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Consumer Stories
B2B Stories

A different kind of BYOB

If someone is hosting a party and tells you to BYOB, it usually means Bring Your Own Bottle, Booze, or Beer. Not this time. When you visit JoJo’s Flower Bar, the acronym stands for Build Your Own Bouquet. Josey Nina is an entrepreneur who has a love for all things floral. She has parlayed that passion into a business called JoJo’s Flower Bar. “I did a trial run at the Barnyard Flea Market in Augusta. It was an awesome day of meeting people and introducing myself and my flower bar

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Mitzi Oxford September 4, 2023 No Comments
B2B Stories

Medical illustration students learn how to sell themselves

Medical illustration students at Augusta University got a taste of what it is like for competitors on the “Shark Tank” television program. Amanda Behr, chair of the department in the College of Allied Health Sciences, wanted to find a way to help students step out of their comfort zone. She turned to Lynsey Steinberg, a licensed medical illustrator at AU who created the Innovate Competition. It breaks students into smaller groups to create presentations and then pitch them to a panel of judges. Behr came up with the idea of

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Dana Lynn McIntyre September 4, 2023 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Now playing: “The Hill” filmed in Augusta

Editor’s note: The Hill generated about $5 million locally to the CSRA economy during the filming in 2021, employed an estimated 50 local crew members, and employed over 500 background actor days. “In addition to hiring local crew, The Hill generated an economic impact in Augusta by paying local location fees, housed crew in local hotels, hired several local background extras and utilized additional local services. Film Augusta was influential in the decision to land this production in Augusta by assisting the production team in navigating the production through the use of local

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Dylan James August 30, 2023 No Comments
Consumer Stories

It’s finally official! Welllstar and AU Health systems are one

Wellstar Health System and Augusta University Health System started their first day yesterday (AUHS) as a unified system. AUHS will now be known locally as Wellstar MCG Health. Together, Wellstar and Wellstar MCG Health are committed to investing in cutting-edge medical facilities and infrastructure, strengthening collaborations with rural hospitals, and providing greater access to digital health services and top-notch clinical care, such as pediatric care offered by Wellstar and Children’s Hospital of Georgia. This partnership also represents an alliance between Wellstar Health System, the University System of Georgia, Wellstar MCG

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Staff Report August 30, 2023 No Comments
B2B Stories

First-of-its-kind security center in Georgia opens at Augusta Tech

A security center unlike any other is up and running with students from Augusta Technical College. The student-operated Security Operations Center has opened at the Georgia Cyber Innovations and Training Center on the Augusta Tech campus. The students come from the college’s School of Cyber and Design Media. The center gives them hands-on experience in the SOC. Working with real-world applications, the students will learn to analyze network traffic, looking for anomalies that may indicate malicious activity on the Internet. They will also learn how to protect the network itself

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Dana Lynn McIntyre August 30, 2023 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Chamber leader calls for more business support for local charity

Golden Harvest Food Bank held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the agency’s newly renovated and expanded Volunteer and Administration Center on Aug. 29. The centerpiece of the project is a large room where staff and volunteers pack groceries for distribution. “So, we’ll be able to have hundreds of volunteers in here every week to help us sort and pack food, both for backpacks for children, just general sorting for families and senior boxes,” said Amy Breitmann, president and CEO of Golden Harvest. Golden Harvest started in 1982. Since then, it has

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Dana Lynn McIntyre August 29, 2023 No Comments
Closings

The CSRA will be a little less sweet without Cyndi’s

Ten years ago, Cyndi’s Sweet Shoppe opened on Laurens Street in downtown, Aiken, S.C. What started out as her husband Dick’s idea for a nostalgic candy store, soon also became hers. She loved the area because they were surrounded by other wonderful shops. Social media has weighed in heavily on the fact that Cyndi’s is closing. This was her post on her Facebook page to her loyal customers. With great sadness, Cyndi’s is CLOSING, it is true. After 10 years of being in business, our landlord, the former owner of

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Mitzi Oxford August 28, 2023 No Comments
Closings

Steak N Shake abruptly closes; auction set for furniture/equipment

Steak N Shake, which started strongly in 2012 with a local franchisee group and 130 employees —suddenly closed last week for good, according to the franchisee and an auction house overseeing the sale of 103 pieces of furniture and equipment left behind. “I brought this to Augusta. I loved the product myself with great steakburgers and milkshakes, said franchisee, Preston Moss, who closed down the operation with partner, Andy Pye last week. He said it was time due to many economic factors and that he is busier than ever with

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Neil Gordon August 28, 2023 No Comments
Consumer Stories

Partnership provides unique training ground for healthcare workers

A public-private partnership will soon be providing hundreds of new potential employees for the healthcare industry. The first cohorts of students studying at Augusta Technical College’s School of Health Sciences are nearing the end of their training in disciplines ranging from medical assistants, to radiology, to nursing and more. These will be the first students to graduate from Augusta Tech’s partnership with Piedmont Hospital, creating a new health sciences campus at University Hospital Summerville on Wrightsboro Road. That was previously known as Trinity Hospital and began serving Augusta in 1952

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Dana Lynn McIntyre August 28, 2023 No Comments
B2B Stories

Simon Says: Struggles for Startups

A couple of weeks ago, ABD ran a story about Clubhou.se and startups. Eric Parker, president and CEO of Make Startups stated that only 17% of entrepreneurs were able to get funding, while Congressman Rick Allen bemoaned the bureaucracy that inhibits startups. A new paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta sheds further light on business startups. They use applications for Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) as a measure of entrepreneurial idea generation. They then track how many of these ideas and EIN applications turn into employer businesses within

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Dr. Simon Medcalfe August 28, 2023 No Comments
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