First Thursday is back this week at the Fayetteville Downtown Square, and August’s theme is “Dog Daze” presented by Best Friends Animal Society. 

• Best in Show: If you think your furry friend has what it takes to win over the judges, register them for the Dog Daze Pageant. Not a pageant pup? No worries. Everyone’s invited to join the pack after the show for Pups on Parade.
• The Local Lineup: As usual, the event will celebrate Fayetteville's local arts culture, music, food, and beer. There will be a stellar lineup of food trucks present, and performances by 90’s cover band Feats of Strength and hip-hop artist Jasper Logan. 

See more event details HERE. 

Efforts to increase fire fighting expertise and reduce response times are being taken all across NWA. 

• Station No. 9: The public is invited to attend the opening of a new fire station off of School Ave. in Fayetteville this Friday at 8 am. 
• Training facility: A five-story, 7,860 square foot training facility is under construction in Bentonville that will offer multiple live fire scenarios for firefighters to practice. 

Read more about the new training facility HERE. 

The Razorbacks' Men’s Basketball team will head to Hawaii this November for the 2022 Maui Jim Maui Invitational. 

• Alohogs: The first round of the eight-team tournament will pit the Hogs against the Louisville Cardinals on Nov. 21st at 4 pm central time. 
• Homecoming: The Jim Maui Invitational will make an exciting return to Hawaii after being hosted on the mainland for the past two years due to COVID.

Check out the full list of participating teams HERE. 

Last Friday, the NWA Daily team had the chance to try out some local restaurants at the BITE LITE event in downtown Rogers. There was one we found ourselves going back to for 'Meaux'.

• Sweet treat: Bringing a New Orleans delicacy to NWA, Meaux Beignet is frying and serving up French style donuts to NWA and just celebrated their one-year birthday. They are a food truck stationed at Bentonville Brewing Company and they're absolutely delicious.
• Powdered: Next time in Bentonville, we highly recommend stopping by for a taste of their Original or Ozark Beignet. They also do online ordering, catering, and are available for special events.

Learn more about Meaux Beignet's HERE ... or go try it for yourself!

Get ready to hear about all of the supply chain innovation, health & wellness startups, and adoption of Web3 at the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit in October.

• Huge in the Heartland: According to NWA Tech Summit's director, this conference is the biggest of its kind in the Heartland. In 2019, the last in-person version of the summit, 1,400 participants flocked to the conference. Even when it was held virtually, there were around 1,200 participants in both 2020 and 2021.
• Show and tell: In its in-person format this year, participants will get to be fully immersed in great tech. Director, Kris Adams says "If you have something flashy and exciting and fun that you can show us...that's what we want to have at the Tech Summit this year."

If you're interested in attending, you can learn more and sign up HERE. You can also listen to The Bentonville Beacon's episode with Kris to learn more HERE.