Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Bridging Community and Commerce: Inside Mount Pleasant's Development
The iconic Ravenel Bridge isn't just visible from every angle of Charleston—it symbolizes Mount Pleasant's rising prominence as an economic and innovation hub in South Carolina. In this engaging conversation with Town of Mount Pleasant Economic Development Officer Matt Brady, we explore how this thriving community balances growth with livability.
Discover the exciting public space developments enhancing Mount Pleasant's appeal, from the new waterfront park at Alhambra Hall to the completed "micro-mobility" project at Pitt Street Bridge. Brady shares how these investments create premier destinations for residents and visitors alike, strengthening the community fabric that makes Mount Pleasant special.
Looking for career opportunities? The Chamber's 15th Annual Business Expo on September 18th introduces an integrated job fair featuring major employers including the Town of Mount Pleasant, Port Authority, Charleston County Dispatch, and emerging businesses. With competitive salaries and benefits, these organizations seek talented individuals across diverse fields. The event offers free admission and represents the largest networking opportunity in the Charleston area.
As hurricane season approaches, we discuss preparedness strategies with insights about regional coordination and community education efforts. Learn about the upcoming "Coffee with a Cause" session on August 7th featuring emergency preparedness expert Shannon Whitehead—and discover the folklore behind local hurricane indicators like the Coburg Cow and Waffle House Index.
The podcast concludes with an exploration of Mount Pleasant's innovation economy initiatives, particularly the town's involvement with Charleston Hacks. This collaborative approach brings together tech professionals, marketers, and creative thinkers to solve community challenges while building connections that could spark the next generation of local ventures.
Join us at our upcoming "Know Your Lawmaker" reception on August 13th aboard the USS Yorktown for an opportunity to connect with local elected officials. Subscribe and follow the Building Business Podcast for monthly updates on Mount Pleasant's economic development landscape!
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Production Sponsor: RMBO.co
Design Sponsor: DK Design
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones
Hi everyone. I'm Rebecca Imholz. I'm the Executive Director of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. I'm so excited today to do our second Building Business Podcast with the Town of Mount Pleasant Economic Development Officer Matt Brady, and joining me is Mike Compton who is our Marketing Chair? And where are we, Mike? Where are we?
Speaker 2:right now we're at the Charles Media Solutions studios here. They're great sponsors of the chamber. They let us record here in their studio for this unbelievable podcast that we have here called the Building Business Podcast.
Speaker 1:Building Business Podcast From the Mount.
Speaker 2:Pleasant Chamber. So thanks for joining us. Matt Brady, how are you today? I'm great. Yeah, you had a little back issue.
Speaker 3:I hear huh, you're a little sore, you get a little workout in. I did. I turned officially mid 40s and started hurting myself.
Speaker 2:So it happens I hear that, yeah, I want to be 47 this year, so I'm like it's terrible, it's not that bad I. I'm the alternative. I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 3:At least we're here in mount pleasant. Oh hey, mount pleasant. That's why we're here to talk.
Speaker 1:That's why we're here in Mount.
Speaker 2:Pleasant, oh hey, Mount Pleasant. That's why we're here to talk. That's why we're here.
Speaker 1:Mount Pleasant made.
Speaker 2:What's new, Matt Brady, in the old economic development world of yours?
Speaker 3:Well, we're busy. Let's see what's going on here in Mount Pleasant. We've got a comp plan update. That's sort of been underway. The park just opened at Alhambra Hall oh, we did.
Speaker 2:The front lawn up there.
Speaker 3:Our waterfront park has opened up. We've got a lot of business activity, a lot of people giving us a look to be the capital of innovation in this state, and it's been had a lot of fun here lately.
Speaker 2:I love that. And so you say Alhambra Hall Isn't the Pitt Street? Bridge over that direction.
Speaker 3:The Pitt Street Bridge is over that direction and the town performed a little micro-mobility project and it's back open now.
Speaker 2:Micro-what now? What is that?
Speaker 3:It's a fancy urban planner way of talking about another place to walk and another place to sort of just be in your community. So, uh, just another wonderful place in town love that, love that.
Speaker 2:And then and then before uh, rebecca chimes in, what about the park underneath the bridge there, coming over, uh, to the mount pleasant side?
Speaker 1:that's a really cool it is so much fun I've taken my grandchildren have you it's amazing it's awesome.
Speaker 3:Um. It's just another premier destination here in mount pleasant truly and I'm that's not just me saying that, because that's my job to say it, but it's truly a really cool place. Um, all of our partners that worked to get it open um did a phenomenal job. They got it right and I think the community both right there, our residents and then everybody that wants to hang out right underneath the bridge is going to love that for a lot of years people love that bridge.
Speaker 2:They love there's. There's a deep love for that bridge from a lot of people. Carolyn Murray walks the bridge every morning.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, she is iconic. I'm not surprised she was on an episode. Yes, she's amazing. Yeah, she's cool Absolutely.
Speaker 2:But you know people drive to that side of the bridge and then walk back and forth a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that I cross it at least twice a day and I love it and it's truly an icon in the region. I think I mean, you know, every movie that has Paris in it acts like the Eiffel Tower is visible from every angle. The bridge is truly visible from every angle of Charleston. I love that. It's iconic and it's realistic.
Speaker 2:Do you find yourself taking videos of like the you know going by it, and sunsets, you know?
Speaker 3:mike, I can never use my phone when I drive I'm terrible about it.
Speaker 2:Good answer, but I'm always sunroof open.
Speaker 3:It is beautiful and sometimes it's, it's breathtaking um. A lot of times it's breathtaking, yeah, um. So it's, it's a great feature of our region.
Speaker 2:Fun, fun, fun, fun. Rebecca, let's get in the business, shall we?
Speaker 1:Sounds good. Well, the last time you were here, matt, we talked a lot about the uniqueness of Mount Pleasant, how amazing it is to live here, and one of the focuses of the Chamber is that we have a great quality of life and we want people to not only live here but work here. That's right. So one of the things that we're doing in partnership with the town for our upcoming expo in September is a job fair and the town's going to participate.
Speaker 3:That's right. We're excited too. The town is, first, it's a great employer. I kind of think of us as an employer of choice in the region with very competitive salaries and benefits and we've got dozens of jobs open and anyone listening, I'd encourage you to go check them out and they really have kind of a broad range of what we're looking for out in our public services and you know, are outside doing their job, the folks who are accountants and planners and administrative people and and we've got a lot of options and, uh, we'll be excited to participate and see the community at the, the business expo and we're excited about it because not only do we have the town, the port's going to be there, we've got Charleston County Dispatch Spinks, which is a new employer coming into the town, highway 17.
Speaker 1:And we don't want to forget about our hospitality folks, so Reigns Hospitality. So that's, I think it's a great representation across the board of folks who can work and live in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2:So when is the expo?
Speaker 1:It is September 18th.
Speaker 2:Folks who can work and live in Mount Pleasant. So when is the expo? It is September 18th so we're going to have the business expo.
Speaker 1:And then we're going to have a job fair within the business expo.
Speaker 2:Within the business expo. That's really cool, I don't know if anybody else has done that before, probably not.
Speaker 1:We're very unique.
Speaker 2:But we're doing it for our first time and this expo is the biggest networking opportunity in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1:In the area.
Speaker 2:In Charleston.
Speaker 1:Yes, not just Mount Pleasant Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, right, so listeners please September 18th 18th, it's a Thursday. It's free to come. And if you are Free, did you say free to come? It's free, absolutely free.
Speaker 1:We've got some really cool bags we're going to give away the first 500 attendees.
Speaker 2:These bags.
Speaker 1:These bags are very cool they're very cool, they're clear, very popular. And then, as you go through the 90, some vendors were over halfway sold out yes, yes, and we still have two months to go.
Speaker 2:We have a few sponsorship availabilities left, just community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, check that out, but we've got um. The town is one of our sponsors um cruise. Subaru is our big sponsor this year. Nivon Health is our healthcare sponsor.
Speaker 2:Right, what a cool way to. So we're really excited.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I am super excited. It's our 15th annual one. That's a big one. We had one during COVID.
Speaker 2:It was virtual, it was different.
Speaker 1:I remember that, but we had one, and I also don't want to leave our conversation today without talking about this time of year, hurricanes. We have an amazing, amazing, um hurricane preparedness, what it would you call it department in the town, or folks or uh, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:So we uh. When you think about hurricane preparedness in mount pleasant, you've got to think about all of our public safety people, that's, you know, fire, public services, um, police, because they always, uh have to participate and be all hands on deck. But we've got an amazing staff person who's sort of overall emergency preparedness, named Shannon Whitehead. She is right there at town hall. She is an expert in getting us ready for disasters, which, of course, unfortunately includes hurricanes in our region. Here we are with our first named storm of the region already in Chantal, and Shannon's working really hard, uh, trying to find ways to reach out to businesses, um, to get all of us ready at town hall, who don't always think about, of course, you know, hurricanes, cause that's not our job. But she's thinking about it and so we're ready. And you know, I encourage anyone to check out our website if they want to find more information, and I believe she's going to be participating in a morning get-together with the Chamber right, yes, coffee with a Cause.
Speaker 1:That is Thursday, august 7th. It's free to attend. We open it up to members but the public as well. So Shannon's going to be there talking about what we can all do to be better prepared for hurricane season and if you're new to the area, I highly encourage you to come to that event, because I always learn something new but I had no idea exactly what I needed to keep in my closet at home and when do I leave and things like that. And businesses definitely prep right, right.
Speaker 2:Does shannon have rob fowler's name, like phone number on speed dial is?
Speaker 3:I will tell you I have heard that there is a secret slack channel that all the emergency preparedness and meteorological staff are a part of.
Speaker 3:See that's cool they're all working together to make sure that, because you know these, these, these storms, they're regional right, they don't stop at an arbitrary municipal boundary and we've all kind of got to work across jurisdictions. So it's actually, I hope, that our listeners know that we're all working together across counties, across cities, and also you should check out the annual hurricane guide, because it's got the coburg cow on it this year, so cool. Try to find that and pick one up. What?
Speaker 1:what's a coburg?
Speaker 2:shipwreck oh cool I'm like what?
Speaker 3:for those of you unfamiliar, the coburg cow has been around for a long time. It's over in west ashley and, uh, a lot of people will judge how bad a storm is going to be by if the coburg cow is still up or not. Um, are you serious? So when they when they take it down and it's just a giant. I guess aluminum, maybe painted cow from the former coburg dairy I guess that was there and uh, and it's part of our local lore.
Speaker 3:But also, people will judge if they're leaving or not by if the Coburg cow's still on.
Speaker 1:And the Waffle House. Is it open or not?
Speaker 3:The Waffle House index is probably more reliable than even the Coburg cow.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:I had no idea, matthew. Our engineer over here was shaking his head like, yeah, of course he knew that I'm the engineer over here was shaking his head. Of course he knew that. Of course he knew that I'm the idiot over here. What are you talking about? A cow is going to tell me when there's a hurricane coming or not. That's fun.
Speaker 1:That's fun news. I just like it.
Speaker 2:That's a great little addition there, Rebecca. Did you want to include anything else? Did you have another question?
Speaker 1:before I jump in yeah, yeah, actually, the town does a great job of getting feedback from the public on strategic planning process and there was just a round of public engagement meetings. Anything you can share with us, Matt, about what you heard from residents.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we so the. To get to the wonky part of it, every municipality in South Carolina, if they want to have zoning, has to have a comprehensive plan. That's in state statute and you have to pass a big one every 10 years and you have to pass an update every five. And so the town has gone through our five-year update of those, and what we've been doing over the last month or so is going to different parts of our community and collecting feedback from folks that want to drop in. So you come in, you meet with sort of subject matter experts like our transportation people or planning people or whatever, and we've had some visuals and people tell us what they want to see moving forward, will tell us what they want to see moving forward, and a lot of that is a lot of what I heard at my station is understanding better housing affordability. I've heard um, you know traffic of course is a is a big thing and a lot of people want to always tell us what kind of restaurants they want when they move the town.
Speaker 3:so, um, but so interesting, we will um we are still in the sort of uh collection phase and we will uh present all of that information, what we've heard, to uh town council and they'll pass the update and that sort of informs what we do uh as a community um across really all departments and um it's a it's an important tool and when will that be available?
Speaker 2:yeah, what's the data there? Yeah?
Speaker 3:uh, I would say it will be uh unveiled. They'll probably present it at the august town council meeting. So just sort of be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 2:It sometime uh, early fall, late summer okay, I'll be at that meeting actually and then so what's the dot com we can go to to kind of monitor what when that meeting is and kind of stay uh, our town website, town of mount pleasant dot com, is us.
Speaker 3:yep yeah, perfect and Perfect.
Speaker 1:And the chamber. We'll put it on our calendar.
Speaker 2:We should be doing that, we should be sharing those. Yes, I mean we're going now we're taking turns going.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, All right cool.
Speaker 2:You just did something really cool that I saw and I'm you know, I'm the marketing geek and, um, you know, SAS and AI is all hot nowadays too, and I thought it was really cool to see the town of.
Speaker 3:Mount Pleasant engaged in the Charleston hacks? Yeah, hackathon, yeah. So, um, for those of us, for those of y'all who are listening that don't know, there is an organization called Charleston hacks and their primary goal is to host these hackathons, and a hackathon is when people get together across people from all disciplines and walks of life. A lot of it is going to be like coding heavy and people who are in UI, ux, software as a service type people, but what happens is these people get together and a problem is presented to the folks at these hackathons and they coalesce around teams, they form teams and their job is to, within a period of time, figure out a solution to whatever the problem may be, and it's usually in sort of some kind of software platform or something like that. And so we recently held one um through charleston. I was fortunate enough to sort of be one of the presenters of a challenge statement, or a problem statement, as they call it, and what I was looking for and we worked with SC competes, which is another economic development organization to talk about, like how we know in Mount Pleasant that there are a ton of people who are working sort of as solo entrepreneurs in the tech space. How do I find those people? And so you know that was a problem statement, challenge statement, whatever you want to call it, and there's a team that tackled that. The event was held at the Charleston Parts Conservancy over at West Ashley, and there was a team that tackled the the challenge statement of for the Charleston parts conservancy how do we know who to target and reach out to and at what time for donations and volunteerism and stuff like that? And, um, there are technologies out there that allow you to do that. Ai has played a big role, played a big role in what some of these folks came up with, and there's all kinds of whiz bang platforms out there that you can utilize. Plug into that. So Charleston hacks um, I've been early believer in what they've been trying to do, um, particularly because we're trying to grow the innovation economy and the tech economy in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:And, uh, charleston hacks also hosts a lot of sort of meetups and these meetups are intended to bring people from sort of the tech community, the innovation community, the creative community together for an hour, for a beer or a lunch or coffee. And I think we need a lot more of that in Charleston because, especially if I'm trying to grow this, this innovation economy. There are a lot of people who have moved to Charleston in the last five years from big places that are remote working for big, fancy tech companies. That might be heads down for eight hours, but if they can go to one of these events they might meet their co-founder on a brand new platform right spark, something. That's the next. Whatever company you want to name that grows in charleston creates jobs, makes our community better. So charleston hacks big fan, um. Big plug for those guys. Check out their website. It's probably charlestonhackscom, but you can google it and uh, um, if you are interested, I hope you'll find one of their events and attend and meet a lot of your fellow innovation and creative types in Charleston.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's not just for people that work in tech, right, I mean, it's not just for the developers too, because I don't code, I don't code for nothing. But I really wanted to go to that hackathon, if you will, and then kind of approaching the hackathon, if you will, and then kind of approaching the hackathon. Hacks is typically kind of a negative term, but we're reinventing that with this group, right, because we're not talking about hacking.
Speaker 1:We don't want to get hacked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are not hacking into your grandma's social security number. We're trying to figure out how to solve a problem. That's kind of what this is all about. And so, um, the idea should be behind each new technology is what problem are we solving? And a lot of these folks are good at that and you know, mike, you're a marketing expert.
Speaker 3:We've got folks like that who come. We've got people who are, who have some expertise in supply chain logistics, all kind of disciplines, that sort of know how to do a thing and also know what they want the outcome to be. And, like any engineer, right or architect or designer, if a client tells you, hey, this is where I want to be at the end of this project, it's your job to figure out how to to get there. But the client has a solution, or at least where they want to be, so it's. It's a really cool, uh experience. You can come to these things and not participate and just sort of watch, and I'd encourage people to to do that to see what kind of really smart people we have. We've had some kids out of college at charleston that are computer science have. We've had some kids out of college of charleston that are computer science majors. We've had some interesting graduate students who participated.
Speaker 1:It's a really neat experience, cool love that I just want to mention, before we leave the segment, that on august the 13th, and wednesday, um, since we've been talking a little, you know about, um, the town, this is a great chance for you to meet your local elected officials that know your lawmaker on the.
Speaker 1:USS Yorktown, 6 to 8 pm. It's a two-hour reception with cocktails and food and very nominally priced. Just go to mountpleasantchamberorg. But we also have state representatives coming as well as local. It's a great opportunity for the business community to have one-on-one conversations with our local lawmakers and it's a lot of fun and you're on the yorktown on the yorktown. That's cool, which is amazing and thank you, explore charleston for being our presenting sponsor yeah, shout out, explore, explore, charleston.
Speaker 2:Amazing, it seems like we're doing a lot of things here still and you know you're working. You know, last time we talked I said go back to work and you did and you did. And we're going to go ahead and do this every month with you right. So what are we going to look for next month? You think what's?
Speaker 3:in the docket. You think that's August. Where are we?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're in.
Speaker 3:July, I don't know. All I'll be thinking about is college football, so we'll have to figure out something else to talk about, or we might just talk about college football there we go, y'all have a good time Love that.
Speaker 2:Well, again, Matt, thanks for doing what you do. Is there anything else that you can share a little, that you can share A little something that you want to talk about, any kind of I got nothing, you got nothing?
Speaker 3:Well, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 2:You're doing enough as it is. You got a lot going on, so yeah, rebecca, you want to close this out, then this has been a great episode so far for Made by Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1:That's right. Thank you all very much. Our second episode episode.
Speaker 2:Yes, our second one. Thank you, matt, for being here again. We all appreciate it. And thank you, charleston media solutions for hosting us, greatly appreciated. Thank you, mike, for putting this together. Yeah, of course, of course, it's our pleasure. Uh, until next time, charleston, mount pleasant, we'll see you.
