Boortz To Keynote Chamber’s Annual Dinner

The this past January in Atlanta with a nationally known keynote speaker. Next month, the Chamber will celebrate its 51^st year of operation at a local venue, but still with a nationally known figure.

The Chamber will acknowledge its milestone with a seated dinner at the Thursday, Jan. 26. The event, for which cocktail attire is required, will begin with a reception at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and current Republican candidate for president, served as last year’s speaker when the event was hosted by the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. This year, attendees will come to Dallas to hear from nationally syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz, who can be heard locally and across the metro Atlanta area on WSB Radio.

“We’re really excited. We’ve had a great response from Neal Boortz, our speaker, and really looking forward to it being a good event,” said Kevin Kirby, the Chamber’s director of Member Services, who added that past Chamber events have included comedians and concerts as the featured entertainment. Boortz’s appearance will mark the first time the Chamber has had a nationally syndicated speaker.

“We go through speakers bureaus, and as we were searching through saw him and thought [he] might be a good fit,” he added.

Individual tickets to the event are $125 a person, with tables of 10 available via sponsorships of $1,500 and $2,500—the highest sponsorship level has already sold out. The sponsorships also include advertising at the event. Those wishing to purchase tickets or sponsorships do not have to hold Chamber membership.

Chamber officials say the venue can hold about 350 attendees. As of Thursday, about half of those seats had been sold.

“We feel good about [that],” said Shelbia Bohannon, the Chamber’s vice president. “With the holidays … it is what it is—people are concentrating on the holidays, and we know that when we come back after the new year, that’s when people will be focusing on, ‘OK, it’s this month.’ So we feel really good that we’re halfway there at this point.”

In addition to Boortz’s keynote speech, the event will feature the awarding of two recognitions—Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year. The latter has been awarded annually since 1969.

Nominations for both awards are still open. Though the initial deadline had been set at 4 p.m. today, officials have extended the nomination period to Monday. Nomination forms are attached to this article.

Larry Jernigan, owner of Pirate Printing in Hiram, , while Dr. John M. Covington .

Next month’s event also will see outgoing Chamber Chairman Jim Ashworth with OneSource Facility Solutions passing the gavel to 2012 Chairman Caric Martin with DC Bank.

For more information on, or to purchase tickets or sponsorships for next month’s events, contact Kevin Kirby at 770-445-6016 or kkirby@pauldingchamber.org.