October 27th, 2009
The Annual South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Business Expo was a record-breaking event with over 1200 business leaders attending the Open Board Meeting, Seminars throughout the day, the Business Expo Exhibit Hall, the 88th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon and the Business After Hours. The event was held last Tuesday, October 27th at the Marriott DTC.
The open board meeting gave Chamber investors the chance to meet the new board members who were installed in September and vice-versa. Presentations included reports from Bart Sayyah on the Economic Development Group, Lisa D'Ambrosia of Minor & Brown on the Small Business Development Center, and John Stickel of the Wingate by Wyndham hotel regarding the Events & Visitors Bureau. Gary Barbosa of Lockheed-Martin spoke on a Federal Stimulus package aimed at STEM education competition and Dick Franklin from Envirobrand spoke on the Rocky Mountain Clean Tech Open. The Chamber's Election 2009 series was presented to the board by Jeff Wasden of PROformance Apparel and retiring Chamber Connection Chair Jeff Burns from Computer Skills Group reported on the Connection's importance and success.
Other presentations to the board included Wendy Woods of Nexus Financial Services on the ACE Awards program, Ann Allott on Allott Immigration Law firm, Jeff Pemberton on Standard Renewable Energy, Steve Coombs on Strangineer Design and Megan Silbert on the Junior Achievement Program.
A host of seminars and panels were presented throughout the day. They were: Finding the Honey Pot -Traditional & alternative sources of Money for your business, a panel discussion featuring David Jewell of Jewell Insurance, Chris Younger from The Silvercloud Companies, Tyler McCarty of Wirth Business Credit, Laurel Walk from Colorado Lending Source, Rick Heath of BeneFactor and Tom Miller from Bank of the West; Lets Make a Deal - Employee transition planning & value drivers another panel with Barb Wells of Minor & Brown, John Hughes from Clifton Gunderson and Lisa D'Ambrosia of Minor & Brown and Create a GROWTH Machine! -Strategies to grow YOUR business even in this economy given by Terry Peltes, Adjunct Professor, Daniels College of Business.
Web 2.0 and social marketing were big topics this year: Show Me Da’ Money: Web 2.0 given by Eric Reamer & Angel Tuccy of Experience Pros; Navigating the Revolution - Using Web 2.0 to Find Top Sales Talent by Michael Israel of Sandler Training; I Think I'm Social, Am I Really?? - Social Marketing for Business by John Vachalek of Webolutions; Creating Virtual Vibrations - Discover Your career path with Web 2.0 with Kim DeCoste of DeCoste & Associates; Which Way is North? - Navigating your course through social media by Mike Hanbery of Hanbery Marketing and The Digitized Customer - Converting your Online Visits to Offline Sales by Renee Van Tassell of Reach Local.
Jim Pappas of Contact Business Systems summed up the seminars: “Pearls...lot of pearls... John Vachalek-Webolutions
shared some excellent Social Marketing ideas; Mike Israel-Sandler Training gave us a glimpse of the future for job hunting/recruitment with web 2.0; and Eric & Angel-Experience Pros showed us how to be smart and get into the mix with SMDC culture and the Chamber activities and events. I really appreciated everyone's hard work and willingness to share and educate.”
The Expo Exhibit Hall featured 100 Chamber investors showing their products, services and creativity in booth design. A profusion of information mixed with outrageous 
costuming and lots of give-aways and samples provided Expo-goers an excellent opportunity to find vendors and products for their business and personal use. Beth Brown of Professional Resource Enhancement was impressed: “This was my first Expo and I thought it was great! [I] loved all the costumes and creativity. Everyone at the displays was so friendly and knowledgeable about their businesses.”
The 88th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon was a huge success with over 400 South Metro Denver Business Leaders witnessing the honor of being named at the event. The winners were:
ACE Award Winners: Paul Archer - Automated Business Products, Chris Crary - CoreFirst Bank, Mike Hanbery - Hanbery & Hanbery, Marion Jenkins - QSE Technologies, Steve Kessler - Denver Dataman, Barb Kovacevich - Loudmouth Media, Bill Shepard - WJ Shepard Consulting, Korri Stainbrook - University of Phoenix and Arlene Zaffle - MakeItMe.net.
Next came the Leadership in Motion Awards: Kim DeCoste - DeCoste & Associates, Jeff Burns - Computer Skills Group, Paul Kelly - Academy Sports Turf, Jeff Wasden - PROformance Apparel, Paul Archer - Automated Business Products and Steve Kessler - Denver Dataman.
The Program Volunteers of the Year were: Small Business Development Center Volunteer of the Year: Brenda Sherman - Integrity Accounting & Tax Service, Events & Visitors Bureau Volunteer of the Year: John Stickel - Wingate by Wyndham, Women in Leadership Volunteer of the Year: Vickie Thomas - The Thomas Group and the Economic Development Group Volunteer of the Year: Lisa D'Ambrosia - Minor & Brown.
Jerry Healey of Cimarron Equity Partners was named Outstanding Volunteer of the Year. The luncheon concluded with a keynote address on the Web 2.0 phenomenon by John Vachalek, CEO of Webolutions.
A relaxed and fun end to the day came with the monthly Business After Hours. Great beverages and appetizers provided by the Marriott DTC and dance lessons and exhibitions by Holly Collins and Adventures in Dance made for a great time.
Rob Hale of Travel n’ Relax summed up the day: “This Expo was a flawless event done with extreme quality - as are all S. Metro Chamber events. It was a very worthwhile event that I look forward to every year! It offers lots of great information, and connections.”
Pictures from the 2009 Business Expo...
Click here for a photo album of the 88th Annual Leadership Awards Luncheon...
Contact Taren Schuck at tschuck@bestchamber.com to learn more about next year's Business Expo or any of the other 400+ events the Chamber hosts throughout the year.
