Business and Industry Showcase held as part of 150 years celebration

As part of a year of sesquicentennial celebrations for the city, Johnson City business community invited the public to a Business and Industry Showcase Wednesday afternoon at the Carnegie Hotel.

With 30 vendors and food and drink provided by local businesses, the Business and Industry Showcase highlighted where they’ve been, and where they plan to go in the future.

“It’s huge [to be a part of the showcase],” said Hunter Greene, event coordinator At Mahoney’s Outfitters. “We do events as much as we can, and it’s good to be a part and see all these brands who’ve helped build up Johnson City and Johnson City helped us as well.”

Sarah Laposky with the Hands On Discovery Center noted that events such as the Business and Industry showcase help a lot by providing the business an opportunity to not only get their name out there, but also to help them network with other local businesses. 

Among the vendors, members of the sesquicentennial commission milled about, talking with various vendors and community members, while several people from the Sesquicentennial Fundraising Committee operated a booth to help bring awareness and raise funds for two projects they hope to complete for the city’s 150^th birthday on Dec. 1. The committee hopes to raise an additional $200,000 to meet their $2.2 million goal to construct a nature adventure area and legacy circle in King Commons Park.

“We’re really excited about [the projects], and when we talk to people, they’re excited about it,” said Heidi Dulebohn, who is part of the Sesquicentennial Fundraising Committee. “It’s a great thing.”

The city of Johnson City also had a display set up and offered those in attendance a chance to record and have a video message put into a time capsule that will be put into the ground and unearthed in another 50 years. The year of sesquicentennial events kicked off on Jan. 5, with the unearthing of a time capsule from 1969.

“I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to [put the video into the time capsule], but I imagine we’ll have a couple different [types of video] in there including DVD, a thumb-drive and I might petition for a flip book with handwritten messages in case of apocalypse,” said JT McSpadden, digital communications manager for the city of Johnson City.

The Business and Industry showcase was part of the March “Celebrate Local Businesses and Our Industry Sector” theme, the third of monthly themes to celebrate 150 years of Johnson City. April’s theme will focus on faith and service in the community.