CALENDAR

Editor 's note: submit events, meetings, workshops and conferences at least one month in advance to cibm@news-gazette.com for inclusion in Mark Your Calendar.

Untitled < Apr May Jun >

May 9
EaRN Leads/Speed Networking Program 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.
Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, 303 W. Kirby Ave., Champaign The Exchange and Referral Network is the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce's version of a combination Leads/Speed Networking program. Registration opens at 3 p.m. May 2 for this session. Only one person per industry may participate per week. Registration is first-come, first-served. If your industry category is already filled when you register, your name will be kept on the waiting list. If the first registration is unable to attend the following week's session, the person next on the waiting list according to the time stamp will be contacted. If you are unable to attend the session, notify the chamber as soon as possible so that it may fill the seat. Failure to do so may prevent you from participating in future sessions.

May 15
May 15, 23 Coaching: Developing Others 8 a.m. to noon, May 15 and 23; 1 to 5 p.m. May 23
Parkland College Business Training, 1315 N. Mattis Ave., Champaign Individual contributors face regular challenges in performing their work, and a supervisor's job is to help them work through these challenges. Learn how to recognize the challenges faced in developing others; demonstrate a variety of listening and asking techniques to help others feel confident making decisions; and conduct focused development conversations that result in professional development and growth. Fee: $135. Registration deadline: May 8 for May 15 session; May 16 for May 23 sessions.

May 21
May 21, 23 Communications Skills for Managers 1 to 5 p.m.
Parkland College Business Training, 1315 N. Mattis Ave., Champaign Increase your reading, writing, speaking and listening proficiency with real-life scenarios and interactive exercises from Cindy Guthrie. Learn proven practical concepts and techniques that will help you communicate more effectively with others, deliver your messages clearly, ask questions and make successful presentations. Fee: $265. Registration deadline: May 14.

BUSINESS NOW April 2013

New area businesses

By Don Dodson
The News-Gazette

The Launch Pad

111 N. Long St., Tolono

Thanks to a new indoor batting facility in Tolono, baseball and softball players can still work on their swings even when the weather is nasty. It also provides a venue for travel teams in southern Champaign County that otherwise wouldn't have a place to practice.

Randy and Lisa Grace opened The Launch Pad in January. The facility has two batting cages and a workout area.

"People are always looking for a facility to work out in, in bad weather," Randy Grace said. "High school gym space is hard to get, and a lot of teams have to go in at 6 a.m. in order to work out."

Hours are 3:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, but use is by appointment only.

To arrange appointments online, go to http://www.leaguelineup.com/launchpad.

Instructors also are available for private lessons on hitting and throwing.

Finding The Launch Pad shouldn't be difficult for out-of-town visitors, he said. Just take U.S. 45 to the traffic light in Tolono, and The Launch Pad is on the southwest corner.

Wingstop

512 S. Neil St., Champaign

Wingstop, the franchise restaurant that offers 10 flavors of chicken wings, opened its newest location in March.

The location is at the north end of Katsinas Center at Neil and Green streets -- the same complex that houses Jet's Pizza and Hollywood Liquors, among other tenants.

Wingstop's general manager, Steve Burgess, said the wings are cooked to order, and the restaurant also serves fresh-cut french fries, potato salad, coleslaw and bourbon-baked beans.

Hours are 11 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. The dining room seats 35 and offers Wi-Fi. Burgess said iPads are available for those awaiting carryout orders. Cable TV also is on hand.

"We're not starting delivery when we open, but we want to have delivery up and running by the time the fall semester starts," he said.

Wingstop also fills bulk orders, with 30-, 40- and 50-wing packs available. Burgess said sauce selections for the wings range from a sweet teriyaki to a "very hot atomic habanero."

Burgess said he hopes to get a liquor license so Wingstop can sell bottled beer.

The local phone number for Wingstop is 217-690-9464 -- or, if it's easier to remember, 217-690-WING.

Editor's Note: If you have business news to share or are opening a new business, send your short news brief about it to Jodi Heckel at jheckel@news-gazette.com. Please limit items to 150 words.

When do you have to say "no"?

By Allen Howie, Idealogy Marketing + Design

It was a $4 million question. The new team leader at the British pub in Disney World's Epcot Center asked the staff when they had to refuse a customer's request. The staff replied that a lot of customers wanted takeout fish and chips, which wasn't an option. So they began to tally the requests, and quickly realized they were missing an opportunity. The carryout fish and chips became so popular that they merited their own free-standing location -- one that generated $4 million in sales in its first year. When do your team members have to say "no"? Is there an opportunity there?

Marketing monstrosity

By Allen Howie, Idealogy Marketing + Design

There are at least two great things about the website Pixar created for "Monsters University," the upcoming sequel to their hit, "Monsters, Inc." The first is what a terrific promotional idea it is. But the second may get you rethinking your own marketing. For Pixar to create a faux college website and a recruiting video that are so dead-on speaks to how generic the real-life examples of both have become. The Pixar folks used every college marketing cliche in the book to perfect effect. Think of your own industry and your own marketing. How easy would they be to spoof? The simpler it would be, the more likely that your marketing has become generic. You can see the Monsters University site and video here: http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/.

The new year will bring some changes to Central Illinois Business magazine.

The magazine will now be printed bimonthly. You won't see an issue in January; the next issue will cover February and March.

In 2013, we'll launch an improved Central Illinois Business website, at www.centralillinoisbusiness.com, that will allow us to provide more timely updates of many of the economic indicators we publish in the magazine, as well as other current business news and event information that you won't see in the printed publication.

We are working on stories on a variety of business issues we think you'll want to read about. And if you have an idea of a story or issue you'd like to read about in Central Illinois Business -- either in the printed magazine or online -- please let me know.

The magazine will again be printed on glossy paper, as the Forty Under 40 issue was in November.

We hope you continue to enjoy the printed magazine, and that you also look at the improved website once it's launched for more news about the local business community.