Manhattan Chamber of Commerce: June 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

Reaction to "Obamacare" Ruling

Here are responses from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of NY State and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce regarding yesterday's ruling.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce statement on SCOTUS health care ruling

Jun 28, 2012

by Bill Stroh

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue released the following statement today after the Supreme Court issued its ruling upholding the entire health care law as constitutional.

“While we respect the Court’s decision, today’s Supreme Court ruling does not change the reality that the health care law is fundamentally flawed. Left unchanged, it will cost many Americans their employer-based health insurance, undermine job creation, and raise health care costs for all.

“It is imperative that policymakers and the business community now work together to develop and support genuine reforms that control costs, improve access, ensure quality, and promote wellness. These reforms and goals are achievable. The Chamber and the American business community are ready to go to work to enact true health care reform. Given the Court’s decision, the need for action has never been greater.”

The Chamber’s public policy law firm, the National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC), filed an amicus brief in the case urging the Supreme Court to strike down the entire law if the individual mandate were held unconstitutional. The Chamber did not take a position on the constitutionality of the mandate. To read the Chamber’s amicus brief and the Supreme Court’s opinion, please visit the National Chamber Litigation Center website: http://www.chamberlitigation.com.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.
Business Council of NY State
NY impact of Obamacare ruling

Jun 28, 2012

by Bill Stroh

E.J. McMahon

New York is probably less affected than most states by today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision. The court effectively has said that almost all of Affordable Care Act (ACA) passes constitutional muster. This means the entire country can now experience the effects of the sort of regulatory policies (such as guaranteed issue, community rating and mandated coverages) that have done much to make health insurance so costly here, with the added element of a government-administered “exchange” from which people lacking health insurance will be required to buy it (or pay a penalty, effectively redefined by the court as a tax).

In upholding the individual mandate provision, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that states can’t be threatened with the loss of all their federal Medicaid funding if they choose not to expand their Medicaid programs along the lines authorized under the Affordable Care Act. But New York already has a more expansive Medicaid program than most — and as a practical matter, given our politics, to the extent the feds are willing to underwrite a further expansion of New York’s program (assuming the ACA survives in the next Congress), we will no doubt happily opt into it.

From MCC Service Provider, Eric Robinson , PSC Insurance

Sad to say but health insurance is a law of numbers, especially in New York. We have community rating where the young and healthy subsidize the older population. This subsidy is becoming increasingly burdensome as both our population ages and healthcare services are experiencing double-digit increases We have a progressive system and have already passed 10 major protections outlined in Obama care into state law. (These protections would have held in the year regardless of what the Supreme Court did).

The below list is insurance reform, not healthcare reform. It closes many of the loopholes that carriers used to not pay claims.

Carriers may not drop patients once they get sick
They must cover children with pre-existing conditions
No annual or lifetime coverage dollar limits for medical benefits or prescription drug coverage
Plans must provide access to OB/GYN care
Birth control is covered on the same basis as men’s health care
Plans must cover preventive care with no co-pays
The insured can choose their primary care doctors and pediatricians (within the network, if there is one)
Same co-pay for emergency room services in or out of network
Parents are able to keep young adults on their plan to age 26

The two biggest changes for New Yorkers are these:

They now will be required to purchase health insurance if the can afford it, or pay a fine if they choose not to.

Basically the Supreme Court defined this fiscal penalty as a tax and we certainly know that Washington knows how to levy taxes.

Insurance carriers will not be able to turn down coverage for adults, even when they have pre-existing medical conditions.

For the 40 states that have not already adopted all of the new requirements, major changes will take place.

More will become clear as the details of this law are worked out, but a lot of interpretation will be involved. 2,800 pages of federal code will become tens of thousands of pages of rules and regulations in 50 different states. It will be fun.

Guidance on Business Customer Bill of Rights Distribution & Customer Feedback Meeting

Update on NYC Regulatory Review Recommendation #3: Establish a Business Owner’s Bill of Rights

Background:

Local Law 18 requires the Mayor’s Office of Operations to develop and agencies to disseminate a Business Owner’s Bill of Rights (BoR) before, during, or after an inspection. Many agencies currently distribute the BoR in various inspections and interactions. Operations is developing a renewed distribution effort to increase business owner awareness of the Bill of Rights. There are 1,766 inspectors at 7 agencies that perform 1.7 million inspections a year.

Current Distribution Means by Agencies:

•Central website (www.nyc.gov/bizrights)

•Card handed out during some inspections (DOHMH, FDNY)

•Link available on agency websites (DCA, DEP, DOB, DOHMH, DOT, FDNY, NBAT, SBS)

•Posters placed in walk-in facilities (DCA, DEP, DOB, DOHMH, FDNY, SBS)

•Fliers handed out at walk-in facilities (DCA, DEP, DOHMH, SBS)

•Fliers handed out during events (DCA, DEP)

•Link added to Bureau of Food Safety Inspector Report which is handed to business owners after an inspection (DOHMH)

•Distributed to industry and trade organizations and BIDs (DCA, DEP)

•Included in agency publications (i.e. agency quarterly newsletters, social media) (DCA, DEP)

Enhanced Efforts (May 2012-present):

Completed Tasks:

•Translated Bill of Rights into Spanish

•Posted Bill of Rights in Spanish on nyc.gov

•Designed and printed new, easier to read signage for walk-in centers, and designed new bilingual palm cards (see page 2)

•Put system in place to regularly review customer survey comments and distribute comments to agencies

Next Steps:

•Provide agencies with new signage for service centers

•Print and distribute bilingual palm cards to agencies

•Develop a standard protocol for agencies outlining when and for which inspections the palm cards should be distributed

•Obtain business industry input on additional information regarding rights that would be helpful

•Obtain business industry input on other potential channels for distribution

•Promote customer survey more widely (see p. 3)

•Redesign DEP online inspection request system to include a pop-up window with the BoR

Newly designed poster and palm card

As a business owner, you have the right to:

1.Courteous and professional treatment by our employees

2.Inspectors who are polite, professionally dressed and properly identified

3.Information about how long inspections will take and the cost of all related fees

4.Knowledgeable inspectors who enforce agency rules uniformly

5.Receive information about agency rules from inspectors or other employees

6.Contest a violation through a hearing, trial or other relevant process

7.Request a review of inspection results or re-inspection as soon as possible

8.Receive explanation from inspectors(if requested) on violation details and instructions for viewing inspection results

9.Access information in languages other than English

10.Comment, anonymously and without fear or retribution, on the performance or conduct of our employees

Customer Feedback Survey:

•Customers can provide general feedback on customer experience at

•The link will be on the bottom of all posters and palm cards, and on

MCC Chairman's Breakfast sponsored by TD Bank

One of MCC's signature events is the MCC Chairman's Breakfast series hosted by MCC Interim Chairman Ronald I. Paltrowitz, Esq. This quarterly event is hosted and/or sponsored by MCC partners and is by invitation only for MCC partners, corporate members and invited guests. A speaker from the legislative or business community is invited to discuss issues of importance to the NYC economy and beyond. Our last MCC Chairman's Breakfast event was sponsored by TD Bank who hosted a forum on international economic issues. The event was held on June 12, 2012 at the exclusive 3 West Club Grand Ballroom.

Ronald I. Paltrowitz, Esq., Interim Chairman of MCC and Laura Bucko, VP/Director of Communications, MCC with TD Bank representatives and event speakers

Welcome by Ronald I. Paltrowitz, Esq., Interim Chairman of MCC

Welcome by Peter Meyer, Market President, TD Bank

Address by Eric Green, Global Head, Rates and FX Research at TD

Address by James Rubin, Counselor for Competitiveness and International Affairs, Empire State Development Corporation

Closing Remarks by Laura Bucko, VP/Director of Communications, MCC

MCC Chairman's Breakfast on June 12th at 3 West Club

All Photos by Jeffrey Holmes, http://ps.jeffreyholmes.com/

If you are interested in sponsoring a future Chairman’s Breakfast event please contact Laura Bucko, VP/Director of Communications, MCC at info@manhattancc.org.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Microsoft unveils Surface tablet

If you are looking for more information about Microsoft's new Surface tablet computer, please see this link from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx

For a more in-depth explanation tune in to Melanie Gass, the Microsoft Princess on blogtalkradio:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-microsoft-princess-insider/2012/06/19/windows-8-final-consumer-preview-review.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Clearwire Corporation is Hiring

Clearwire Corporation is Hiring

New CLEAR Sales Positions Available Throughout the Northeast

BELLEVUE, Wash. – June 13, 2012 – Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR), a leading provider of wireless broadband services, today announced it is hiring for a number of sales positions in the Northeast region including Boston, Providence, Harrisburg, New York City and Philadelphia. These full- time positions are part of a renewed commitment by Clearwire to meet the distribution demands of the growing mobile broadband marketplace.

“We are very excited to be adding full and part-time sales positions in the Northeast region of the U.S.,” said Sean Reid director of sales for the Northeast. “Our employees are the foundation that helps us deliver outstanding results for our customers and we hope to complement our team with additional all-stars.”

Positions that the company is seeking to be filled include territory brand representatives, retail sales representatives and national retail account executives. To find career opportunities at Clearwire, experienced sales representatives can apply directly at www.clearwire.apply2jobs.com and search job listings by keywords, location, or requisition number, or even paste in their resume to see positions that may match their skills. Individuals can return to the Job Search page at any time to check application status, discover new opportunities, and update their profile with new accomplishments.

Clearwire offers a generous benefits package to keep its employees healthy and well cared for, both in and out of work. The company offers an extensive range of health care benefits, vacation time, savings plans and additional benefits.

According to Cisco’s latest Visual Networking Index figures, mobile data traffic globally will increase 18-fold between 2011 and 2016, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 78% between 2011 and 2016, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month by 2016. These are incredible numbers that clearly show the demand for more capacity.

As the wireless company with the deepest spectrum portfolio for deploying mobile data, Clearwire offers a tremendous proposition to a wide range of providers including wholesale providers including Sprint, Simplexity, NetZero, FreedomPop and most recently announced provider Jolt Mobile.

Unlike service plans from traditional wireless carriers which cap data usage, CLEAR offers unlimited* 4G usage plans that do not require long-term service contracts. CLEAR offers unlimited* 4G coverage starting as low as $34.99/mo.** for either a home or mobile plan. CLEAR service is currently available in areas of the United States where approximately 130 million people live. A detailed map of service availability can be found at www.clear.com/coverage.

For more information about CLEAR, visit www.clear.com. Company information about Clearwire is available at www.clearwire.com.

For press and broadcast: Product images, video footage and company logos can be downloaded from the Clearwire Newsroom. To subscribe to Clearwire's RSS news feed, click here.

About Clearwire

Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), through its operating subsidiaries, is a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services offering services in areas of the U.S. where more than 130 million people live. The company holds the deepest portfolio of wireless spectrum available for data services in the U.S. Clearwire serves retail customers through its own CLEAR^® brand as well as through wholesale relationships with some of the leading companies in the retail, technology and telecommunications industries. The company is constructing a next-generation 4G LTE Advanced-ready network to address the capacity needs of the market, and is also working closely with the Global TDD-LTE Initiative and China Mobile to further the TDD-LTE ecosystem. Clearwire is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. Additional information is available at http://www.clearwire.com.

The Clearwire Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=8493

*Unlimited plans subject to CLEAR’s Acceptable Use Policy, posted at www.clear.com/legal/aup.

**Taxes, equipment and other charges apply.

MCC Supports Bill to Legalize Sunday Brunch

The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Supports this new bill to legalize Sunday Brunch. Restaurants would be able to serve diners at tables on sidewalk cafes starting at 10 am. Please read the following article from The New York Times for more info:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/bill-introduced-to-legalize-sunday-morning-brunch/

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

7 strategies to boost your online sales

By Joanna L. Krotz

There's really no deep secret about increasing sales through the Internet. You drive traffic by creating more sales leads. When these newbie shoppers show up, you engage them and convert their interest into a transaction. Presto: Better sales.

But all that's much easier said than done. Here are specific ways to build sales momentum and to make your online store crackle and then pop.

1. Seek out strategic partners. Question: What's the online retail equivalent of "location, location, location?" Answer: Links to your site in all the right places. You want to create awareness of your wares among customers. So the first step is to truly define your target buyer. Thoroughly research your customer's profile and preferences. Next, develop come-hither offerings, teasers, interactive ads and must-read content for as many appropriate sites as you can manage and afford. "Small businesses can develop relevant content for other sites that drives traffic on a very low-cost basis," says Andrew Restivo, founder of GourmetFoodMall.com, a New Orleans-based online shopping mall for more than 150 specialty food companies. In considering sites as partners or affiliates, don't forget professional organizations and associations, especially when you market services or business products. Try trading or paying for links with other small or midsize e-commerce marketers. But before making any deals, verify that your links add value on those sites. For instance, links to your boutique hotel might bring in business from local restaurant sites or a car rental agency or even a local chamber of commerce. But it would make no sense at all on a site selling computers.

2. Keep customers clicking toward the checkout page. Customers won't wade through faulty, bulky or clunky architecture. Broken links or haphazard navigation will only squander your hard-earned sales opportunities. Streamline all site paths and continually check that every click works. Rely on plain, instant gratification (HTML) text links to all products, services, and registration forms. "Graphics and Flash make your site look cool, but without text to encourage search results, customers may never even make it to your home page," says Michelle Jackson, spokesperson for Range Online Media, a Fort Worth, Texas, search marketing company. Also, consider easy ways to get to the shopping cart and reliable site-wide product search functionality. When a shopper arrives with product specifics already in mind, you do not want to make that buyer work or wait.

3. Cross-promote like crazy. Don't make your online store a stand-alone orphan; make it work with other sales channels. Successful sellers have figured out that the Web is just one sales channel, like mail-order catalogs, phone orders, or face-to-face contact. Everything must work together. That means customers being able to research one of your products online, buying it by phone, and picking it up at the offline store. If you only sell online, you must make sure your branded URL is seen far and wide. That includes using it in every e-mail signature of every employee you have. Print the store URL on all brochures, catalogs, packing material, shipping boxes, shopping bags, delivery trucks, posters, and postcard notices. If you attend trade shows or conferences, make sure your booth signage and promotional material also have a big, bold printed URL stamped on them. Don't miss an opportunity. Also, register variants and misspellings of your domain name so customers who get it wrong will find you anyway. For instance, a company named "Baskets R Us" should also register "Baskets Are Us." Think about it: For a few hundred dollars in registration fees, you might net one return customer who buys thousands of dollars worth of wares over time.

4. Keep it personal. Customers will feel more valued and comfortable about buying online if you establish a bond. The more you're in touch and display a personal tone, the more your customer will relax.

5. Be specific (and honest) about your product offerings. "The more detail you include, the better. People like to know the histories of what you're selling and who you are," advises Lynne Dralle, an eBay Power Seller who has sold thousands of items at online auctions. "Always describe exactly what the buyer is getting. Be honest," she says. When selling her collectibles, Dralle mentions any chips or flaws, but she also tells stories, like how her Aunt Mary brought an item over from England. High-quality photographs of products also are a must. If you don't have a digital camera, consider investing in one so you can upload images to your PC.

6. Set delivery policies that work for your business model. The great debate about whether free shipping boosts online sales is finally fading into individual solutions. While you still find advocates pro and con, it's now boiling down to a matter of your product pricing. "Free shipping costs can kill you if you can't include them in the price of the product," says GourmetFoodMall.com's Restivo, whose company regularly surveys online consumers on such issues. But if you jack up your price to accommodate free shipping on commodity items that only sell at the lowest price possible, you lose. In those cases, customers expect to pay a reasonable amount for shipping, Restivo says. On the other hand, high shipping prices are a big detriment to sales of perishable or premium products, presumably because it's easy to forgo those items when they don't feel like a "bargain." Restivo's tip: Rely on second-day-air shipping. Costs are much cheaper than overnight and customers are satisfied.

7. Spruce up your site and service. The goal is to get customers to return and to spread the word among friends and family that your online shop is worth a visit. So do everything you can to make the experience fast, fun and fabulously better than your competitors. Explain all your policies, upfront. Promise 100% money-back guarantees with no strings attached. Offer free samples. Quickly respond to every query or comment. Invest in a live chat function so that customers can get answers to product questions immediately. Create reasons to return to your site with a loyalty club or contests or email games and discounts. Make connections with customers and don't let go.

One last point: Don't forget that having well-written content and product descriptions are important—because you want the search engines to find you. Learn how to optimize your site for search engines.

Next thing you know, the sales will start rolling in.

This article was submitted by MCC Silver Partner Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/resources/technology/ecommerce/increase-online-sales.aspx?fbid=u58lVq-aEcP

5 common e-commerce site mistakes

By Monte Enbysk

So you're planning to sell your products on the Web. Know that it's not enough that your graphics are sharp, your content is fun and easy to read, and your online catalog is pretty darn spiffy.
Your overall site design and infrastructure count, too.
How fast do your pages load? How navigable is your site? What about server capacity and browser compatibility?
Brent Melson is a senior technical designer for NTSL (National Software Testing Labs), a Philadelphia-area company, who makes his living testing Web site architectures and related Internet technologies. Here are his five most-common e-commerce site boo-boos.

1. Too many dynamic pages that take valuable seconds to load."Dynamic" pages are those with changing content processed in real time from application servers and other Web servers. Dynamic content often encompasses links to databases that aren't part of the Web site — for updates in news headlines, stock quotes and sports scores — or ad blocks in which advertiser messages revolve through each time a new user hits the site. For the most part, dynamic content is trendy, popular and valued by most Web users. But too much of it on pages, or spread over too many pages, can slow your site down, unless you have some of the more sophisticated Web software used by larger Internet and e-commerce sites. Pages that take several seconds to load generally send users to other sites. Melson argues that smaller e-commerce sites should confine their dynamic content to a certain number of pages, and make many or most of their Web pages "static," or without continuously changing content. And they should limit dynamic content to windows or certain portions of mostly static pages. It is particularly important, he says, to keep your home page and many of your intro pages as static as possible. The deeper a user gets into your site, the more likely he or she is to tolerate pages taking longer to load (though some would even dispute this)."It is really a design issue," he says. "It is easier for many businesses to make their Web pages dynamic. Most sites need dynamic pages. But there are performance issues with them. That's what Web operators need to keep in mind."

2. Overestimating concurrent traffic — and spending too much as a result.Most tech writers like me tell you to plan your site for peak traffic periods, especially those that occur in the last-minute buying frenzy before the December holidays. Melson, however, says the term "concurrent" is frequently misunderstood by Web operators. It doesn't mean number of customers overall, or even site traffic in a day, but rather the number of users converging on a site simultaneously. Too often, he says, Web operators pay thousands of dollars more for server space and related software because they have been too generous in their estimates on concurrent traffic."If you aim high and have an unlimited hardware budget, it's not going to be a big deal. But if you don't have an unlimited budget, my advice is to think realistically about the number of people you will have using the site at any one time. "Alexis Gutzman, an e-business author and consultant, cautions that spikes do occur for many e-tailers around Dec. 12 or so (one of the last days you can ship packages long distances to arrive before Dec. 25). "In my experience, many people don't overestimate. They fail to plan for the peak," she says.

3. No consideration of resolving performance issues with software rather than buying new hardware. When performance bottlenecks occur, many Web operators quickly conclude it's a hardware problem — and rush to buy a new server or two to add more capacity. That's often a mistake, Melson says. "In our experience, about 70% of the time it's a software issue and 30% of the time it's a hardware problem. But instead of thinking about how they can fix or redesign their software, they throw more hardware at it."It may be a case of simply rewriting the software or adding new application software, he says. Perhaps they need to buy more memory for their database server, rather than buying a new server. Often the software solution is cheaper and quicker to implement, he says (although hardware currently is as cheap as it has been in some time).The difficulty here, Melson acknowledges, is that small businesses don't have information technology (IT) staffs or the time and money to diagnose infrastructure problems and/or rewrite software. Most businesses should have an IT consultant or trusted value-added reseller (VAR) to advise them, however.

4. Not making the site compatible with more than one Web browser. If you had to choose one browser to support, it would be Microsoft Internet Explorer, the dominant browser with more than 80% of the market. "But what about the Apple Macintosh customer — do you want to turn him away?" Melson asks. How about the Firefox or Chrome user ? If not, you need to test your site and system with the other browsers. Some tweaking of the user interface is likely to ensure tables, charts, graphics, and functionality work well on the different browsers."Often these are very simple or minor fixes. You might need to only change some colors, or add new elements. If you don't ever look at your site on other Web browsers, you won't ever know that you need to fix it," he says.Supporting more than a single browser is more important for an online retailer than a B2B company, Melson says, because a retailer's customers are more random. But if you don't feel it is important, he says, you should put a disclaimer on your site noting that it supports — or works best with — only one particular browser.

5. Failure to get outside feedback on usability. "Usability" is now more than a buzzword. It has emerged as a significant metric for how Web sites are viewed today. Usability surveys, usability tests, usability scores, and usability focus groups are all part of the research and development of most large Web sites. Melson's finding is that many smaller e-commerce operators don't get usability feedback from anyone beyond those on their development team. But those developers and others are too close to the process and biased toward the chosen design and infrastructure. "You get used to your site and used to any foibles."For small businesses, organizing a focus group to evaluate your Web site is beyond your time and resources. But getting some sort of outside perspective — be it employees not involved in the design, or your spouses or friends — is crucial to the site's development and performance. "You need to hear from people who aren't working on it."

Technology Marketing Management Finance Business Startups

This article was submitted by MCC Silver Partner Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/business/en-us/resources/technology/ecommerce/ecommerce-website-design-mistakes.aspx?fbid=u58lVq-aEcP

Monday, June 11, 2012

ABC Looking for Chefs for New Primetime Cooking Show

Here is a notice we received from an ABC TV producer:

We are currently looking for some great chefs to compete on our new primetime cooking show with Anthony Bourdain and Nigella Lawson.

We are going to be coming to New York in a few weeks to hold auditions and we are trying to spread the word to make sure we get the best possible competitors!

The unique thing about the show is that we are looking for chefs at all levels, from people who are great home cooks to executive chefs and everything in between. We are encouraging everyone to attend our open call in New York on July 14th and meet us!

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail or call me if you have any questions! Thanks so much!

Kelsey Mayfield
Casting Producer
ABC Cooking Show
O: (323) 790-8374
KelseyAlayneCasting@gmail.com
www.abccookingshow.com
@KiwiMayfield

NYC Statistics

At MCC, we like to provide NYC businesses with as much information as possible to assess current business trends. Here are some useful statistics to consider:

From NYC & Co. here are some useful statistics not just on tourism but on NYC overall:

http://www.nycgo.com/articles/nyc-statistics-page

For more in depth analytics please see the NYC Economic Development Corporation site:

http://www.nycedc.com/

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

MCC Offering Business Database Training to Grow Your Business

Manhattan Chamber of Commerce

Business Database Training

MCC offers Business Database Training to educate entrepreneurs, executives, trade officers, sales associates and business counselors to gather and interpret pertinent business information through market research, utilizing publically available business databases; turning the data into valuable information. From framing the research objectives, building the research approach, and analyzing the data and preparing listings to reports that focuses on clients’ objectives.

The training will utilize publicly available databases to collect data to:

· Identify Competitors

· Identify Investors/Venture Capital/Private Equity firms

· Identify Importer/Exporter/Distributor

· Study target customers – Demographics

· Access available SWOT Analysis

· Access valuable industry/market reports

MCC also conducts extensive business research, consulting and related services to a broad spectrum of businesses across many industries including, health care, retail, marketing, financial services, public relations and non-profit organizations. The goal is to provide reliable and focus information to help clients make important decisions.

Training Fees

2 Hour Private Training (1-2 individuals)	$500
2 Hour Group Training (3-15 individuals) $1500-$1800	$1800
Training series	TBD

For more information, contact sleung@manhattancc.org

http://www.manhattancc.org/common/News/articles/detail.cfm?QID=9195&classification=news&clientID=11001&topicID=0

Monday, June 4, 2012

2nd Avenue Restaurant Week June 4-8th

Plan to dine this week, June 4-8^th on 2^nd Ave. during the 2012 2^nd Avenue Restaurant Week! We have 25 restaurants participating along the avenue in the subway construction corridor from 68^th-96^th Streets. They are offering either 20% off their menu items or a $20.16 course dinner during that week.

Organizers of the week are the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce and the NY State Restaurant Association. Sponsors : Presenting: Skanska Participating sponsors: TD Bank, Venable LLP and media partner METRO. And many thanks to NYC Council Members Jessica Lappin and Dan Garodnick for their support of this initiative as well!

NYC personalities (Emma Bloomberg, Tim Zagat, fashion designer Norma Kamali, "Gridlock Sam," Sam Schwartz and all of our elected officials from the upper east side will be dining on 2nd Avenue during 2nd Avenue Restaurant Week!

Plan to go out and, hey, you never know who you will sit next to!

Participating restaurants:

Beach Cafe @1326 on 70th East ($20.16 dinner special)
Cafe Greco @ 1395 between 72-73th West ($20.16 dinner special)
Szechuan Gourmet @ 1395 between 72-73 th West ($20.16 dinner special)
Persepolis@1407 between 73-74 th West