We hit the road to Bangor

For the second year in a row, we're holding an On the Road with Mainebiz series of events, traveling to various locations around the state to meet and greet. There's food, a cash bar and a chance to mingle with members of the business community. For the editorial team, these events are prime opportunities to talk to business people and get story ideas. Prior to each networking event, we also convene a panel of Mainebiz readers to get some feedback on our print publication, primarily, but also our online offerings.

On Wednesday, Editor Carol Coultas, Senior Writer Randy Billings and I traveled up to Bangor for the first On the Road event of the year. It wasn't the easiest of commutes. Around Bowdoinham, we ran into that butter truck accident, and an apparently outdated GPS device took Carol and me to Veazie. Instead of arriving at the Hollywood Casino on Main Street in Bangor, we ended up at railroad-track crossing in Veazie, deserted except for a couple rusted-out trucks. Better luck next time?

Randy, a Bangor-area native who made the wise decision to take his own car, made it to the casino but didn't press his luck at the new table games.

Instead, he checked in on the progress of the $65 million arena under construction, which an impact study says would generate $26 million in new revenue in Penobscot County every year. Paul Bunyon is hard at work on it.

We also learned that Bangorians (Bangorites?) love their wings.

At our reader roundtable, we plied participants with cookies and coffee and asked them about their news-reading habits, what they read most in the pages of Mainebiz and what we could be covering better. That's Carol and Randy on the right.

Cynthia Smith, president of Angel Secure Networks in Orono, takes some notes during the roundtable discussion.

Despite the glorious weather (we spotted a temperature sign that said 87 degrees!), the reception brought out more than 100 people. We did some networking and again kept our ears open to story ideas, since Carol charged us with coming back with at least two ideas and a stack of business cards.

A business card exchange...

Getting story ideas...

A reporter's work is never done.

After the event wrapped up, we hit the road back down to the Portland area, but not before stopping at Red Robin in Augusta for a late dinner -- and an onion ring tower.

We had our weekly meeting this afternoon to talk about our story ideas, some of which I'm sure you'll see in the pages of Mainebiz in the next couple of months.

Our next On the Road event happens April 25 in Sanford. I'll be updating my GPS before then...