Previous 2007 Events

• Join us October 17th for our October "Meet, Greet, and Mingle". We will have a panel discussing best practices in web marketing for small and medium sized locally owned businesses. The panel will be composed of people from Pure Visibility, Inner Circle Media, and TLCI Website Solutions. There will be time for you to ask questions, offer your own best practices, and meet other members. We hope you'll join us!
     Pure Visibility
     201 S. Main St. 5th Floor
     Wednesday, October 17th 2007. Doors open at 6pm, and program begins    promptly by 6:30pm
  
  Admission is free (as are the munchies) and everyone is welcome.
  
• Summer Social Wednesday, June 20th from 6-8pm for an outdoor summer social event. We'll be under the arch at the Scio Village Town Center, where three of our member businesses are located (at 283 S. Zeeb Road). There will be a scavenger hunt, wonderful munchies provided by new member Lulu's, and wine from Wine Etc. by donation. It will be an opportunity to learn more about some of our member businesses, meet other business owners, learn what's next for Think Local First...and let's not forget the great food!
• Speaker Laury Hammel. Tuesday. April 10th. Doors open at 6:30; Laury speaks and does a Q&A from 7-8pm. Performance Network, Ann Arbor. Laury will speak about  how every aspect of a business -from product creation to employee recruitment, to vendor selection, and raising capital - can be set up to benefit both the community and the bottom line. His new book, Growing Local Value: How to Build Business Partnerships That Strengthen Your Community shows future and present entrepreneurs how to build or expand a values-driven business that is deeply embedded in the life of the local community.           
  
• Wine Tasting! April 27th 7-9:30pm. Everyday wines & everyday cook is hosting a wine tasting to benefit Think Local First as part of their series of fundraisers for local nonprofits. Show up anytime this evening to participate in a blind tasting to try and find the one wine that is NOT a Michigan wine. $20 general admission; $18 for Think Local First members.
• Business Member Event. Tuesday, March 13th. 6:30-8pm, Kerrytown Concert Hall (415 N. Fourth Ave, Ann Arbor). Munchies, Mingling, and Learning.  'Marketing on a Shoe-String' will be presented by member Bauer, Dunham, and Barr. Member businesses and potential members welcome!

Buy Local Week 2006

Buy Local Week 2006 was a great success. We appreciate the community's partipation in and support of our Buy Local Week Events and Contests. We'd like to congratulate Susan Roelofs of Ypsilanti, MI, for winning the grand prize from a pool of 1,103 entries into our contest. She entered at Mast Shoes, which is also where she'll be taking her gift certificate. Congratulations! We have also notified the 10 winners of gift certificates to other local business members.

We'd also like to thank our in-kind media members: Current Magazine and Ann Arbor Observer, for their help in promoting Buy Local Week. Finally, THANK YOU to Bauer Dunham Barr for their in-kind graphic design work on our Ads and our Buy Local Week Poster. Events included:

• Saturday, December 9th, 2-3:30pm. Exclusive Screening of the Documentary Independent America.
  

• Shadow Art Fair. Friday December 1st 8pm-Midnight. 
• Socially Responsible Local Business Showcase. Thursday, December 7th, 7-9:30pm. 
• PresenTable. Sunday, December 10th, 12-4pm.

Previous Events

• November 15th. First Annual Event. Thanks to the approximately 75 business and community members who joined us for our First Annual Speaker Event & Fundraiser, featuring noted economist and author Michael H. Shuman speaking about his new book The Small-Mart Revolution, and of course, lots of great food from our business members!
  

• June 8-10th. 4th Annual Business Alliance for Local Living Economies National Conference: Creating Sustainable Communities. Vermont. See www.livingeconomies.org.

• April 19th. LEN meeting at Arbor Brewing Company - guest speaker Ellen Shepard from the Andersonville (Chicago) Chamber of Commerce.  Ellen Shepard from the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce presented about their economic impact study. For more information, read the press release.

• April 3rd Noon. Join Think Local First for lunch with Frances Moore Lappé.  Arbor Brewing Company, 114 E. Washington St.