Virginia Main Street revitalization is celebrating it's 25-year anniversary and is conducting a poll for you to vote for your favorite Main Street destination from around the state.  The Prizery in South Boston is on the list, so please take a moment to click here and vote for The Prizery!

The Halifax County Chamber of Commerce held its annual awards banquet at the World of Sports last night.  The award for Business Person of the Year was presented to Kathy Farley of Cherokee Tobacco, and the award for Business of the Year was presented to Benchmark Community Bank.

Nookie Green of Distinct Impressions,  the outgoing Chairman of the Board, also introduced the incoming Chair - Larry Clark, Deputy Superintendent of the Halifax County Public School System.

Southern Virginia will be featured on a new reality TV series Friday night, "Who Do You Think You Are?" (8pm, NBC).  Emmitt Smith, the NFL's all-time leading rusher, was in the area last spring  to film the show, which traces his ancestry back to a horse and slave breeder in Mecklenburg County.  During filming Smith stayed at Berry Hill and a number of the interviews that will appear in the show were filmed at there.  For more information, read the article on the News & Record's website.

The University of Virginia's Tayloe Murphy Center at the Darden School  has issued a Call for Entries for the Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards Competition.  Applicants can include successful entrepreneurs in manufacturing, retail, service, and wholesale.

Qualifying applicants must demonstrate:

• 5 years of sustained growth across a number of metrics;
• Evidence of economic uplift in their local community;
• That they are operating in the most economically challenged communities within the Commonwealth of Virginia (go to www.resilienceawards.info to see if your community is eligible).

Winning firms will receive scholarship funding to a select Darden Executive Education Program along with networking opportunities and recognition.

The region’s bioenergy projects continue to expand with farmers asking what crop is needed and where is the market, entrepreneurs questioning what research is ready for commercialization, and policymakers assessing the infrastructure needed to support the most innovative environment.  This dialogue on Virginia’s renewable energy agenda will continue when a host of interested parties gather together for this conference at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

The conference will provide farmers, community leaders, economic developers, legislators, entrepreneurs, and other attendees the opportunity to participate in setting the bioenergy agenda for this region.