With balloons, fancy hats, Zumba and gospel singing all featuring as part of the activities in the full-day Western Women’s Business Conference on June 21, it wasn’t your average business gathering. Designed to support and empower women in business, especially women of color and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, the conference was chock-full of inspiration and success stories.
Asheville’s bustling economy owes much to the city’s continued popularity as a tourist destination, but the area is also benefiting from a wave of local business expansions.
A weekend of family business experiences and research filled the Renaissance Asheville Hotel in early June, bringing together attendees from 27 countries. The 13th annual Family Enterprise Research Conference was hosted by the Family Business Forum at UNC Asheville. Held annually, FERC brings together family businesses and representatives from all over the world who […]
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features a clothing company’s newly invented shorts, a documentary on racial integration in Brevard and a fictional film on uncovering childhood secrets.
Procedural delays introduced by state and federal regulators nearly ran out the clock on the 2017 planting season, but growers have managed to get hemp plants and seeds in local dirt for the first time in 70 years. Hemp entrepreneurs say they hope the crop will prove a boon for WNC farmers and natural products manufacturers.
A recent visit from international beer importers may point to new distribution possibilities for Asheville’s brewing industry.
Asheville, NC
Each week, Xpress highlights notable WNC crowdsourcing initiatives that may inspire readers to become new faces in the crowd. This week features a garden program at Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women and entrepreneur Andrea Olson’s latest invention: The Baby Potty.
Asheville, NC
At the first annual Tourism Week Summit, the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled new statistics about the economic impact of tourism in Buncombe County in 2016.
Asheville, NC
The Board of Adjustment soldiered through a more than five hour meeting that had Buncombe County residents rallying against multiple development projects.
The second in a three-part series on innovative models for promoting affordable homeownership sponsored by the city of Asheville focused on housing cooperatives. The May 4 education and information event provided perspectives from national experts as well as representatives of the Dulce Lomita Mobile Home Cooperative in Asheville.
Asheville’s Planning & Zoning Commission heard the last hotel zoning application submitted under the city’s previous zoning rules, which changed on Feb. 14. The commission approved a 112-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel planned for 26 Meadow Road. Moving forward, any hotel project with more than 20 rooms will have to make its case to City Council as a conditional zoning application. The conditional zoning process gives the elected officials more discretion than P&Z’s guidelines allow.
Asheville, NC
With 45 percent of business owners in Buncombe County alone facing retirement in the next decade, local groups and service providers are encouraging them to start planning for their company’s next chapter, while simultaneously devising ways to turn an impending crisis into an opportunity for employees to shoulder new responsibilities.
Local farmers are still holding out hope that 2017 will be the year industrial hemp grows in WNC fields for the first time in decades. But the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration isn’t making it easy for growers to source seed or seedlings in time for planting, which may mean another year of waiting for eager prospective hemp growers.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newest section of the French Broad River Greenway was held Friday, April 21, at the foot of the New Belgium brewery as part of the city of Asheville’s Earth Week Celebration. Representatives from the many public and private partnerships that had a role in the development of this section, called […]
Asheville
Industry studies show consumers are growing tired of fast, disposable fashion. In addition to a greater awareness of where clothes come from and the impact of their production, a new interest in extending the life of clothing or reusing materials to create new garments is fueling a resurgence of sewing skills in this region and around the country.
Plans for expanding the Jewish Community Center in its long-time location at 236 Charlotte St. got the nod from Asheville City Council on March 28.