It’s always encouraging to see locals coming together to produce great things. Yesterday you read about SanSegal and  SLUG Magazine, but they are just a couple of examples of print- and design-based organizations having an impact on Utah’s culture and economy.

Edible Wasatch, City Weekly, and Salt Lake Magazine, and Catalyst are other local publications showcasing the best local talent in publishing, and they’re also all sponsors of Celebrate the Bounty! If you’re not familiar with them, you may visit their websites or come by Salt Lake Hardware for our celebration. If you’re presently short on insightful, topical reading material, you may just find yourself walking away with a bagful of knowledge.

This seems the ideal time to thank another Sponsor, The King’s English bookstore. If you haven’t heard of the King’s English…really? Do you care about books and live or visit Salt Lake and not know about The King’s English? Luckily, via the internet knowledge comes readily—and the independent book buying experience even easier. Let The King’s English resident “inkslingers” guide you through reviews and notices of upcoming books and events by subscribing to their newsletter. Their autumn issue can be found here.

Another great sponsor, The Mandate Press, will have a very noticeable presence at Celebrate the Bounty. If you see or use a coaster, think, “The Mandate Press.” The modern letterpress operation already has a tremendous national following but is looking to dovetail their expertise with local artists and designers to best serve their own home: “We love Utah and we love letterpress, so any opportunity to mesh both into one is like peanut butter & jelly or fish & chips for you savory people. We work with local vendors/suppliers as often as possible and we love (love love) working with local artists to help explore their visions through letterpress,” writes Mandate’s Danielle Mariott.

Ms. Mariott is clearly excited to see The Mandate Press expand its presence within the local community. She says that they’re thrilled “to think that we all have the chance to ensure that talent, enterprise, and profits stay in Utah and keep this place that we love amazing for the years to come.”

With support from The Mandate and all of our business and individual supporters, Local First Utah is able to fulfill its own, very similar mission. We have lofty goals, indeed, but thanks in five short years we have accomplished so many of them, but thanks to the support of both our sponsors and everyone who will attend Celebrate the Bounty, it’s exciting to think how much we can continue to strengthen the business community of our great state.

The Local First Utah brand is more important now than ever. You will likely recognize many of our Presenting Sponsors, the top-tier sponsor level. Their commitment to community is well-known, and Local First Utah is so thankful to have them onboard as Presenting Sponsors: Harmons, Zions Bank, O.C. Tanner, Bacchus, Especially for You, Castle Creek Winery, Squatters, Nicholas & Company, Model Linen, and SanSegal.

I could fill pages talking about their respective businesses and contributions to Utah’s business community, but pages I have not. I do have a pretty great response to our survey from Harmons. So I’ll lead with that in the next installment of this series of things!

The Mandate Press shop photo courtesy: Danielle Mariott

Next up: The Thing I Just Said (and also this thing about another thing about food and stuff)