GATLINBURG â Visitors to the Smoky Mountains can capture some of the beauty of the area and support one of the longest participating artists at the Gatlinburg Craftsmenâs Fair.
Artist Larry Burton has been with the fair for 45 years, just one year shy of the fairâs 46 years of existence. He creates beautiful watercolors, capturing scenes of the Smoky Mountains, wildlife, farms and other rural images.
âLarry Burton only missed one of the fairs. I think he told me it was the very first one. Heâs been in all the fairs since,â organizer Kelly Rusk said.
He and many other crafters and artists will be at this summerâs fair, which opens Friday, July 9, at the Gatlinburg Convention Center. The fair runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Sunday, July 18, and features over 180 booths of unique, handmade items from talented artists.
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PaulPaladin
Now that we know Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) were not immune to challenges of usability, scalability and uptime last March, the question is how to prepare for the next big spike.
And the spikes are already here, one year later. Just ask any state around the U.S. that manage COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
Being ready for a digital onslaught requires a combination of the right flavor of cloud computing technology, the right people and a solid digital emergency plan, according to Irina Guseva, principal analyst at Gartner who first reported the usability, scalability and uptime problems in her Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms report released in January. Customers of a majority of Digital Experience Platform providers reported those problems to Guseva in the March 2020 time frame. The âfailureâ many experienced in March forced these practitioners to get their house in order, she added.
The Digital Experience Platform (DXP) market saw significant investment movement in the early days of 2021.
Sitecore announced last month a $1.2 billion âprivate investment,â something it calls the âlargest-ever capital investment in the martech space,â a questionable label whenever something comes in as âprivate.â But billion is billion, we suppose.
Also last month, Bloomreach, another DXP provider, acquired Customer Data Platform (CDP) and marketing automation provider Exponea and announced a $900 valuation after a $150 million investment by Sixth Street Growth.
Piping-hot funding news out of this software market is setting an interesting tone for 2021. However, itâs the timeframe of March 2020 and one particular finding from a noted DXP analyst firm that tells another story for which practitioners should take note.
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tete escape
COVID-19 left all of us in new territory. At work. At home. In our personal lives. And certainly in marketing.
Marketers struggled finding just the right tone at the outset of the pandemic. It s still a challenge. Customers were scared for their health. They changed spending habits. Brands contemplated suspending marketing for paid products, and some did.
Let s give marketers a bit of a mulligan if their campaigns seemed a little off, tone-deaf or contrived. We all tried. Even if marketers did fall victim to the occasional buzzword use in a campaign, theyâre forgiven.
Itâs 2020. Everyone was under duress. Still, we can learn from all those buzzwords and phrases, right? Creativity remains paramount for brands to stand out, right?
Leaf, Root & Berry Art Exhibition
Leaf & Root & Berry, an outdoor walking art gallery,located at can also be seen virtually at https://www.createappalachia.org/botanical-exhibition/. Leaf & Root & Berry will be available for viewing both online and in-person through Jan. 31, 2021. All works are for sale. For more information, visit www.createappalachia.org.
Online Craftsmenâs Fair
Craftsmen’s Fair’s Holiday & Gift Shop has gone online for 2020. The event features handmade-in-the-USA items from small businesses and will run through Dec. 31. Visit www.CraftsmenFair.com and click on the Holiday & Gift Shop tab to begin this unique shopping opportunity. All purchases are direct with the artisans themselves. For more information, contact Kelly Rusk at 865-326-7479 or email Kelly@CraftsmenFair.com.