Chester-based Uppy’s Convenience Stores Inc. won the Greater Richmond Chamber’s Impact Award during a gala last night. The chain of convenience stores was picked from a field of six finalists. “Uppy’s ultimately demonstrated, across the board, their commitment to growing their company and building their community in the process, and we are pleased to recognize them for those efforts,“ said Slaughter Fitz-Hugh, chair of the award committee and president of CapTech Ventures.

The Greater Richmond Chamber’s 2010 InterCity Visit will be to North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham region in April. Raleigh-Durham was chosen because it is a capital region, frequently makes it on to “best of” lists, has a high concentration of higher-education facilities and has seen explosive growth. The visits are a way to strengthen relationships among area leaders, learn from other regions and examine practices that can be brought back and put to use locally, said Thomas A. Silvestri, the InterCity Visit’s co-chair and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The update was made at the chamber’s board meeting yesterday morning.

Dominion Resources Inc. won the HYPE Young Professional Workplace Award last night for fostering a dynamic work environment for young professionals. The company was recognized in a ceremony at the Robinson Theater Community Art Center in Richmond. The award, in its second year, recognizes firms that attract young professionals and promote their development and leadership through career opportunities and volunteerism while encouraging work-life balance.

In polite tones, Del. John M. O’Bannon III, R-Henrico, and his Democratic opponent, Tom Shields, disagreed on unemployment insurance and funding of the Qimonda semiconductor-chip plant in a joint appearance before a Henrico County business group yesterday. O’Bannon defended the House of Delegates rejection this year of $125 million in unemployment-insurance money coming from President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

Bill Rancic, the first candidate to hear the words “You’re Hired” on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” reality show, said the key to winning in business is to “adjust, adapt and seize opportunities.“ “It’s critical now more than ever because the world has changed significantly,“ Rancic said. “If you’re doing the same thing you were doing a year and a half ago, you’re probably doing things wrong.“

To outsiders, Joan Barnes had the kind of life most people would envy. The founder of Gymboree had a successful marriage and two daughters. Her company had grown from one play gym into an international chain that later turned into children’s clothing stores. She was in magazines and on TV shows. She seemed poised to reach higher levels in business and life.

Think Gymboree and picture children in colorful clothing jumping, climbing, laughing, painting, blowing bubbles, dancing and learning. Think Yoga Studio and picture agile women and men in yoga classes with sculpted bodies contorted into amazing postures. Now think Joan Barnes. She is the San Francisco entrepreneur who founded both businesses and painstakingly built them into empires, large or small, and later sold them.

The Greater Richmond Chamber has announced the finalists for the 2009 Impact award. The finalists are:

• Central Virginia Health Network, a Richmond-based network of nonprofit hospitals;

• Creative, a workplace interiors and technology firm in Ashland;

• Madison + Main Advertising & New Media, a Richmond-based advertising agency specializing creative marketing;

Colleagues say new leader’s even-tempered manner and listening skills have helped him guide the business and civic organization through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The Greater Richmond Chamber is launching an unplugged, informal speaker’s series for women. The inaugural event of the Extraordinary Women’s Exchange will take place Sept. 16 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond. Joan Barnes, founder and former CEO of Gymboree, is the first speaker.

The group for young professionals at the Greater Richmond Chamber is now offering a membershiplike subscription program. In the past, HYPE—Helping Young People Engage—opened up events to the public and charged fees in advance or at the door. The fees typically ranged between $15 and $20. Now, people can pay per event or take advantage of the subscription, which grants members free or reduced-price admission at events and other programming, said Corey Humphrey, a small-business program manager at the chamber.

The state will take the first formal step tomorrow in seeking more than $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money to develop high-speed rail corridors.

In an effort to cut costs and not duplicate efforts, the Greater Richmond Chamber has laid off its director of work-force development. One reason for the cut is the creation of the Capital Region Workforce Partnership, formed in October to combine work-force training programs in Richmond and nearby counties, a chamber official said yesterday.

After five years living in the Richmond area, Jessica Fulbright has decided the time is right to become a homeowner. “I don’t plan on leaving Richmond anytime soon,“ said Fulbright, a 28-year-old restaurant general manager who has been renting for years but started house-hunting just a few weeks ago, motivated by what seems to be a good market for first-time buyers.

Passenger trains could speed travelers from Richmond to Washington at 135 mph, Amtrak’s president and CEO says. But, said Joseph Boardman: “Don’t expect it next week.“ Boardman spoke yesterday to about 200 people at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland as part of a Greater Richmond Chamber meeting focused on transportation issues.