Getting about the business of business

SUFFOLK

Check business calendars around central Suffolk and you'll likely see the second Tuesday of the month circled, blocking out the early evening hours for business people to reconnect with each other at the Greater Suffolk Council's Second Tuesday networking events.

The gatherings, started in 2006, are one of the earliest projects of the council, a growing organization working to foster a healthy, stable environment for businesses located in Suffolk's central commercial core, roughly bounded by VA 58.

Paige Pollard, of the Commonwealth Preservation Group, was at one of the first networking evenings when she realized that people who had operated businesses within blocks of each other for years were meeting for the first time.

People are generally so busy running their offices that they don't make time to meet other business owners, she said. A regularly scheduled event prompts them to make the time and effort.

Cathy McEntire, a principal in McEntire Davis Architects PLLC, had heard about the Greater Suffolk Council before she attended her first Second Tuesday more than a year ago.

"Naturally I wondered what it could do for me," she said. "But unexpectedly I met local people I could give business to."

"I want to see all the Suffolk businesses flourish," McEntire said, "then mine will, too."

Back in 2005, Pollard said, a group of long-time and relatively new business owners, Suffolk natives and newer residents brainstormed ways to build stronger connections between businesses in the city.

The city already had one business organization, The Downtown Business Association, fostered by former Suffolk mayor Andy Damiani that has been meeting since August 2000.

"But we cast a wider net and draw from the larger base of central Suffolk," Pollard said, adding that several business people, including Damiani, belong to both organizations.

The Suffolk Greater Council is more than a mere "meet and greet" group, however.

The founding group looked at downtown associations and other business networking groups across the state as models toward their goal of building a stronger business environment that that ultimately leads to a better quality of life for residents, she said.

The Council has launched a W eb site, www.greatersuffolk.com/, and e-mails a newsletter full of city business news to about 400 readers each month.

The Council also worked with the city's Department of Economic Development to include more than 70 businesses and projects in a nomination of Downtown Suffolk for a 2008 Award of Merit the Virginia Downtown Development Association. The award was presented to the city in October.

On New Year's Eve the council will sponsor its second annual holiday celebration at the Hilton Garden Inn in Suffolk.

"We wanted to give people an alternative to celebrate in Suffolk," said Dave Arnold, partner with Pender & Coward PC and president of the council. "It's not a fundraiser, we're just happy to break even."

The group is in the midst of a membership drive and can already count 40 corporate members and a few associate memberships.

"We hope to double that number," Arnold said. "Ideally we'd like to have a crowd of about 50 people at every Second Tuesday."

Phyllis Speidell, (757) 222-5556 or phyllis.speidell@pilotonline.com