Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Knoxville Business News Tennessee Mountain Scenery Background
Weekend edition September 29, 2023 | Shannon Smith

News Roundup | Documentary, airlines, and big ears

Here’s your weekly roundup of business news from throughout the Knoxville region.

RAM founder Stan Brock’s life immortalized in new documentary

A new documentary telling the life story of the founder of Remote Area Medical (RAM) is coming to three theaters near you.

Fathom Events will release the anticipated documentary “Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story” for one night only on Tuesday, Nov. 14 on more than 600 screens across the country. Stan Brock founded RAM in 1985, and the organization has since delivered more than $189.5 Million in care to more than 910,000 individuals.

“Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story” was filmed over the span of nearly a decade and directed by Paul Michael Angell. This intimate and inspirational documentary chronicles the life and legacy of RAM Founder Stan Brock. Offering unprecedented access to Brock’s life and work, Angell’s documentary debut paints a stark picture of the realities of healthcare inequality in the United States and how one man sacrificed everything in his power to make a difference.

Tickets are on sale here. Knoxville area showings will be held at Regal Downtown West, Regal Pinnacle IMAX, and Cinemark Tinseltown in Oak Ridge.

Big Ears Festival tickets on sale now

Want to go to a hundred concerts in one weekend? Then the Big Ears Festival is for you, and you can buy weekend passes now.

Big Ears recently released its lineup, which includes more than one hundred musical acts putting on over 150 performances in a dozen venues across Downtown Knoxville from March 21-24, 2024. Headliners include Herbie Hancock, Rhiannon Giddens, Adrianne Lenker, Laurie Anderson, and more announcements of more performers to come.

Weekend passes are on sale now, and some Early Bird General Admission passes are still available. Grab your passes before prices increase!

Visiting expert to discuss economics of commercial air transport

You’re invited to join the Knoxville Chamber and McGhee Tyson Airport on Thursday, October 12, as they host Chief Industry Analyst William Swelbar.

Swelbar has spent 40 years in the consulting world with a focus on network strategies, regulatory issues governing air transport, communication strategy and support, airline labor cost restructuring, and air service development on behalf of airports and communities. In his consulting roles, Swelbar has represented airlines, airports of all sizes, investors, manufacturers, and labor groups. Swelbar has a passion for small community air service and the issues confronting this sub-sector of the industry.

Complementary lunch will be provided. Reserve your spot for the free event at the Knoxville Chamber here.

UTK receives grant to fight student hunger

Danone Institute North America (DINA), a not-for-profit established by Danone North America, is giving five winning teams of the DINA Sustainable Food Systems Initiative – a grant program that promotes resilient and sustainable local food systems – $50,000 each to support their projects.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), is one of those five winners. UTK’s project is titled “Impact of an On-Campus Food Upcycling Program on Food Sustainability and Nutrition Security of College Students.”

As explained by the university in DINA’s press release, “The prevalence of food insecurity on college campuses is more severe than in the rest of the population. To help address the high proportion of food-insecure students on campus, the University of Tennessee Knoxville team developed a food-upcycling program, food4VOLS, that repurposes unused food from on-campus food service facilities into heat-and-serve meals to reduce food waste and increase access to meals. The current number of meals distributed is grossly insufficient to improve food security among students and does not incorporate the full volume of food available for upcycling to students. The purposes of this transdisciplinary project are to ascertain motivators of and barriers to utilizing the on-campus food upcycling program, evaluate the diet quality of users of the on-campus food upcycling program; evaluate alternative food and nutrition sources of college students; expand food access points of the on-campus food upcycling program and evaluate ability of new sites to reach additional food insecure students; and communicate lessons learned from this project with other scholars at public colleges and universities.”



Like what you've read?

Forward to a friend!

Don’t Miss Out on the Southeast’s Latest Entrepreneurial, Business, & Tech News!

Sign-up to get the Teknovation Newsletter in your inbox each morning!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.


No, thanks!