February 15, 2008

The King hopes, he really, really, hopes you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Would you believe me if I told you that this hunka, hunka of burnin' love is a Chamber member? And that he sings really, really well?

It was quite a thrill last Valentine's Day to be serenaded and then gifted with a gorgeous bouquet. Last year it was snowing so hard, Connie didn’t even come into the office. If she had, I know she would have harmonized with the King on "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You." Elvis, without realizing it, started a Chamber Valentine’s tradition. The weather was much better this year so both Lorraine and I were delightfully surprised to be the recipients of a stunning bouquet of roses and chocolate candy. Our admirer wishes to remain anonymous. Let me just say she has helped a bunch of Chamber members establish a presence on the World Wide Web. She insisted we have our picture taken and Lorraine and I insisted on holding the flowers. She was impressed by my heart pin collection. Regretfully, I did have to leave pins in the jewelry box because I had run out of space to pin them.

Am I right or what?! Are these roses simply divine? When I pointed out to the photographer that the pins were hidden by the bouquet

we moved out into the hall for this photo. What can I say, I love V-Day because it is red, red, red, my favorite color!

Now let’s talk of networking. More than 200 people had registered for the Multi-Chamber Business Card Exchange and then when some forecasters predicted snow, all of us Chamber directors wondered what effect that would have on attendance. By the end of the evening, not much? Attending from our Chamber were representatives from: AFD Theatre, The Basket Jeanie, Big Foot Moving & Storage, Card Concierge, Comcast Business Services, Edward Jones, Imprintastic LLC, LDG Associates, Moda Dry Cleaning, Precision Copiers, PrintAspects, Quadmultisport, Rubicat Design and Photography, Stephens Custom Floor Coverings and VNCH. John Archer and Vicki Krikorian took Chamber Connecting to the next level when each of them invited a visitor to attend the event.

I remembered to bring the camera and took some pictures of some of our members schmoozing away.

Here's Matt Paine of Imprintastic!, our newest Chamber member, jumping into networking within his first week.

Todne Texeira from Quadmultisport enjoyed meeting folks from other Chambers.

Chuck French of AFD Theatre and Meher Mody of Print Aspects share a laugh. I had persuaded (nudged?) Meher to come back and shmooze some more for this photo op!

Jean Carbone and Vicky Krikorian of The Basket Jeanie were in full swing working the room.

For those of you who are new to the Chamber, we belong to ACE (Area Chamber Executives), a consortium of the directors for more than a dozen Chambers. Periodically, ACE hosts Multi-Chamber events, which draw between 150-300 people. Often, though not always, shared table space is provided for attendees to display marketing material. The next event like this will take place on Wednesday, April 30. We hope to see you there!

Oh, and Elvis? This reminds me of movie trailers. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who leave as soon as the first credit starts to roll and those who stay until the very end of the movie, meaning through the credits and even the copyright. Well, I fall into the latter camp. I agree with Yogi Berra, "It ain't over till it's over." I want to see the names of everyone who made that movie happen.

Do any of you remember Francis Ford Coppola's Apocolypse Now? How do YOU think the movie ended? Well, if you place yourself into the first camp, all I can say is: "Not how you think." I know you will find it hard to believe but I can be pretty pesky about this. I do NOT leave.

Ages ago, whenever I took my nieces to see a movie, we stayed right to the (real!) end. When their dad (my brother) took them to see Toy Story, he got up to leave--he is in the other camp, sad to say--and the three girls would not budge. "Aunt Michèle says we have to see the whole movie." If you think Toy Story ended with Woody back upstairs in Andy's bedroom with Buzz Lightyear et al, you missed the best part--the outtakes. Needless to say, the girls and I were vindicated. But I digress. . .

So for those of you who fall into the second camp. . .Elvis was our very own John Budzyna, director of the Arlington Center for the Arts, delivering flowers on February 14, 2007, as a creative fun raising venture.