July 15, 2025 • 21 mins
The iconic Ravenel Bridge isn't just visible from every angle of Charleston—it symbolizes Mount Pleasant's rising prominence as an economic and innovation hub in South Carolina. In this engaging conversation with Town of Mount Pleasant Economic Development Officer Matt Brady, we explore how this thriving community balances growth with livability.
Discover the exciting public space developments enhancing Mount Pleasant's appeal, from the new waterfront park at Alhambra Hall to the completed "micro-mobility" project at Pitt Street Bridge. Brady shares how these investments create premier destinations for residents and visitors alike, strengthening the community fabric that makes Mount Pleasant special.
Looking for career opportunities? The Chamber's 15th Annual Business Expo on September 18th introduces an integrated job fair featuring major employers including the Town of Mount Pleasant, Port Authority, Charleston County Dispatch, and emerging businesses. With competitive salaries and benefits, these organizations seek talented individuals across diverse fields. The event offers free admission and represents the largest networking opportunity in the Charleston area.
As hurricane season approaches, we discuss preparedness strategies with insights about regional coordination and community education efforts. Learn about the upcoming "Coffee with a Cause" session on August 7th featuring emergency preparedness expert Shannon Whitehead—and discover the folklore behind local hurricane indicators like the Coburg Cow and Waffle House Index.
The podcast concludes with an exploration of Mount Pleasant's innovation economy initiatives, particularly the town's involvement with Charleston Hacks. This collaborative approach brings together tech professionals, marketers, and creative thinkers to solve community challenges while building connections that could spark the next generation of local ventures.
Join us at our upcoming "Know Your Lawmaker" reception on August 13th aboard the USS Yorktown for an opportunity to connect with local elected officials. Subscribe and follow the Building Business Podcast for monthly updates on Mount Pleasant's economic development landscape!
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Production Sponsor: RMBO.co
Design Sponsor: DK Design
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi everyone.
I'm Rebecca Imholz.
I'm the Executive Director ofthe Mount Pleasant Chamber of
Commerce.
I'm so excited today to do oursecond Building Business Podcast
with the Town of Mount PleasantEconomic Development Officer
Matt Brady, and joining me isMike Compton who is our
Marketing Chair?
And where are we, Mike?
(00:23):
Where are we?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
right now we're at the Charles Media Solutions
studios here.
They're great sponsors of thechamber.
They let us record here intheir studio for this
unbelievable podcast that wehave here called the Building
Business Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Building Business Podcast From the Mount.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Pleasant Chamber.
So thanks for joining us.
Matt Brady, how are you today?
I'm great.
Yeah, you had a little backissue.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I hear huh, you're a little sore, you get a little
workout in.
I did.
I turned officially mid 40s andstarted hurting myself.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So it happens I hear that, yeah, I want to be 47 this
year, so I'm like it's terrible, it's not that bad I.
I'm the alternative.
I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
At least we're here in mount pleasant.
Oh hey, mount pleasant.
That's why we're here to talk.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's why we're here in Mount.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Pleasant, oh hey, Mount Pleasant.
That's why we're here to talk.
That's why we're here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Mount Pleasant made.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What's new, Matt Brady, in the old economic
development world of yours?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, we're busy.
Let's see what's going on herein Mount Pleasant.
We've got a comp plan update.
That's sort of been underway.
The park just opened atAlhambra Hall oh, we did.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The front lawn up there.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Our waterfront park has opened up.
We've got a lot of businessactivity, a lot of people giving
us a look to be the capital ofinnovation in this state, and
it's been had a lot of fun herelately.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I love that.
And so you say Alhambra HallIsn't the Pitt Street?
Bridge over that direction.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The Pitt Street Bridge is over that direction
and the town performed a littlemicro-mobility project and it's
back open now.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Micro-what now?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It's a fancy urban planner way of talking about
another place to walk andanother place to sort of just be
in your community.
So, uh, just another wonderfulplace in town love that, love
that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And then and then before uh, rebecca chimes in,
what about the park underneaththe bridge there, coming over,
uh, to the mount pleasant side?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
that's a really cool it is so much fun I've taken my
grandchildren have you it'samazing it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Um.
It's just another premierdestination here in mount
pleasant truly and I'm that'snot just me saying that, because
that's my job to say it, butit's truly a really cool place.
Um, all of our partners thatworked to get it open um did a
phenomenal job.
They got it right and I thinkthe community both right there,
(02:50):
our residents and then everybodythat wants to hang out right
underneath the bridge is goingto love that for a lot of years
people love that bridge.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
They love there's.
There's a deep love for thatbridge from a lot of people.
Carolyn Murray walks the bridgeevery morning.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Wow, yeah, she is iconic.
I'm not surprised she was on anepisode.
Yes, she's amazing.
Yeah, she's cool Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But you know people drive to that side of the bridge
and then walk back and forth alot.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I love that I cross it at least twice a day
and I love it and it's truly anicon in the region.
I think I mean, you know, everymovie that has Paris in it acts
like the Eiffel Tower isvisible from every angle.
The bridge is truly visiblefrom every angle of Charleston.
(03:40):
I love that.
It's iconic and it's realistic.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Do you find yourself taking videos of like the you
know going by it, and sunsets,you know?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
mike, I can never use my phone when I drive I'm
terrible about it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Good answer, but I'm always sunroof open.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It is beautiful and sometimes it's, it's
breathtaking um.
A lot of times it'sbreathtaking, yeah, um.
So it's, it's a great featureof our region.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Fun, fun, fun, fun.
Rebecca, let's get in thebusiness, shall we?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Sounds good.
Well, the last time you werehere, matt, we talked a lot
about the uniqueness of MountPleasant, how amazing it is to
live here, and one of thefocuses of the Chamber is that
we have a great quality of lifeand we want people to not only
live here but work here.
That's right.
So one of the things that we'redoing in partnership with the
(04:28):
town for our upcoming expo inSeptember is a job fair and the
town's going to participate.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That's right.
We're excited too.
The town is, first, it's agreat employer.
I kind of think of us as anemployer of choice in the region
with very competitive salariesand benefits and we've got
dozens of jobs open and anyonelistening, I'd encourage you to
go check them out and theyreally have kind of a broad
(04:55):
range of what we're looking forout in our public services and
you know, are outside doingtheir job, the folks who are
accountants and planners andadministrative people and and
we've got a lot of options and,uh, we'll be excited to
participate and see thecommunity at the, the business
(05:17):
expo and we're excited about itbecause not only do we have the
town, the port's going to bethere, we've got Charleston
County Dispatch Spinks, which isa new employer coming into the
town, highway 17.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And we don't want to forget about our hospitality
folks, so Reigns Hospitality.
So that's, I think it's a greatrepresentation across the board
of folks who can work and livein Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So when is the expo?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It is September 18th.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Folks who can work and live in Mount Pleasant.
So when is the expo?
It is September 18th so we'regoing to have the business expo.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then we're going to have a job fair within the
business expo.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Within the business expo.
That's really cool, I don'tknow if anybody else has done
that before, probably not.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
We're very unique.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But we're doing it for our first time and this expo
is the biggest networkingopportunity in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
In the area.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
In Charleston.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yes, not just Mount Pleasant Right.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yes, right, so listeners please September 18th
18th, it's a Thursday.
It's free to come.
And if you are Free, did yousay free to come?
It's free, absolutely free.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We've got some really cool bags we're going to give
away the first 500 attendees.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
These bags.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
These bags are very cool they're very cool, they're
clear, very popular.
And then, as you go through the90, some vendors were over
halfway sold out yes, yes, andwe still have two months to go.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We have a few sponsorship availabilities left,
just community.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, yeah, check that out, but we've got um.
The town is one of our sponsorsum cruise.
Subaru is our big sponsor thisyear.
Nivon Health is our healthcaresponsor.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, what a cool way to.
So we're really excited.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So yeah, I am super excited.
It's our 15th annual one.
That's a big one.
We had one during COVID.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It was virtual, it was different.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I remember that, but we had one, and I also don't
want to leave our conversationtoday without talking about this
time of year, hurricanes.
We have an amazing, amazing, umhurricane preparedness, what it
would you call it department inthe town, or folks or uh, yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So we uh.
When you think about hurricanepreparedness in mount pleasant,
you've got to think about all ofour public safety people,
that's, you know, fire, publicservices, um, police, because
they always, uh have toparticipate and be all hands on
deck.
But we've got an amazing staffperson who's sort of overall
emergency preparedness, namedShannon Whitehead.
She is right there at town hall.
(07:37):
She is an expert in getting usready for disasters, which, of
course, unfortunately includeshurricanes in our region.
Here we are with our firstnamed storm of the region
already in Chantal, andShannon's working really hard,
uh, trying to find ways to reachout to businesses, um, to get
(07:58):
all of us ready at town hall,who don't always think about, of
course, you know, hurricanes,cause that's not our job.
But she's thinking about it andso we're ready.
And you know, I encourageanyone to check out our website
if they want to find moreinformation, and I believe she's
going to be participating in amorning get-together with the
(08:19):
Chamber right, yes, coffee witha Cause.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That is Thursday, august 7th.
It's free to attend.
We open it up to members butthe public as well.
So Shannon's going to be theretalking about what we can all do
to be better prepared forhurricane season and if you're
new to the area, I highlyencourage you to come to that
event, because I always learnsomething new but I had no idea
(08:42):
exactly what I needed to keep inmy closet at home and when do I
leave and things like that.
And businesses definitely prepright, right.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Does shannon have rob fowler's name, like phone
number on speed dial is?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will tell you I have heard that there is a
secret slack channel that allthe emergency preparedness and
meteorological staff are a partof.
See that's cool they're allworking together to make sure
that, because you know these,these, these storms, they're
regional right, they don't stopat an arbitrary municipal
boundary and we've all kind ofgot to work across jurisdictions
(09:21):
.
So it's actually, I hope, thatour listeners know that we're
all working together acrosscounties, across cities, and
also you should check out theannual hurricane guide, because
it's got the coburg cow on itthis year, so cool.
Try to find that and pick oneup.
What?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
what's a coburg?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
shipwreck oh cool I'm like what?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
for those of you unfamiliar, the coburg cow has
been around for a long time.
It's over in west ashley and,uh, a lot of people will judge
how bad a storm is going to beby if the coburg cow is still up
or not.
Um, are you serious?
So when they when they take itdown and it's just a giant.
I guess aluminum, maybe paintedcow from the former coburg
(10:10):
dairy I guess that was there anduh, and it's part of our local
lore.
But also, people will judge ifthey're leaving or not by if the
Coburg cow's still on.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And the Waffle House.
Is it open or not?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
The Waffle House index is probably more reliable
than even the Coburg cow.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I had no idea, matthew.
Our engineer over here wasshaking his head like, yeah, of
course he knew that I'm theengineer over here was shaking
his head.
Of course he knew that.
Of course he knew that I'm theidiot over here.
What are you talking about?
A cow is going to tell me whenthere's a hurricane coming or
not.
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's fun news.
I just like it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That's a great little addition there, Rebecca.
Did you want to includeanything else?
Did you have another question?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
before I jump in yeah , yeah, actually, the town does
a great job of getting feedbackfrom the public on strategic
planning process and there wasjust a round of public
engagement meetings.
Anything you can share with us,Matt, about what you heard from
residents.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, you know, we so the.
To get to the wonky part of it,every municipality in South
Carolina, if they want to havezoning, has to have a
comprehensive plan.
That's in state statute and youhave to pass a big one every 10
years and you have to pass anupdate every five.
And so the town has gonethrough our five-year update of
(11:29):
those, and what we've been doingover the last month or so is
going to different parts of ourcommunity and collecting
feedback from folks that want todrop in.
So you come in, you meet withsort of subject matter experts
like our transportation peopleor planning people or whatever,
and we've had some visuals andpeople tell us what they want to
(11:51):
see moving forward, will tellus what they want to see moving
forward, and a lot of that is alot of what I heard at my
station is understanding betterhousing affordability.
I've heard um, you know trafficof course is a is a big thing
and a lot of people want toalways tell us what kind of
restaurants they want when theymove the town.
so, um, but so interesting, wewill um we are still in the sort
(12:17):
of uh collection phase and wewill uh present all of that
information, what we've heard,to uh town council and they'll
pass the update and that sort ofinforms what we do uh as a
community um across really alldepartments and um it's a it's
(12:37):
an important tool and when willthat be available?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
yeah, what's the data there?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
uh, I would say it will be uh unveiled.
They'll probably present it atthe august town council meeting.
So just sort of be on thelookout for that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It sometime uh, early fall, late summer okay, I'll be
at that meeting actually andthen so what's the dot com we
can go to to kind of monitorwhat when that meeting is and
kind of stay uh, our townwebsite, town of mount pleasant
dot com, is us.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
yep yeah, perfect and Perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And the chamber.
We'll put it on our calendar.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
We should be doing that, we should be sharing those
.
Yes, I mean we're going nowwe're taking turns going.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So, yeah, All right cool.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You just did something really cool that I saw
and I'm you know, I'm themarketing geek and, um, you know
, SAS and AI is all hot nowadaystoo, and I thought it was
really cool to see the town of.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Mount Pleasant engaged in the Charleston hacks?
Yeah, hackathon, yeah.
So, um, for those of us, forthose of y'all who are listening
that don't know, there is anorganization called Charleston
hacks and their primary goal isto host these hackathons, and a
hackathon is when people gettogether across people from all
disciplines and walks of life.
(13:58):
A lot of it is going to be likecoding heavy and people who are
in UI, ux, software as aservice type people, but what
happens is these people gettogether and a problem is
presented to the folks at thesehackathons and they coalesce
around teams, they form teamsand their job is to, within a
(14:20):
period of time, figure out asolution to whatever the problem
may be, and it's usually insort of some kind of software
platform or something like that.
And so we recently held one umthrough charleston.
I was fortunate enough to sortof be one of the presenters of a
challenge statement, or aproblem statement, as they call
(14:40):
it, and what I was looking forand we worked with SC competes,
which is another economicdevelopment organization to talk
about, like how we know inMount Pleasant that there are a
ton of people who are workingsort of as solo entrepreneurs in
the tech space.
How do I find those people?
And so you know that was aproblem statement, challenge
(15:04):
statement, whatever you want tocall it, and there's a team that
tackled that.
The event was held at theCharleston Parts Conservancy
over at West Ashley, and therewas a team that tackled the the
challenge statement of for theCharleston parts conservancy how
do we know who to target andreach out to and at what time
for donations and volunteerismand stuff like that?
(15:27):
And, um, there are technologiesout there that allow you to do
that.
Ai has played a big role,played a big role in what some
of these folks came up with, andthere's all kinds of whiz bang
platforms out there that you canutilize.
Plug into that.
So Charleston hacks um, I'vebeen early believer in what
they've been trying to do, um,particularly because we're
(15:49):
trying to grow the innovationeconomy and the tech economy in
Mount Pleasant.
And, uh, charleston hacks alsohosts a lot of sort of meetups
and these meetups are intendedto bring people from sort of the
tech community, the innovationcommunity, the creative
community together for an hour,for a beer or a lunch or coffee.
(16:13):
And I think we need a lot moreof that in Charleston because,
especially if I'm trying to growthis, this innovation economy.
There are a lot of people whohave moved to Charleston in the
last five years from big placesthat are remote working for big,
fancy tech companies.
That might be heads down foreight hours, but if they can go
(16:35):
to one of these events theymight meet their co-founder on a
brand new platform right spark,something.
(16:55):
That's the next.
Whatever company you want toname that grows in charleston
creates jobs, makes ourcommunity better.
So charleston hacks big fan, um.
Big plug for those guys.
Check out their website.
It's probablycharlestonhackscom, but you can
google it and uh, um, if you areinterested, I hope you'll find
(17:17):
one of their events and attendand meet a lot of your fellow
innovation and creative types inCharleston.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, and it's not just for people that work in
tech, right, I mean, it's notjust for the developers too,
because I don't code, I don'tcode for nothing.
But I really wanted to go tothat hackathon, if you will, and
then kind of approaching thehackathon, if you will, and then
kind of approaching thehackathon.
Hacks is typically kind of anegative term, but we're
reinventing that with this group, right, because we're not
(17:48):
talking about hacking.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
We don't want to get hacked.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, we are not hacking into your grandma's
social security number.
We're trying to figure out howto solve a problem.
That's kind of what this is allabout.
And so, um, the idea should bebehind each new technology is
what problem are we solving?
And a lot of these folks aregood at that and you know, mike,
you're a marketing expert.
(18:11):
We've got folks like that whocome.
We've got people who are, whohave some expertise in supply
chain logistics, all kind ofdisciplines, that sort of know
how to do a thing and also knowwhat they want the outcome to be
.
And, like any engineer, rightor architect or designer, if a
(18:33):
client tells you, hey, this iswhere I want to be at the end of
this project, it's your job tofigure out how to to get there.
But the client has a solution,or at least where they want to
be, so it's.
It's a really cool, uhexperience.
You can come to these thingsand not participate and just
sort of watch, and I'd encouragepeople to to do that to see
(18:54):
what kind of really smart peoplewe have.
We've had some kids out ofcollege at charleston that are
computer science have.
We've had some kids out ofcollege of charleston that are
computer science majors.
We've had some interestinggraduate students who
participated.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's a really neat experience, cool love that I
just want to mention, before weleave the segment, that on
august the 13th, and wednesday,um, since we've been talking a
little, you know about, um, thetown, this is a great chance for
you to meet your local electedofficials that know your
lawmaker on the.
(19:25):
USS Yorktown, 6 to 8 pm.
It's a two-hour reception withcocktails and food and very
nominally priced.
Just go tomountpleasantchamberorg.
But we also have staterepresentatives coming as well
as local.
It's a great opportunity forthe business community to have
(19:45):
one-on-one conversations withour local lawmakers and it's a
lot of fun and you're on theyorktown on the yorktown.
That's cool, which is amazingand thank you, explore
charleston for being ourpresenting sponsor yeah, shout
out, explore, explore,charleston.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Amazing, it seems like we're doing a lot of things
here still and you know you'reworking.
You know, last time we talked Isaid go back to work and you
did and you did.
And we're going to go ahead anddo this every month with you
right.
So what are we going to lookfor next month?
You think what's?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
in the docket.
You think that's August.
Where are we?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, we're in.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
July, I don't know.
All I'll be thinking about iscollege football, so we'll have
to figure out something else totalk about, or we might just
talk about college footballthere we go, y'all have a good
time Love that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, again, Matt, thanks for doing what you do.
Is there anything else that youcan share a little, that you
can share A little somethingthat you want to talk about, any
kind of I got nothing, you gotnothing?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Well, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You're doing enough as it is.
You got a lot going on, so yeah, rebecca, you want to close
this out, then this has been agreat episode so far for Made by
Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's right.
Thank you all very much.
Our second episode episode.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, our second one.
Thank you, matt, for being hereagain.
We all appreciate it.
And thank you, charleston mediasolutions for hosting us,
greatly appreciated.
Thank you, mike, for puttingthis together.
Yeah, of course, of course,it's our pleasure.
Uh, until next time, charleston, mount pleasant, we'll see you.
Hi everyone.
I'm Rebecca Imholz.
I'm the Executive Director ofthe Mount Pleasant Chamber of
Commerce.
I'm so excited today to do oursecond Building Business Podcast
with the Town of Mount PleasantEconomic Development Officer
Matt Brady, and joining me isMike Compton who is our
Marketing Chair?
And where are we, Mike?
(00:23):
Where are we?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
right now we're at the Charles Media Solutions
studios here.
They're great sponsors of thechamber.
They let us record here intheir studio for this
unbelievable podcast that wehave here called the Building
Business Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Building Business Podcast From the Mount.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Pleasant Chamber.
So thanks for joining us.
Matt Brady, how are you today?
I'm great.
Yeah, you had a little backissue.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
I hear huh, you're a little sore, you get a little
workout in.
I did.
I turned officially mid 40s andstarted hurting myself.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
So it happens I hear that, yeah, I want to be 47 this
year, so I'm like it's terrible, it's not that bad I.
I'm the alternative.
I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
At least we're here in mount pleasant.
Oh hey, mount pleasant.
That's why we're here to talk.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's why we're here in Mount.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Pleasant, oh hey, Mount Pleasant.
That's why we're here to talk.
That's why we're here.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Mount Pleasant made.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What's new, Matt Brady, in the old economic
development world of yours?
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, we're busy.
Let's see what's going on herein Mount Pleasant.
We've got a comp plan update.
That's sort of been underway.
The park just opened atAlhambra Hall oh, we did.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
The front lawn up there.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Our waterfront park has opened up.
We've got a lot of businessactivity, a lot of people giving
us a look to be the capital ofinnovation in this state, and
it's been had a lot of fun herelately.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I love that.
And so you say Alhambra HallIsn't the Pitt Street?
Bridge over that direction.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The Pitt Street Bridge is over that direction
and the town performed a littlemicro-mobility project and it's
back open now.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Micro-what now?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It's a fancy urban planner way of talking about
another place to walk andanother place to sort of just be
in your community.
So, uh, just another wonderfulplace in town love that, love
that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And then and then before uh, rebecca chimes in,
what about the park underneaththe bridge there, coming over,
uh, to the mount pleasant side?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
that's a really cool it is so much fun I've taken my
grandchildren have you it'samazing it's awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Um.
It's just another premierdestination here in mount
pleasant truly and I'm that'snot just me saying that, because
that's my job to say it, butit's truly a really cool place.
Um, all of our partners thatworked to get it open um did a
phenomenal job.
They got it right and I thinkthe community both right there,
(02:50):
our residents and then everybodythat wants to hang out right
underneath the bridge is goingto love that for a lot of years
people love that bridge.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
They love there's.
There's a deep love for thatbridge from a lot of people.
Carolyn Murray walks the bridgeevery morning.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Wow, yeah, she is iconic.
I'm not surprised she was on anepisode.
Yes, she's amazing.
Yeah, she's cool Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But you know people drive to that side of the bridge
and then walk back and forth alot.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Yeah, I love that I cross it at least twice a day
and I love it and it's truly anicon in the region.
I think I mean, you know, everymovie that has Paris in it acts
like the Eiffel Tower isvisible from every angle.
The bridge is truly visiblefrom every angle of Charleston.
(03:40):
I love that.
It's iconic and it's realistic.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Do you find yourself taking videos of like the you
know going by it, and sunsets,you know?
Speaker 3 (03:49):
mike, I can never use my phone when I drive I'm
terrible about it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Good answer, but I'm always sunroof open.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
It is beautiful and sometimes it's, it's
breathtaking um.
A lot of times it'sbreathtaking, yeah, um.
So it's, it's a great featureof our region.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Fun, fun, fun, fun.
Rebecca, let's get in thebusiness, shall we?
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Sounds good.
Well, the last time you werehere, matt, we talked a lot
about the uniqueness of MountPleasant, how amazing it is to
live here, and one of thefocuses of the Chamber is that
we have a great quality of lifeand we want people to not only
live here but work here.
That's right.
So one of the things that we'redoing in partnership with the
(04:28):
town for our upcoming expo inSeptember is a job fair and the
town's going to participate.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That's right.
We're excited too.
The town is, first, it's agreat employer.
I kind of think of us as anemployer of choice in the region
with very competitive salariesand benefits and we've got
dozens of jobs open and anyonelistening, I'd encourage you to
go check them out and theyreally have kind of a broad
(04:55):
range of what we're looking forout in our public services and
you know, are outside doingtheir job, the folks who are
accountants and planners andadministrative people and and
we've got a lot of options and,uh, we'll be excited to
participate and see thecommunity at the, the business
(05:17):
expo and we're excited about itbecause not only do we have the
town, the port's going to bethere, we've got Charleston
County Dispatch Spinks, which isa new employer coming into the
town, highway 17.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
And we don't want to forget about our hospitality
folks, so Reigns Hospitality.
So that's, I think it's a greatrepresentation across the board
of folks who can work and livein Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
So when is the expo?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It is September 18th.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Folks who can work and live in Mount Pleasant.
So when is the expo?
It is September 18th so we'regoing to have the business expo.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then we're going to have a job fair within the
business expo.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Within the business expo.
That's really cool, I don'tknow if anybody else has done
that before, probably not.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
We're very unique.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
But we're doing it for our first time and this expo
is the biggest networkingopportunity in Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
In the area.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
In Charleston.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yes, not just Mount Pleasant Right.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yes, right, so listeners please September 18th
18th, it's a Thursday.
It's free to come.
And if you are Free, did yousay free to come?
It's free, absolutely free.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
We've got some really cool bags we're going to give
away the first 500 attendees.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
These bags.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
These bags are very cool they're very cool, they're
clear, very popular.
And then, as you go through the90, some vendors were over
halfway sold out yes, yes, andwe still have two months to go.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
We have a few sponsorship availabilities left,
just community.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, yeah, check that out, but we've got um.
The town is one of our sponsorsum cruise.
Subaru is our big sponsor thisyear.
Nivon Health is our healthcaresponsor.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, what a cool way to.
So we're really excited.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
So yeah, I am super excited.
It's our 15th annual one.
That's a big one.
We had one during COVID.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
It was virtual, it was different.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I remember that, but we had one, and I also don't
want to leave our conversationtoday without talking about this
time of year, hurricanes.
We have an amazing, amazing, umhurricane preparedness, what it
would you call it department inthe town, or folks or uh, yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So we uh.
When you think about hurricanepreparedness in mount pleasant,
you've got to think about all ofour public safety people,
that's, you know, fire, publicservices, um, police, because
they always, uh have toparticipate and be all hands on
deck.
But we've got an amazing staffperson who's sort of overall
emergency preparedness, namedShannon Whitehead.
She is right there at town hall.
(07:37):
She is an expert in getting usready for disasters, which, of
course, unfortunately includeshurricanes in our region.
Here we are with our firstnamed storm of the region
already in Chantal, andShannon's working really hard,
uh, trying to find ways to reachout to businesses, um, to get
(07:58):
all of us ready at town hall,who don't always think about, of
course, you know, hurricanes,cause that's not our job.
But she's thinking about it andso we're ready.
And you know, I encourageanyone to check out our website
if they want to find moreinformation, and I believe she's
going to be participating in amorning get-together with the
(08:19):
Chamber right, yes, coffee witha Cause.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
That is Thursday, august 7th.
It's free to attend.
We open it up to members butthe public as well.
So Shannon's going to be theretalking about what we can all do
to be better prepared forhurricane season and if you're
new to the area, I highlyencourage you to come to that
event, because I always learnsomething new but I had no idea
(08:42):
exactly what I needed to keep inmy closet at home and when do I
leave and things like that.
And businesses definitely prepright, right.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Does shannon have rob fowler's name, like phone
number on speed dial is?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I will tell you I have heard that there is a
secret slack channel that allthe emergency preparedness and
meteorological staff are a partof.
See that's cool they're allworking together to make sure
that, because you know these,these, these storms, they're
regional right, they don't stopat an arbitrary municipal
boundary and we've all kind ofgot to work across jurisdictions
(09:21):
.
So it's actually, I hope, thatour listeners know that we're
all working together acrosscounties, across cities, and
also you should check out theannual hurricane guide, because
it's got the coburg cow on itthis year, so cool.
Try to find that and pick oneup.
What?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
what's a coburg?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
shipwreck oh cool I'm like what?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
for those of you unfamiliar, the coburg cow has
been around for a long time.
It's over in west ashley and,uh, a lot of people will judge
how bad a storm is going to beby if the coburg cow is still up
or not.
Um, are you serious?
So when they when they take itdown and it's just a giant.
I guess aluminum, maybe paintedcow from the former coburg
(10:10):
dairy I guess that was there anduh, and it's part of our local
lore.
But also, people will judge ifthey're leaving or not by if the
Coburg cow's still on.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
And the Waffle House.
Is it open or not?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
The Waffle House index is probably more reliable
than even the Coburg cow.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
I had no idea, matthew.
Our engineer over here wasshaking his head like, yeah, of
course he knew that I'm theengineer over here was shaking
his head.
Of course he knew that.
Of course he knew that I'm theidiot over here.
What are you talking about?
A cow is going to tell me whenthere's a hurricane coming or
not.
That's fun.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
That's fun news.
I just like it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
That's a great little addition there, Rebecca.
Did you want to includeanything else?
Did you have another question?
Speaker 1 (10:52):
before I jump in yeah , yeah, actually, the town does
a great job of getting feedbackfrom the public on strategic
planning process and there wasjust a round of public
engagement meetings.
Anything you can share with us,Matt, about what you heard from
residents.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, you know, we so the.
To get to the wonky part of it,every municipality in South
Carolina, if they want to havezoning, has to have a
comprehensive plan.
That's in state statute and youhave to pass a big one every 10
years and you have to pass anupdate every five.
And so the town has gonethrough our five-year update of
(11:29):
those, and what we've been doingover the last month or so is
going to different parts of ourcommunity and collecting
feedback from folks that want todrop in.
So you come in, you meet withsort of subject matter experts
like our transportation peopleor planning people or whatever,
and we've had some visuals andpeople tell us what they want to
(11:51):
see moving forward, will tellus what they want to see moving
forward, and a lot of that is alot of what I heard at my
station is understanding betterhousing affordability.
I've heard um, you know trafficof course is a is a big thing
and a lot of people want toalways tell us what kind of
restaurants they want when theymove the town.
so, um, but so interesting, wewill um we are still in the sort
(12:17):
of uh collection phase and wewill uh present all of that
information, what we've heard,to uh town council and they'll
pass the update and that sort ofinforms what we do uh as a
community um across really alldepartments and um it's a it's
(12:37):
an important tool and when willthat be available?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
yeah, what's the data there?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:43):
uh, I would say it will be uh unveiled.
They'll probably present it atthe august town council meeting.
So just sort of be on thelookout for that.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It sometime uh, early fall, late summer okay, I'll be
at that meeting actually andthen so what's the dot com we
can go to to kind of monitorwhat when that meeting is and
kind of stay uh, our townwebsite, town of mount pleasant
dot com, is us.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
yep yeah, perfect and Perfect.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
And the chamber.
We'll put it on our calendar.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
We should be doing that, we should be sharing those
.
Yes, I mean we're going nowwe're taking turns going.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So, yeah, All right cool.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You just did something really cool that I saw
and I'm you know, I'm themarketing geek and, um, you know
, SAS and AI is all hot nowadaystoo, and I thought it was
really cool to see the town of.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Mount Pleasant engaged in the Charleston hacks?
Yeah, hackathon, yeah.
So, um, for those of us, forthose of y'all who are listening
that don't know, there is anorganization called Charleston
hacks and their primary goal isto host these hackathons, and a
hackathon is when people gettogether across people from all
disciplines and walks of life.
(13:58):
A lot of it is going to be likecoding heavy and people who are
in UI, ux, software as aservice type people, but what
happens is these people gettogether and a problem is
presented to the folks at thesehackathons and they coalesce
around teams, they form teamsand their job is to, within a
(14:20):
period of time, figure out asolution to whatever the problem
may be, and it's usually insort of some kind of software
platform or something like that.
And so we recently held one umthrough charleston.
I was fortunate enough to sortof be one of the presenters of a
challenge statement, or aproblem statement, as they call
(14:40):
it, and what I was looking forand we worked with SC competes,
which is another economicdevelopment organization to talk
about, like how we know inMount Pleasant that there are a
ton of people who are workingsort of as solo entrepreneurs in
the tech space.
How do I find those people?
And so you know that was aproblem statement, challenge
(15:04):
statement, whatever you want tocall it, and there's a team that
tackled that.
The event was held at theCharleston Parts Conservancy
over at West Ashley, and therewas a team that tackled the the
challenge statement of for theCharleston parts conservancy how
do we know who to target andreach out to and at what time
for donations and volunteerismand stuff like that?
(15:27):
And, um, there are technologiesout there that allow you to do
that.
Ai has played a big role,played a big role in what some
of these folks came up with, andthere's all kinds of whiz bang
platforms out there that you canutilize.
Plug into that.
So Charleston hacks um, I'vebeen early believer in what
they've been trying to do, um,particularly because we're
(15:49):
trying to grow the innovationeconomy and the tech economy in
Mount Pleasant.
And, uh, charleston hacks alsohosts a lot of sort of meetups
and these meetups are intendedto bring people from sort of the
tech community, the innovationcommunity, the creative
community together for an hour,for a beer or a lunch or coffee.
(16:13):
And I think we need a lot moreof that in Charleston because,
especially if I'm trying to growthis, this innovation economy.
There are a lot of people whohave moved to Charleston in the
last five years from big placesthat are remote working for big,
fancy tech companies.
That might be heads down foreight hours, but if they can go
(16:35):
to one of these events theymight meet their co-founder on a
brand new platform right spark,something.
(16:55):
That's the next.
Whatever company you want toname that grows in charleston
creates jobs, makes ourcommunity better.
So charleston hacks big fan, um.
Big plug for those guys.
Check out their website.
It's probablycharlestonhackscom, but you can
google it and uh, um, if you areinterested, I hope you'll find
(17:17):
one of their events and attendand meet a lot of your fellow
innovation and creative types inCharleston.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, and it's not just for people that work in
tech, right, I mean, it's notjust for the developers too,
because I don't code, I don'tcode for nothing.
But I really wanted to go tothat hackathon, if you will, and
then kind of approaching thehackathon, if you will, and then
kind of approaching thehackathon.
Hacks is typically kind of anegative term, but we're
reinventing that with this group, right, because we're not
(17:48):
talking about hacking.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
We don't want to get hacked.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, we are not hacking into your grandma's
social security number.
We're trying to figure out howto solve a problem.
That's kind of what this is allabout.
And so, um, the idea should bebehind each new technology is
what problem are we solving?
And a lot of these folks aregood at that and you know, mike,
you're a marketing expert.
(18:11):
We've got folks like that whocome.
We've got people who are, whohave some expertise in supply
chain logistics, all kind ofdisciplines, that sort of know
how to do a thing and also knowwhat they want the outcome to be
.
And, like any engineer, rightor architect or designer, if a
(18:33):
client tells you, hey, this iswhere I want to be at the end of
this project, it's your job tofigure out how to to get there.
But the client has a solution,or at least where they want to
be, so it's.
It's a really cool, uhexperience.
You can come to these thingsand not participate and just
sort of watch, and I'd encouragepeople to to do that to see
(18:54):
what kind of really smart peoplewe have.
We've had some kids out ofcollege at charleston that are
computer science have.
We've had some kids out ofcollege of charleston that are
computer science majors.
We've had some interestinggraduate students who
participated.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's a really neat experience, cool love that I
just want to mention, before weleave the segment, that on
august the 13th, and wednesday,um, since we've been talking a
little, you know about, um, thetown, this is a great chance for
you to meet your local electedofficials that know your
lawmaker on the.
(19:25):
USS Yorktown, 6 to 8 pm.
It's a two-hour reception withcocktails and food and very
nominally priced.
Just go tomountpleasantchamberorg.
But we also have staterepresentatives coming as well
as local.
It's a great opportunity forthe business community to have
(19:45):
one-on-one conversations withour local lawmakers and it's a
lot of fun and you're on theyorktown on the yorktown.
That's cool, which is amazingand thank you, explore
charleston for being ourpresenting sponsor yeah, shout
out, explore, explore,charleston.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Amazing, it seems like we're doing a lot of things
here still and you know you'reworking.
You know, last time we talked Isaid go back to work and you
did and you did.
And we're going to go ahead anddo this every month with you
right.
So what are we going to lookfor next month?
You think what's?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
in the docket.
You think that's August.
Where are we?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, we're in.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
July, I don't know.
All I'll be thinking about iscollege football, so we'll have
to figure out something else totalk about, or we might just
talk about college footballthere we go, y'all have a good
time Love that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well, again, Matt, thanks for doing what you do.
Is there anything else that youcan share a little, that you
can share A little somethingthat you want to talk about, any
kind of I got nothing, you gotnothing?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Well, that's great, that's great.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You're doing enough as it is.
You got a lot going on, so yeah, rebecca, you want to close
this out, then this has been agreat episode so far for Made by
Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's right.
Thank you all very much.
Our second episode episode.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes, our second one.
Thank you, matt, for being hereagain.
We all appreciate it.
And thank you, charleston mediasolutions for hosting us,
greatly appreciated.
Thank you, mike, for puttingthis together.
Yeah, of course, of course,it's our pleasure.
Uh, until next time, charleston, mount pleasant, we'll see you.
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