We posted several hundred positive stories and informational articles to the NWIndianaLife Business pages this year, our most ever! With GOOD stories across all areas of business LIFE, we covered business development, staff development and motivation, real estate, automotive, legal and job openings!
It’s easy as ever to share your business story with us too! Just send us an email at share@nwindianalife.com and we can get started today.
Without further ado (and in no particular order), here are the Top 10 NWindianaLife Business Stories of 2013!
NIRPC Backs RDA Funding Renewal and South Shore Expansion
Most of the action at today’s full board meeting of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission was focused on the organization’s vote on including the proposed Illiana Expressway in its 2040 plan.
Without that inclusion, the roadway could not be built. After several hours of debate by supporters and foes of the Illiana — some of which is reflected on the RDA twitter stream, where yours truly was live-tweeting the event — the board voted overwhelmingly in favor of adding the Illiana to its plans.
Ideas in Motion Media Announces Upgraded Photo Section through Smugmug
Ideas in Motion Media announce an upgraded photo section starting December 4th, 2013 on their ValpoLife.com, PortageLife.com, LaPorteCountyLife.com and NWIndianaLife.com online communities.
The upgrade will give the web pages a cleaner, more polished look and feel in its’ design, built on a more responsive framework that will be more compatible on devices of all kinds.
Game Changing Agreements Proposed for Development and Management of Gary/Chicago International Airport, City of Gary, Northwest Indiana
With terms poised to dramatically improve the economic landscape of the Gary/Chicago International Airport, the City of Gary and Northwest Indiana, development and management agreements presented today to the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority by the airport’s public-private partnership (P3) committee propose a $100 million total investment in the airport and the City of Gary over 40 years by best in class private interests. Terms include an investment of $25 million in the first three years and a minimum 30 percent goal for local workforce participation as well as performance incentives for revenue growth including profit sharing with the airport and the City of Gary.
The proposed terms were negotiated by the Ad Hoc committee with Aviation Facilities Company Inc./AvPORTS (AFCO), Guggenheim Securities and Loop Capital.
Berman's Infiniti of Merrillville Holds Grand Opening
Mike Berman and his son Ross Berman recently opened an Infiniti dealership in Merrillville, and officially celebrated the milestone at Wednesday evening’s ribbon-cutting event.
Guests at the grand opening included members of the Crossroads Chamber of Commerce, customers who have purchased an Infiniti from the dealership since it opened its doors on September 6th, and anyone interested in the occasion from the community. The ceremony included food and beverages provided by Gamba Ristorante of Merrillville, live music, and a raffle drawing for two free Bulls tickets, two free Blackhawks tickets, an oil change or car detailing.
Levin Tire Educates Women on Proper Car Care
Levin Tire in Highland hosted their first ever Women’s Car Care Clinic Saturday, October 12th. The clinic welcomed in 40 women from the surrounding area to educate them about car maintenance essentials in a friendly environment.
“Before I knew about car care, I didn’t take care of my car properly. I ended up putting thousands of dollars into it,” said Levin Tire’s Marketing Director Rachel Shropshire. “I had no idea how to properly do maintenance—easy maintenance like oil changes, flushes, tire rotations, simple things that are pretty inexpensive in the long run and really save money. It is an important investment to take care of your car properly. Hopefully that is what the women here today will gain from this by learning how to properly maintain their vehicle,” said Shropshire.
Live Blog: 2013 SSCVA-NWIndianaLife.com Tech Summit
Speros Batistatos gives us at Ideas in Motion Media a very warm welcome along with today’s other participants. He also thanks Luke Weinman, CTO of the SSCVA and one of the coordinators of today’s event, for putting everything together and gives him kudos on a job well done on their recent growth in the online real estate market.
One nice line of Speros’ introduction was about the South Shore CVA’s expansion in their target market. To paraphrase: “We don't see county lines because our customers don’t see county lines. No one cares whether you’re on one side of the line between Newton County and Jasper County.” This dovetails nicely into the Summit’s first presentation, Fair Oaks Farms.
2013 Crossroads Chamber Expo Brought Out the Best in Businesses
An expo of epic proportions was the main event at the Radisson Star Plaza on Wednesday evening. It was the Improving Your Health, Business & Home Expo; a networking event for businesses presented by Crossroads Regional Chamber of Commerce. You know how there is a chamber of commerce for every town, right? Well, Crossroads is the chamber of commerce for Northwest Indiana.
Businesses from all over the regional came and set up shop in one of the spacious ballrooms within the Radisson. There were a wide variety of vendors that ranged from financial businesses such as Horizon Bank and Centier Bank to those in the medical field like Franciscan Alliance, St. Mary Medical Center and Orthopedic and Balance Therapy to the hospitality field such at T.J. Maloney’s Authentic Irish Pub. There were over 50 vendors in attendance at the Expo making it the largest one yet.
From One Small Business to Another
“We are a multi-faceted business,” stated April Beres, Account Manager with Big Mouth Advertising and Design. A full service advertising agency, Big Mouth works as an intermediary connecting clients with quality vendors in order to effectively market the client’s business, through digital and print mediums, radio, TV, and events.
Big Mouth Advertising and Design was founded over 13 years ago by Rick Mech, who came from a background working with print media. Mech expanded his team to an intimate group of four, all with backgrounds in art. “We’re all creative thinking people,” Beres shared. “We all work really fast, we get a lot of work done.” All of the marketing is done in-house, including design, video production, and copy writing, a one stop shop for getting exposure for your business.
RDA President & CEO Bill Hanna Talks Indianapolis, Chicago, and NWI City Support
Bill Hanna: It's going to take a paradigm shift in the way that Indianapolis views Indiana. To get that done we're all going to have to be on the same page, and when I say we all I mean we Republicans, Democrats, citizens, legislators, and local elected officials from top to bottom. We can talk about our differences all day long, but we all have one thing in common; we need jobs.
We have another thing common we sit next to Chicago. We have a third thing common, which is Indianapolis doesn't quite understand us. We've quite frankly not done a great deal of progress. We've not made progress in getting them to understand the opportunities we can provide.
Welcome to NWIndianaLife.com
We'd like to welcome you to an entirely new network of positive information coming to Northwest Indiana.
NWIndianaLife.com will be the newest branch of Ideas in Motion Media, the online, all positive news media company that already publishes ValpoLife.com, PortageLife.com, and LaPorteCountyLife.com.