September 16, 2021

One of a leader’s key responsibilities is to identify and develop future leaders. The Goering Center demonstrates its commitment to the region’s future generation of leaders by bestowing the Larry Grypp Rising Leader Award. Named for past president Larry Grypp in acknowledgement of his leadership accomplishments, this award is given to one Rising Leader, nominated by their member company, for demonstrating success at advancing one of the Goering Center’s 10 Best Practices of Successful Family and Private Businesses. Jack Brendamour was nominated for the following Best Business Practices: for Business Growth by Cody Campbell and for Giving Back by Julie Heil.

September 16, 2021

At the onset of the pandemic, Designs Direct Creative Group established three priorities: preserving their culture, supporting their customers, and maintaining their most important partnerships. To preserve their culture, their team emphasized the need for open, honest, and consistent communication.

September 16, 2021

When the pandemic hit, Matthew Dooley witnessed many of his clients suffer – Dooley Social Studio quickly took action, mapping out those who were most at-risk and working with them to develop a plan of attack. Frequent, authentic communication with each client was key. Clients pulled closer to the studio, not only because of their existing relationships, but also because of the importance of communicating via social media during a time of social distancing.

September 16, 2021

Recently named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky,” Car-Part.com is an organization where a business family culture is valued and nurtured. When the pandemic began, the company was prepared and acted quickly to set its staff up with remote work. Determined to keep their employees connected and engaged, the company president held company-wide virtual meetings throughout 2020, reassuring their staff that Car-Part.com understood their challenges and encouraging them to bring any future personal or professional issues to their managers.

September 16, 2021

At the start of the pandemic, Barnes Dennig was among the first to move to remote working. Thanks to proactive investments in technology over the years, the firm was able to make the switch virtually overnight, and at the height of their busiest season, without compromising work quality or client service.

September 16, 2021

As an essential business, JBM’s production team members continued to work onsite throughout the pandemic’s various restrictions. However, many of their professional staff transitioned to remote work. As a result, JBM’s leadership had to figure out how to maintain connections between remote and onsite workers, remote and remote workers, as well as between units, with customers and suppliers, and between its leadership and all 200 or so of its workers wherever they happened to be.

September 16, 2021

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, GMi Companies did not make Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). When their traditional business dropped by 50%, their company quickly developed new families of products that would enable other businesses to reopen their doors to the public and allow employers to bring employees safely back to the office.

September 16, 2021

When quarantine was mandated in March of 2020, VonLehman’s number one concern was the safety of its employees and clients. All employees were sent home immediately, and the office was closed. Once the safety of the employees was established, VonLehman developed committees to ensure all steps going forward were taken with caution. A “Rapid Response Team” was formed to communicate to employees on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis with updates on how COVID was impacting the firm. Transparency has always been a strong suit for VonLehman and that became more important than ever.

September 16, 2021

11,200 children and families depended on Necco to receive support during the height of the pandemic. Foster care and mental health counseling are essential services. The physical safety and well-being of Necco’s clients and staff had to be weighed alongside their clients’ critical needs. Even in a pandemic, children need foster families, family crises happen, and mental health support needs staff to be face-to-face in the home. This was all non-negotiable. Necco quickly stepped up, leveraging technology to ensure that all staff, clients, and foster parents had the right tools to access needed educational, behavioral, and physical healthcare from their kitchen table.

September 16, 2021

We are proud and honored that the Goering Center is supported by over 200 professionals who volunteer their unique expertise, leadership, and perspective to the business community through our educational programs, our boards, and our committees. To recognize their outstanding effort, each year we present one of our volunteers with the Keith Baldwin Volunteer Award. This award was created to honor the extraordinary commitment of one our earliest and most dedicated volunteers, Keith Baldwin. Michael Miller, Executive Vice President & Chief Wealth Officer, LCNB National Bank, is the 2021 recipient of the Baldwin Award, acknowledging exemplary commitment and voluntary service to the Goering Center.

September 16, 2021

The food service industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic in 2020, and Sweets & Meats BBQ was no exception. In the early days of the pandemic, when everything was shut down, Sweets & Meats’ carry-out remained open – but that would not be enough to survive. They began offering online ordering and curbside pick-up, partnered with Kroger to sell packaged meats and sides in the deli department in their neighborhood store, and began taking their food trucks out to Cincinnati area neighborhoods. They would hit four neighborhoods a day within a 30-mile radius of their restaurant for a period of 15 months, offering family packages and individual meals for pick up from their food truck and trailer. This additional service kept them in business and broadened their audience.

September 16, 2021

Abstract Displays, Inc. is a creator and provider of 3D marketing environments for the trade show and event industry – building connections between their clients and their clients’ prospects is what they do. What’s more, they were doing this in the real world. That is until COVID-19 brought the trade show industry to a screeching halt.

September 16, 2021

When Kelsey Conway came to visit UC’s campus before her freshman year, she had no clue that she would be returning to the same city seven years after her graduation to work for The Enquirer, and as the first female lead reporter for the Bengals. “The fact that I am now back in the same city where it all started for me essentially in my journey to being a sports reporter is just incredible on so many levels,” Conway said. Conway’s interest in sports coverage, along with her own skills as a lacrosse player, guided her to UC and into the Arts and Sciences Journalism Department. Conway graduated from the College of A&S with her degree in journalism and minor in electronic media in 2014.

September 16, 2021

The University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College will host two fall open house events in October that are free and open to prospective students and their guests.