plant in Winston-Salem are legal, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, rejecting the arguments of a Republican candidate for governor who sued on behalf of taxpayers.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr argued the state and local incentives, which could exceed $300 million, are unconstitutional because they primarily benefit Dell, rather than a general public purpose.

The three-judge panel disagreed, finding that the incentives "promote the general economic welfare of the communities involved" and are therefore constitutional under a 1996 decision of the state Supreme Court.

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press Writer

 

Full Story is here.

Meetings

• The Winston-Salem Black Chamber of Commerce meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Hewitt Business Center, 1001 S.Marshall St. Laura Hamilton, the director/trainer of corporate education at Forsyth Technical Community College, will talk on “Professional Image and Business Etiquette.” Contact Randon Pender at 575-2006 or log onto www.wsbcc.org.

• The King Chamber of Commerce holds a community update lunch at noon Wednesday. Meet King’s new City Manager John Cater. Cost is $10, reservations by Monday morning. Call 983-9308 or e-mail your reservation to [email protected]

• The eWomenNetwork meets for lunch Thursday Nov. 1 at 11:30 a.m. at the Piedmont Club, 200 W. 2nd St., Winston-Salem. Gail Martin, an author and the owner of DreamSpinner Communications, will speak on “Telling your business story to boost your bottom line.” To register, call 775-9622.

• The Winston-Salem Engineer’s Club meets on the second Monday of each month at the Winston-Salem Lone Star Steakhouse at 6 p.m. Call Dick Cooper, vice president, for information at 766-7894.

• The Piedmont Club Real Estate Council meets the second Friday of each month at 11:30 a.m. for lunch at the Piedmont Club, 19th floor of the BB&T Financial Center at 200 Second St, downtown Winston-Salem.

The cost is $14. For reservations, call 724-7077.

• The HDI Triad chapter holds monthly meetings for information-technology professionals at Fire Mountain Grill, 1180 South Main St., Kernersville. Call 800-248-5667 for more information.

• The Triad Chapter of the Institute for Supply Management holds monthly meetings at the Royal House at 703 East Mountain St., Kernersville. For more information, e-mail [email protected]

• The Winston-Salem chapter of International Association of Administrative Professionals meets every second Tuesday of each month at the office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLC, 8th floor, One W. Fourth St., Winston-Salem.

• The Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce’s referral groups for Chamber members meet as follows: The “Originals” group will meet at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday (it meets every Tuesday) at Billy Bob’s Silver Diner, 1650 Hanes Mall Blvd., Winston-Salem. The “Stars” group meets at 7:45 a.m. every other Wednesday (next meeting is next Wednesday) at Billy Bob’s Silver Diner, 1650 Hanes Mall Blvd. The “Triad Synergy” group meets at 8 a.m. Tuesdays at the Chamber office, 601 W. Fourth St. The “Sharks” group meets at 7:30 a.m. Thursdays at the Golden Corral, Hanes Mall Circle. The “Lions” group meets at noon every other Tuesday (next meeting is next Tuesday) at Salem Glen Golf & Country Club in Clemmons. Call 728-9228.

• Triad Business Connection meets at 7:30 a.m. Tuesdays at Mayberry’s Restaurant on Country Club Road, Winston-Salem. Call Curtis Reid at 724-9414.

• The High Point Founders chapter of Business Network International meets at 7:30 a.m. Wednesdays at The Stratford, 1573 Skeet Club Road, High Point. Call Michael Hague at 884-5780.

• The Empire Toastmasters Club meets at 11:45 a.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month, alternating between the Reynolds Building at 401 N. Main St., and Bowman Gray Technical Center at 950 Reynolds Blvd. Call Pat Bird at 713-4202, or email [email protected]

• The Movers and Shakers chapter of Business Network International meets at 7:30 a.m. Thursdays at the Golden Corral beside Hanes Mall. Call Corbin Dirks at 354-4000.

Courses

• The Watauga Entrepreneur Development Partnership is offering a series of free workshops for people wanting to start their own business, starting Oct. 23. For more information, contact Chilton Rogers at 828-262-6662 or [email protected] The deadline to register is Thursday.

• Forsyth Technical Community College’s Small Business Center provides free, confidential counseling for new and existing businesses. To make an appointment, or to learn more about available resources, call 631-1167 or 631-1320.

Miscellaneous

• The American Society for Quality Central Carolina Section 1109 will hold its next meeting Tuesday at the Comfort Suite-Airport, exit 210 off I-40 in Greensboro. The topic “Lean thinking in UK health care” will be presented by Ann Schenk, the director of service development for Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust.

Register early at www.triadasq.org.

• If you have an announcement for this column, send it to the Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102, or email [email protected] Please include a spokesperson’s name and contact number. Announcements must be received by noon the Wednesday before publication.

Wake Forest University’s reputation for quality graduate students has earned its business school its highest ranking in an annual survey of corporate recruiters released yesterday.

The Babcock Graduate School of Management was ranked second among 51 regional business schools in the seventh annual survey by The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive. It was ranked seventh in the 2006 survey. Babcock was listed in the regional category because it attracts corporate recruiters primarily from the Southeast and Northeast. Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill was ranked sixth among the 19 business schools in the national category, and Fuqua School of Business at Duke University was 13th. The rankings also featured the top 25 international business schools.

“We’re pretty pleased with the No. 2 ranking considering we compete more with the business schools in the regional category than those in the national category,” said Andy Dreyfus, the director of the career- management center at Babcock.

Harris Interactive officials said that the goal of the survey is to help business schools better understanding recruiters’ needs. The rankings were based on interviews with 4,430 recruiters conducted online between Dec. 19 and March 23.

Recruiters rated the schools primarily on the quality of instruction and students, and their plans to recruit and hire students. The number of companies actively recruiting at the schools was also a factor. Only schools with traditional full-time MBA programs that graduated at least 50 students in 2006 were eligible.

“In addition to the technical and quantitative business skills that are standard at most business schools, recruiters consistently tell us that our students deliver intangibles,” Dreyfus said.

“Such as strong communication skills, personal integrity, an eagerness to tackle new challenges, and a teamwork mentality that enables them to roll up their sleeves to solve business challenges,” he said.

Dreyfus said he hopes that the ranking will persuade more recruiters to put Babcock on their radar screen and interest more students in the school.

“The ultimate goal of any business school is to graduate students with the skills necessary to compete in the marketplace,” Dreyfus said.

“This ranking is another confirmation that corporate recruiters are satisfied with the students they are finding at Wake Forest.”

■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at [email protected].

Regional rankings

Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University was ranked second among 51 regional business schools in the country:

1. Brigham Young University (Marriott)

2. Wake Forest University (Babcock)

3. Ohio State University (Fisher)

4. University of Rochester (Simon)

5. Indiana University (Kelley)

6. University of Florida (Warrington)

7. Louisiana State University (Ourso)

8. Emory University (Goizueta)

9. University of Buffalo/SUNY

10. University of Maryland (Smith)

SOURCE: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL/HARRIS INTERACTIVE

Drop in October 23 to give the city’s Department of Transportation your opinion on the proposal to make traffic pattern changes on Reynolda Road from Coliseum Drive to Buena Vista Road.

These changes will include adding bicycle lanes beginning at Avon Road and ending at Buena Vista Road.

To see the proposed design,
stop by
the “Brown Building”
on the
Children’s Home Campus
1001 Reynolda Road
October 23
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

The following documents require the free Adobe Reader; download it from the Adobe web site.

• View the event flyer [pdf/69kb/1p].

• Download the proposed traffic pattern changes [pdf/25.017MB/1p]. WARNING: this is a large file, and could take a very long time to download!

The Triad’s three largest chambers of commerce said yesterday that they expect to fall short of an ambitious economic goal.

The Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point chambers had pledged to improve the Triad’s growth rankings published periodically by the Milken Institute, a highly regarded research group based in California.

In 2003, the research group ranked the region only 165th among the 200 best-performing cities, primarily because of major manufacturing job losses. At the time, the local chambers said that it would get the Triad into the top 50 by 2010 by cooperating more on economic-development projects and improving local work-force skills.

But the institute’s rankings for 2007, released last week, show that the chambers have made limited progress since 2003. The report focuses on nine categories that evaluate job, wage and salary growth over one- and five-year periods.

The Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area slipped from 117th in 2005 to 128th in 2007. The region consists of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties.

By comparison, the Greensboro-High Point MSA improved from 172nd in 2005 to 136th in 2007. The MSA consists of Guilford, Randolph and Rockingham counties. When the 2003 report was released, the Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point metro areas were combined for federal data purposes.

“The splitting of the Triad made this report less valid since we believe it takes the entire Triad to move the needle forward economically,” said Tom Dayvault, the president of the High Point chamber.

Chamber officials said that the goal remains achievable. But it requires continued regional cooperation on long-term projects, such as the Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem, and HondaJet and the FedEx Corp. hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

“We’re gaining jobs overall, but there’s no question we won’t make that goal even if we have significant job increases over the next three years,” said Gayle Anderson, the president and chief executive of the Winston-Salem chamber. “We had hoped at that time that we were over the hump of large job losses, but that hasn’t proven to be the case, as recent job losses indicate.”

The bright spot for Winston-Salem was a No. 4 ranking for job growth in high-tech jobs from 2005 to 2006, mostly related to Dell Inc. adding about 750 jobs at its assembly plant in Forsyth County. The area improved in five of the nine categories from the 2005 report.

However, Winston-Salem ranked 191st in gross domestic product for its high-tech sector, 165th for wage and salary growth from 2004 to 2005, and 155th for wage and salary growth from 2000 to 2005.

“It is a region that remains very much in transition from manufacturing to the service sector,” said Perry Wong, a senior managing economist with the institute. “Progress is being made, but not fast enough to have a major effect on this year’s ranking.”

Angelos Angelou, the founder of AngelouEconomics, said that it is hard for metro areas to raise their rankings significantly in national economic reports because a move up typically requires a drop off by other regions. Angelou’s consulting group did a high-profile study of the local economy in 2003 that emphasized industry sectors such as biotechnology, design, food processing, hospitality and tourism, logistics and distribution, customized materials production, value-added services and viticulture.

“The region is attracting companies that pay the kind of salaries most communities want,” Angelou said. “But its growth may not be taking place as quickly as communities ranked ahead of them.”

As we reported back on September 30th Fresh Market will be relocating it’s Winston-Salem store from Stratford to RobinHood. As a follow up on our earlier post concerning the new Fresh Market on RobinHood. Fresh Market will hold a Grand Opening on October 24th including a live band, cooking and tasting stations, Free coffee to the first 1000 visitors as well as an outdoor BBQ.

A recent drive by of the new location found the store looking close to completion with some interior work going on.