Meeting targets business owners

One might call Tuesday's Not Just Coffee event speed dating for entrepreneurs.

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Instead of finding a suitor, Columbia County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Karen Chrjapin says she hopes small business owners will meet friendly new peers to talk business.

"People want to do business with people they know," she said. "This gives them face time, one-on-one with people they otherwise might not have an opportunity to meet."

Participants will sit eight to a table and be given one minute to describe their business, their clientele and the services they provide. After each person has given their "commercial," Chrjapin said the participants will join another table and repeat the process until all have been introduced.

Not Just Coffee will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Board of Education office on Hereford Farm Road. The cost is free to chamber members and $10 for nonmembers.

University Hospital will begin the event with a special presentation, Chrjapin said. All chamber members are encouraged to attend and bring plenty of business cards.

Registration for the event is not required. For more information, contact the chamber at (706) 651-0018.

In other chamber news, Chris Baum has been named the chamber's new director of programs. Baum, who was the industry education partnership coordinator for the chamber, succeeds Chrjapin, who was recently named executive director.