AVL Biz Weekly — Aug 12–18: 300 Quilts, Dirty Logic's Steely Dan Tribute & Shindig's 60th Trip Around the Sun

Welcome to AVL BIZ Weekly—your local cheat sheet for what’s happening in Asheville’s small business + creative scenes.

Each week: hand-picked events, marketing ideas that actually work, and a little local flavor to keep things fun.

My name's Jason and I'm writing this (connect with me here).

Hey friends,

Business-wise, this is one of the quieter weeks we've covered, no expo halls, no conferences, just a few real ones worth your calendar (and yeah, I'm part of most of them at this point, somebody's gotta do it). AIA WNC kicks off a five-part community series Thursday with "A Living Archive," a mixer built around the region's built environment (bring an old blueprint or photo if you've got one).

Our own Anti-Networking Coffee hits the Auction House in Fletcher Friday morning. CREIA on Tuesday with a panel on what AI is doing to real estate in business right now, not the hype version, and I'll be up there on the panel. Mark your calendar for the following Wednesday too: Founder's Lunch returns to Post 25 in Arden on Aug 19, same no-pitch rules as the coffee meetup.

Also, 300 quilts in Fletcher, a pickleball tournament you can watch for free, and Shindig on the Green not looking a day over 59. Marketing Quickies this week is about getting found before anyone even picks up the phone.

Let's get into it.

📋 On Deck

• Business Events: AIA WNC's new mixer series, our own Anti-Networking Coffee, and CREIA's AI-in-real-estate panel (I'm on the panel this one), plus a save-the-date for Founder's Lunch Aug 19

• Fun Stuff: 300 quilts in Fletcher, a free-to-watch pickleball tournament, and Shindig's 60th season

• Bands on the Horizon: a Steely Dan tribute at Pisgah, a Friday punk takeover at the Grey Eagle, and shows running every single day through Tuesday

🙋 Want your biz featured in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Email me for details

❓ Question of the Week

How are you spending your weekends around WNC?

🗓️ Business Events

• 🗓️ AIA WNC Presents: A Living Archive — Thu, Aug 13 · 6–8 PM (Blank Space, 701 Haywood Rd, Asheville) — First of a five-part series on architecture and WNC's rebuild, with a mixer, live music, and a call for old blueprints and photos of the region's built environment.

  🗓️ Anti-Networking Coffee Meetup: Hangout at Auction House — Fri, Aug 14 · 9–10 AM (The Auction House, Fletcher) — Jason De Los Santos (the guy writing this) hosts a no-agenda, no-pitch coffee hangout. Skip the business-card Olympics.

  🗓️ CREIA Main Monthly Meeting: AI in Real Estate — Tue, Aug 18 · 5:30–8 PM (Highland Brewing Company, Asheville) — A panel on the AI tools investors, agents, and wholesalers are actually using for deal analysis, marketing, and lead gen. Free for members, $20 for non-members, free guest pass for first-timers.

Hosting something cool?

📬 Hit reply and tell me what you think. Or share an event!

💡 Marketing Quickies

This week's theme is Show Up, the stuff that gets you found before anyone even picks up the phone. Contractors and professional service businesses both live or die by whether they turn up in a "near me" search, so here's where to spend an hour if you've got one.

Your Google Business Profile is doing more selling than your website is. Most "near me" searches never make it past the map pack, so if your GBP still has last year's hours or three photos from the day you opened, you're handing the click to whoever bothered to update theirs. A five-minute weekly pass (a new photo, a quick post about a job you finished, an answer to a question someone left) keeps you looking active instead of abandoned.

Reviews aren't just trust signals, they're a ranking signal. A steady stream of recent 5-star reviews pushes you higher in local search, and that's just as true for an accountant as it is for a roofer. The Show Up and Follow Up System auto-follows up with customers up to four times after a job closes, because most businesses ask once, get ignored, and give up.

Pull up your own site on your phone right now and time yourself. If it takes more than five seconds to find your number or a way to book, you already lost that visitor to the next search result. A slow site doesn't just annoy people, it actively hurts where Google ranks you. A tap-to-call button and a page that loads fast are doing SEO work whether you think of them that way or not.

🎉 Fun Stuff Around AVL

• 🗓️ Asheville Quilt Show — Thu–Sat, Aug 13–15 · 9 AM (closes 4 PM Sat) (WNC Agricultural Center, Fletcher) — The Quilt Guild's 42nd annual show packs 300+ quilts, 25+ vendors, and a $13,000 prize pool into the Davis Event Center. $10 general admission, kids 12 and under free.

  🗓️ Blue Ridge Pickleball: Tournament Saturday — Sat, Aug 15 · Noon–4:30 PM (Harrah's Cherokee Center, Asheville) — The Luck of the Draw and Dink tournaments turn the arena floor into six pickleball courts. Spectators get in free, no ticket needed.

  🗓️ Come to Leicester Studio Tour — Sat–Sun, Aug 15–16 · 10 AM–5 PM (Leicester, NC) — 23 artist studios and shops open their doors for a free, self-guided drive through the countryside. Grab the map, skip the GPS.

  🗓️ Shindig on the Green: 60th Season — Sat, Aug 15 · 7–10 PM (Pack Square Park, Asheville) — Free bluegrass, old-time string bands, and flatfoot dancing on the lawn, running since 1967. Bring a blanket and low expectations for getting home on time.

  🗓️ Casino Night, 21+ — Sat, Aug 15 · 5–10 PM (Grove Street Center, Asheville) — Asheville Parks & Rec turns the center into a casino floor for the night, table games, dealers, and prizes, no real money on the line.

  🗓️ Burlesque Brunch — Sun, Aug 16 · Doors 11:30 AM, Show Noon (The Grey Eagle, Asheville) — Brunch service and burlesque on the Grey Eagle stage. 18+, not your average Sunday.

🎧 Bands on the Horizon

Wed, Aug 12

• Derian Blane (Patio Show) — 5:30 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Keith Davis Trio — 7 PM @ Hotel Eve Jazz

• The Saylor Brothers (Jam > Grass > Jam) — 6:30 PM @ French Broad River Brewery

• Connor Koz' Grass Underground — 8 PM @ One World Brewing Downtown

• Smells Like Nirvana — 8 PM @ Eulogy

• Western Wednesdays w/ Rob Leines — 9 PM @ The Double Crown

• The Rifleman String Band / Bigger Than Mountains / Papa Wolfs / Soured / Rest Home — 10 PM @ The Lazy Diamond

• Sage Rats / Landon George / Jake Toedtman — 8:30 PM @ Static Age Records

• Captain Woody and His Mates — 10 PM @ The One Stop

Thu, Aug 13

• Michael Dunham (Patio Show) — 5:30 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Jerry's Dead Thursdays — 6 PM @ French Broad River Brewery

• Alex Eubanks Band — 6 PM @ Fitz and the Wolfe

• Andy Ferrell (Appalachian Americana) — 5:30 PM @ 12 Bones Brewing

Fri, Aug 14

• Abacab: The Music of Genesis, Phil Collins & Peter Gabriel — 8 PM @ The Orange Peel

• Bloody Madison Takeover: White Oak Splits, Paint Rock, Assmystics, Subject to Change — 8 PM @ The Grey Eagle

Sat, Aug 15

• Dirty Logic: A Tribute to Steely Dan — 7:30 PM @ Pisgah Brewing Company (Outdoor Stage)

• WonkyWilla & SoDown ft. Zeplinn — 8 PM @ The Orange Peel (18+)

• Sebastien Bordeaux — 8 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• Worm Trip with Two Planes — 7 PM @ Highland Brewing (Meadow)

Sun, Aug 16

• Dinner and a Show with Jamie Ager — 4 PM @ The Grey Eagle

• EQ Trio — 2 PM @ Highland Brewing (Meadow)

Mon, Aug 17

• Woody Wood & Abe Reid of The Blue Rags (Patio Show) — 6 PM @ The Grey Eagle

Tue, Aug 18

• McKinney (Patio Show) — 5:30 PM @ The Grey Eagle

Want your biz in front of a few really smart AVL business owners? Reply with what you're up to and we'll see if it's a fit.

Until next week,

Jason De Los Santos
Pixelated Stories Digital Marketing
(828) 585-4293