Ben Kinney

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. I like to check in on LinkedIn quite a bit during work hours. I’ve enjoyed it since it’s been around in terms of getting information about colleagues, prospects and other professional folks. It's a good platform for business.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. I was watching a Sunday news show last week and some talking heads were discussing Kate Middleton’s recent public announcement that she had cancer and the fallout that followed. The commentator blamed it on the rise of social media and technology. I beg to differ.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. I had a fun experience a few weeks back I’d like to share. My wife and I went to see the great Billy Strings in Asheville. We are big fans, as you all know, and we planned to spend the night in town after the show.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. I found a pretty cool and effective Australian commercial on the web this week. The commercial tells a compelling story about the widening generation gap we humans have and presents it in an entertaining way. Turns out to be a commercial for Australian lamb, which I find amusing as well.

We’re taking our youngest son to college today. He’ll be attending Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute on a bridge program to get into Appalachian State, where his older brother is attending. Our youngest is a funny kid in more ways than one. As a child, he was the funniest youngster I’ve come across. Always laughing, joking and very loving.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. As y’all know, I was on vacation last week. We loaded up the truck for a trip to Amelia Island in Florida. Traffic was nuts, but it gave me some time to notice how our state’s interstate highways are different in so many ways. We took 77 south, caught 26 in South Carolina and then on to 95 through Georgia and into Florida. We attended a wedding in Fuquay Varina on our way back so we went straight up 95 that way.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. Father’s Day is coming up this weekend. I always thought Father’s Day was kind of an afterthought to Mother’s Day. In my opinion, mother’s do a lot more work, at least they do in our house. My wife is an incredible mother to our two boys. I think I’m OK as a dad, but don’t go above and beyond as she does.

ope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. Earlier this week I moderated our annual life sciences round table at the NC Biotech Center in RTP. I had a lunch appointment in Raleigh and when I was finished, I had planned enough time to go to the Park to greet our panelists and make sure everything was running smoothly. I thought I had timed it perfectly, but an unforeseen event was also taking place in the vicinity: A presidential visit to a business around the same time.

Hope you made it through the week and are ready for the weekend. I recently made a remark at an event that made me feel old. I made a reference to Captain Stubing, who some of you may recall was the captain of The Love Boat, the beloved 1970s comedy series. The younger folks in the group politely laughed along with the older folks, but you could tell from their awkward glances that they had no idea who Captain Stubing was (or for that matter, Gopher, Doc, Julie and Isaac).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve a drop of Irish blood running through these veins. It’s evident in the amount of guilt I carry around, even without the presence of priests in my upbringing.

I travel a lot across the state. Obviously nature calls on some of these trips, and I usually make a stop at one of our state’s outstanding rest areas if I can, rather than a convenience store. (They can sometimes be a little off-putting depending on which one you choose).

Megasites are being prepared and global automakers wooed to bring a plant and thousands of jobs to the Old North State. That’s well and good, but it’s also time to focus on something that was once here and taken from us, many moons ago.

In early December, we gather together and share our stories. Some are happy, some sad, all are moving. The small-business owners who attend bring their families, employees and partners to our annual luncheon honoring their success