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?Hello world.

Last week the Creative Coast community responded to the news that Fitz is moving on…

Fitz and I sat across from one another in the Creative Coast office wondering what would happen, who would respond, and how.  We were overwhelmed by the positive energy and messaging that was shared.

Its cliche I know, but in business as in life, hard decisions have to be made, and we both appreciated all of the well wishes, both public and private.

Well, many hard decisions have been made, and quite a few things have changed.

When I moved to Savannah nearly four years ago, my objective was to setup two businesses with my wife and business partner, Miriam.

And we did just that.

When we were thinking of moving here we met a crazy long haired guy wearing socks and flip-flops.  He smoked and used antiquated handheld devices.

He was our introduction to the Creative Coast and we were hooked.

So, you know we like events over here at The Creative Coast. Especially geeky or business-focused ones.

So that’s why we are sponsoring both Start-Up Lounge and Geekend.

One geeky.

One business-focused.

Both awesome.

You’ve no doubt heard about both of these (and will continue to), but we felt like giving you the 10,000 foot view anyway.

Start-Up Lounge

StartupLounge works to improve the capital environment for early stage companies with high growth potential in Georgia and the Southeast.

On November 2nd, the best and brightest in the Creative Coast entrepreneurial world will gather for an intimate albeit engaging evening of face time with investors from the region.

This is not the venue to deliver your elevator pitch. This is an event where investors and early stage entrepreneurs can find one another without fear of being hassled by salespeople, annoyed by amateur brokers, or interrupted by job-seekers.

You get the idea. We blogged about it a week ago, so it should be fresh on your mind. Feel free to hop on over to that post for more info.

Register now! Visit ?www.StartupLounge.com and follow these instructions.

Yep, that’s right. As of November 1st I will be leaving the full-time employment of The Creative Coast.  Pretty crazy, right?

The transition for The Creative Coast to an independent, self governing organization is complete, and in the end I’m not going to be a part of it. There are lots of reasons, but ultimately it comes down to what many big decisions come down to: money.

The Creative Coast has enjoyed generous support from three sources over its six year history, SEDA, the City of Savannah and Chatham County. Sometimes not everyone can pitch in, but we’ve made it stretch every year and done great things because of it.

That will continue to be the case in 2011.  The economy has been a challenge for everyone — Thousands of organizations of all shapes and sizes have had to shift, push, pull, stretch and squish themselves in order to adapt to the changing economic environment and ever fluctuating market conditions. The Creative Coast is no different. Several weeks ago, we learned that we are now facing a significant new budgetary reality that we had not fully anticipated and a tough decision had to be made.

Be sure to join us and 50-100 of your closest creative-type friends, tonight at Cilantros.

We originally had decided to rock Ruth’s Chris, but due to their basement erupting in an aqua-explosion, we had to reschedule. (Good luck to you guys in getting that all sorted out!)

Anyhoo, we’ll be down at Cilantros with some good ole’ fashioned delicious Mexican fare and libations. So come one, come all!

who: The cSpot
what: Monthly cocktail shenanigans
when: TONIGHT, Sept 29, from 5:30-7:30pm
where: Cilantros (map)
details: 135 West Bay St.