 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Archive for the ‘Press Corner’ Category
Get Your Taste Buds Ready – Premiere Food and Wine Event Savor Dallas Returns – March 6-7, 2009
The Fifth Annual Savor Dallas Celebration Returns March 6-7, 2009
The Savor Dallas concept was envisioned over five years ago by co-founders Vicki Briley-White and Jim White as a means of showcasing Dallas’s great chefs, restaurants, cultural and artistic treasures, and to create the signature wine, food, and spirits event the Dallas-Fort Worth Area deserves.
The Fifth annual event will be more fun than ever. It has been called “the best wine event ever in Dallas” by wine and food aficionados. Once again, the “labor of love” is dedicated to helping folks who attend walk away with a very good sense of which wines they should consider buying, and a taste of the best restaurants in the area.
Wine and food lovers will gather in Dallas March 6-7, from all over for some serious fun!
See the complete weekend schedule here.
Once again, The exciting Victory Park plays host to events in 2009, along with the world-renowned Dallas Arts District. Savor Dallas will continue to offer a special “Friday Ticket” that gives you admission to both the Arts District Wine Stroll featuring the incomparable Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Museum of Arts in Seventeen Seventeen Restaurant, and the Meyerson Symphony Center (Friday March 6, 5-7 p.m.) and the Victory Park Celebration in AT&T Plaza (7:30-9:30 p.m.) for one admission price of just $50. Two events for the price of one. What a value! It will be a food, wine and fun lover’s paradise in Downtown Dallas.
Our event continues to showcase the renaissance of Downtown Dallas. Our popular International Grand Tasting returns to the beautiful Plaza of the Americas and Westin City Center Hotel on Saturday March 7 from 7-10 p.m. Three stunning levels of food and wine will be presented!
The unparalleled Reserve Tasting returns to the incomparable Nasher Sculpture Center on Saturday evening. This limited attendance event for lovers of the finest wines and spirits will take place from 5 until 6:30.
“The International Grand Tasting” is a wine and food lovers paradise! Over 500 premium wines, spirits and imported beer; more than 60 top chefs and artisans serving taste treats; and a comfortable ambiance that gives people the chance to mix, mingle, and interact with winemakers and chefs. This very popular event helps people sort through the ten-kazillion different wines on the market and figure what they want to buy. It also gives them a special taste of the top DFW restaurants–and a chance to try the hottest new eateries in case they haven’t been yet.
As usual, there’ll be a splendid silent auction of superlative wine finds at the International Grand Tasting to benefit the North Texas Food Bank.
Savor Dallas also makes a cash donation to the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association Education and Scholarship Fund (funding a scholarship for a deserving young chef) and the Arts Magnet Building Campaign for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Savor Dallas is sponsoring an art contest for the students of Booker T. Washington’s art department. The winning design will appear on a special commemorative Savor Dallas t-shirt. Profits from which will benefit Booker T. Washington.
Savor Dallas helps train the chefs of tomorrow, nurture the artists of the future, and feed hungry families today.
Savor Dallas is a full wine, food, spirits and arts experience designed so that people can participate for one event, a day, or a full weekend!
Savor Dallas is great partnership between many varying interest groups and is supported by:
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The Office of the Mayor of Dallas
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City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs
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Downtown Dallas Association
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The Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau
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The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association
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Arts Magnet Building Campaign
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The North Texas Food Bank
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Glazer’s Wholesale Distributors
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Republic National Distributing
Savor Dallas 2008, March 7-8, entertained over 4000 upscale wine and food lovers from throughout the DFW Metroplex, all around Texas, and from 14 states around the country. The weather was chilly but just right for a cozy night with good friends and great food and wine. Victory Park and the Arts District dazzled the visitors. People are still talking about the Reserve Tasting and the International Grand Tasting.
Savor Dallas 2007, March 9-10, was a spectacular event that helped spur wine and food enjoyment to new heights. “Big Fun and Big Flavor in Big D” at Savor Dallas.
Recaps of the first two years–
2006: The 2nd Annual Savor Dallas An International Experience of Wine, Food, Spirits and the Arts returned February 16-18, 2006
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A dreaded winter weather advisory swept through North Texas on the eve of Savor Dallas 2006, dropping temperatures over 40 degrees, bringing wind chills and the “promise” of icy conditions on roadways. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor media histrionics could scare away dedicated food and wine lovers! They appeared but the ice storm did not. In the end, the pursuit of culinary excellence and common sense prevailed and Savor Dallas attracted over 4500 intrepid fans throughout the weekend, who were warmed by great cuisine from over 50 of the area’s top chefs, over 500 great wines, spirits and beer; amazing artistry from David Sanborn and Chris Botti at “Bubbles ‘N Jazz”, and artistic excitement at the Savor Dallas Arts District Wine Stroll. Celebrity chefs and wine/spirits educators welcomed seekers of the good life with top tasting seminars. Hearty conviviality was enjoyed by nearly 2000 “foodies and winies” at the acclaimed International Grand Tasting at the Hilton Anatole, and the irreverent Texas Outlaws after party to help everyone “chill out” from the fever pitch of the chilly weekend.
Other Popular events since the debut Savor Dallas include:
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A “Sizzling South of the Border Celebration” at the Latino Cultural Center on Thursday, February 16 from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m.
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A full day of tasting seminars and panels with the most respected winemakers and experts in the world (including the return of popular speakers Steve Olson, Dale DeGroff, Andrea Immer Robinson, Guy Stout, Tim Laird-America’s Chief Entertainment Officer, and many more!
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* World-class celebrity chefs including Tyler Florence, Rocco DiSpirito, Zarela Martinez, Aaron Sanchez, Darren McGrady-The Royal Chef, Dean Fearing, Stephan Pyles and more
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* Great wine dinners at the area’s finest restaurants featuring vintners and winery.
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Plus, an event at the beautiful African American Museum on Thursday, February 16th, “Food, Wine and Rhythm” in association with the African American Wine Tasting Society.
The Inaugural Savor Dallas
Savor Dallas, February 18-20, 2005, welcomed nearly 4000 attendees from 13 states and the surrounding area to events in the Dallas Arts District, the Latino Cultural Center, 21 restaurants, the Hilton Anatole and the Fairmont Dallas. Over 100 wines and spirits were represented in tasting events throughout the weekend. The wine and spirits brands, along with 43 top chefs participated in the “International Grand Tasting”. Tyler Florence from the Food Network, PBS’s Zarela Martinez and local stars Dean Fearing and Stephan Pyles staged cooking demos. Nationally recognized wine and spirits educators, including Steve Olson, Josh Wesson, Jeff Morgan, Leslie Sbrocco and Dale DeGroff, presented tasting seminars.
Jim White
Founder, Savor Dallas
By Jim Estill
Leadership is about doing the right things, Management is about doing things right. Both are important but without the leadership part, management has little value.
Leadership is about having the map and going the right direction (goals). Management is about going there efficiently. I think about it as looking first at the compass then the clock.
Leadership is about effectiveness. Management is about efficiency.
Leadership comes before Management.
In the 1990s I published an audio tape series on Time Management (a later version became a Time Management CD). Since then, I have come to realize that being efficient has its limits and that working on the right things yields more results than straight efficiency.
A part of this study lead me to my focus on goal setting. I have written often about my favorite goal setting exercise. Having clear goals is the leadership part. Turning those goals into a vision is a key part of leadership.
I titled my book “Time Leadership” because of my views that leadership must come before management (even though management is very important).
The full title is “Time Leadership – Use the Secrets of Leadership for Time Management“.
Join Debbie Mrazek this Thursday, March 6th at 7:00 am for a book signing at Einstein’s Bagels in Plano, Texas. Debbie’s book has already leaped across continents and people have reported this is the must-have sales book for 2008! If you’ve been searching for a step-by-step winning formula for sales success, your search ends here.
If you are one of our clients, no worries, we’ve got you covered. You’ll be receiving your copy in the next week!
If you are an early bird, join us at Einstein’s Bagels in Plano (7000 Independence Parkway), next to Kroger’s. Hope to see you there!
For Immediate Release
News Release
Contact: Candace Fitzpatrick
Phone: 214-535-1313 or 972-612-0413
Is Your Company Smarter Than a Sixth Grade Class?
Underperforming Colorado School Unites and Excels After Discovering Talents
(Plano, Texas December 28, 2007) – Last year Nathan Smith, the principal of Del Norte Middle School, knew there had to be an answer. The question was, “What do you do when more than 50 percent of incoming students are underperformers in basic math?” The district ranked 161st the previous year – just seventeen slots from dead last in the state, which landed the southern Colorado school on academic watch. To correct the district issues, the school board hired a new superintendent.
The bigger concern for Smith was how to help his new students plug into learning. His new boss, Michael Salvato, a turn-around artist for under-performing school districts, challenged Smith to see if plugging into student’s innate talents would lead to student academic achievement.
Through Salvato, Smith was introduced to a woman from Texas who was doing talent-based work with company employees, helping them increase productivity and improve interpersonal relations. Seeing the similarities between his school and the corporate world, he asked what he could do to bring this same tool to his students.
“Our teachers are top notch. They were already noticing patterns within the student body,” Smith says. “We just didn’t have the language and tools to identify and work with the dynamic we were experiencing.”
The first week of school, every 6th grade student was assessed and each one received a list of his or her top three innate talents. The question posed to Candace Fitzpatrick, president of Plano-based CoreClarity, was, “What’s next?”
Fitzpatrick quickly created a color-coded mapping system that allowed teachers and students to relate to each other based on their core talents. Two district employees were sent to Dallas for training in group facilitation methods developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs. They went back to Colorado and held a focused conversation during which the students agreed their mission was to make sure that no child was ever left behind in the 6th grade at Del Norte Middle School. Then, through a consensus building workshop, they created their own seven point plan to make sure they accomplished their mission.
What came next was nothing short of miraculous.
During the first reporting period, more than 88 percent of the 6th graders were on the A/B honor roll. The others had no less than C averages. Throughout the school year, 75 percent were consistently earning As and Bs, the others were in and out of the A/B honor roll, but never with anything less than a C average. They brilliantly executed their plan.
The shift in the environment at the school could literally be felt not only at school but at home as many parents called to report changes they were seeing in their children.
The talent-identification tool, which is owned by Gallup, Inc., is called the StrengthsExplorer. CoreClarity works with the results of this tool to map and provide a system and language so simple that students easily incorporate it into their daily lives. The color-coding also highlights for teachers how individual children best learn so they can modify their lesson plans to create a positive learning experience for all.
Parent/Teacher meetings have changed tone from focusing on the student’s academic struggles (perceived weaknesses) to highlighting their innate gifts. Communication has improved at home, too.
Denise Benavides, 6th grade math teacher, says, “It has changed the way we view ourselves, our abilities and each other. Each child, as well as each teacher, has a map of his or her talents. Now, we relate to each other in a fundamentally different way. It’s been truly amazing.”
One of the resource children, after receiving his results, exclaimed, “It’s not blank! I have talents!” In this way, each child can focus on what is best about himself or herself, yet still learn to work with others who are better suited to other activities.
Another child who opened his locker and found himself overcome by the contents falling to the floor cried out, “I need an organizer! Where’s an organizer?” Two students who excel at organizing things immediately rushed to assist him.
“Our school has moved from a place that needed to be fixed to a place where individuals are celebrated and honored,” says Smith. “Bullying is down by 75 percent in this class. In all my years in education, I’ve never seen anything like this. These students will never forget this experience.”
For a baseline, the class was assessed using a national test in September 2006, then again in December and May. They not only excelled as a student body, progressing two or more years in science and language arts, and a full three years in reading and math; but in September 2007, the results confirmed that as a class, they retained 100 percent of what they learned last year.
Fitzpatrick’s corporate clients have experienced similar, dramatic and accelerated changes after utilizing the company’s proprietary program. From leadership groups to nonprofit organizations to Fortune 500 companies, CoreClarity has helped individuals unite under one mission, increase individual and team performance, and work together more harmoniously.
Clients who have experienced the program have called CoreClarity an “Excelerant” – because they accelerate the removal of years of accumulated personal debris and move individuals and teams quickly to excellence. This clearing allows the true essence and excellence of individuals, teams and organizations to shine through in both adult and student programs.
For information about Del Norte Middle School contact Mr. Smith at nsmith@del-norte.k12.co.us. For more information about CoreClarity visit www.coreclarity.net. CoreClarity is not affiliated with Gallup, Inc.