Friday, October 28, 2011

MCC Business Awards Breakfast, November 3rd at Con Edison

For all of you who know MCC and new friends joining us who don't, the MCC Business Awards Breakfast sponsored by Wells Fargo is the business event of the year in NYC. This year we have the following stellar list of honorees:

Guest presenters will include Tim Zagat, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Jill Kaplan and Joan Hamburg.

So how does this event happen? Early in the year MCC's Awards committee convenes to begin planning the event. We take nominations from members and the general community and select winners by the summertime. Con Edison has graciously hosted the event in their banquet room for many years and this year Wells Fargo became a presenting sponsor. The final step is selecting star presenters from the NYC community. In addition, we put together a printed program, design a visual presentation and attend to every detail from ordering flowers and the awards themselves to finding fun raffle prizes and giveaways.

Past years have seen many wonderful honorees and guests such as Mayor Bloomberg, Barbara Corcoran, Donald Trump, Pete Peterson, Jim Lebenthal, Philippe DeMontebello, David Remnick and James Cramer.

The best thing about this event is not only does it celebrate the NYC business community but celebrates what a truly amazing city we live in filled with talent, culture and innovative thinkers. We hope you will join us!

Monday, October 24, 2011

MCC Transportation Transformation Series, October 25th at Con Edison

Earlier this year MCC Member Tom Glendening of E3NYC came to us and asked us to help him put on a series of events about the changes in transportation going on in NYC and other cities around the world. Cities are looking for cleaner more efficient modes of transportation as urban centers become more populated. We formed a transportation team which includes Willem Houck of ParkPod, Philip Kiracofe of Horizen Ventures (an urban bike advocate) and Yale Klat, an attorney who works with companies in cleantech. We had our kick off reception in May at the Tesla showroom which showcased high end electric cars. On September 27th we had our first overview and panel discussion on the topic. Tomorrow we will look at the economic opportunities around these changes. here is a description of the event and link to register. This event is tomorrow, October 25th, 8-10:30am at Con Edison. Click here to register!

Bikes, boats, electric cars - NYC is going through a Transportation Transformation. 
Learn more about it at the MCC Transportation Transformation Series.

After a successful launch at the Tesla showroom last May, and an at-capacity-crowd workshop on the transformation at Con Ed’s headquarters on September 27th, we are pleased to announce our third event, a discussion on the investment and economic development potential of the Transportation Transformation: it’s a multi-billion dollar transformation.
This Transportation Transformation with the E3Think team offers a logic as to why transportation innovation is a much safer investment than other clean tech investments. 
After that we will start the core of the program with the first presentation of NYC’s new – and the world’s largest – bikeshare system to the NYC business community. 

Participants include:
  • Alison Cohen – President of Alta Bikeshare, anointed operator of the new NYC system, and current operator of systems in Boston, Washington and Melbourne (Australia).
  • Devona Sharpe – Devona coordinates the Greenway (bikeway) in the Bronx. The Greenway is a public bikeway that will connect Maine to Florida. The Greenway is well under way.
  • Mac Heller – Former co-head of Goldman Sach's Investment Banking division, and current Executive Chairman of CODA, one of the coolest electric car companies in the world (based in Santa Monica with batteries from China).
  • Lynde Coit – Lynde is one of the East Coast's most knowledgeable experts on investment and economic potential of sustainable and cleantech investments.
Authors of the now famous Harvard Alumni Study on the economics of bikeshare will be there, so will numerous start-ups, from GPS based bikes, electric bikes to a proposal for magnetically elevated trains for New York State (traversing the landscape at over 200 mph).
And with sufficient time, there will be a quick update on the E3NYC proposal to host a 6 month cleantech world’s fair along the East River in 2016.

Friday, October 21, 2011

MCC Week in Review 10/21/11

Sometimes I think people don't realize how many opportunities that are available to them by being a member of MCC. Here is a recounting of some of the meetings and events that MCC sponsored and co-sponsored this week.

10/17 MCC participated in the Women's Economic Empowerment Conference hosted by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at NYU. This event brought together women from business, media and education to discuss how women are gaining prominence in the workforce and how they can grow their businesses and create economic opportunities.

10/18 MCC sponsored an amazing event with Time Warner Cable, Bloomberg TV and New York Institute of Technology. It was called Social Media Victories and speaker Patrick Schwerdtfeger shared "how they did it" success stories of small companies who used social media to not just grow their businesses but transform their businesses. Here's what one attendee said about the event:

Hi Nancy,

I attended your event on Tuesday with Peter Schwerdtfeger and found it to be one of the most informative presentations I have ever been to. Peter presented lots of ideas that I plan to use in my business.

Bravo!

Coach Mindy Solkin
Founder, Owner & Head Coach
The Running Center LLCNYC's First & Only Training Studio for Runners

I heard that one member used one of the tips she learned at the event and already had two new clients within 24 hours of the event!

Within hours of this event we joined Bloomberg TV again for their Bloomberg Empowered Entrepreneur Event at Cedar Lake in Chelsea. MCC was pleased to co-sponsor this event which brought together entrepreneurs, investors and discussed trends in the tech and social media industry in NYC (and offer MCC members a discount).

10/19 MCC invited new members to its quarterly new member breakfast hosted by MCC partner Eisner Amper. New members were welcomed by Laura Bucko, VP/Director of Communications of MCC and Gil Effron, MCC Board Member.

MCC members also had a forum with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney who awarded MCC with a grant to help teach businesses about how to export.

10/20 MCC worked to promote international business today by co-sponsoring two events: "Opportunities in Japan’s Mobile Internet Market" with JETRO and the "U.S-China Cross-Border M&A Forum."

10/21 MCC's health care committee met and heard an overview of the economic issues in the US healthcare industry from MCC member Rick Reiman of Group Health Solutions. MCC members in the health care industry are convening in these monthly meetings to find solutions for small businesses, discuss best practices and identify economic opportunities in the health care industry.

And that's just one week in the life of MCC! Have a great weekend all and hope you join us next week.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Welcome to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Blog!

Welcome to the MCC Blog! We are starting this in order to communicate with our members and the NYC business community, let you know more about our events, programs, initiatives and advocacy. We also want to share with you stories from our members and partners, about deals that have been made, businesses launched, partnerships formed and the great things that have happened for our members. MCC also has committees for green business, global business, health care, education, theatre, technology/social media, young professionals, women's business and LGBT business. We have an active business referral group program, ambassador group and volunteers. We hope if you are not already a member you, your small business or corporation will join, have your voice heard and get connected in NYC!