The 2015 Business Opportunity Fair was all about “Driving Growth Through Collaboration”. From the moment the doors opened on the morning of July 30th, conversations were flying and business was transacting. The breakfast program featured speeches from individuals such as Mayor Michael B. Hancock, Mike Boyd, Executive Vice President, Aon Cornerstone Innovative Solutions and C. David Kikumoto, Co-Founder and CEO of Denver Management Advisors, Inc. Though each person who spoke brought their individual voices to the stage the message was the same; When we work together to achieve greater success, we can truly drive growth through collaboration!
Walt Jennings of MillerCoors, newly appointed Board Chair, welcomed the audience on behalf of the Council’s Board of Directors. The attendees were blown away by the vocal power of our featured soloist, Ayyana Sudduth. At 11 years old, Ayyanna has a bright future ahead of her. After breakfast, the Council opened the trade fair and the highly anticipated Power Pavilion for a lively morning of business and networking. Both familiar faces and old-time friends of the Council filled the trade fair and conversations echoed through the hallways.
The always-popular Power Pavilion filled in record time this year and featured two first time participants: Aon and Kaiser Permanente. The corporate participants brought their A-game to the table not only with their knowledge of their organizations as well as the upcoming opportunities but also with the representatives who were present. As we all know, half the battle is talking to the right people and MBEs continue to comment about the level of opportunities they received during their one-on-one meetings. The Council would like to thank the 2015 Corporate Power Pavilion participants for your continued commitment to the minority business community.
Murugan Palani of Xcel Energy made the opening remarks at lunch program as the outgoing Board Chair and luncheon sponsor. The luncheon program was jam packed with informative speakers all focused around “Driving Growth Through Collaboration”. Attendees heard an up-to-date overview of the economic growth in Colorado from Mr. Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. For the first time in Council history, a Corporate Plus MBE panel was featured for event attendees. This panel was moderated by Docia Myer – Vice President, US Financial Sales, CPI Card Group and featured Marco Campos – Principal / Owner of Campos EPC, Jared Casey – President / CEO of Faison Office Products, Kedar Morarka – Founder and President of Image Projections West, Inc., and Adam Walker – CEO of Summit Container Corporation. The panelists were able to provide the audience with valuable insight into expansion techniques and market strategies that were utilized and helped these industry leaders get to where they are today.
The Council would like to thank all of our valued sponsors, volunteers, program participants, vendors, power pavilion participants and attendees for helping the Council “Drive Growth Through Collaboration”. See you next year!
