Chamber Chat: When a Pandemic Brings Pivots Worth Keeping

Description

Nearly five months into the Coronavirus pandemic and the pivots keep coming!  Back in April, we hosted four local business leaders to discuss their pivots worth keeping, and this time we're back with a fresh four stories you don't want to miss.

To continue supporting our local restaurants, this time those with a focus on yummy breakfast fare, your $15 registration includes a $15 gift card from a list of participating Chamber Member restaurant listed below!

Meet our speakers:


Claire Campbell, Satisfactory Printing
Satisfactory is a boutique screen printing and design company in Athens, GA.  We focus mainly on custom apparel printing for local businesses, educational institutions, churches, and musical artists.  I have been the CFO since 2008.  We are a small company (15 people), so I wear many hats.  Besides just being the money-wrangler, I also handle all the human resources stuff, licensing contracts, and SO much more.  As you well know, the PANDEMIC OF 2020 caused all schools to shut down, in-person worship & live concerts ceased to exist, and nearly all local business was put on indefinite hold.  Our factory came to a grinding halt...  until we realized we could shift gears and use online tools to help our fellow Athenians fundraise and keep our printers printing!


Heather Youngquist, Express Employment Professionals
Heather graduated from the University of GA in 2008 with a degree in Advertising and a minor in Psychology. She was fortunate enough to obtain a job right out of college as the managing editor and marketing coordinator for The Real Estate Book of Athens, where she stayed until she came to Express in 2011. Heather started her career with Express as the Office Coordinator and was later promoted to Branch Manager. When asked what she loves most about her job, Heather responded, "I have a great occupation and am fortunate enough to make a difference in, and be a part of such an amazing community." In addition to being passionate about her job, Heather is a huge advocate for the local businesses in Athens and the surrounding areas. She is on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer's Association - Walk to End Alzheimer's, a member of the UGA Alumni Association, and Co-Chair of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors. She is an advocate of local businesses and spends a lot of time volunteering for the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. In her spare time, Heather enjoys attending UGA sporting events, Braves games, and spending time with her husband Jordan and her friends and family.


Jon'ette Jones, Classic City Chef
Classic City Chef is locally owned by Mickey Wickwire and has been providing catering and event production services to UGA and surrounding areas for the past 14 years. I have been with the company since January 2018. I began as a bartender/server to now Director of Catering, giving me the reins to handle many different responsibilities within the company. I handle the day to day operations, staffing for events, the set up, breakdown and coordinating of events as well as maintaining and keeping the company schedule. Due to the pandemic all of our scheduled UGA events, private parties and even weddings began to cancel or push back to much later months or cancel altogether.This in turn left us to think outside of the box. While we still provide wedding consultations and tastings we also started a food cart that will be providing Athens and surrounding areas with our amazing food in a new way! We announce our locations and days of operations through our social media so that way we can continue to feed our friends and family!


Josh Smith, Prince Avenue Baptist Church
J. Josh Smith is the lead pastor of Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Bogart, Georgia.  Josh has ministered in over 25 countries, worked with international students, and served as a missionary in central Europe.  His greatest passion is the exaltation of Christ and the advancement of Christ's kingdom to the ends of the earth through the ministry of the local church. Josh is a graduate of Liberty University, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Josh and his wife, Andrea, have four daughters and one son (Lily, Gracie, Josie, Annie, and Josiah).