 August is hot, and so are the savings at Appalachian Wireless, where all smartphones are 50% off. Even the 64, 128, and 256-gig models, two-year agreement required. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless and East Kentucky Network Company. More than 1110 days spent the day at the East Kentucky Expo Center in Pikeville for the 2017 SOAR Summit. And these summits are ways for us to share ideas and bring together people. You know, you've got probably 50 or so counties represented here. So it's really the eastern half of the state of Kentucky. Congressman Hal Rogers, Governor Matt Bevin and UK basketball coach John Calipari were just a few people who addressed the crowd, looking at both where the region is going and how far we have come since SOAR was first launched. In four years we've seen thousands of jobs created, and we have a blueprint now, a plan for the future of Appalachia. No longer are we talking about what's wrong or what should we do. This year we're saying, here's what we're doing, here's what you're doing. We've got a thousand people who aren't just here to talk about it, they're living it. One of the biggest announcements made at today's SOAR Summit was an ARC grant for $200,000 to the Southeast Kentucky Economic Development Corporation to help 12 eastern Kentucky companies become ISO certified. That alone will do a lot to help them become eligible for government contract work, but there was still more good news. There was also, they opened up the next round of AML funding for $25 million that these communities can apply for to fund some of the programs that we're talking about here. So lots of exciting things today for sure. If you look at Tech Hire, if you look at the Appalachian Wildlife Center that's being built down in Bell County, if you look at App Harvest and this new partnership with Sunset and they're looking at building greenhouses across Appalachia. But announcements aside, SOAR officials say many future economic development projects undoubtedly will happen because of a connection made here today. I meet one person in one county and a project in another county and I see those dots. You guys should know each other and you don't and then I make the introduction and get out of the way. That happens all day here today. Reporting from Pikeville, I'm Shannon Deskins for EKB News.