We started as a weekly networking group that got together every Tuesday evening for drinks and casual hang out. There wasn’t a real purpose other than enjoying each other’s company each week over a few cocktails. For small business owners the everyday grind of making a dollar is grueling, in fact just breaking even is a chore and usually doesn’t happen until a few years after opening. Every Tuesday was a joy and excitement for walking into Lil’ River Grill, ordering your favorite martini and laughing with other friends from Historic Downtown Lawrenceville Square.
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Thank you to January 2014 New Lawrenceville media sponsors –
SHOP LOCAL!
If you remember in 2007 this was the time the real estate market was losing speed and about to bust causing a horrible collapse of the country’s economy. This topic, along with what could we as small business owners do to stimulate our economic future of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was on everyone’s mind. Downtown Lawrenceville was a ghost town on Sundays. Many business owners wanted to open but there just wasn’t enough foot traffic to warrant the extra work & cost to open the doors. I came up, organized and presented the Lawrenceville Trolley Tours to the group of business owners. They loved it and we kicked off the 1st Annual Trolley Tours in 2008. We were fortunate to have local historian, author and resident Mary Long to be the Trolley Conductor telling the beautiful and rich history of not only Lawrenceville but Gwinnett, Georgia and the U.S. I believe this was the turning point of New Lawrenceville to assist the Lawrenceville community. The trolley tours still ride through the streets of Lawrenceville, Georgia in May but on Saturdays now. Mary Long still stands at the front entertaining many of visitors who come from other cities and states just to know a little more about Lawrenceville, Ga. The local business owners working together volunteering their time and their money help to offset the costs so that the visitors to the Square could ride the Trolley Tours for free. Many of the businesses also donate items for door prizes and items for the goody bags. This May will be our 6th year for The Lawrenceville Trolley Tours.
New Lawrenceville Business Networking was a hit! For three years we had been networking and conducting the Lawrenceville Trolley Tours successfully. In January of 2010 the group was meeting to decide what direction or new ideas we could work on together. Vanessa Churco mentioned a Business Expo. She lead the cause with fire and passion like we had never seen, she had to, we only had 2 1/2 months to put the event together. The business expo quickly morphed into what is now the Spring Green Festival. Vanessa changed directions as she thought a festival would be a lot more fun than an expo and she was right.
In the first year, the festival brought over 3,000 people to the community of Lawrenceville, Georgia and that was on a Thursday. The following years the festival has been moved to a Saturday for greater attendance which again was a great move. The festival gives a chance for local business owners to highlight their business and market to a larger audience. It also highlights the town we love so much, Lawrenceville. The festival was designed by Vanessa to create a family event during the St. Patrick’s celebration as most are drinking events. The first year, the efforts of the Spring Green Festival were great and we broke even, thank goodness. However, the following years we’ve had a positive cash amount which we knew belong to the community.
So over the past years we have given back over $10,000 to local Lawrenceville Charities such as The Special Needs School of Gwinnett, The Lawrenceville Police Benevolent Fund, The Huffman House, Central Gwinnett Cluster Foundation, Family Promise of Gwinnett, and Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation NICU. The 4th Annual Spring Green Festival proceeds will go entirely to benefit the Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation NICU in order to assist in obtaining a dedicated ambulance for the unit. This is a very large undertaking as an ambulance is $180,000. The hospital has a private donor willing to match dollar for dollar up to $90,000.00. We have grown as the festival includes the Chick-Fil-A 5k race and 1 mile family fun run, Family Promise Bed Races and the Southeast Wheels Car & Bike Show. The Spring Green Festival is always Rain or Shine and this year Mother Nature decided to bring showers for the day. But our group of volunteers, vendors and sponsors were dedicated through and through from 4am until 7pm that evening with set up, take down and clean up. Technology is leading the next generation well past desktops, lap tops into a new world IPad’s and IPhones. For any business if you are not on social media and have an APP for your business you will be left behind. Being in business in the next 5 to 10 years means thinking of who your target audience will be at that time and guess what they are 15-20 years old today. Those kids are on their phones all day long texting, playing games and searching the internet. Mobile Apps will be the most used and downloads in the upcoming years. Go to your Apple or Android App Store and download the only APP for the community in Lawrenceville – The New Lawrenceville APP. We have a list of events from now until the end of the year involving the community and surrounding Gwinnett County. We list everything from Mayor & City Council Meetings, networking events, festivals, musician’s schedules and things a local business owner might be promoting. Only Duluth Georgia and Explore Gwinnett have a community APP in Gwinnett County. New Lawrenceville was the first to launch their APP. New Lawrenceville is extremely proud of our newest endeavor the New Lawrenceville Quarterly Magazine launched last month. The spring edition is beautifully laid out and a great read. You can find it all over the Gwinnett County community. New Lawrenceville Business Networking has had its challenges along the way but you don’t reach new levels without a few growing pains. We are a free and open networking group who believes in the coFoundation NICU. The 4th Annual Spring Green Festival proceeds will go entirely to benefit the Gwinnett Medical Center Foundation NICU in order to assist in obtaining a dedicated ambulance for the unit. This is a very large undertaking as an ambulance is $180,000. The hospital has a private donor willing to match dollar for dollar up to $90,000.00. We have grown as the festival includes the Chick-Fil-A 5k race and 1 mile family fun run, Family Promise Bed Races and the Southeast Wheels Car & Bike Show.
The Spring Green Festival is always Rain or Shine and this year Mother Nature decided to bring showers for the day. But our group of volunteers, vendors and sponsors were dedicated through and through from 4am until 7pm that evening with set up, take down and clean up.
Technology is leading the next generation well past desk tops, lap tops into a new world IPad’s and IPhones. For any business if you are not on social media and have an APP for your business you will be left behind. Being in business in the next 5 to 10 years means thinking of who your target audience will be at that time and guess what they are 15-20 years old today. Those kids are on their phones all day long texting, playing games and searching the internet. Mobile Apps will be the most used and downloads in the upcoming years. Go to your Apple or Android App Store and download the only APP for the community in Lawrenceville – The New Lawrenceville APP. We have a list of events from now until the end of the year involving the community and surrounding Gwinnett County. We list everything from Mayor & City Council Meetings, networking events, festivals, musician’s schedules and things a local business owner might be promoting. Only Duluth Georgia and Explore Gwinnett have a community APP in Gwinnett County. New Lawrenceville was the first to launch their APP.
New Lawrenceville is extremely proud of our newest endeavor the New Lawrenceville Quarterly Magazine launched last month. The spring edition is beautifully laid out and a great read. You can find it all over the Gwinnett County community.
New Lawrenceville Business Networking has had its challenges along the way but you don’t reach new levels without a few growing pains. We are a free and open networking group who believes in the community we live. We are a group of business owners who believe in each other and each other’s dreams. We believe in stepping in and stepping up to lead and have accountability with honesty and integrity in Lawrenceville. We are variety of people made up of different ages, shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds, orientations, beliefs, education and finances. New Lawrenceville members are encouraged to bring ideas to the table for the group and they must lead the efforts of their ideas. We don’t do this because we have to do it; we do it because we want to do it and because we love Lawrenceville, Georgia. Our group’s motto is “Bringing Community Together” and that is just what we do. The group has two new events on the horizon with a Golf Tournament, the Summer Speaker series, movie night with CitruSolutions and something special for Halloween. We have been blessed with so many people assisting with ideas, growth and development. I hope you get to learn more about our community and efforts and more so join us in the journey. If you are from another community take what you see and know there are people in your home town that are waiting for you to start something great.
Vanessa Churco with her two sons and friend, volunteer.
This article is sponsored by New Lawrenceville. New Lawrenceville is a FREE networking organization of businesses and volunteers that are working to bring community together. 
Author Rodney Camren helps to lead New Lawrenceville in an effort to promote buying locally, educate the community on issues that affect our community. Rodney Camren is a Real Estate Agent with Keller Wiliams.
