Inspiration Found in 40 Under 40 Program

Today a room overflowing with over 400 professional leaders hailing from Valparaiso, Plymouth, Elkhart, South Bend and beyond joined to honor the Class of 2011 Michiana's Forty Under 40 at South Bend's Gillespie Conference Center. The event, led by the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County recognized forty outstanding local professionals under age forty for their business success and community contributions.

The Midas Center owner, Andrea Cook was one of the honorees. She shares, "It is a pure honor to be recognized with such a group of dynamic thought leaders. Although diverse in backgrounds, professions and interests, there is still one thread that brings us all together. Leadership. I'm looking forward to the opportunities to grow along side of these up and coming game changers."

Cook acknowledges this experience as a milestone in her professional career and claims that the most rewarding part was sitting among the group of peers while listening to the remarks made by Tracy Graham, Managing Principal at Graham Allen Partners. Graham, a Michiana Forty Under 40, Class of 2007, shared sage and insight with these powerful words:

"There will always be naysayers, cynics and obstacles. They are placed in our ways to weed out the weak."

In the company of mayors, chairpersons, business owners, non profit directors and chief executives, former Michana Forty Under 40 honorees, as well as the supportive colleagues, friends and family members of this year's class, Graham continued to acknowledge the need for strong and purposeful leadership in our community and businesses and as he gazed upon the future leaders in the room, he remarked that we are "unified in purpose and passion."

"Truly inspiring," Cook remarks as she holds steadfast to those encouraging words. Immediately following was the 2011 Class Recognition where each professional was announced and congratulated with a special award and hand shakes by Presidents and CEOs Jeff Rea, Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County and Phil Penn, Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce.

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What's New at The Midas Center

We are working on creating a new community resource with a twist! Much like iHEARTplymouth and iHEARTculver that are targeted to improve the quality of life and grow economic opportunity for small cities and towns by providing an online community filled with stories on local events and businesses in the communities that members can read, write, share and love at no cost, we are currently developing a new product for a specific industry.

The Midas Center is passionate about helping businesses succeed and we harnessed this passion with our love for the local community, unconventional practices based on cutting edge technology and the power of networking to create our newest online resource, Treats Bridal Suite.

Realizing the numerous wedding vendors that each provide classic products and services throughout Plymouth and surrounding Marshall County, we invited businesses to participate in this online resource. Gary Treat, owner of Treat's Squire Shoppe and Bridal Shoppe partnered with our agency to grow its bridal market. Gary has been spearheading live bridal expos for many years and has not been able to get the traction that he was seeking in the recent years. He transitioned his vision from that one day expo to The Midas Center's out-of-the-box approach to develop a suite of bridal vendors in the area and promote them together as a premier bridal destination for wedding planning, shopping and celebrating. We pitched an online expo with added features of a magazine-like web site that will include a directory, articles written by local bloggers on the wedding world and stellar photos. This resource will provide the modern bride with a feast of information and images in hopes to inspire and serve as online support as she plans the wedding of her dreams. The directory includes categories that impact the full life cycle of any wedding planner, from the dress to the gifts -to give and -to receive, venues, florists and music!

To celebrate the upcoming launch of Treats Bridal Suite, we will be hosting a live Community Expo on the second Friday, March 11th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The public is invited to come. Although it will have a wedding theme, it is not exclusive to brides and grooms. The event will showcase a number of exhibitors who are featured in this debut edition of the online bridal resource, from bridal fashions and accessories showcased by Treat's Bridal Shoppe, live harp music by Beth Paré, fully decorated pop-up tent and dance floor from Grand Rental Station, divine sweets designed and made by Alexis Davis at Cakewalk, elegant floral designs and gifts by Elizabeths Garden, a live fun photo booth for the newly engaged to the entire family by Photography by Jayme and many many many more!

The event is free to attend. Registered guests will be eligible to win door prizes from the special exhibitor gift table. To find out some of the gift items that will be given away, you can see our latest updates as soon as we can get to them on the Treat's Bridal Suite's facebook page >


The Midas Center's new office location at 200 N. Michigan Street in downtown Plymouth, Indiana is pleased to present the recent window design by I DO VENUES, one of the Treat's Suite members.

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Wheel of Progress Congratulates Winners!

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Wheel of Progress: 2010 drawing for Plymouth Chamber of Commerce gift certificates!

Today, on Monday, December 9th, The Midas Center presented the results of the Wheel of Progress 2010 to the public. During this presentation, The Midas Center shared the process on how the new image and message was developed. Much of the process included an agreement on the need of a cohesive image for Plymouth as stated collectively by five key stakeholders. Stakeholders included the City of Plymouth, Plymouth Community Public Schools, Plymouth's Chamber of Commerce and PIDCO who commissioned The Midas Center to develop a new image and message that will be used to communicate Plymouth online.

The presentation overview may be reviewed on a post shared on iHEARTplymouth.com >

The apex of the presentation was a slide show of the value propositions of Plymouth with the main message, "Join us in the Journey." For a preview of this slideshow, please see below:



And last, but not the least of today's presentation included the announcement of the winners of the five $100 gift certificates from the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce. The winners are:
- Ken Houin
- Gnomes_Garden
- Lois Evan
- S Clarke @ fourway
- Brantley Houlihan

You may stop by the new offices at The Midas Center, 200 N. Michigan Street in downtown Plymouth to pick up your gift certificate. Please stop by during regular business hours and I.D. will be required.

The next phase of the Wheel of Progress: 2010 will be presented to the public in March of 2011.

Thank you all who participated to make this campaign successful! The members of The Midas Center thank you for your investment into this public branding program and we hope to continue to work with the community towards the ongoing progress!

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Kudos to Small Businesses!

An article published in Tribune Business Weekly salutes small businesses and their investments in the community that help not only fuel the economy, but also stabilize it in economic downturns. The entire article makes bold remarks in support of the small business. Some of the stated statistics made us feel proud as a small business owner, and we'd like to pass it along to you in hopes that you may also find them interesting and encouraging.

- "The backbone of the U.S. economy is not made up of stocks and bonds and large employers. The vital component that supports our economic health is small business."

- "According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, small businesses have accounted for 64 percent of new employment since the mid-1990s. They employ more than half of all private sector employees and pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll."

- Small businesses are "innovators, producing 13 times more patents per employee than large employers do."

- Phil D'Amico, director of business growth for St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce claims, “Small business really is, especially in our region's case, the driving force of our economy.”

- D'Amico also states, "not only do small businesses strengthen the local economy, they also contribute significantly to the strength of the community as a whole."

- Small businesses create 80% of the jobs in St. Joseph County, with the exception of government and schools.

Congratulations to you small business owners!

For the complete article, you may visit >>

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