Honey Caramel

Today I had the pleasure of witnessing the first run of Honey Caramel ice cream at Velvet Ice Cream.  This was my first time on the production floor.

As I entered the production area, this sign was posted above the doorway:

What a great message for the employees at Velvet.

It was very interesting to see how the process worked.  In this picture, pure Ohio honey is being mixed into the caramel, which is then swirled all through the ice cream.

And then came the best part of all. . .

. . .the taste test.  And let me tell you, it was delicious!

Look for Honey Caramel in stores beginning next Tuesday.

I'm Hungry

Just read the news release (see below) from Velvet Ice Cream announcing some new flavors.  Can I eat ice cream for breakfast??

Velvet Introducing Four New Flavors for 2011
UTICA, Ohio (March 22, 2011) – Velvet Ice Cream will roll out four new flavors in 2011, beginning with Honey Caramel on March 24.

Honey Caramel was created by Alex Grooms, the 13-year-old winner of Velvet’s 2010 Create-A-Flavor Contest. The ice cream has a vanilla base and includes honey and caramel.

On April 15, Velvet will release Peach Cobbler for the summer. The flavor is based on a submission by Andrea Thrasher, third-place winner of the Create-A-Flavor Contest. Thrasher submitted the flavor idea of a vanilla-based ice cream with peaches and brown sugar clusters.

“This is the first year that we’ve produced two new types of ice cream from our Create-A-Flavor Contest,” said Luconda Dager, president of Velvet Ice Cream. “We think both of these new releases are going to be popular with our customers and we’re excited to get them into the grocer’s freezers.”

Both new flavors will be produced as part of Velvet’s Natural line of products.

Velvet will introduce two new flavors in its Supreme line May 15 - Peanut Butter Overload and French Vanilla.

Peanut Butter Overload is a peanut butter-based ice cream that includes peanut butter swirls and peanut butter cups. French Vanilla is similar to Velvet’s Olde Tyme Vanilla. The recipe includes pasteurized egg, creating a very rich flavor.

Headquartered at Ye Olde’ Mill in Utica, Ohio, Velvet Ice Cream has been a family owned and operated business for nearly 100 years. Founded in 1914 by family patriarch Joseph Dager, Velvet has been run by four generations of the Dager family. Each year, Velvet produces more than five million gallons of ice cream, which can be found in freezer cases throughout the Midwest and Florida. The historic Ye Olde’ Mill, which houses the company headquarters, an ice cream museum and restaurant, attracts more than 150,000 visitors a year.

For Women In Business

I was invited to attend an event tomorrow night by WELD - Women for Economic and Leadership Development.

Here is what they are about:



I'll let you know what I think after the event.  Anyone familiar with this organization?

-- Posted by Cheri

The Jobs Budget

Yesterday (March 15) Governor John Kasich unveiled his budget entitled "The Jobs Budget". 

It included a 'new approach' to Economic Development, with three keys steps to the reform:

1. Create JobsOhio - a private not-for-profit organization
2. Provide sustainable funding through Ohio's Liquor Enterprise
3. Equip JobsOhio with the best talent & tools

Item #1 has already been done, with the passage of House Bill 1.

Item 2 is very interesting.  Let's take a deeper look at how this will work.

The reasoning behind this decision is to provide JobsOhio with an on-going funding stream which is NOT connected to the state's general revenue fund and it will enable private funds to be invested into private companies instead of using public dollars, which has proven to be problematic at times.

The Department of Commerce will continue to operate the system, but JobsOhio will acquire the wholesale merchandising component of the business; permitting and regulation will remain with the Department of Commerce. 

In exchange for the Ohio's Liquor Enterprise for 20 to 25 years, JobsOhio will pay the state a lump-sum payment and an annuity payment (price for both has yet to be determined).  JobsOhio will provide an upfront payment of approximately $1.2 billion; $500 million to the General Revenue Fund and approximately $700 million to prepay the current outstanding liquor profit bonds in their entirety.  JobsOhio will be able to do this by issuing revenue bonds backed by the liquor profit revenues.  The management of the JobsOhio Liquor Enterprise will be contracted out with the Department of Commerce to manage the day-to-day operation.

Facilities Establishment Fund

Kasich's budget also transfers the Facilities Establishment Fund to JobsOhio.  This is a fund held by the Treasurer of the State on behalf of the Ohio Department of Development, which was, interestingly enough, originally funded by liquor profit bonds beginning in 1982.  It is currently a self-sustaining revolving loan fund and encompasses programs like  166 Direct Loans, the R & D Loans and the Innovation Ohio loans.

Ohio needs an economic development overhaul.  Maybe this is the way to do it.

We Are The Top Manufacturing Country In The World

Last Friday Jack Schultz, author of Boomtown USA gave a wonderful presentation at our Economic Development Summit about how smaller communities can be successful at economic development.  It was a very inspiring speech.

Afterwards a few of us had the opportunity to sit down with him and ask him numerous questions about initiatives we are doing and what has and hasn't worked for communities such as ours around the country. 

We also discussed what has been happening with manufacturing over the past few years and he shared some great stats with us about how manufacturing in the US is alive and well.

I'm also pleased to be able to share with you a 20 minute webinar that he did for NAIOP.  Here is the summary of it:

U.S. Manufacturing



The top manufacturing country in the world is the USA! And, our share of world manufacturing production is the same as it was 40 years ago!


Now, if you get all of your information from cable news, you're probably wondering what we are doing at Agracel and the Boomtown Institute with statements like that. But, if you want the real story on the USA manufacturing powerhouse, then you'll want to watch this 20 minute free webinar by Jack Schultz.


In it you'll learn:
· That the USA set another new record for output, profits and exports (all inflation adjusted) in 2008.
· That our percentage of world production has remained remarkably steady at from 20 to 25% of the world's total production.
· Why manufacturing continues to have some of the highest paying jobs and is the largest wealth creator on a local basis.
· Why manufacturing employment has increased in 2010, but not at all educational levels.
· What the key drivers will be for continuing growth in manufacturing plants and jobs
· The local economic benefits from having a strong manufacturing base.

Take 20 minutes and watch the presentation.  It is well worth your time.

To watch this webinar, click here.

Measuring Your Marketing Efforts

I participated in a webinar today with Social Media Leaps about measuring your social media marketing efforts.  The presenter was Brady Cohen with Point to Point.

Cohen covered free tools all small business owners should be using to measure your online presence in the social media world.  He said you must make it a priority to monitor the stats and then act upon the results.  His definition of social media is content generation.

He provided some sites that can help you understand whether or not your social media marketing is working. 

Let's start with Facebook. 

If you have a business Facebook page, have you taken the time to look at your Insights page?  It contains information on your page views (impressions), number of likes and unlikes.  Pay attention to spikes in these numbers so that you know what your fans like and what they don't.  It also displays the demographic info on who is visiting your site by age and gender.  You can also see where they are geographically from.

And you can see when (not who) someone unscribes (ouch).  This is good to know if something you posted ticked someone off.

It also shows any external referrals to your page. You can monitor these stats on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on how much time you have.  You can view our Facebook page here.

Next is Twitter.

There are so many different tools out there to see how far-reaching your tweets are.  Tweetreach is pretty cool.  You can see the number of users your tweets are reaching, how many impressions you have generated and the level of engagement (RT's Direct Messages, @) and a listing of who is helping to spread your tweets.

Twittergrader gives you a rank based on how influential you are on Twitter. The Chamber's twitter account (Chamberofc) received a 79 out of 100.  My personal twitter (Chambercheri) was an 87.  I can see we have some work to do.

Cohen also listed some sites that you can use to monitor all your social media efforts like HowSociable and  SocialMention.

Bottom line is that if you are trying out social media and aren't keeping track or calculating your ROI, you will never know if it is worth your investment of time and money.

The Near Future

Very cool video.



Thanks Rob.

And the Protesting Continues

And the protesting continues at the Statehouse today.