The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce and the Darlington Chamber of Commerce held their annual Administrative Professionals Day Luncheon at SiMT on Wednesday, April 26th. Nearly 400 people came to hear speaker Laura Hamilton talk on the topic of SuperWoman: Are You Invincible? Those in attendance also saw 150 prizes given away. The program was sponsored by Duke Energy, SPC Credit Union and AT&T Mobile.
The Mandy Simpson State Farm hosted a Business After Hours event with the Florence Chamber on Thursday, April 27th. Guests enjoyed live music by Sideswiped, door prizes and networking with the local business community. Mandy Simpson State Farm is located in the Huntington Plaza at 204 Second Loop Road in Florence.
Picture credit: Jessica Imbimbo, Morning News
“The South Carolina Arts Commission has named downtown Florence as the newest state-recognized cultural district. A cultural district is an easily identifiable geographic area with a concentration of arts facilities and assets that support cultural, artistic and economic activity. The cultural district designation was created by the S.C. General Assembly and Gov. Nikki Haley in 2014.
The City of Florence and the Florence Regional Arts Alliance worked with local leaders and Arts Commission staff to develop a map of cultural assets and a strategic plan for the district. City officials will use the cultural district designation to attract visitors and residents to downtown and promote the area as a hub of arts and culture.
“This cultural district designation from the South Carolina Arts Commission is a tremendous honor,” said Florence City Council member George Jebailey. “This designation recognizes the hard work done over the last 17 years by a community committed to a unified vision to create a detailed master plan establishing a purposeful clustering of multiple arts venues in downtown Florence. Through the collaboration of the many public-private partners working together on this unified vision, we have seen the master plan become a reality leading to this important designation. We anticipate that many new opportunities will now be available for us to promote both the City of Florence and the entire Pee Dee Region as an important destination for arts, culture and entertainment.”
“Receiving the S.C. state recognition of a designated cultural district will assist in our ongoing marketing of downtown Florence as a tourist destination,” said Florence Downtown Development Manager Ray Reich. “The Vision 2010 Initiative that was created in 2000, as well as the 2010 Downtown Master Plan, envisioned downtown as a place featuring a string of cultural pearls. The first pearl in the string was the library, followed by the Florence Little Theatre, and then the FMU Performing Arts Center, followed by the new museum, as well as many other cultural amenities that have been developed in recent years in our beautiful and historic downtown. This designation affirms that we are well in our way to achieving the vision of a string of cultural pearls. However, this is just the beginning, and while we have created an outstanding foundation, the work will not stop as we continue to work together as a community to live up to our new community brand of being a community full of life and moving full forward with more amenities.””
Read the rest of the article at the link below.
SC Arts Hub Web Article – Florence is the newest South Carolina Cultural District
“FLORENCE, S.C. – Lane’s Professional Pest Elimination, the largest privately owned pest-elimination service in the state, was honored at a ribbon cutting Wednesday afternoon after joining the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce.
Lane’s Professional Pest Elimination has been in business since 1985 and services countless residential and commercial structures from Georgia up to North Carolina. In the Florence area, Lane’s keeps unwanted pests from ravaging popular businesses and restaurants including Red Bone Alley and Town Hall.
Roy Snowden, account service liaison for Lane’s Pest Elimination, said becoming a part of the Greater Florence Chamber is a welcome step for both him and the company.
Lane’s continually educates its technicians and provides training using advanced pest management techniques and products. The company also offers long-term pest-management plans that can be arranged on a one-time, monthly, quarterly or seasonal basis.
Snowden has worked for Lane’s for close to a year and said the company does an exceptional job remaining competitive with its nationally recognized counterparts.
Snowden added that the company has a reputation not only for reasonable prices and outstanding results, but also for emphasizing the importance of first-rate customer service.
“Our service is second to none,” Snowden said. “When Lane started this company his first priority was customer service. Second was service. And we still hold true to that.”
SCNow Web Article – Lane’s Professional Pest Elimination joins Chamber
Photo/Article Credit: Kendall McGee, WBTW
“FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The City of Florence unveiled its new branding Friday afternoon at the Waters Building on Dargan Street.
“Full Life. Full Forward. Florence South Carolina,” one logo read.
Business owners, city leaders and even local cheerleaders attended the brand launch.
“We have created an identity for Florence, and today what we are doing with our brand initiative is identifying what the people in Florence feel like. We’ve done over 700 interviews to find out what they think and what they want out of a community,” said restaurant owner Tim Norwood.
In the past four years, over $150 million has been invested in downtown Florence, the mayor confirms.
“Well I will tell you what, you know obviously downtown has kinda been the epicenter of the movement that’s been going on in Florence for the past several years but it really expands throughout the entire community and it gives a focal point really for this change that are going on and can really be seen in concrete fashion,” said Mayor Stephen Wukela.
A street fair is planned for Friday evening that will include live music, food vendors, and giveaways. The event kicks off at 6 p.m. and giveaways start at 7:15 p.m.
City leaders will also attend two branding workshops in April to ensure the community understands the new marketing message and to also build awareness of the new campaign.”
