New speaker series Final Draught starts this week
Leave it to The Friends Council of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation to name the city’s latest speaker series with a play on words.
Final Draught debuts Thursday night at 7th Street Public Market, joining the ranks of other speaker series that have taken off in our community, from CreativeMornings/Charlotte, to Charlotte Magazine’s #discussCLT, to Advent Coworking’s F*ck Up Night.
Organized by the largely young-professional-powered Friends Council to support the Library Foundation, Final Draught will start with a panel of speakers chatting about Charlotte’s changing food scene. To tie in the Library, the speakers will share books that have influenced their personal and professional growth.
On the list of speakers are Bonnie Warford of Earl’s Grocery and Carpe Diem, James Yoder of Not Just Coffee, Courtney Buckley of Your Mom’s Donuts and Dalton Espaillat of Sabor and Three Amigos, with Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett as moderator.
For a $10 ticket, attendees will get access to the panel discussion, light bites, wine and beer to purchase through Market vendors, and access to a handy dandy cart of books curated for the occasion.
The books referenced by the speakers will be available to check out, like “An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies” by Tyler Cowen, and “The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America’s Most Imaginative Chefs” by Karen Page.
No library card? No problem. There will be a card signup station just for you.
The Friends Council has been behind other awareness and fundraising efforts for the Library, such as pop-up book sales, Little Free Libraries and the Rock & Read 5K.
This new Final Draught speaker series will occur four times a year, with changing topics and changing locations. One upcoming topic is likely Charlotte’s booming brewery industry, said Melanie Baron, Marketing and Communications Specialist for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation.
But the brainstorming by The Friends Council for coming topics continues.
“The door is open,” Baron said. “We really want to leave this up to the Friends committee and kind of let them go wherever they’re excited to go.”
Get tickets: Final Draught
Thursday, June 8 from 6-8 p.m. $10.
7th Street Public Market, 224 E. 7th St.
Image: Courtesy of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation
This story was originally published June 6, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "New speaker series Final Draught starts this week."