SEPT. 2013
You Are Here Travel Guide to Valley Arts Season, Skiing, NYC & Dubai
Power Lunch By the Numbers Business Calendar $4.95 INBUSINESSMAG.COM
This Issue Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce
It takes a team The goal is simple: protect workers, their families, and your bottom line. As the state’s leading workers comp insurance provider, SCF Arizona is proud to champion local businesses and the communities that foster them. Make SCF a part of your team Visit scfaz.com to learn more
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September 2013
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Greater Phoenix Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce www.gpglcc.org Mesa Chamber of Commerce www.mesachamber.org North Phoenix Chamber of Commerce www.northphoenixchamber.com North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce www.northscottsdalechamber.org Peoria Chamber of Commerce www.peoriachamber.com Westmarc www.westmarc.org
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A D SE IS M T E- N -B VE TO Y E T- LE NO VAL
Present
LUNCHEON • PANEL • EXPO • PARTY 2013
FRIDAY, NOV. 15, 2013 Join us for lunch and our Economic Symposium with our extraordinary panel of top business executives in the Valley. Invited panelists include:
Craig R. Barrett
Retired CEO/Chairman of the Board Intel Corporation
Deborah Bateman
Executive Vice President National Bank of Arizona
Janice K. Brewer Governor State of Arizona
After the luncheon, attend the Valley’s best Business Expo and Networking event.
• 2,000+ Attendees • • Free Admission • • Networking / Build Business • • 6 Restaurants / Food & Drink • • Seminars Every 20 Minutes • • 100s of Business Services • • Give-Aways & Prizes • Join us for the “Happiest of Hours” Reception 6:00p to 7:00p Full No-Host Bars & Food
Derrick Hall
President & CEO Arizona Diamondbacks
John Huppenthal
Superintendent of Public Instruction State of Arizona
Elliott D. Pollack
CEO Elliott D. Pollack and Company 2013
Table sponsorships available Individual & Table options
Robert Sarver
Chairman & CEO Western Alliance Bancorporation
Donald Smith President & CEO SCF Arizona
Greg Stanton
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Mayor City of Phoenix
To register, visit us online at inbusinessmag.com
September 2013
SEPT. 2013
IN BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Contents
You Are Here Travel Guide to Valley Arts Season, Skiing, NYC & Dubai
ARTS & CULTURE SEPTEMBER 2013 • inbusinessmag.com
22 Arts & Culture: Can We Support It?
Power Lunch By the Numbers Business Calendar $4.95 INBUSINESSMAG.COM
This Issue Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce
(Can we afford not to?)
Economic development professionals, corporate executives and arts leaders share with RaeAnne Marsh the ways arts and culture contributes more to our state’s economy than the $581 million that the most recent study found it generated in revenue. Departments
9 Guest Editor
Jim Ward, president and CEO of The Phoenix Symphony, introduces the “Arts & Culture” issue.
Features
20 GPS Finds Its Way in Business
The 2014 Lexus IS 350 Plus: Cards with benefits
34
10 Feedback
Don Rodriguez looks at how businesses are using technology systems beyond just keeping tabs on trucks.
20
34 Assets
Noted business and community leaders Neil Baier, Matthew P. Feeney and Jeffrey H. Wolf respond to IBM’s burning business question of the month.
28
12 Briefs
“Office Entertainment,” “Healthcare Mandate: Deadline Looms,” “County Procurement,” “Retailer Expands by Closing Its Shop,” “You Sent It,” “New Life for Chandler Event Venue,” “Sedona Helicopters Now Fly Out of Scottsdale Airpark” and “Local Produce Is a Growing Market”
28 What Works and What Doesn’t in
16 By the Numbers
Leadership Style
Stephen A. Miles describes different leadership styles and makes the case for CEOs to regularly evaluate their style to stay on top of their game.
18 Trickle Up
Special Sections
37 You Are Here:
Worldwide Travel Guide
Fall and winter destination close-ups encounter the Valley arts season; Arizona, Colorado and Utah ski resorts; New York City; and Dubai.
57 Scottsdale Area
Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Chamber newsletter
Arizona’s tourism revenue recovers. Plus: Key economic indicators provide a sense of the health of the local economy.
Season Opener Also Insid e
Ski Cou
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View from the top looks at how Billy Malkovich keeps Mountainside Fitness fit.
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35 Power Lunch
District American Kitchen and Wine Bar Plus: Hotel hospitality is for lunch, too.
66 Roundtable
Over-reliance on autocorrect can affect success in the workplace. On The Agenda
29 Books
31 Spotlight
New releases explore new philosophies of leadership.
ASBA 40th Birthday Bash GPCC Economic Outlook 2014
30 Nonprofit
32 Calendar
American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter
Business events throughout the Valley
On The Cover: Mesa Arts Center, courtesy of City of Mesa
— conti
nued
on Page
Scott Sdale
2
@Wor
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S e p t e m b e r 2013
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S e p t e m b e r 2013
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September 2013 • Vol. 4, No. 9
Publisher Rick McCartney
Editor RaeAnne Marsh
Art Director Benjamin Little
Contributing Writers Joe Bardin Dave O. Dodge Jim Halverson Mike Hunter Stephen A. Miles Don Rodriguez Photographer-at-large Dan Vermillion Advertising
Operations Louise Ferrari
lferrari@inmediacompany.com
Senior Jeff Craig Account Executives jcraig@inmediacompany.com
Louise Ferrari lferrari@inmediacompany.com Cami Shore
cshore@inmediacompany.com
Greg Stiles
gstiles@inmediacompany.com
Visit our Business Solution Centers to learn more about Business
Need Funding? Learn more by downloading this report on alternative lending at inbusinessmag.com/ business-solution-center For much more on areas of business, visit our Business Solution Centers on: Finance & Banking • Marketing Safety • Healthcare • Legal Commercial Real Estate • Small Business
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More: Visit your one-stop resource for everything business at www.inbusinessmag.com. For a full monthly calendar of business-related events, please visit our website. Inform Us: Send press releases and your editorial ideas to editor@inbusinessmag.com.
President & CEO Rick McCartney Editorial Director RaeAnne Marsh Senior Art Director Benjamin Little Financial Manager Donna C. Mitchell, CPA Accounting Diane Meyer Office Manager Matthew D. Whitmire
Corporate Offices 6360 E. Thomas Road, Suite 210 Scottsdale, AZ 85251 T: (480) 588-9505 F: (480) 584-3751 info@inmediacompany.com www.inmediacompany.com Vol. 4, No. 9. In Business Magazine is published 12 times per year by InMedia Company. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to InMedia Company, 6360 E. Thomas Road, Suite 210, Scottsdale, AZ 85251. To subscribe to In Business Magazine, please send check or money order for one-year subscription of $24.95 to InMedia Company, 6360 E. Thomas Road, Suite 210, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 or visit inbusinessmag.com. We appreciate your editorial submissions, news and photos for review by our editorial staff. You may send to editor@inbusinessmag.com or mail to the address above. All letters sent to In Business Magazine will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication, copyright purposes and use in any publication, website or brochure. InMedia accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or other artwork. Submissions will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. InMedia Company, LLC reserves the right to refuse certain advertising and is not liable for advertisers’ claims and/or errors. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of InMedia. InMedia Company considers its sources reliable and verifies as much data as possible, although reporting inaccuracies can occur; consequently, readers using this information do so at their own risk. Each business opportunity and/or investment inherently contains certain risks, and it is suggested that the prospective investors consult their attorney and/or financial professional. © 2013 InMedia Company, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission by the publisher.
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Jim Ward, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Phoenix Symphony
Guest Editor
Cultural Riches
President and CEO of The Phoenix Symphony, Jim Ward is also a venture partner in the venture capital firm Alsop Louie Partners, focused on early-stage evernet/cloud computing start-ups. Previously, as president of LucasArts and senior VP of Lucasfilm, Ltd., he led the business growth of the video game company. Ward has served as chairman of the Entertainment Software Association and, as an executive producer, was nominated for an Emmy in 2007. Recognized as one of Advertising Age’s Top 100 Marketers, among other honors, he is active in area chambers of commerce.
Culture is what defines us as a people, as a community. Here in the Valley of the Sun, culture surrounds us in great variety — including performances by world-class artists and paintings that sell for millions of dollars. This issue of In Business Magazine takes a look at how arts and culture live in the fabric of our community. Whether or not you enjoy the aesthetic benefit of the different art forms in our valley, you must value the impact that the arts have on our cultural economy. And a cultural economy is vital to our ability to attract and retain businesses and the human capital necessary to achieve our economic goals. Our cultural economy, as measured through economic studies, actually has a greater impact than the myriad of sports events here in Arizona. Industry sectors like medicine and biotech, for example, will not invest in relocation unless there is a robust cultural economy with front-line organizations like a symphony, a ballet, an opera, an art museum, a zoo and a botanical garden. So not only do the arts feed the soul of our community, they are critical to the revitalization of Arizona and the very future of our economic diversification. But in order to have a thriving cultural economy, it is important for our arts organizations to be managed well and to build sustainable business models. A key to this success is collaboration where arts organizations learn not to compete but actually work together to lower overall expense models and provide greater impact to the community. The Phoenix Symphony, Ballet Arizona and The Arizona Opera, as an example, have joined together in numerous innovative projects with this goal in mind. But all of our arts organizations must work toward a collaborative goal in order to ensure a long-term sustainable cultural economy that can address our economic challenges. In this issue’s cover story, “Arts & Culture: Can We Sustain It? (Can we afford not to?),” In Business Magazine editor RaeAnne Marsh explores the challenges and strategies of the arts and cultural organizations as functioning economic entities, along with the sector’s significant contributions to our economy. In the “Technology” feature, Don Rodriguez examines advances in tracking technology that is enabling businesses to increase efficiency and improve customer service but introduces challenges in human resources management. In the “Leadership” feature, Stephen Miles probes the subject of leadership style with input from corporate chiefs themselves as to what does and doesn’t work. The “You Are Here: Worldwide Travel Guide” in this issue includes a look at the Valley’s upcoming arts season, with information about performances and venues. It also goes to more distant destinations, sharing where to go and what to do for winter recreation in nearby states, how to enjoy the holidays in New York City, and what experiences await in the city of Dubai. With an eye for the angle that matters to the businessperson, In Business Magazine consistently provides information on a broad spectrum of issues and topics. It is with pleasure that I welcome you to this issue of In Business Magazine. Sincerely,
Jim Ward President and Chief Executive Officer The Phoenix Symphony
Connect with us:
A Cultural Divide Supporting the arts and cultural elements that make up this community is as important to business as supporting good health and wellness for our citizens. As you will learn in this month’s cover story, there are many business benefits to enriching arts and culture here. I am reminded that the sheer joy of experiencing these riches works to enrich each of us in different ways.
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We want to thank Jim Ward, a true leader in this realm, who is working very hard to bring success and achievement to our cultural community. His work at The Phoenix Symphony has become a model for others in our Valley and beyond. His local leadership is benefiting our most cherished organizations as well. —Rick McCartney, Publisher
Story Ideas/PR: editorial@inbusinessmag.com Business Events/Connections: businessevents@inbusinessmag.com Marketing/Exposure: advertise@inbusinessmag.com Or visit us online at www.inbusinessmag.com
S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Feedback Executives Answer Valley Leaders Sound Off
Arts and culture is an integral part of community, and is increasingly recognized as playing a significant role in economic and business development. As a businessperson, how do you interact with arts and cultural organizations to better your business?
Neil Baier
Matthew P. Feeney Vice President, Finance Crescent Crown Distributing Sector: Retail/Wholesale
Partner Snell & Wilmer Sector: Law
Beer and the arts have been linked since the beginning of recorded history. Researchers found musical instruments and beer-making equipment together at a dig in China dating back 9,000 years! So it’s no surprise that Crescent Crown Distributing has embraced the arts scene in Arizona as a way to connect with new customers. As treasurer of the Mesa Arts Center Foundation, I have been fortunate in helping Crescent Crown support the MAC in putting on street fairs, arts festivals and concerts, which has exposed thousands of Arizona residents to our products. But “bettering our business” isn’t all about increased sales. Our ownership takes great pride in being involved in the communities in which we do operations. For example, last year’s Oktoberfest-themed “ARToberfest” beer-tasting event was a huge success, raising more than $5,000 for arts educational programs. Also, our Corporate Membership at the MAC provides us with discounted tickets and presale opportunities for our employees, which makes for a happier (and more productive) work force. For us, interaction with the arts is not only good for our business, it’s good for our people, too!
I feel very fortunate to be a partner in a law firm that holds service to the community as one of its core values. Snell & Wilmer has a long history of supporting the arts because we believe art and culture help our community thrive, and strong communities are essential to attracting, developing and retaining businesses. The primary way I connect with and contribute to the cultural identity of the Valley is through music. I was thrilled when the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) came to the Valley and am honored to serve on the President’s Cabinet. The MIM is literally a one-of-a-kind museum — there is nothing like it in the world. By collecting, preserving and sharing instruments and music from around the world, the MIM gives us the opportunity to learn about and celebrate our interconnectivity and diversity; one enters the MIM as an individual, but leaves feeling part of the worldwide community. My personal involvement in the arts encourages me to be creative and self-reflective, qualities my firm values and that I believe can benefit all businesses.
Crescent Crown Distributing ccdaz.com
Snell & Wilmer swlaw.com
Neil Baier has been the vice president of finance for Crescent Crown Distributing, one of the five largest beer distributors in the country with operations in Arizona and Louisiana, since 2008. Baier is also the treasurer of the Mesa Arts Center Foundation and a board member of the Mesa Chamber of Commerce and the Phoenix Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants.
Matthew P. Feeney is a partner in the Phoenix office of Snell & Wilmer. He serves as co-leader of the business and finance group and sits on the firm’s executive committee. He practices in corporate law, focusing on securities, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, corporate governance and general corporate matters. Feeney joined Snell & Wilmer in 1983 after graduating from Notre Dame Law School.
Jeffrey H. Wolf Partner Quarles & Brady LLP Sector: Law At Quarles & Brady, we consider it essential to connect directly with our communities in order to fully understand and better address their needs, as well as to fulfill our responsibilities as citizens. One way we do this is through Quarles Cares, our community outreach program wherein we provide opportunities for attorneys and staff to commit themselves personally to civic and charitable efforts. For me, getting involved in arts and culture emerged from a personal place, as my teenage daughter has been involved in dance since she was three.
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I have always supported the arts, but seeing the hard work my daughter puts in every day to develop her craft, I’ve grown to admire the passion and dedication that performing arts can ignite in both children and adults. Participating in cultural activities increases my visibility in the community and, at the same time, allows me to fulfill my interest in supporting the arts. These activities also offer the added bonus of putting me in a position to build relationships with local business and civic leaders, which can result in new business opportunities. Quarles & Brady LLP quarles.com
Jeffrey H. Wolf, who was recently elected to Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts’ advisory board, is a partner in Quarles & Brady LLP’s Commercial Litigation and Franchise and Distribution industry groups. Named among the top 50 attorneys in Arizona for the past two years by Southwest Super Lawyers Magazine, his national practice focuses on representing franchisors, manufacturers and marketers of products and services.
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S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Briefs
Quick and to the Point
Bytes Healthcare Mandate: Deadline Looms The clock is ticking for U.S. businesses with more than $500,000 in annual revenues to comply with a Section 1512 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This requirement mandates that employers provide a notice to employees of coverage options available through the Health Insurance Marketplace (i.e., “Exchange”) no later than Oct. 1, 2013. Many businesses may not even be aware of this mandate, according to COBRA Solutions, a leader in employee benefits software. cobrasolutions.com
Office Entertainment For seven years, attorneys at FordHarrison have amused and enlightened weekly readers of their employment blog “That’s What She Said” through references to NBC’s “The Office.” While the series finale of “The Office” marked an end to “That’s What She Said,” FordHarrison is adopting the entertainment-industry maxim and launching “EntertainHR.” The blog will offer a lighthearted but informative look across the landscape of television, movies and celebrity culture for employment-law perspectives. blogs.hrhero.com/entertainhr
County Procurement Do business with the county through the Procurement Office. Maricopa County and the City of Phoenix actively solicit vendors to participate and benefit from doing business with state and federal civic entities. Find out more. phoenixareabids.com maricopa.gov/procurement
Retailer Expands by Closing Its Shop
Nine months into breaking into retail with Amerisleep’s new design in beds, founder Firas Kittaneh added an online sales site to the company’s brick-and-mortar store in Tempe. The next step he considered was opening a second location — but within six months of launching the website, he made the reverse decision and closed the Tempe store. Online in the three years since then, he’s grown his business 1500 percent. “We really took a gamble,” Kittaneh says. “It was a new experience for us and we were so excited about starting out that we didn’t even consider the worst-case scenario.” He did, however, have expertise in the technology the online presence would need, and says, “I knew going online was going to be something I could easily handle.” So instead of hiring managers and salespeople, “we created higher-level jobs — programmers, designers, copywriters.” And reached a greater audience with fewer people. Amerisleep’s beds are made of a memory foam that uses an open-cell construction to allow higher breathability, and, unlike most, are not petroleum-based. They are manufactured in the United States. Kittaneh
admits inventory was a concern when the Tempe-based company turned to online sales. “The online experience is all about how fast [the customer can get the product],” he says. So, being committed to shipping product within 24 to 48 hours, inventory is significantly higher as an online retailer than as a brickand-mortar store. Establishing a strong online presence required high-quality content for SEO, but Kittaneh says that considering what information the customer would want was no different for the website than for the retail store. “People who come into a retail store have done the research online. That is what we put on the website.” —RaeAnne Marsh Amerisleep amerisleep.com
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Visit our “Briefs” link online.
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Photos courtesy of Amerisleep
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Briefs
Quick and to the Point
New Life for Chandler Event Venue
A new Scottsdale Airpark location is the first expansion out of Sedona for 28-year-old Arizona Helicopter Adventures. Jake Austin, who, with partner Floyd Ingram, purchased the business in 2010, notes, “A lot of our business comes through the Metro Phoenix area visiting Sedona.” Timing the move to the Airpark now, in the summer, gives Arizona Helicopter Tours time to get ramped up before the busy tourist season, Austin explains. Sedona is the second-busiest among Arizona’s tourist destinations, and, says Austin, the Airpark location is in the middle of a major corridor of hotels whose guests include Sedona visits on their vacation itinerary. Although the tour company has operated for many years with some of the hotels, Austin believes the local presence will strengthen the company’s presence in the market. He notes that hotels want to attract groups, as that makes up 70 percent of their business, and he is meeting with concierges and group planners of the larger hotels in the Scottsdale area. “For us to be part of [the community] gives them another tool to offer; something attractive, something different, another way to see the Phoenix area.” Aside from tourist charters, the company also works with real estate agents to show off property and with businesses researching locations for commercial property. —RaeAnne Marsh Arizona Helicopter Adventures azheli.com
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to see it be lost from Downtown Chandler’s historic district. It was important to us to preserve this building for the East Valley,” says Schmidt, Christensen’s daughter. She notes the family has deep roots in the Southeast Valley and is committed to strengthening the local community by helping bring people to the area and “by including local vendors and partnering with them when we can.” Schmidt says SoHo63 needed no major renovations, as the building is in good condition; efforts were focused on rebranding the different spaces, creating options from grand to intimate. The front room, for instance, is Brix on Boston, which incorporates exposed hand-laid brick floor — from its early 1900s use for tractor repair by the building’s original business O.S. Stapley Hardware — with book shelves and comfortable seating to create the masculine feel of a library. —RaeAnne Marsh SoHo63 soho63.com
Local Produce Is a Growing Market
Queen Creek Olive Mill recently expanded its olive grove “to support our new stores and the demand in Queen Creek,” says owner Perry Rea. Rea purchased the 4,000 new trees from a nursery near Yuma rather than out of state because they are hardened to the climate. He anticipates two years to first harvest, with full production at the third year. “We are investing in Arizona’s love of local, natural foods, and this will triple our current capacity in three years.” Rea, who also presses olives for two growers in Yuma, emphasizes the importance of controlling all aspects — harvest, production, bottling and storage — to promote his product as Arizona olive oil. “We’re a boutique olive oil producer,” he notes. He has expanded distribution beyond the mill property in Queen Creek, opening retail stores in the Valley at Kierland Commons and Biltmore Fashion Park that also carry products from other local vendors, including Arizona wines. “It’s a fun way for locals who don’t want to make their way out to Queen Creek to purchase [our olive oil] in town,” he says. Rea and his wife, Brenda, share “the passion of going from blossom to bottle,” and recently completed a course in Italy to become two of only 20 certified olive oil sommeliers in the world, and the only ones in Arizona. —RaeAnne Marsh Queen Creek Olive Mill queencreekolivemill.com
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Photos courtesy of Arizona Helicopter Adventures (left), Queen Creek Olive Mill (right)
Sedona Helicopters Now Fly Out of Scottsdale Airpark
Newly reopened under a name intended to evoke a hip and historic cultural vibe, SoHo63 takes Chandler’s long-standing weekend venue at 63 E. Boston Street and expands its use to attract events all week long. Building a customer base beyond what had been primarily weddings, SoHo63 will accommodate corporate customers as a meeting and workshop site with upgraded technology such as flatscreen TVs, the ability to let users plug in from their laptops, and a power tower onsite for guests to charge up multiple electronic devices. Bringing events on a daily basis will add vibrancy to Downtown Chandler, says Megan Schmidt, event curator for the site who manages its day-to-day operations, explaining, “Once an event is complete, people will migrate to local places such as restaurants and bars.” The venue, previously Inspirador, had closed suddenly earlier this year and was purchased in June by 20-year industry veteran Kate Christensen and her family. “We did not want
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By the numbers
Metrics & Measurements
Tourism Makes Economic Indicators Travel in Right Direction
Key Indicators
Arizona tourism recovers to pre-recession levels Tourism provides a significant counterbalance to economic shortfalls. Even as the nation’s trade deficit for May swelled by $4.9 billion to $45 billion, the U.S. Travel Association reports that travel was doing more than its share to increase total exports for the U.S. While exports fell by $500 million, travel exports (all purchases by international visitors, including lodging, meals and gifts) actually grew. “While overall U.S. exports fell in May — the third monthly decline so far this year — travel exports continue to be a source of durable strength for the U.S. economy, rising in May for the fourth time in the past five months,” says David Huether, senior vice president of research and economics for the U.S. Travel Association. Over the first five months of 2013, travel exports rose 7.7 percent compared to the first five months of 2012. This is five times faster than the 1.4-percent increase achieved by other
U.S. exports over the same time period. All of which makes a compelling case for easing visa restriction for tourists seeking to visit the U.S. Arizona should know the value of tourism better than most. Its tourism industry generated $19.3 billion in 2012, the most since 2007 and the Great Recession. According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, total spending grew by more than $1 billion over 2011. More than 38 million people visited Arizona in 2012. This pace is continuing and even growing in 2013, according to passenger traffic counts at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, as reported by the City of Phoenix, which owns the airport. Roughly 3.47 million passengers flew in and out of Phoenix in May 2013, compared to 3.41 million passengers in May 2012. —Joe Bardin
Key indicators for our state economy are provided in each issue to identify those key numbers that give readers a sense of the health of our local economy. Economic Indicators (Arizona) Unemployment (July 2013)
18.0
17.8
18.1
18.0
2008
2,083
23.69
Consumer Confidence (May 2013)
69.6
n/a
Average Hourly Earnings (July 2013)
$22.96
n/a
Retail Sales (in thousands)
Mar. 2013
Apr. 2013
Total Sales
7,757,901
$7,049,984
5.42%
2.38%
City of Phoenix phoenix.gov
Retail
$4,790,302
$4,263,676
U.S. Travel Association ustravel.org
Food
$1,034,675
$1,037,359
Restaurants & Bars
16.4 16.4
17.5
18.5
19.3
17.5
18.5
19.3
2007 of 2012 2008 2009 is by out-of-state 2010 2011 70 percent travel spending visitors 2007
No. of Housing Permits (June 2013)
Arizona Office of Tourism azot.gov
2009
2010
2011
$1,051,819
$943,669
Gasoline
$881,106
$805,280
Contracting
$851,944
$897,177
Eller Business Research
Real Estate Commercial: Office*
2012
$0.0 2006
n/a
Change Y0Y
70 percent of 2012 travel spending is by out-of-state visitors 2006
2,453.9
Retail Sales (Arizona)
2012
Q1 2013
Vacancy Rate
Arizona Office of Tourism
BillionsBillions
18.1
-0.58
Eller Business Research
Historical Comparison from 2006 $20.0 17.8
Net Absorption (in SF) Rental Rates (Class A)
Rental Rates (General Industrial)
2012 Direct Travel Spending in Arizona
Residential:
by Commodity Purchased
Total Median Sale Price
$2.0 $3.0 $1.0 $2.0 $0.0 $1.0 $0.0
16
2.5 2.6
3.5 3.7
3.5 3.6
2.5 2.6 0.9 0.9
2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1
2011 2.4 2.5 2.4 2.5
2012 2012 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.6
Accommodations
Food Service
0.9 0.9 Food Stores
Local Tran. Arts, & Gas Ent. & Rec.
Retail Sales
Visitor Air Tran.
Accommo-
Food
Food Stores
Local Tran. Arts, & Gas Ent. & Rec.
Retail Sales
Visitor Air Tran.
S e p t e mdations b e r 2013 Service
$23.23
Q2 2013
12.0%
12.0%
1,216,340
550,835
$0.49†
$0.49†
July 2013
8,050
8,744
$150,000
$198,000
New Build Sales Volume
677
773
New Median Sale Price
$232,666
$285,524
Resale Sales Volume Arizona Office of Tourism
BillionsBillions
$3.0 $4.0
2011
3.5 3.7
21.9% 163,279
July 2012
Total Sales Volume
$4.0
22.1%
Q1 2013
Vacancy Rate
Q2 2013
(39,279) $23.25
Commercial: Indust.* Net Absorption (in SF)
3.5 3.6
YOY % Change
8.0
Job Growth (in thousands) (July 2013)
2012 Direct Travel Spending in Arizona (dollars) $16.0 $20.0 $12.0 $16.0 $8.0 $12.0 $4.0 $8.0 $0.0 $4.0
Number
Resale Median Sale Price
7,373
7,971
$144,500
$189,000
* Cassidy Turley Arizona †
Industrial rents are expressed as triple net. Latest data at time of press
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Trickle Up
A View from the Top
Billy Malkovich: Fit for the Job At Mountainside Fitness, he pursues growth with quality When Mountainside Fitness CEO Billy Malkovich graduated high school, he says he hardly celebrated. He attended his college graduation from Arizona State University only because his parents wanted to see it happen. It’s not that Malkovich doesn’t appreciate those milestones in his life, but for him “the chase has always been better than the catch. Once I accomplish something, I want to move on to the next chase.” This helps explain how Malkovich became CEO of parent company Firebird Investments, as well as CEO of Mountainside Fitness, before he turned 30. It also no doubt has helped that, as he puts it, “I enjoy working.” In college, he recalls attending classes from 7:40 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., then running to his car to drive to Mountainside Fitness, where he worked as a personal trainer from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Although he says he is a planner by nature, he had no expectation that this would lead to a career. The company prefers to promote from within, seeing it as a “surer road to success,” according to Malkovich, so he eventually held jobs in sales, operations, real estate development, and as a limited partner.
“I had to quit a lot of jobs I liked in the company to take this job,” he says. “Those jobs helped teach me the business in pieces in incremental fashion.” As CEO, Malkovich was tasked with putting all those pieces together. “That’s when it really got real for me,” he says. “Suddenly, my decisions had a big impact on 700 employees at the time, now 1000 employees.” Those decisions have not always been easy. He was named CEO in 2008, just as the Great Recession was beginning. He steered clear of major layoffs, but, as he puts it, “everyone took a haircut, from raise freezes to pay cuts to restructuring vendor relationships.” Malkovich works alongside company founder Tom Hatten, whom he characterizes as a passionate, idea-driven entrepreneur, while he considers himself more deliberate and process-driven. “When I first took the job I promised him I wouldn’t corrupt the dream,” he says. “Some businesses get so concerned with scalability and systems that they lose their soul.” When pressed for an example, he answers directly: “LA Fitness. They are very good at putting up nice buildings and good equipment, but then
Mountainside Fitness Muscles Up ■■ Total annual revenue: $30 million ■■ 13 percent increase in total revenue over the past 36 months ■■ 11 percent increase in total members over the last 36 months ■■ Total members in the state of Arizona: 42,000 ■■ Total retail space occupied in the state of Arizona: 400,000 sq. ft., making Mountainside Fitness one of the largest locally owned retailers
they move on to the next one and don’t care about what happens there.” Malkovich says that Mountainside Fitness encourages its people to be available to customers, and even to remember their names at the front desk when they come in. “No one is going to be loyal to a treadmill,” he says. “So I consider time spent talking to customers to be productive time.” Still, this can be a challenge given that its facilities typically serve about 6,000 members each, with the Peoria location serving almost 8,000. “It’s like managing a small city,” he says. One of the biggest challenges of Malkovich’s tenure thus far was managing the company’s expansion in to Colorado in 2010, where it opened three properties. “I couldn’t be in both places at once, so I had to learn to trust people more,” he says. He also had to modify his focus. “I’d always been very involved in the tactical side of how things got done. Now I had to let go of that and be more strategic. I always liked to plan out steps one through ten for making something happen. Now I had to leave the steps to other people, and just focus on where we wanted to arrive, step ten.” Although the company had viewed Denver as a natural fit for expansion, based on its success in Arizona, it found it had overcommitted itself at the time. Malkovich made a conscious decision in 2011 to exit those Colorado properties and focus on growth in the company’s home state, and will be applying the lessons learned as Mountainside Fitness seeks to open three new locations in Arizona in the next 12 to 18 months. Mountainside Fitness mountainsidefitness.com
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Photos courtesy of Mountainside Fitness
by Joe Bardin
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Tech
Innovations for Business
GPS Finds Its Way in Business Technology systems go beyond just keeping tabs on trucks As fleet manager for Pink Jeep Tours, Greg McCallum deals with his share of questions: Did a jeep make it to the Grand Canyon yet? When is the Trekker getting to the hotel to pick up guests? Just where is that jeep that left not long ago? To find the answers, McCallum turns to the heavens. If you think he’s guided by the stars, you’re close. His fleet relies on on-board systems that harness needed data via the Global Positioning System (GPS), a collection of orbiting satellites that the U.S. Air Force maintains to help users with positioning and navigation. That information is translated back on Earth so Pink Jeep Tours can keep track of the fleet and drivers always know where they are so riders can enjoy their time wherever the trail takes them. “The GPS tracking system is one of those things that our customer never sees but definitely benefits from,” McCallum says. At the heart of his tracking system and others like it is a receiver that, once installed, uses signals from the GPS to determine precisely where a jeep, service vehicle, big rig or whatever it’s mounted on is at any moment. In turn, that information is transmitted by
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cellular or other radio waves to a central location, often a computer network. To someone with Internet access back at the office or as near as a smartphone, the vehicle’s location — usually as an icon on a map — appears on the screen in real time. But where there is need, there is new technology to take something further. For example, to check why one vehicle always comes back to the yard with less fuel than expected, collected data can show how much fuel is being consumed to get from one stop to another and whether the driver is straying from an assigned route to run his own errands on the other side of town. Or if a plumbing service needs to locate one of its plumbers to change plans and head instead to a flooded house, the office can tell the homeowner how much longer till help arrives. Think of what is wanted — quickly learn when truck A needs to be taken out of the lineup for maintenance, change a delivery order on the fly for van B, check how fast a suspected lead foot is going through a school zone with pickup C — and the GPS-based system sorts incoming data to do the job. Or a
business owner just might want to check if the time spent doing the job equals the hours that an employee submits to payroll, says Alberto Chavez, water manager for Mesa-based Dry Force, which provides property damage restoration services. “The software makes fleet management a lot easier,” he says. All roads lead to using the right software. “We are continually advancing our highly customizable and user-friendly platform based on customer requests,” says Robert Donat, CEO of Scottsdale-based GPS Insight, which counts McCallum and Chavez among its client base. While formerly working for a trucking firm, “I found that the existing companies in the space did not have the features and technology that my customer was looking for,” he says. So he created the tracking software himself and founded GPS Insight in 2004. Donat now has about 1,500 customers with 50,000 vehicles and other assets to track. The fleet sizes range from 5 to 3,000 vehicles in such industries as HVAC/plumbing, delivery and even copper mining. Most other companies — like Affordable GPS Tracking and Master Route, both inbusine ssmag.com
Photo courtesy of Ben Arnold Photography
by Don Rodriguez
Photo courtesy of Ben Arnold Photography
headquartered in Phoenix — focus on selling the units and support components tailored to the need. As an independent distributor, “I have the latitude to provide a customconfigured solution specifically to match each customer’s requirements,” says Allan Hansen, president of Master Route. And after installation is complete, support is essential. “We’re not a call center that passes you down the line,” says Victor Krstetc, owner of Affordable GPS. “When we pick up our phones, we’re capable of fully answering our customers’ questions to full satisfaction.” Hansen, whose customers range from a two-person landscaping business to a midsized commodity feed trucking company with dozens of trucks, notices a lot of interest in his product lines when company sizes reach about 10 vehicles. “These employers feel they have lost the control they once had when it was just them and one or two other employees,” he says. And to get customers used to their new technology, Krstetc’s company assigns each a specialist who walks them through their systems until customers as far as Mexico and Canada are completely comfortable. “That customer service continues whenever a question or concern arises,” he says, reflecting the position of Donat’s and Hansen’s companies. For a fleet manager and anyone else charged with using a tracking system, daily experience with a personal computer reduces the learning curve dramatically. An on-screen user interface is similar to just about any other productivity program. And with Web-based software, there is no reinstallation of software if something happens to the computer or smartphone. But the biggest feature is return on investment. By letting operators squeeze out any needed data to gauge vehicle performance, idle time ultimately can be kept to a minimum. But beware of getting caught up in all the bells and whistles. The systems can be tailored to what the business needs are, but, like anything in life, don’t get what isn’t needed. The specific features to pass on or keep depend on the situation. “Try a few out side by side to compare and see which one is the best fit for your business,” Donat says.
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Affordable GPS Tracking affordablegpstracking.com Dry Force dryforce.net GPS Insight gpsinsight.com Master Route masterroute.com Pink Jeep Tours pinkjeeptours.com
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Arts & Culture: Can We Sustain It? (Can we afford not to?) by RaeAnne Marsh
That’s the amount of revenue generated by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in Arizona in 2010 — a time when the economy was still reeling from the recession — according to the Americans for the Arts’ Economic Prosperity Study released last year. In Phoenix alone, the arts and culture sector contributed more than $300 million to the economy, and Brendan Mahoney, senior policy advisor to the Phoenix mayor’s office, observes that
Photo courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum
$581 million.
who spend money, all arts organizations buy supplies and have employees. “Therefore, they are part of the economy.” Mesa’s economy showed, on the recent Economic Prosperity Study, an impact of $25 million from its arts and culture sector.
The Arts in Economic and Workforce Development Arts and culture also drive economic development. It’s a quality of life issue at its core, but Foley notes, “In any study about why businesses locate or expand in a community, arts and cultural amenities are always in the top five.” She adds, “Arizona may have advantages in recruiting businesses from California, but we’re competing with states and communities that invest more in arts and culture, like Denver and Austin.” Indeed, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton found the vitality of the area’s arts and culture sector to be a critical issue to employers, according to Mahoney. He relates that, in Mayor Stanton’s meetings with CEOs and upper management of the area’s largest employers, the common refrain was “arts and culture is a key component to attract and keep qualified employees.” Whereas, in earlier generations, employees would go where business was — where the jobs were — that has shifted in today’s world
HEARD MUSEUM Attendance in fiscal year 2012: 129,687 Attendance in fiscal year 2011: 127,546 Grants revenue, fiscal year 2012: $3,025,296 Program services revenue, fiscal year 2012: $1,974,108 Investment income, fiscal year 2012: $54,592 Total income, fiscal year 2012: $6,970,387 Grants revenue, fiscal year 2011: $2,761,013 Program services revenue, fiscal year 2011: $1,838,180 Investment income, fiscal year 2011: $212,564 Total income, fiscal year 2011: $7,102,894 Number of exhibits in fiscal year 2012: 9
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to business locating where it can access or attract the work force it wants. “It’s not all about tax breaks,” Mahoney says. “Businesses say, ‘Where will we grow and prosper? Because employees are the most important part of any company in terms of ability to grow and prosper, where are the employees we want?’” He notes that Phoenix was a contender when Google was looking for a new location for its corporate headquarters, but lost out to Austin. More recently, however, quality of life here was viewed more positively by global distribution powerhouse APL, which moved its U.S. headquarters from San Francisco to a north Phoenix site in Kierland Commons. Ward believes organizations such as chambers of commerce, economic development agencies and the Arizona Commerce Authority are missing an opportunity by not regionally coordinating efforts around the great arts organizations here. “The infrastructure needs to be smart about leveraging what these art forms do for the economic development of the state,” he says. Salt River Project makes support for arts and culture part of its community philanthropy in recognition of its value in “increasing the reputation and attraction of the Valley to businesses that want to grow and develop their work force here,” says Rosemary Gannon, manager of SRP’s community outreach. SRP sees arts and culture as important in building a creative economy. The education system is also important in developing a work force to attract business. STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is beginning to roll into STEAM as the role of arts is gaining recognition. “Kids need a larger view of the world, to see how it all works in a creative society, to bring and attract the knowledge worker,” says Jim Ballinger, director of the Phoenix Art Museum. In that regard, The Phoenix Symphony launched a program last year to work directly with the K-12 schools. “We have the metrics to say, ‘We just did a pilot program using music to teach STEM,’” says Ward of the success it can now report to funders. “Arts … teach kids how to think independently, comparatively, and teach a certain level of entrepreneurship that those basic skills don’t teach but can be enhanced — by, for instance, adding literature, playwriting and theater into reading,” says Bob Booker, executive director of the Arizona Commission
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Photo courtesy of Heard Museum
number is likely a conservative one. “It was based only on the organizations that selfreported,” he explains, noting that Denver, an analogous city, which did a more exhaustive study, found the economic impact of that sector to be around $2 billion. Jim Ward, president and CEO of The Phoenix Symphony, provides perspective for the $300 million figure: “That’s similar to the Superbowl, more than Spring Training and more than the Bowl games,” he says. “It’s not a ‘taker,’” says Rusty Foley of the arts and culture sector. Foley is executive director of Arizona Citizens for the Arts, a nonprofit organization committed to raising awareness of the importance of the arts whose efforts include presenting the annual Governor’s Arts Awards. She explains that arts and cultural events generate spending for parking, dinner, souvenirs and even hotel stays for people attending from out of the area. The Economic Prosperity Study found that, on average, arts and culture-related spending over and above the price of the ticket is $26.53 per person in Phoenix and nearly $31 per person in communities with a tourism-based economy, such as Flagstaff. But attendance-related spending is not the whole picture. Cyndi Ornstein, executive director of the Mesa Arts Center and director of arts and culture for the City of Mesa, notes that, in addition to drawing people to the area
on the Arts. Even more basic than the arts’ ability to foster creativity, ingenuity, imagination, problem solving and teamwork is their impact on school drop-outs, as numerous studies have found that youth who are involved in the arts stay in school.
Arts Support Community “It’s a mistake to think about arts only as an investment made for other purposes,” says Matt Lehrman, president of arts consulting firm Audience Avenue and former executive director of arts collaborative Alliance for Audience. “Our willingness to see, hear and experience the ideas of others is important to what it means to actually be in a community.” And arts help define a community as an expression of its identity. The fact that Mesa Arts Center’s attendance has climbed 19 percent annually in recent years seems to support Ornstein’s observation that “people are starting to yearn for [a way] to feel part of something bigger than themselves” and arts and cultural organizations are helping create that sense of community. Amy Washburn, spokesperson for Southwest Gas, notes the company strives to build ties with the communities it serves and recognizes arts as a platform to strengthen the community. “Therefore, it’s a natural fit that Southwest Gas would want to be part of that,” she says, pointing to its decades of support for arts organizations.
Photo courtesy of Valley Youth Theatre
Funding Challenges and Strategies However strong ticket sales are, they typically do not cover an arts organization’s operating costs. The funding model today for the nonprofit arts and culture sector comprises income from public funding and private sector funding as well as earned revenue. “Without these multiple funding streams, arts and cultural experiences would not be accessible to broad sectors of our community,” Foley says, crediting the Ford Foundation with conceiving the model at the national level at the time the National Endowment for the Arts was being formed. All three income streams have been under stress in the economic downturn. “The number of season subscribers dropped dramatically since 2008,” says Bobb Cooper, inbusine ssmag.com
Valley Youth Theatre Attendance: 30,000 – 40,000 per season
Ticket revenue, 2011/2012 season: $381,275
Ticket revenue, 2012/2013 season: $413,758
Total revenue, 2011/2012 season: $1,098,030
Total revenue, 2012/2013 season: $1,209,671
Number of shows per season: 6
producing artistic director of Valley Youth Theatre, explaining that season subscribers are important because those are guaranteed funds. Although the organization has responded by increasing its efforts on single ticket sales, that’s a less stable revenue source as well as requiring more effort. VYT struggles with an additional challenge, in spite of 25 years of proven fiscal responsibility while earning national recognition for its high-caliber, professional productions. Says Cooper, “Some funders won’t fund us because they think we’re not big enough – we’re not the Symphony or the Opera.” Earned income at the Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art includes its retail operation — highly respected among collectors and a solid foundation for net income, according to Mark Bonsall, CEO of Salt River Project who serves as chairman of the Heard’s board of trustees. But it has had to adjust its inventory because, although the actual number of items sold has remained the same, the average ticket price of the merchandise sold has declined since 2008. Efforts are now focused on a campaign to endow the operation of the facility, which Bonsall notes will be not for the museum’s collection but for items like air conditioning, security and roofing — mundane but important, and usually large expenditures. Ballinger also addresses the need to build a sustainable endowment funding, and relates the experience of Denver, which, supported by a multi-county vote, created a cultural
tax. “It transformed them,” he says. The approximately $3 million it raised per year for arts and culture was being matched, within a year, with corporate and private dollars. “If you can put yourself on sustainability with respect to salaries, et cetera, then you can put your fundraising efforts where people want to see and do and are more desirous of supporting.” Of the local municipalities, Phoenix has the largest grants budget for arts and cultural organizations. While the $805,346 it has available for arts grants is up from the $150,000 per year it had been cut to in recent years, Phoenix’s director of the Grant Services and Community Initiatives Department, Dwight D. Walth, Ph.D., observes, “$800,000 is small for the size of our community, compared to other benchmark cities.” San Diego and Houston, for example, have multi-million-dollar grants budgets. Phoenix, Dr. Walth points out, funds arts grants through the general fund, which also supports a wide spectrum of critical city services. “The cities we compare ourselves to have other revenue streams supporting their grants programs; typically, a bed tax.” Arizona also suffers from a dearth of corporate headquarters to contribute their corporate philanthropy. But some changes are going on. William J. Jabjiniak, economic development director for the City of Mesa, sees public/private partnerships being created to accomplish “quality-of-life things.” He cites as example a pending proposal by Senator Bob Worsley (R, Dist. 25), a Mesa businessman whose successes S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Audience Matters Attracting audience and building the future are also serious issues. And public K-12 education has become a factor. Although the general public views the arts as a valuable asset to the community, and has expressed this at the ballot by voting to pass bond measures to support the arts, Booker notes, “One of the things we’re facing in terms of participation and public value is, we have a couple of generations who have had no formal arts education in the classroom and never attended a live performance.” And he adds, “State policies require arts education, but that’s not being upheld by the state superintendant and school boards.” Engaging young people in the arts is part of the mission of Valley Youth Theatre. While the reach of its programming ranges from babies to grandparents, the organization’s target is young people and it has a two-fold approach. VYT brings 750 children from social service agencies each year to see its productions, giving them “a theatrical experience they may never have had,” Cooper says. And it turns to the youth involved in the productions to support the effort through fundraising, Cooper explains. “So
they learn about giving back and sustaining the arts.” Although VYT alumni include stars such as Emma Stone, Chelsea Kane and Jordin Sparks, Cooper notes, “The young people we’re serving are the audiences and philanthropists of the future as well as those performing on the professional stage.”
The Now and Future Arts “It’s our responsibility to create entry points for people to experience new things,” says Ornstein, expressing the importance of program diversity in creating relevance for differing demographics. A reassessment of its relevance and role in the community lies behind the turnaround Ward has accomplished for The Phoenix Symphony. Developing a new vision, three congruent goals emerged: to aesthetically feed the soul so there is hope and aspiration, to bolster a cultural economy “because it can be an attractor and retainer of economic development diversity that is so sorely needed,” and to help educate the next generation of creative work force “so we would have the human capital to build, attract and retain the kind of business and economic development we need in the state.” In two-and-a-half years, Ward turned around the symphony’s financial situation from debt to surplus. “I was able to have a dialog with key stakeholders in the community
Ballet Arizona Attendance, 2011/2012 season: 69,647 Attendance, 2010/2011 season: 60,328 Ticket sales, 2011/2012 season: $3,362,550 Ticket sales, 2010/2011 season: $2,498,290 Number of performances, 2011/2012 season: 63 Number of performances, 2010/2011 season: 45 Newly moved into its own 50,000-square-foot facility (up from 14,000 square feet), Ballet Arizona will be presenting 60 performances in the 2013/2014 season, 10 onsite.
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in a meaningful way because our needs were aligned with theirs,” he says. Contributed revenue has increased by 91 percent in the past two to three years in spite of the recession, he says, also crediting the musicians (a union work force, he points out) who “took the sacrifice to forgive the restoration of a [previously implemented] salary cut to give us time to turn things around.” The Phoenix Symphony has also joined with Ballet Arizona and Arizona Opera over some fundraising and some areas of backoffice expense, recognizing they had similar silos. Working together in such areas as health insurance has helped reduce costs, as has the Tessitura Consortium they created to share the cost of licensing Tessitura’s software platform that integrates ticketing, fundraising, marketing and more. Says Ward, “When you go out to seek money and they understand that you’re being smarter about how you run your business, they’re going to feel safer about making an investment in that particular business.” The need to develop new revenue streams lies behind changes now in process for Actors Theatre of Phoenix, according to its artistic director Matthew Wiener. “The venue we were in did not allow us to pursue different revenue streams.” Encouraged by strong and continuing grassroots support, Actors Theatre plans to combine a capital campaign with neighborhood revitalization — an approach that has worked in communities across the country — and is actively looking for a building it can turn into a theater through adaptive reuse. “We’ll have more control of the venue and can manage and generate earned income,” Wiener says. Phoenix Art Museum has confronted headon the issue of Phoenix transplants or parttime residents having ties to the communities where they grew up and tending to support “back home” first. “Every year, we get better at capturing that [support],” Ballinger says. This includes additions to the collection as well as monetary donations. If a potential donor has a picture the Phoenix Art Museum would like to have and the museum they’re involved with in Chicago, for instance, has four of that same artist, Ballinger says he points out it would be a more valuable donation here and asks directly, “Why don’t you make that commitment here?” Another strategy to gain support among parttime residents has long been to accept them as members of the museum’s board of trustees. It is common for organizations to require board inbusine ssmag.com
Photo courtesy of Ballet Arizona
include founding SkyMall, to partner with the city to fund construction of a concert hall next to the Mesa Arts Center.
members attend a certain minimum number of meetings, but this hinders participation by potential supporters who live here only part of the year, Ballinger notes. “Every year, we have to raise or earn about 85 percent of our operating budget,” Ballinger says, explaining that the larger the organization, the harder it is to transform to the next level. Smaller organizations with a budget of $250,000 would need only $75,000 to get to the next level; Phoenix Art Museum, with a budget of $9.5 million, would need $2-3 million.
Our “Cultural” Desert The phrase was coined by Robert Knight, now the executive director of the Tucson Museum of Art, when he was the founding director of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, to convey that there is an under-recognized wealth of arts in the Valley. “We have a robust arts and cultural sector but not good communication about it, so we have the impression that there’s nothing going on,” Mahoney says. The idea that we’re a cultural wasteland could not be further from the truth. Last year, Mahoney invited documentary filmmaker Nic Cha Kim — who was creating a video series on L.A. art — to visit Phoenix and shoot some video on local murals. Mahoney recalls Kim’s reaction to his tour of Phoenix was, “Who knew you have so much going on?” Kim returned with a full film crew and shot a two-hour documentary on Phoenix art. One of the area’s higher-profile arts and cultural institutions is the Heard Museum.
The Phoenix Symphony Attendance, 2012/2013 season (estimated): 165,000
Total revenue, 2011/2012 season: $9,357,485
Attendance, 2011/2012 season: 130,000
Number of performances: more than 100
Total revenue, 2012/2013 season (estimated): $13,111,678
Bonsall notes it is a major tourist attraction nationally and internationally as a “singular and unique art form and cultural history of this region” but is less appreciated by residents. To promote itself more locally, the museum will be increasing its special exhibitions from two or three per year to 12 or 14. Ballinger has spent his entire tenure at the Phoenix Art Museum working to put the institution on the world arts map “so, as our community developed, we could be bringing great art from all over the world, to make that accessible to citizens here,” he says. Staffed with curators who have gained respect nationally, the museum has created exhibitions it could share with other institutions across
Phoenix Art Museum Attendance, fiscal year 2013: 197,242
Total revenue, fiscal year 2013 (estimated): $14,400,000
Attendance, fiscal year 2012: 225,612
Total revenue, fiscal year 2012: $14,248,908
Summer exhibit during FY 2013 was created of museum holdings in the permanent collection, with minimal advertising dollars allocated due to the recession; exhibit drew fewer people than projected.
Number of exhibitions annually: 3 national and international, in the Steele Gallery; 3 in other gallery areas in each of the museum’s 7 curatorial areas.
the country and internationally, building a reputation to bring outside exhibits here. A recent experience, however, underscores how the cultural, economic and political realms intersect. Ballinger relates that the Phoenix Art Museum was being considered by a group in Montreal for a significant exhibit. “They backed away because of national articles about education and tolerance here,” he says, explaining they worried that ticket sales would be too low to support the exhibit because they perceived Phoenix as having a low level of educated work force — a perception based on the state’s ranking in the low 40s in education and an economy under pressure because it was one-dimensional. “They felt the population would not have the intelligence or the curiosity.” Ballinger firmly believes the Montreal group’s impression of metropolitan Phoenix is wrong, and asserts, “The arts [sector] can help with respect to the area’s reputation.” Actors Theatre of Phoenix actorstheatrephx.org Arizona Citizens for the Arts azcitizensforthearts.org
Photos courtesy of The Phoenix Symphony (top), Phoenix Art Museum (bottom)
Arizona Commission on the Arts azarts.gov Audience Avenue audienceavenue.com Ballet Arizona balletaz.org Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art heard.org Mesa Arts Center mesaartscenter.com City of Mesa mesaaz.gov Phoenix Art Museum phxart.org City of Phoenix phoenix.gov The Phoenix Symphony phoenixsymphony.org Salt River Project srpnet.com Southwest Gas swgas.com Valley Youth Theatre vyt.com
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Leadership
A Path to Follow
What Works and What Doesn’t in Leadership Style Regularly evaluating their leadership style keeps CEOs on top of their game by Stephen A. Miles The best CEOs are always learning. The certainties of today — whether it’s relying on a particular business model or banking on a “category killer” or operating under a particular regulatory framework — can be up-ended and disrupted tomorrow. Corporate chiefs who internalize this reality are best equipped to steer their companies through disruption. Executives and directors should regularly examine their own leadership style — to see what is working and what is not. Four questions for leaders to consider are: Am I enrolling my employees — or conscripting them? The commandand-control leadership framework has tremendous strengths, which is why the military has employed it forever. In particular, it can deliver outstanding results in high-stress situations. But outside of those situations, leaders need to go beyond this conscription model to enroll their teams and organizations. Effective enrollment — through engagement, clarity of strategy and communication — is a powerful retention tool. Compensation will always matter, but feeling sufficiently enrolled in the mission of an organization leads employees to go the extra mile and do the additional work needed to achieve the mission. Leaders need to connect company strategy with individual tasks: Having a clear and simple strategy that is unifying and translates into something employees throughout the organization can buy in to, understand and repeat day-in and day-out will create a multiplying effect on productivity and results. Leaders need to bring in the “power brokers” within the team or organization: Engaging both the formal and informal influencers early will have a multiplying effect as these people can act as disciples and “preach” the mission. Leaders need to ensure they are using all of the communication channels available to them: Make sure to reach employees at all of the effective touchpoints — including through newer communications and appropriate social media tools. A multi-channel approach is required to reach all generations working inside companies today. Is my role mastery leading to complacency? When a CEO enters the top role for the first time or joins a new company (or both), the discomfort with being new causes the CEO to ask more questions, double check and triangulate information and seek out others’ opinions. For the vast majority of people, discomfort creates an accelerated learning environment. Over time, the CEO finds his feet and gradually gains greater confidence. This, combined with a natural inclination to become efficient (and the resulting lack of “diligence and inspection”) means that leaders tend to start asking fewer questions, verifying less and making more assumptions. This is the paradox of “role mastery.” As one’s confidence level goes up, one’s discomfort in the role goes down — until that “oh sh*t!” moment when a negative surprise leads back to being uncomfortable again.
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Leaders need to assemble the “uncomfortable team”: Building a team around oneself that is excellent and diverse will increase the likelihood of debate and avoid a rubber-stamp and group-think mentality on issues. Make sure the team has a safe and supportive environment for discussion and debate, and leaders who are not getting it should jump in and play devil’s advocate. Leaders need to listen for content: Have the patience to listen for content versus confirmation, and continue to triangulate multiple data sources. This means asking questions and engaging on the topic instead of trying to win the interaction and move on. Am I tolerating mediocrity? The disease of “generalized mediocrity” is rampant in companies today. Mediocrity is insidious and tends to be tolerated a long time because it is not extreme in any way — it becomes hard to pinpoint exactly what the issue is. Too many executives tolerate unprepared people, poor work products and anecdotal information, which all lead to wasted time and unnecessary meetings and follow-up. This is just not acceptable. Eliminating mediocrity requires high levels of engagement, discipline, follow-through and openness to tension. It can also call for CEOs to diagnose in themselves when they are compensating or not asking for things because that just becomes easier. Setting very high standards, not just for oneself but for every single person the CEO engages with, is the important first step (CEOs spend the majority of their time in meetings, so they need to be highly productive). If the CEO is leading a meeting, assigning project work or reviewing a business, the preparation and the quality of the thinking and work that goes into the pre-reads and then the engagement needs to be high. Leaders must set and communicate the standard — and then be disciplined enough to hold to it even if it means stopping a presentation because the inputs are not high enough quality or the presenter has not adequately prepared, or canceling a meeting if the preparatory materials came in too late and substandard. In order to ferret out habitually average people, CEOs need to use a set of processes and tools that they are relentless and uncompromising on. Leaders need to set expectations high for preparation: Make it mandatory that “pre-reads” for meetings be well-thought-out and data-driven (versus anecdotal) X number of days before a meeting. Jeff Bezos at Amazon is inbusine ssmag.com
Books famous for having executives write a well-constructed and thought-out white paper (no more than six pages) that the entire executive team sits and reads together and then discusses and debates. The white paper helps eliminate any “presentation bias” so form never wins over substance. Leaders need to demand accountability during and after meetings: Set the expectation that everyone is expected to contribute, and train the executives to build on a point and be additive versus simply restating points that have already been made. Always ensure minutes are taken, complete with assigned accountabilities for follow-up. Ensure that a “directly responsible person” is assigned for each action item — and then manage those “DRPs.” Do I know when to be a “field general” versus a “Pentagon general”? Business today demands flexibility from CEOs. No matter what the size of a business, different situations call for different styles of leadership, and each has its time and place: A “field general” role teaches someone to lead from the front, often in very operational situations that require ruthless focus and prioritization. This style is about strong decision-making abilities “in the field” and being willing and able to make decisions with speed and imperfect information. A field general typically utilizes more of a directive approach involving smaller but very focused teams. There is often a clean “mission,” and these leaders reach down and touch a lot of the organization. Being a “Pentagon general” is making the strategic decisions that often are less reversible — one has to think through the second- and thirdorder effects. It is about slowing down and managing to an outcome — even if the route to get there is a zigzag versus drawing the straightest line between point A and point B. It’s about understanding one’s direct and indirect constituencies and what is in it for them. It requires evaluating what trade-offs one is willing to make — and what one is not willing to give up on. It is also about dealing with higher levels of ambiguity, being able to formulate a point of view when there is no right or wrong answer. Pentagon generals utilize those around them as true advisors who can help shape their thought process, and they triangulate this information for the purpose of making more informed decisions and having a generally broader perspective. Many CEOs excel at one leadership style, but the trick is to be able to integrate both into one’s leadership process. Leaders need to recognize the way they tend to lead: Reflecting on one’s own leadership style can explain a great deal about how one is motivating people in different situations and where there might be room for improvement. Leaders need to push their comfort level with a leadership style that isn’t their own: Those who tend to lead at a “field general” level should consider a more strategic, long-term approach for steering the company into the future. Those who are more of a “Pentagon general” should step into a more operational, “field general” approach when the situation calls for it, as hands-on leadership will be required. The key is to understand one’s own foundational approach and then have cues to identify when one is in a field versus a Pentagon decision so that one can use the most effective approach for that situation. The Miles Group miles-group.com
Stephen A. Miles is founder and CEO of The Miles Group, which develops talent strategies for organizations, cultivates high-performing individuals and teams, and ensures effective leadership transitions through readiness coaching and succession.
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Be A Leader
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All It is a common assumption that creativity and innovation are the domain of the “creative types.” But two of the leading experts in innovation, design and creativity show us that each of us is creative. Drawing on countless stories from their work at the Stanford d.school IDEO and with many of the world’s top companies, Tom and David Kelley identify the principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential and allow us to innovate in how we approach and solve problems. Tom Kelley & David Kelley $28 • Crown Publishing Group • October 2013
The Heart of Leadership: Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow Are you the type of leader people want to follow? You can be — but first, you’ve got to understand what sets great leaders apart from all the rest. Certainly, leaders need people skills, execution skills, a deep knowledge of industry trends, the ability to articulate a vision, and more, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In his latest business fable, Mark Miller describes the five unique character traits exhibited by exceptional leaders and how to cultivate them. Mark Miller $22.95 • Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. • October 2013
The 80/20 Manager: The Secret to Working Less and Achieving More In his bestselling book The 80/20 Principle, Richard Koch showed readers how to practice in their personal lives the idea that 80 percent of results come from just 20 percent of effort. In this new book, he demonstrates how to apply the principle to management, to focus only on the issues that really matter, achieving exceptional results and feeling successful every day while working less hard in fewer hours. Richard Koch $27 • Little, Brown and Company • October 2013
The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential Being chosen for a position is only the first of the five levels every effective leader achieves. Becoming more than “the boss” people follow only because they are required to requires mastering the ability to invest in people and inspire them. Building a team that produces requires helping people develop their skills to become leaders in their own right. And those who have the skill and dedication can reach the pinnacle of leadership — where experience allows them to extend their influence beyond their immediate reach and time for the benefit of others. John C. Maxwell $16 new in paperback • Center Street • On Shelves and online
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NonProfit
Actions to build Community
by RaeAnne Marsh
Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter — Maintaining On-Call Readiness
as well as front-line responders “who will respond to a house fire at two in the morning.” Saying, “We are never without the need for more volunteers,” Weddle notes they make up 95 percent of the organization’s work force, to which the career paid staff provide technical expertise and the element of continuity. For businesses looking for ways to engage their employees, Martin works with them to develop the kind of program that suits their goals. With Wells Fargo, she set up a project to build “comfort kits” of necessary toiletry items to give victims displaced by a disaster. She also helps companies set up third-party fundraisers, such as a restaurant donating a percentage of sales or a business office calendaring a date to allow employees to wear casual dress if they pay a few dollars for the privilege. “We can provide information about the disaster [they choose to help] and how we’re responding and the number of people helped, so people know how their help is making a difference.” Companies with 1,500 to 2,000 employees that want to create an employee giving campaign can be set up with their own micro-site on which customers and employees can make a donation directly to the Red Cross. These can be established for general disaster relief or a specific purpose. This makes it easy for businesses that will match employee donations, either in total or per employee, Martin says. Either the business Snapshot
can use the site to keep track of donations or she will keep track and send an invoice for the agreed-upon amount. While its disaster program — preparedness, response, relief and recovery — may be the best-known of its activities, Weddle believes the Red Cross’s international obligations are among its most significant services. In addition to training the non-military community regarding the Geneva Convention, it provides tracing services to help families locate loved ones in times of conflict and then creates avenues to reunify them. American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter redcross.org/az/phoenix
Through the Hope Store, a seasonal project, people may support some aspect of the Red Cross’s work as part of their holiday gift-giving.
■■ The American Red Cross supplies 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. “We’re always ■■ ■■ ■■
looking for companies to work with on blood drives,” says Juliet Martin, corporate relations manager, noting one pint of blood saves three lives. The Red Cross provides health and safety training programs, such as First Aid and CPR, and offers on-site “train the trainer” programs for companies. The Red Cross will do preparedness assessments of a business’s location. “One dollar invested in preparedness saves $4 in response,” Martin says. Service to active-duty military and their family includes emergency communication and financial assistance. The Red Cross, points out interim regional CEO Randy Weddle, was founded in the early 1900s to answer needs of American military personnel during World War I. Says Martin, “We provide a service that no one else does,” and it’s based on the organization’s standing and reputation. Explains Martin, if a family emergency occurs while someone is deployed, the Red Cross can make the recommendation to send that person home, and the commanding officer can justify doing so by saying, “The Red Cross has vetted it.”
In business to do good for the community, nonprofits enrich the lives of those who contribute as well as those who receive. In Business Magazine showcases two nonprofits in each issue, focusing on their business organization and spotlighting an upcoming fundraising event.
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Photos courtesy Todd Tamcsin Photography (top), Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter (bottom left & right)
Tragedies and disasters like the summer’s devastating Yarnell Hill Fire tend to put the American Red Cross right up front in people’s awareness, but how is the organization able to be Johnny-on-the-spot like that? “The only way we can respond that quickly is to have resources ready to go at a moment’s notice,” says Juliet Martin, corporate relations manager. And the best way to make sure the organization has the appropriate items is, usually, to buy them itself. “Money is the most beneficial [donation]. It allows us to buy exactly what we need at the location or community,” she says, explaining, “If people drop off home-made food, the health department won’t let us take that. And if someone donates just one of something (like a refrigerator), who do we give it to and who do we decide does not get it?” Additionally, the sorting that would be needed to process a lot of miscellaneous items would require considerable man-hours. Very helpful are businesses that can respond quickly with needed supplies, Martin says — such as Fry’s Food Stores bringing a refrigerator truck of ice to Prescott when the memorial service for the Yarnell Hill firefighters was expected to draw 30,000 people who would be standing out in the heat. “We had 10,000 bottles of water, but no ice,” she says. “It’s great to have partners ready, because we don’t know ahead of time what we will need.” The Prescott memorial service also brought out 500 Red Cross volunteers, and volunteers, says interim regional CEO Randy Weddle, are critical to the organization being able to provide its services. They include people in operations
www.inbusinessmag.com
September 2013
O n t h e Ag e n D a
A listing of Greater Phoenix business organizations and their events. Visit www.inbusinessmag.com for an expanded monthly calendar of educational, networking and special business events.
Arizona Small Business Association
Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce
40th Birthday Bash – Open House + Business Expo
Economic Outlook 2014
Photo courtesy lliott D. Pollack and Company
Thurs., Sept. 26 — 4:00p – 7:00p
Arizona Small Business Association is celebrating its 40th birthday on Sept. 26 with a dual event coordinated to take place at the same time at its Central Arizona office here in Phoenix and its Southern Arizona office in Tucson. The fourth floor of ASBA’s offices at 4600 E. Washington Street will be filled with booths from 100 exhibitors and — something new this year — a silent auction. The event is also an open house for ASBA, which will open its offices on the third floor as well as its business education center, and staff will be available to talk to members and guests. Fittingly, ASBA is using the event as the occasion to release information about a new health insurance program it will soon be offering. “Health insurance is still one of our main resources we provide today,” says Kristen Wilson, chief operating officer, explaining that ASBA owes its start to “a few businesspeople who wanted to come together as a group to supply group health insurance” to their employees. The organization can continue to provide health insurance for small business — providing insurance to help create healthy work sites and providing access to health insurance resources — because it is grandfathered in with its insurance policy, Wilson explains. Birthday cake, party trays and beer and wine promise to draw half again over last year’s attendance of 500. Attendance to the event is free. —RaeAnne Marsh Arizona Small Business Association asba.com
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Fri., Sept. 27 — 7:00a – 10:00a Presenting a thorough picture in its view for the next year, the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and Cox Communications are bringing together experts to share local, national and global perspectives of the financial climate. Economic Outlook 2014 is aimed at all businesses, offering Elliott Pollack, founder and CEO information from the latest research and expert of Elliott D. Pollack and Company analysis to benefit small-business owners, management and corporate executives. With 900 attendees expected, it also offers a great opportunity for networking. The event will be held at the Arizona Biltmore on Friday, Sept. 27. Veteran Arizona economist Elliott Pollack, founder and CEO of Elliott D. Pollack and Company, will speak on forces impacting business locally, looking at what is forecast for commercial real estate as well as other aspects of Arizona’s economy. A sought-after presenter, Pollack has four decades of experience in the local market. Discussing the national economic perspective will be Jim Huntzinger, executive vice president and chief investment officer of BOK Financial Corporation, a financial services company based in Tulsa, Okla. With more than 30 years experience in the securities and investment industries, he will speak on the market, its volatility and its impact on our economy. Paul Thomas, Ph.D., is chief economist and manager of market sizing and forecasting for Intel Corporation, and is responsible for monitoring national and international economies to assess their potential impacts on the global organization. He will provide the international perspective on what is driving our current economic growth. Cox will be demonstrating some of its mobile technology capabilities through a participatory survey it will be conducting as part of the program. Specific questions will be rotated throughout the program’s accompanying slideshow and attendees will be asked to text their response. Cox will have the results together in time to present them at the end of the program. Cost to attend is $85 for members of the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, and $95 for non-members. Advance registration is required, and registration closes at 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23. —RaeAnne Marsh Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce phoenixchamber.com
Notable Dates This Month Mon., Sept. 2
Labor Day
Sun., Sept. 22
Autumnal Equinox
Agenda events are submitted by the organizations and are subject to change. Please check with the organization to ensure accuracy. See more events online at www.inbusinessmag.com.
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O n t h e Ag e n d a ARIZONA HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 2013 DATOS - Focus on Arizona’s Hispanic Market Breakfast Tues., Sept. 24 7:30a – 11:30a
Members: $125; non-members: $150 Phoenix Convention Center 100 N. 3rd St., Phoenix (602) 279-1800
ARIZONA SMALL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION Supervision: Core Competencies Training Wed. & Thurs., Sept. 4 & 5 8:30a – 4:30p
This training will provide today’s supervisor with practical skills for selfmanagement, building relationships and managing the performance of others. Members: $295; non-members: $355 Mountain States Employment Council 8687 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale Lorie Solinski, lsolinski@msec.org
Creating Your Effective Networking Commercial Tues., Sept. 10 1:45p – 3:00p
Get tips to develop an effective 30-second networking commercial in this handson workshop. Put your 30-second commercial to practice immediately following this workshop at ASBA’s original Fast & Curious Speed Networking event. Members: free; non-members: $10 ASBA’s Business Education Center 4600 E. Washington St., Phoenix Sarah Travis, stravis@asba.com
Harassment Prevention for Managers & Supervisors Thurs., Sept. 12 8:30a – 4:30p
Providing managers and supervisors with appropriate training is one of the key ways an employer can prevent liability for harassment claims and avoid retaliation claims, which pose one of the most significant legal risks for employers today. Members: $125; non-members: $150 Mountain States Employment Council 8687 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale Lorie Solinski, lsolinski@msec.org
40th Birthday Bash – Open House + Business Expo Thurs., Sept. 26 4:00p – 7:00p
This annual open house and expo is packed with quality networking and the opportunity to interact with some of the Valley’s most influential leaders in small business. Free ASBA Central Arizona Office 4600 E. Washington St., Phoenix asba.com (See article on page 31.)
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September 2013
ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL
CENTRAL PHOENIX WOMEN
Lunch and Learn
Luncheon
“Enhancing Vendor Risk and Compliance Management of Outsourced Operations – Using Service Organization Control Reporting” is presented by KPMG. Customers (users) of outsourced service providers are increasingly challenged to ensure their outsourced service providers (service organizations) have sufficient safeguards in place. Members: free; non-members: $15 KPMG 60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe (602) 343-8324
The annual media event will feature local media executives Cheryl Green, Ilana Lowery and Julia Patrick. The sponsor is National Bank of Arizona; favors partner is the MIM, Musical Instrument Museum. $75; reservations required The Ritz-Carlton, Phoenix 2401 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix centralphoenixwomen.org
Tues., Sept. 3 11:30a – 1:00p
Lunch and Learn Tues., Sept. 10 11:30a – 1:00p
“Government Sales and Contracting – The Top 10 List of Things Companies Need to Know about Sales to Government” is presented by Quarles & Brady. The government buys all kinds of goods and services from privatesector companies. This and more will be demystified in a presentation focused on sales — not bid protests or traditional government relations work. Members: free; non-members: $15 ASU SkySong 1475 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale (602) 343-8324
Lunch and Learn Thurs., Sept. 26 11:30a – 1:00p
“How to Create a Total Online Presence” is presented by Leap Innovation. There are many complex parts involved in marketing today, and the online elements increase in importance with each passing day. But marketing is a system, and to effectively operate this system you must assemble and integrate each of the parts. Members: free; non-members: $15 Eller College of Management (in the Quicken Loans building) 16425 N. Pima Rd., Scottsdale (602) 343-8324
ASSOCIATION FOR CORPORATE GROWTH – ARIZONA Breakfast
Tues., Sept. 10 7:00a – 9:00a
Presenter is Steve Sanghi, president and CEO of Microchip and co-author of the book Driving Excellence: How the Aggregate System Turned Microchip Technology from a Failing Company to a Market Leader, along with Michael J. Jones, Microchip’s former head of human resources. Members and sponsors: $49; nonmembers: $69; after Sept. 7: add $10 Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa 2400 E. Missouri, Phoenix (602) 343-6280
Mon., Sept. 9 11:30a – 1:00p
CHANDLER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Chandler Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament Fri., Sept. 6 6:30a – 3:00p
Benefits the Chamber’s programs and events and also raises funds for the Chandler Chamber Community Foundation scholarship program. Registration and continental breakfast are at 6:30 a.m., and the shotgun start is at 8 a.m. $150 Ocotillo Golf Resort 3751 S. Clubhouse Dr., Chandler chandlerchamber.com
Economic Update Series Luncheon Wed., Sept. 25 11:30a – 1:00p
Come and find out what’s happening in the City of Chandler, and learn more about important issues that impact us all here in Arizona. Members: $20; non-members: $25 Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar 905 N. 54th St., Chandler chandlerchamber.com
ECONOMIC CLUB OF PHOENIX Economic Club of Phoenix Kick Off Thurs., Sept.19 5:30p – 7:00p
Further details, and a full calendar of events for the upcoming season, will be available shortly. Squire Sanders, LLP 1 E. Washington St., Phoenix (480) 727-0596
GREATER PHOENIX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Economic Outlook 2014 Fri., Sept. 27 7:00a – 10:00a
Veteran Arizona economist Elliott Pollack will look at the commercial real estate forecast and other aspects of our state’s economy and provide a window into what the future brings.
Members: $75; non-members: $85; after Sept. 7, add $10 The Arizona Biltmore, Frank Lloyd Wright Ballroom 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix nmangino@phoenixchamber (See article on page 31.)
MESA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Mesa Chamber Golf Tournament Fri., Sept. 20 6:30a – 2:00p
Following breakfast and registration at 6:30 a.m., shotgun start will be at 7 a.m., with lunch and awards at 1 p.m. $150; lunch only: $20 Longbow Business Park & Golf Club 5601 E. Longbow Pkwy., Mesa (480) 969-1307 ext. 22
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS Luncheon
Wed., Sept. 11 10:45a – 1:00p
“The Power of a Compelling Brand Story.” In this interactive session, Andrea Beaulieu will walk you through the process of identifying your key brand descriptors and the story that backs those up so you can clearly communicate who you are, what you do and why it matters to your prospects. Members: $38; non-members: $48; after Sept. 6, add $15; day of: $25 Phoenix Country Club 2901 N. 7th St., Phoenix info@nawbophx.org.
NORTH PHOENIX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Business Resource and Networking Luncheon Tues., Sept. 10 11:30a – 1:00p
This month’s topic is “Customer Loyalty.” Luncheon sponsors: C & R Tire and Automotive, Paradise Valley Community College. Members: $15; guests: $20; after Sept. 6: $25 Stone Creek Golf Club 4435 E. Paradise Village Pkwy. S., Phoenix northphoenixchamber.com
50th Anniversary Celebration Thurs., Sept. 19 5:00p – 8:00p
“Celebrating Our Past – Looking Toward the Future.” Enjoy a cocktail reception followed by dinner, live music, a silent auction, special guests and awards presentations and much more! Jineane Ford will emcee the event. A portion of the evening’s proceeds will benefit OCJ Kids. Members: $60; non-members: $75 Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort 11111 N. 7th St., Phoenix northphoenixchamber.com
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Please confirm, as dates & times are subject to change.
ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE – PHOENIX Monthly Meeting Thurs., Sept. 19 9:00a – 10:30a
Marine Cargo Insurance: “Are You Covered? Are You Sure? Protecting Yourself Against the High Costs of Cargo Loss.” Members: $25; non-members: $35 Maricopa Association of Governments 302 N. 1st Ave., Phoenix www.owitphoenix.org
PEORIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Seminar: PPACA Healthcare Reform Law Wed., Sept. 11 4:00p – 6:00p
William Steffen, owner of Steffen Financial, and Ann Heckathorne will review healthcare reform laws. Free City of Peoria – Point of View Room 9875 N. 85th Ave., Peoria Debbie Pearson, (623) 773-5210
Join Barbara Barnstead, Phoenix Business Journal’s audience development specialist, for an interactive seminar that will teach you how to identify new customers, grow your business opportunities and increase your bottom line. Free, but space is limited to 20 Forever Resorts 7501 E. McCormick Pkwy., Scottsdale Nikki Hoffman, (480) 355-2712.
Business Showcase Tradeshow This year, Scottsdale’s business-to-business tradeshow will have a racing theme, fantastic food and drinks, lots of giveaways, a booth decorating contest and more! Free Chaparral Suites Resort 5001 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale Anna Mineer, (480) 355-2708
SURPRISE REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Fri., Sept. 6 11:30a – 1:00p
Full round of golf with prizes, boxed lunch, silent auction and barbecue dinner with live emcee Jon Bloom, KTAR host and voice of the Suns and Cardinals. Members: $125; general public: $150 ASU Karsten Golf Course 1125 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe Sachiyo Spires, (480) 967-7891
Luncheon
Tues.., Sept. 3 11:30a – 1:00p
Continuing our partnership with Greater Phoenix SCORE, this is the third in our series with Allan Himmelstein and is entitled: “I Hate Elevator Speeches.” A
Friday Forum
Fri., Sept. 13 11:30a – 6:00p
WEST VALLEY WOMEN
Business Education Seminar
SCOTTSDALE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
TEMPE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Tempe Links Classic Golf Tournament
Thurs., Sept. 12 3:30p – 6:30p
Fri., Sept. 27 8:30a – 10:00a
necessary evil, nobody likes them. How do we do better or what can we change when we network? Includes continental breakfast and prizes. Free Communiversity @ Surprise 15950 N. Civic Center Plaza, Surprise (623) 583-0692
“Spotlight our Members.” $35 Arizona Broadway Theatre 7701 W. Paradise Ln., Peoria westvalleywomen.org
WOMEN OF SCOTTSDALE Luncheon
Fri., Sept. 20 11:30a – 1:00p
The annual Gentlemen’s Luncheon. Bank of America is the sponsor. In Business Magazine is the publication partner. The MIM, Musical Instrument Museum, is the favors partner.. $35; reservations are required Westin Kierland Resort & Spa 6902 E. Greenway Pkwy., Scottsdale womenofscottsdale.org
OTHER BUSINESS EVENTS 2013 ADOT DBE Central Arizona Conference Thurs., Sept. 19 7:00a – 3:30p
“Paving the Way to New Opportunities” conference focuses on tools to build small business capacity and compliance, with speakers, trainers and activities to provide attendees with this knowledge they can use immediately. Free Desert Willow Conference Center 4340 E. Cotton Center Blvd., Phoenix Michelle, (480) 247-2454.
Cross-training for your business
Special Sections
Events Online
Email Magazine
Your company deserves to be fit. Performance Marketing: Print. Online. Email. Social Media. Events. (480) 588-9505 inbusine ssmag.com
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by Mike Hunter
We Value What We Own
Top Rated: The All New Lexus IS 350 “IS” may stand for “incredible success.” The 2014 Lexus IS 350 is the latest in technology and performance, and has been impressing car critics since its recent release. Also available in the F Sport and AWD (all wheel drive) editions, this latest incarnation is winning in tests with the BMW 335i and the Cadillac ATS. Specs include the 3.5-liter V6 aluminum block direct-fuel injection engine, which demonstrates high performance in all editions of the vehicle. A minimum 0-60 mph time of 5.5 seconds with 306 horsepower means this sporty sedan hops to it when the driver so desires. The vehicle handles better than past models due, in part, to the new design technology and welding techniques. Eight- or six-speed automatic transmissions with paddle shifters are precision in their technology and output a smooth and quick performance that enhances the driver’s overall experience. By detecting when the IS enters a curve, a lower gear is held throughout for optimal response when accelerating out. The Drive Mode Select allows drivers to experience the road the way they want to — a more responsive, sporty ride or a more efficient, economical level of performance — by the flip of a switch, just one of the impressive technologies making the IS a true winner. The design and styling is Lexus at its best. “Sporty” and “mean” are words to describe the mesh grill with larger cooling ducts on the F Sport edition. An optimized driving position means a lower driver seat and well-placed steering wheel and even windshield wipers to ensure a more dynamic driving experience without sacrificing comfort or visibility. The digital gauges were patterned after the LFA supercar to enhance information as it is accessed. The available Mark Levinson Premium surround sound audio system boasts 15 speakers and placement that ensures incredible output at any speed — from the front or back seats. The optional voice-activated Navigation System can recognize more than 100 voice commands, provides a high-resolution color display, and can map more than 8 million points of interest. In its various combinations, the IS 350 is the latest in a line of models by Lexus that are doing more than just getting noticed. The marrying of effiencies and performance attributes of this IS 350 AWD sedan assures it a spot at the top of the list 2014 Lexus IS 350 AWD of even the most scrutinizing car enthusiasts. City MPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Hwy MPG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 0-60 MPH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 sec Transmission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-speed automatic MSRP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $41,700
Lexus lexus.com
Membership Has Its Privileges We value our assets and we like to ensure we are getting the best for our dollars. When it comes to spending money on spending money, here are some toprated credit cards that make sense for all of the cents we expend.
Discover It Card
The zero-percent APR for initial purchases and no annual fee add to the cashback rewards that cardholders get on purchases. Other perks, like America-based customer service, no foreign transaction fees and up to 5 percent cash-back on purchases, make this a top pick. discovercard.com
American Express Blue Cash Everyday Card
Get all of the perks with the American Express cards with no annual fee on this cash-back credit card. Cash-back rewards include credit on the cardholder’s statement, up to 3 percent cash back on qualified purchases and quick cash-back opportunities with balance transfers and adding additional cards. americanexpress.com
Chase Freedom Card
With $100 cash back upon sign-up, this card saves before any charging is even begun. Other perks include up to 5 percent cash back on qualified purchases and a minimum 1 percent cash back on all other purchases. There is no annual fee, and cardholders experience enhanced security and no spending tier limits or expiration dates for cash-back rewards. chase.com
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Photos courtesy of Lexus (left), Discover, American Express, Chase (right, top to bottom)
ASSETS
by Mike Hunter
Meals that matter
Power Lunch
Why Stay When You Can Eat and Run? The Valley is known as home to some of the world’s best accommodations, but there’s no need to spend the night to enjoy their hospitality. With resorts and hotels just about everywhere, we suggest some great hotel lunch spots for the noon-time meal.
Bistro 24
Located in the Ritz-Carlton Phoenix at the intersection of 24th Street and Camelback Road, this lunch spot will never disappoint. In its bistro-inspired dining room and bar, it offers a classic hotel menu and waiters who await the diner’s every need or special request. 2401 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix (602) 952-2424 • ritzcarlton.com
Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails
This ultra-hip hotel restaurant in the Palomar Hotel in Downtown Phoenix is a true must. The food is suited to all who show up, from small, clever eats for the snacker and proteinconscious to larger entrées for the big eater who will stay for a while. Service is first class and the booze offerings follow with equal mixology creativity and innovation. 2 E. Jefferson St., Phoenix (602) 258-0231 • bluehoundkitchen.com
Photos courtesy District American Kitchen and Wine Bar (right), Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails (left)
Elements
Situated in the foothills of Camelback Mountain at the Sanctuary Resort is Elements. This modern hillside restaurant is perfect for a quick lunch or an in-depth meeting over some world-class cuisine. Views from just about every square foot of space is rivaled only by Chef Beau MacMillan’s creations in the kitchen. 5700 E. McDonald Dr., Paradise Valley (480) 948-2100 • sanctuaryoncamelback.com
Lunch in the District — District American Kitchen & Wine Bar
Be in the know; be in the moment; be in the District. The District American Kitchen and Wine Bar has been serving lunch just off the lobby of the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown since the hotel’s opening in 2008. This lunch spot has been hopping with executives, deal makers, sports stars and independent small-business owners who see this location at Third and Van Buren streets as the perfect place to meet. Known for their gourmet renditions of American classic comfort foods, the people behind this establishment source local, organic and natural ingredients to honor their pledge to present the freshest dishes available. Lunch means eating well, from the soups and salads to the main meals and desserts. Try the District Wedge for a flavorful approach to the classic. This recipe includes sundried tomatoes and charred pearl onions. The District Mac N’ Cheese is made with beer hots sausages and Cheez-It crumbs in a cheese sauce of Arizona Dairy Council cheddar and smoked gouda —heavy, but well worth ordering. Speaking of cheese, try the District’s Award-Winning Grilled Cheese made with Dairy Council cheddar, gruyere, bacon and peppercorn goat cheese, chipotle date and fig jam on MJ bread. “Busy and lively” describes this warm downtown space that looks upon an urban patio facing the street corner. Deep woods and comfortable, oversized dining chairs give District a modern vibe with an urban art-scene atmosphere. The walls are covered in local artists’ work, and all the art is labeled to support the local people and talent behind them. The bar is a big gathering space open to the dining room, offering a hustle and bustle that even at lunch ensures you’ll see someone you know. The service is professional and very curteous. Waiters attend to patrons’ every need and are there to offer up suggestions, making lunch a memorable experience. District American Kitchen and Wine Bar 320 N. 3rd St., Phoenix (602) 817-5400 districtrestaurant.com
Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails
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Photo courtesy of The Phoenix Symphony
Season Opener
Happening Here
Also Inside
Ski Country
New York City
Dubai
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Great deals, destinations and more inside‌ inbusine ssmag.com
S e p t e m b e r 2013
Imagine a place that will engage your creativity and enhance your education and sense of cultural community. A place where you can explore a collection of over 17,000 works and experience new exhibitions that are sure to tenlighten your soul. Connect with Phoenix Art Museum—it’s a relationship like no other.
EXPLORE ENGAGE ENJOY The Cape | September 15 – February 19 Rufino Tamayo: Master Printmaker | September 21 – January 12 Xul Solar and Jorge Luis Borges: The Art of Friendship | October 2 – December 29 INFOCUS PhotoBid | October 5 – October 18 The West Select Exhibition and Sale | November 10 – December 31 Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection | November 23 – April 20 See, Hear, Feel: The Photographs of Debra Bloomfield and Christopher Churchill | December 7 – March 23 Hollywood Costume | March 26 – July 6
© 2013 Phoenix Art Museum. All Rights Reserved. LEFT to RIGHT: Ed Mell, Sweeping Clouds, 1989. Oil on canvas. 53” h x 53” w. Museum purchase with funds from anonymous donors. Krishna and Radha under an Umbrella, Kangra School, 19th century. Ink and color on paper. 8.375” h x 6.375” w. Gift of George P. Bickford. Robert Henri, The Laundress, 1916. Oil on canvas. 36” h x 29” w. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Hirschl.
1625 North Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004 phxart.org
Vail Ski Resort Photo courtesy of Vail Ski Resort, Liam Doran
Sensations of Fall and Winter “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” at ASU Gammage Photo courtesy of ASU Gammage
New York City skyline
Distinctive sail silhouette of the hotel Burj Al Arab in Dubai
er Season Open
Happening
Also Inside
Ski Country
New York City
Here Dubai
re inside… ns and mo
T
he local You Are Here publications have been the guide for locals and visitors alike on all that is going on in the Valley. Now, with In Business Magazine, You Are Here has gone international. We offer this insertion twice yearly to inform In Business Magazine readers (one of the best local demographics of travelers) of many of the great getaways and travel destinations from our hometown. But the start of the arts season also calls for a closer look at home, so this fall/ winter edition focuses a lens on the arts scene opening at venues around the Valley. We highlight The Phoenix Symphony, ASU Gammage and a few others of our cultural gems. Along with this overview is a guide to more of our arts organizations, giving dates of their season and the range of prices for their performances. New York is a national mecca for culture, whether it be the famous “lights of Broadway” or melting pot of nationalities. Dining options make the most of its collage of ethnicities, and we open the door to a variety of experiences the season offers in the Big Apple. Skiing is a favorite winter recreation for many in the Valley, and we point readers to resorts close-by in Arizona and some of the favored ski resorts in neighboring states. The slopes, of course, are just part of the attraction, and we offer tips on other activities, from dining to photography. For a more exotic destination, we go to Dubai on the Persian Gulf. Long stretches of sand have been transformed into wonders of the world as the small emirate continues to develop projects that are the largest of their kind — from incredible architecture to shopping — purposely aiming to capture tourism interest. Have a great winter. Look for our summer 2014 You Are Here in March.
Enjoy this issue of You Are Here: Worldwide Travel Guide as we present winter 2013. For the summer and winter seasons, In Business Magazine readers can expect the You Are Here insertions dedicated to travel as part of the March and September issues, respectively, every year. Bon Voyage!
Let us know some of your favorite travel destinations or to advertise in our travel guide: editor@inbusinessmag.com advertise@inbusinessmag.com www.inbusinessmag.com
natio als, desti Great de
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Get Ready. Get Set.
Go.
This season of performing arts is hitting the ground running by Dave O. Dodge
Just when the temperature in the Valley starts to cool down, the performing arts scene begins to heat up. There are countless live performing arts groups here in the Greater Phoenix area, each offering something special to its attendees. Some are more intimate, offering an up-close-and-personal touch to their productions, while large shows come for a limited run with all the bells and whistles you would expect of a Broadway production. Whether it be musical theater, dance, drama or music, the Valley of the Sun can accommodate your taste as well as your pocketbook. Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria is celebrating its 9th season with a robust schedule of show-stopping musicals, each produced locally under the guidance of its executive producer, Kiel Klaphake. In 2004,
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Photo courtesy of Mesa Arts Center
Mesa Arts Center
Klaphake and his leading lady and wife, Cassandra, began new construction on this theater with a grand vision — “To enrich lives through the power of performing arts” — and they have been doing so ever since. Look for grooving-in-your-seats music with this year’s opening show Hairspray followed by seven more shows equally well-known to any theater buff. It will be like a trip down memory lane at ASU Gammage this season with the return of Valley favorites along with some new musical productions that are already positioned to be classics. ASU Gammage is the place to go for that grand performance from a touring company with Broadway-scale sets, large ensemble casts and, perhaps, headline stars. This season opener is hot off Broadway and inbusine ssmag.com
out of the West End: Priscilla Queen of the Desert follows a trio of would-be performers across the outback of Australia on a journey of self-discovery and laughs. Look for great use of make-up and wigs for a mind-bending performance. Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia! return for an encore, and we will all stroll down the Yellow Brick Road one more time with the latest version of The Wizard of Oz, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber complementing songs from the original 1939 play. Ballet Arizona sets the standard for dance here in Arizona. This professional ballet company is under the artistic direction of Ib Andersen, a former principal of the New York City Ballet, whose innovative and creative approach with touches of both the contemporary and classic never disappoints
the audience. This season’s opener will have you feeling “happily ever after” with Cinderella, the storybook story, coming to life in dance. A rite of passage for all little girls during the holidays is to watch the Christmas tree grow in the all-time favorite The Nutcracker, and this holiday classic is one of Andersen’s best, performed with The Phoenix Symphony. Back in the 1920s, a small group of actors formed the Phoenix Players and caught the attention of the Heard family, who offered them the carriage house in 1924 to perform in. Fast forward to 2013: Phoenix Theatre is celebrating its 93rd season, which makes it one of the oldest performing arts group in the country. Michael Barnard and Vincent VanVleet provide the perfect partnership as producing artistic director and managing » S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Greater Phoenix Arts Season director, respectively. The return of what might be now considered a contemporary classic, the musical Rent, will be Phoenix Theatre’s opening calling card this season, followed by quite the variety of content and shows. Its production season winds down in April, with Victor Hugo’s all-time story of redemption, Les Miserables. Rounding out this snapshot of the Valley’s cultural attractions is The Phoenix Symphony, which brings a level of the grandiose to all of its performances. Attending the symphony is something you do for your soul, for your own personal development in appreciation of music. After a concerto, you carry the feeling within you to relive the music and reflect on the performance. The tagline for the upcoming season is simply “Be Inspired, Be Moved, Be Here.” The new season for the performing arts is one of excitement and freshness with just a hint of nostalgia. Any city can be measured by the services that are offered to its citizens, but any great city is, ultimately, measured by the art it creates. Take the time this season to watch the Mouse King dance amongst the toy soldiers or follow a little girl from Kansas over the rainbow; you will be glad you did.
Actors Theatre
ASU Gammage
1850 N. Central Ave., Phoenix (602) 888-0368 Season: Oct. 25, 2013 – May (date tba) 2014 Single tickets: $18 – $41 actorstheatrephx.org
1200 S. Forest Ave., Tempe (480) 965-3434 Season: Sept. 1, 2013 – Aug. 10, 2014 Season tickets: $86 – $499 Single tickets: $36 – $119 asugammage.com
Arizona Broadway Theatre 7701 W. Paradise Ln., Peoria (623) 776-8400 Season: Oct. 11, 2013 – Sept. 28, 2014 Tickets: $69 – $90; includes three-course dinner azbroadway.org
Arizona Opera 1636 N. Central Ave., Phoenix (602) 266-7464 Season: Oct. 11, 2013 – April 27, 2014 Season tickets: $92 – $456 Single tickets: $25 – $135 azopera.org/tickets
Arizona Theatre Company 400 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix (602) 256-6995 Season: Oct. 10, 2013 – May 18, 2014 Season tickets: $73.50 – $423 Single tickets: $36 – $72 arizonatheatre.org
Ballet Arizona 2835 E. Washington St., Phoenix (602) 381-0184 Season: Sept. 19, 2013 – June 1, 2014 Season tickets: $168 – $508 Single tickets: $89 – $158 balletaz.org
Desert Foothills Theater 33606 N. 60th St., Scottsdale (480) 575-2040 Season: Oct. 4, 2013 – May 11, 2014 Season tickets: $38 – $119 Single tickets: $11 – $21 desertfoothillstheater.org
Desert Stages Theatre 4720 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale (480) 483-1664 Season: Aug. 23, 2013 – Aug. 3, 2014 Single tickets: $15 – $25 desertstages.org
Great Arizona Puppet Theater 302 W. Latham St., Phoenix (602) 262-2050 Season: Aug. 14, 2013 – Jan. 26, 2014 Single tickets: $7 (children), $10 – $12 (adults) azpuppets.org
222 E. Monroe St., Phoenix (602) 252-8497 Season: Sept. 13, 2013 – Aug. 14, 2014 Prices vary by performance herbergertheater.org
Mesa Arts Center
“The Wizard of Oz” at ASU Gammage
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1 E. Main St., Mesa (480) 644-6501 Season: year-round Single tickets (for local performances): $22 – $100 mesaartscenter.com inbusine ssmag.com
Photo courtesy of ASU Gammage, Cylla Von Tiedemann
Herberger Theater
Orpheum Theatre 203 W. Adams St., Phoenix (602) 534-5600 Season: Sept. 7, 2013 – March 23, 2014 Single tickets: $61 – $334 orpheum-theater.com
Peoria Center for the Performing Arts 8355 W. Peoria Ave., Peoria (623) 815-7930 Season: year-round Single tickets: $10 – $31 theaterworks.org
Phoenix Theatre 100 E. McDowell Rd., Phoenix (602) 254-2151 Season: Aug. 21, 2013 – June 1, 2014 Season tickets: $75 – $403 Single tickets: $30 – $80 phoenixtheatre.com
“Into the Woods,” from Arizona Broadway Theatre’s 2012/2013 season
The Phoenix Symphony 75 N. 2nd St., Phoenix (602) 495-1999 Season: Sept. 20, 2013 – May 24, 2014 Season tickets: $172 – $758 Single tickets: $18 – $79 phoenixsymphony.com
Photos courtesy of Arizona Broadway Theatre, Tempe Center for the Arts, and Ballet Arizona (top to bottom)
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (480) 499-8587 7380 E. 2nd St., Scottsdale Season: Sept. 7, 2013 – May 10, 2014 Single tickets: $7 – $89 scottsdaleperformingarts.org
Tempe Center for the Arts
Tempe Center for the Arts 700 W. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe (480) 350-2829 Season: Year-round Single tickets: Free – $100 www.tempe.gov/tca
Theater Works 8355 W. Peoria Ave., Peoria (623) 815-7930 Season: Sept. 6, 2013 – May 10, 2014 Single tickets: $11 – $31 theaterworks.org
Valley Youth Theatre 807 N. 3rd Ave., Phoenix (602) 253-8188 Season: Sept. 13, 2013 – April 20, 2014 Single tickets: $20 – $38 vyt.com inbusine ssmag.com
“Cinderella” by Ballet Arizona
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FRIDAY, SEPT. 13 @ 6-10PM
REMIX/ REMASTER
A FESTIVAL OF ARTS REIMAGINED
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DJENTRIFICATION AMAZING MASHUP MUSEUM EXHIBITS TASTY TWISTS ON CLASSIC FOOD BEER GARDEN LIVE PERFORMANCES LIVE PAINTINGS & STUDIO DEMOS ...MUCH MORE FUN FOR ALL AGES
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Subscribe Today and Class Up Your Client Entertaining, Employee Recognition and Business Development 602-495-1999 | phoenixsymphony.org
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How do we spell
Amazing
in Glendale and the West Valley?
Antiquing
Music & Concerts
Art
In - Flight
Nightlife
Golf
A visit to Glendale and the West Valley always spells a great time, starting with this word: or visit us online and we’ll help you plan the perfect vacation from
Zoo
Welcome! Call
A toZ. Bring this ad to the Glendale
CVB and pick up your earth-friendly tote* to fill with all your great finds from Glendale and the West Valley. Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau • 5800 W. Glenn Dr., Suite 140, Glendale, AZ 85301 623.930.4500 • visitglendale.com
Play& Learn TODAY COME
One Great Space-Three Floors of Fun!
Engage your minds, muscles, and imaginations while you play and learn together in The Climber, Someplace and the Noodle Forest. Open 6 days a week, Tuesday thru Sunday, 9a.m. to 4p.m.
215 N. 7th Street Phoenix AZ 85034
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*While supplies last
www.childrensmuseumofphoenix.org
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Vail, Colorado
Vacation on the
Slopes
Photos courtesy of Vail Ski Resort, Jeff Affleck; Telluride Ski Resort (top to bottom)
Some of the most popular resorts are close by to Arizona by Dave O. Dodge
Alpino Vino restaurant in Telluride
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With the XXII Olympic Winter games fast approaching in 2014, the popularity of all winter sports increases dramatically. Come late February, the entire world will be glued to the opening ceremonies in Sochi, Russia, where, for the first time ever, the Russian Federation will be host to the potential billions of viewers. The sport of skiing as a winter game has evolved greatly since 1924 Chamonix, France, where there were just three competitions related to this sport. Ironically, the oldest evidence of man gliding across the frozen land is from near Moscow, Russia, where archaeologists discovered a wooden ski dating to before 5000 BC.
There are a few opportunities in Arizona, all within easy driving distance of Phoenix. Close to the New Mexico border, the town of Greer sits in the majestic White Mountains and is home to three peaks that make up Sunrise Park Resort. The shortest land route to Sunrise is only 218 miles by car and will offer some of the most scenic views along the way. Plan on at least four hours from Phoenix as the route climbs the Mogollon Rim to Show Low on to Pinetop-Lakeside. One of the most luxurious stays in the area is Hidden Meadow Ranch. Marrying rustic ambience with the utmost in comfort, Hidden Meadow Ranch offers a spectrum of outdoor recreation and an on-site S e p t e m b e r 2013
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world-class ski destination offering some of the best skiing, food and lodging anywhere in the United States, and it’s an easy jaunt to get to from Phoenix. The village is perched at 9,500 feet, and offers a colorful array of Victorian buildings lining Main Street with many choices to tempt you, from unique shopping to your eating pleasure. There are many premium condominiums to rent with ski-in and ski-out locations that offer a variety of amenities, including spa facilities. The Inn at Lost Creek, brand new this year, reflects Western hospitality. This boutique hotel is ski-in, ski-out and has only 32 rooms, many with fireplaces. No
Overlooking Telluride Ski Resort
Vail Village at Vail Ski Resort
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Alta Ski Area
attention to detail was missed when designing this property; don’t miss the roof-top hot tub for those starry winter nights. Asian seafood in the mountains of Colorado could be a stretch, but Jeff Badger has opened another location of his most popular eatery. Siam’s Talay Grille now has two locations in Telluride — the first, Siam Telluride, in town, and the second in the brand-new Inn at Lost Creek, both providing exceptional service and food. Telluride combines the best of all worlds for a virtually car-free vacation in this historic mining town. Vail, has the distinction of being the largest ski resort in the United States as well as on top of everyone’s must-do list for a skiing location. It draws snowboarders, too — it was the site for this past year’s Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships. Come explore the cozy cobblestone streets of town on foot and smell the gastronomic wonders emitting from some of the finest restaurants in the Rocky Mountains. The modern American restaurant Sweet Basil, established back in 1977, has an imaginative and innovative menu that has been on the Zagat survey as one of Colorado’s most popular restaurants. The eatery was founded by busboy-turned-entrepreneur Kevin Clair. For a great way to extend your day on the hill, try Moonlight Snowshoe Tours. These organized tours are offered around the time of the full moon and will have you gazing at the stars while looking for wildlife. The revival of the Western town is paramount in Colorado and nowhere more evident than in the ski town of Steamboat Springs, where the claim to fame is all about the snow — “champagne powder,” as it is called — up to three-and-a-half feet of the fresh stuff. Café Diva is conveniently located at the Steamboat Mountain Village and is rather small, with only 65 seats. Don’t be fooled by the casual dress of the patrons, as everyone dresses down after a day on the slopes. The food here is impressive. Try the elk tenderloin for the adventurer meat-eater in you. For a break from all the mountain activity, check in to the Four Diamond-rated Vista Verde Guest Ranch. Intimate, it houses only 45 guests. You can spend the day with local photographer Carla Jones, and learn tips and techniques on capturing the beautiful scenery, or, for an adventure of different kind, visit the kitchen. Chef Cholly holds weekly classes for guests, which include wine tasting, for a great afternoon away from the slopes. inbusine ssmag.com
Photos courtesy of Telluride Ski Resort; Vail Ski Resort, Chris McLennan; Alta (counterclockwise from top)
gourmet chef. The restaurant is primarily for guests staying in its cabins, but limited seating may be available for outside guests. Cabins are also available at Molly Butler Lodge, only about 12 miles from Sunrise Park but a century away in time with its frontier atmosphere. Often on the top 25 lists in Arizona, the Molly Butler restaurant lays special claim to fame for its prime rib, prepared from a recipe in the White House Cookbook presented to Molly Butler by President Herbert Hoover. Back in 1972, the town of Telluride, Colo., opened a ski resort that turned this remote and somewhat desolate mining town into a
ARIZONA Arizona Snowbowl Only 14 miles outside of Flagstaff, Snowbowl is located on the majestic and sacred San Francisco Peaks. www.arizonasnowbowl.com
Lodging Arizona Mountain Inn and Cabins Breathtaking views www.arizonamountaininn.com Drury Inn & Suites Amazing scenery www.druryhotels.com
Dining
Vail Ski Resort
Park City Mountain Resort
The Greer Café Menu from eggs to ice cream www.thegreercafe.com
Founded in 1962, Vail Ski Resort has become one of the most popular destinations in America for skiing and riding. www.vail.com
Except for about 10 days in January when it is taken over by the Sundance Film Festival, this resort glories in its rich ski history. www.parkcitymountain.com
Molly Butler Lodge Hearty frontier cuisine www.mollybutlerlodge.com
Activities
Colorado
Dining
Steamboat Springs
1899 Bar & Grill American bistro www.1899barandgrill.com
Lodging
Includes groomed and off-piste skiing for all levels. www.steamboat.com
Cuveé 928 Extensive wine list www.cuvee928winebar.com
Steamboat Grand Hotel Casual elegance www.steamboatgrand.com
Activities
Vista Verde Guest Ranch Luxury dude ranch www.vistaverde.com
Mount Lemmon Ski Valley Just north of Tucson, Mount Lemmon climbs to over 9,000 feet. Check before heading up the mountain as the area is often open only on weekends. www.skithelemmon.com
Lodging Lodge on the Desert Charming oasis www.lodgeonthedesert.com Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa Mountain and city views www.westinlapalomaresort.com
Dining The Abbey American comfort food www.theabbeytucson.com Acacia Real Food & Cocktails Natural, local ingredients www.acaciatucson.com
Activities
Sunrise Park Resort Operated entirely on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, this recreational area is open year-round and has some of the best snow and skiing in all of Arizona. www.sunriseparkaz.com
Lodging Hidden Meadow Ranch Rustic luxury www.hiddenmeadow.com Snowy Mountain Inn Peaceful forest retreat www.snowymountaininn.com
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Dining Café Diva Regional and sustainable sources www.cafediva.com Cottonwood Grill Asian-influenced American cuisine www.cottonwoodgrill.com
Activities
Telluride Ski Resort Trails for every level. The favorite among expert skiers has to be the Plunge; for boarders, the Galloping Goose, which is quite the ride. www.tellurideskiresort.com
Lodging Fairmont Heritage Place Franz Klammer Lodge Private residence club www.fairmont.com/ klammer-lodge-telluride Inn at Lost Creek Slopeside location www.innatlostcreek.com
Lodging
Marriott’s MountainSide One- and two-bedroom villas www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/ slcms-marriotts-mountainside
Dining Sweet Basil Seasonal imaginative cuisine www.sweetbasilvail.com
Dining 350 Main Charming vibe www.350main.com
Tavern on the Square Old-World village charm www.arrabelle.rockresorts.com
Riverhorse on Main Its flair is originality www.riverhorseonmain.com
Activities
Activities
UTAH Snow Basin
Alta Most come for the snow, but you will stay for the relaxed feeling and wonderful mountain views. www.alta.com
Lodging Alta’s Rustler Lodge Cozy atmosphere www.rustlerslodge.com Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge Full buffet and cook-to-order breakfast www.goldminersdaughterlodge.com
This mountain resort is best known for its wide, open bowls and challenging glades for great powder skiing; with more than 3,000 skiable acres, Snow Basin has world-class conditions and amenities for everyone. Check out the 26km of groomed Nordic Skiing trails and three snowboarding terrain parks. www.snowbasin.com
Lodging
Dining
The Grand America Hotel Salt Lake City’s only AAA Five Diamond hotel www.grandamerica.com
La Caille An elegant chateau www.lacaille.com
Hilton Garden Inn Near skiing and shopping www.hilton.com/search/gi/us/ut/ogden
Shallow Shaft Restaurant Eclectic fine dining www.shallowshaft.com
Dining
Activities
Earl’s Lodge “From-scratch” attention to detail www.snowbasin.com/dining/earls Jásoh! Prime & Pub Biodynamic food www.jasoh.com
Activities
Cosmopolitan of Telluride Contemporary fine dining www.cosmotelluride.com
Activities
Hotel Park City Intimate all-suite lodging www.hotelparkcity.com
Vail Cascade Refined yet relaxed www.vailcascade.com
Dining
Siam’s Talay Grille Authentic Thai cuisine www.siamtelluride.com
Lodging
Mountain Haus Luxury condos and hotel www.mountainhaus.com
Legend:
Night Skiing
Snowcat Skiing
Cross-Country Skiing
Ski-Biking
Snowmobiling
Downhill Skiing
Ski School
Snowshoe Area
Helicopter Skiing
Sleigh Rides
Terrain Park
NASTAR Racing
Snowboarding
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From the West - New York skyline mid-town
At the Crossroads of the World,
New York
Is Still the Top of the Heap
Regardless of the weather, visiting the Big Apple is just cool
9/11 Memorial
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New York City is, like the song says, a “state of mind”; the name conjurers up images of yellow cabs, towering skyscrapers and the lights of Broadway, all strutting their stuff in a colorful and often loud manner. Today, New York has all the energy of a musical revue that runs for 24 hours straight with an endless curtain call. With countless possibilities to experience, these are the items to keep close: a map, a credit card and comfortable shoes — after all, walking is in. Visiting the city any time of the year is a rite of passage for almost everyone in the world; whether you come for business, the shopping, the entertainment or just to learn
about the amazing part this city has played in the development of our country, New York is a wonderment. Managing your time to see as much as you can will be the ultimate challenge, and if you don’t do your homework, you may end up traversing the city streets like an episode of “The Amazing Race” gone bad. The city is divided into many neighborhoods, each with its own vibe. Midtown is right smack in the center of all things and is the perfect spot to begin your exploration of this metropolis that is often referred to as Gotham. Your first stop has to be Rockefeller Center, or, as many call it, 30 Rock. This art deco complex covers almost 22 acres inbusine ssmag.com
Photo courtesy of Dave O. Dodge
by Dave O. Dodge
Photos courtesy of Dave O. Dodge
and is home to NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall and the best place to ice skate in the city during the winter months. At the base of this art deco tower, under the gaze of a 15-foot cast-bronze Atlas, is Rockefeller Plaza. Have lunch on the Plaza; everyone should do that at least once in his or her lifetime. Here, you can dine in the center surrounded by the colors of the world; more than 200 flags are displayed. During the holiday season, the plaza is transformed into a winter wonderland. The Rockefeller Christmas Tree facing Fifth Avenue is lit and decorated to the nines. The lower plaza magically becomes a skating rink and the entire complex looks like a television set for an upcoming Christmas show. The holiday extravaganza not to be missed would be the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the lovely Rockettes performing nightly at the music hall. Top the night off with a visit to Top of the Rock for another N.Y. point of view. Next stop is “The Great White Way,” or just “Broadway.” This famed area got its name from being the first in the nation to be electrified; “the lights of Old Broadway” have been immortalized in movies and songs ever since. Each day, thousands of theatergoers cross this street, attending live performances, dining out and watching films in giant movie houses. Not all the shows are on stage. Here, in Times Square, people-watching can be a fine art; grab a latte and a pretzel and just watch the world go by. It is pure entertainment any time of the year, as even in winter the street vendors are out performing their shtick for tips. And the show of lights rivals anywhere else in the world, with billions of neon lights that turn the nightly darkness into daylight. What is old is new again; Broadway shows do a wonderful job of reinventing themselves almost daily with revivals of plays and musicals. Look for another version of the beloved Annie, recently opened at the Palace Theater and scheduled to run through January 2014. It is not “a hard-knock life” for this musical, for the reviews have been more than favorable for this holiday standard. The megawatt re-released Pippin, starring Broadway favorite Andrea Martin, won this year’s Tony Award for best musical revival. It has been more than 40 years since Pippin tripped the light fantastic on Broadway and, based on audience attendance, it may continue for years to come. The new show Roald Dahl’s Matilda, the Musical is attracting young and old alike inbusine ssmag.com
to this classic children’s story told on stage. This musical is about a young girl’s quest for a better life, armed only with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind. It comes directly from the West End in London and is in for a very long run. For the sentimental, theatergoers can still reverse time to the 1980s by seeing the well-preserved and immortal The Phantom of the Opera. The Majestic Theatre is transformed nightly into the Paris Opera House for another stunning performance of this Andrew Lloyd Weber classic, entertaining the audience with a story of unrequited love in a haunting setting. Greenwich Village on the lower west side of Manhattan was once the home of a Bohemian class of residents who launched the Beat Movement with their writings and innovations of style. Today, walking the narrow streets of this uptown neighborhood — which is really downtown — you can still discover a quaint ivy-covered walk-up that was home to someone famous or at least used as a movie
location. Tribeca, which is an acronym for “Triangle below Canal Street,” has become a hipster’s place to live, work and play. Fueled by the Hollywood set with the creation of the Tribeca Film Festival held each year, it was created in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks that all but shut down the entire area. This neighborhood that was once a heavy commercial section of the city is now a thriving community of high-rise residences and top retailers. Do not overlook a stroll in the many parks in this city, each much different from the others. Battery Park, overlooking the New York Harbor, is the result of a massive landfill in the 19th century and today offers a perfect base for a day of exploration with a variety of activities. The Staten Island Ferry continues to offer a free boat ride across the harbor to the largest borough of the city. There are hourly departures to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island, the East Coast immigration station
Day sailing trip — Statue of Liberty
Brooklyn Bridge
Rockefeller Center RCS Building
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When You Visit Lodging There are thousands of hotels in New York City, from iconic grand dame hotels of years gone by to the new urban-chic boutique hotels.
The Hotel Edison Built in 1931, this is a perfect example of art deco, and has also been featured in films and television. It is located within walking distance of Radio City Music Hall and Times Square. www.edisonhotelnyc.com
The Out NYC This urban resort is right smack in the middle between Times Square and Chelsea. This is an all-inclusive oasis that has made it to Fodor’s Top 100 Hotels list. www.theoutnyc.com
The Plaza Hotel Located at Central Park South, this iconic 100-year-old hotel has a storied past in feature films. www.theplazany.com Freedom Tower
Dining It is estimated that there are more than 4,200 restaurants in New York City, each offering its own gastronomical experience.
Carmines Being right in the middle of the theater district on West 44th Street it makes this the perfect spot for before or after your Broadway experience. Come try the home-style Southern Italian cuisine. www.carminesnyc.com
The Modern Located in Midtown Manhattan, next to the Museum of Modern Art, this eatery fills up late for lunch and hums through the dinner hour. www.themodernnyc.com
Morandi
that operated for more than 50 years. The promenade along the harbor has seen a face lift over the years and has many memorials and points of interest along its way. The south end of Manhattan Island experienced the most devastation on that fateful day of September 11, 2001; it has had a rebirth of sorts with a freshness and commitment to remembering this horrific tragedy that claimed 2,883 lives. The 9/11 Memorial opened on the site of Ground Zero and, after a short wait in a security line, you can walk around the pools that mark the original location of the Twin Towers. All the names of the victims have been inscribed on plates that form the edge of the Memorial Pools. Take a moment to reflect as you gaze above to the newly constructed Freedom Tower which, when opened later this year, will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. New York is like a small country, and no one visit is enough to see it all at any time of the year. The holiday season offers its own special attractions. For Thanksgiving, relish the famous annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that meanders down 6th Avenue to Macy’s flagship store at Herald Square; for Christmas, experience the magic of Fifth Avenue with the beautifully created window displays; or come for a New Year’s celebration you will not likely forget. Whatever brings you here, everyone loves New York.
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Chef Keith McNally’s version of a rustic Italian trattoria is a perfect spot for brunch or lunch. It is furnished for an authentic farm ambience, and is known for fresh-from-the-farm ingredients. www.morandinyc.com
Nightlife The night in New York can be as exciting as the day. Night clubs and live music venues are on every corner, offering everything from Jazz to comedy.
Birdland Opened in 1949, this iconic watering hole is where legends like Count Basie and John Coltrane performed. Pull up a chair and discover a new legend. Midtown-West 44th. www.birdlandjazz.com
Caroline’s on Broadway This is one of the hottest nightspots for comedy in Times Square. The long list of memorable alumni who have stood at its microphone include Jerry Seinfeld, Kathy Griffin and Rosie O’Donnell. www.carolines.com
Don’t Tell Mama In the heart of the theater district, this tiny cabaret is celebrating more than 30 years of paying homage to Judy Garland and other old-time divas. Come for a song, stay for the people watching. www.donttellmamanyc.com
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Photos courtesy of Dave O. Dodge
New York City street scene
Dubai,
Where Everything Is Bigger and Brighter
The cultural crossroads of the Middle East is the ultimate in luxury
Photos courtesy of Sophie James (top), Dave O. Dodge (bottom)
by Dave O. Dodge
Wind towers in the historic Bastakiya District
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For exotic travel, Dubai has to be on your must-see list. One of seven principalities that make up the United Arab Emirates, this cosmopolitan center has literally risen from the desert within the past few decades after the discovery of oil in the ’60s; following the formation of the UAE in 1971, Dubai has never looked back. This desolate-looking land on the shores of the Persian Gulf was once home to nomadic tribes constantly on the move searching for water; it is now the center of luxury and wealth second to none in the Middle East. The Dubai International Airport is a perfect example of the biggest and the best. The
newly completed Concourse A, which opened earlier this year, is the first terminal designed specifically for the largest of aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380. This superliner is so large that only a handful of airports worldwide can accommodate it. In Dubai, second to Abu Dhabi in land size and rivaling it in population, size is everything. The Burj Khalifa, first known as the Burj Dubai, it is the tallest man-made structure in the world. Rising out of a shopping mall, this 2,722-foot-tall skyscraper has fast become the icon for the city and the entire region. It was created as a centerpiece to a much bigger project on the ground that includes nine S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Textile vendor at the Bur Dubai Suq
hotels, 30,000 homes, 19 residential towers and a 30-acre lake that features the Dubai Fountain. The fountain, also created to be the largest ever, is 900 feet long, with jets that shoot water up to 500 feet high. The Burj is also home to the luxurious and very private Armani Hotel Dubai, where the simplicity of Giorgio Armani’s design is found throughout the sophisticated property. The mall from which Burj Khalifa juts skyward is Dubai Mall, larger than other in the world at the time of its opening in 2008. Bigger than 50 football fields, this center for international shopping has more than 1200 stores, a 22-screen megaplex, an aquarium and even an underwater zoo, all done with great attention to detail and with luxury top of mind. The mall anchors are as international as the clientele, with stores like Galeries
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Water taxi in Dubai Creek
Lafayette, Debenhams, Bloomingdale’s and Marks & Spencer, all offering signature products duty free. Not far from the mall is the legendary Shangri-La Hotel, an international brand that offers guests personalized service, state-of-theart amenities and world-class cuisine. Its eight restaurants include the signature Shang Palace that serves traditional Cantonese cuisine. Be sure to book your stay on the Horizon Club level and you will be treated to daily cocktails, personal concierge service and your own health club for your exercising pleasure. Once you leave the area of the Burj, the rest of the city can be the ultimate in contrasts. Leave the modern gleaming structures to see the ancient mosques in an older section of the city along the Dubai Creek that can offer you a glimpse into the
past. The area of the Dubai Creek is for soaking in the local flavor and the lifestyle of the Emiratis. English is spoken by nearly everyone, and people are very friendly and welcoming. There is a wooden arcade, called the Bur Dubai Suq, that runs along the water’s edge. Enjoy water taxi rides as well as many opportunities to shop locally at the traditional souks, or markets, for spices, gold, textiles and other goods. Stroll through alleys under the lattice covering that helps block the heat of the sun and have lunch at a local eatery along the water — try Dubai’s version of a tapas menu for a variety of tasty treats. The weather is near perfect during the winter months, and the calendar is filled with sporting activities that are among the most prestigious for any jetsetter to attend. Part of the PGA’s European Tour, the Race inbusine ssmag.com
Photos courtesy of Dave O. Dodge
Burj Khalifa
The Burj at night
to Dubai has become one of the richest golf tournaments in the world, attracting only the top players for a season-long competition that spans 45 tournaments in 24 countries on five continents, and it concludes here in November with the Dubai World Championship, which has its own prize fund of US$7.5 million. The Dubai horse racing season comes to a close in March, celebrating its 19th year with the Dubai World Cup 2014. Held at Meydan Racecourse, this is the world’s richest horse race, with prize money of almost $30 million U.S. Whatever brings you to this city, you would be remiss if you did not stop at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, where a multi-cultural staff of volunteers and clergy strive every day to break down the cultural barriers that exist between people of different nationalities. Because an understanding the culture of the Middle East and the history of the Emirates is helpful to conduct business and in most
social situations, this nonprofit offers guided tours to some of the oldest buildings in the city, as well as a visit to an authentic Moslem
Mosque where anyone can ask any question and none will go unanswered. “Open Doors, Open Minds” is its creed.
When You Visit There are no direct flights from Phoenix Sky Harbor to Dubai, and travel time can take about 21 to 26 hours.
Lodging
Dining
Sights
You can’t go wrong in Dubai if you choose your hotel along the Sheikh Zayed Road, a newly constructed thoroughfare that connects the older part of the city with the newer developments around the Burj.
Remember that the weekend begins on Thursday night here in Dubai.
Take your time in a city where more is more.
Marrakech
The observation deck at Burj Khalifa is on the 124th floor, but the elevator ride takes just seconds and is so smooth you will feel like you never left the ground. www.burjkhalifa.ae/en
Armani Hotel Dubai Created by fashion designer Giorgio Armani, this hotel offers guests the assurance of complete privacy and strictest of security standards that attracts guests from royal families to presidents of corporations. One of seven restaurants on property, the Lounge overlooks the Dubai Fountain; perfect for a glass of wine or light meal. www.dubai.armanihotels.com
Shangri-La Hotel Dubai
Photo courtesy of Dave O. Dodge
Shangri-La creates as utopian a culture of hospitality and graciousness as breathes in the pages of the classic novel Lost Horizon, the inspiration for the chain founder. Each room comes with a personal copy of the novel, and nightly messages in the form of a bookmark are left during turn-down service on your pillow. www.shangri-la.com/dubai/shangrila
Traders Hotel Dubai This property offers a more contemporary experience, with décor that is modern and unassuming. The Traders is located in the heritagerich district of Deira and is close to a popular shopping area that has a vibrant night life. www.shangri-la.com/dubai/traders
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For something a little different, let Chef Mourad Noufel transport you to his native Morocco from here on an upper level within the Shangri-La Hotel. You will feel as if you are dining in a traditional Moroccan courtyard garden. If you like lamb, this is the place. www.shangri-la.com/dubai/shangrila/dining/ restaurants/marrakech
Old Dubai In the Bastakiya District, the old fishermen’s village around the Dubai Creek offers many choices for local food served outdoors with views of the water, from fine restaurants to small, family-run cafes. Take a taxi to the water’s edge and safely stroll this section of town for any meal, but best to come later in the day when the sun is not so strong. www.dubaicity.com/dubai-dubai-bastakiya
Ristorante This is regional Italian food at its very best, served with an artful style in the Armani Dubai Hotel. Reservations are required and need to be made months in advance. www.dubai.armanihotels.com/dine
At the Top
Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo In this world’s largest suspended aquarium, built within the Dubai Mall, you can view 140 species of marine life. Cage snorkeling and shark diving are also big hits. www.thedubaiaquarium.com
Dubai Fountain A centerpiece of the Dubai Mall, this choreographed mega-fountain shoots water 500 feet into the air; its more than 6000 lights make it the only fountain visible from space. www.thedubaimall.com/en/Entertain/ TheDubaiFountain.aspx
Helicopter Tour Dubai If the view from the top of Burj Khalifa wasn’t enough, book yourself in for a thrilling 15- to 25-minute private helicopter tour over the beaches, the buildings and the desert. www.helicoptertourdubai.com
Ski Dubai Yet another destination within the Dubai Mall, this indoor ski area offers the ultimate experience in the desert. Try your skill at the advanced Black Diamond trail or snowboarding in the Freestyle Zone. www.skidubai.com
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Get to know the
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scottsdalechamber.com
MEMBER COMMUNIQUÉ September 2013 - December 2013
What “Strength in Numbers” Means to Our Members The business community was hit hard during the recession, and chambers of commerce — reflective of conditions in the business world — felt the challenge mightily. Every chamber in the country was affected by the economic downturn, and, to the extent that chambers are also bellwethers for improving times, we are all on a comeback! Rick Kidder For many small businesses, chamber membership becomes a substantial investment in marketing and business-building. From their chamber, they expect opportunities to connect, to learn and to grow as delivered through chamber programming and exposure through the chamber’s website. For larger, corporate members, the chamber provides an avenue through which those companies can show their support for small business, gain additional positioning and branding through sponsorships of quality programs, and opportunities to invest their time and talent in the economic development and public policy areas. While every chamber differs slightly, the core concept remains the same. Every business is stronger when it has opportunities to expand its networks and when it belongs to a community of other businesses. Chambers provide resources and information that strengthen a business’s ability to operate and, with active involvement, a large group of peers who help steer sales to each other. It is a simple concept: We are stronger together than we are alone. That strength in numbers concept spills into the public policy and economic development arenas as well. A business acting alone has little chance of making a difference at city hall or at the state capitol. Most small businesses would be largely unaware of goings on that could help or hurt their business environment without the chamber staying on top of key issues locally and at the state legislature. Chambers keep abreast of all issues that affect their local business community or the state, and use their strength
Scottsdale Airpark: From an Airport Sprang an Economic Powerhouse
In the 1980s, much of what is now the second-largest business center in the state — the Scottsdale Airpark — boasted more vacant land than developed land. It had, however, an asset of tremendous value around which business would start to flourish. That asset was Scottsdale Airport. Built as a World War II training field, Scottsdale Airport had become a city amenity, and it was rapidly developing into a popular corporate gateway to a city already well-known as a tourism destination. As corporate and private aircraft became more popular, so too did the land around that airport. Tourism brought new individuals to our city, and quality of life and the convenience of Scottsdale Airport made those individuals look at Scottsdale in new ways. Success was infectious. More and more businesses moved their regional or corporate headquarters to the relatively inexpensive land that surrounded the airport. Businesspeople could, suddenly, live and work where they did their business. The master-planned communities of North Scottsdale were soon born, joining the nation’s first master-planned community, McCormick Ranch, as beautifully designed places for corporate types to live. By the 1990s, the Scottsdale Airpark was growing quickly. Many more companies and amenities came, most unconnected with the airport itself but all sensing the presence of a special environment where business energy was thriving and beautiful homes were but a stone throw’s away. There were challenges to be sure, but there was also an intrinsic energy and excitement about a new Scottsdale that was both a business center and a magnificent place to live. Companies realized that in Scottsdale’s name alone there was magic, and the city offered an unparalleled lifestyle that stemmed from its resort traditions. No other city could offer this unique combination of quality of business and quality of life. Among the challenges, and in many ways first among them, was transportation. Thanks to the success of the Airpark, Scottsdale for the first time was importing more workers daily than exporting them. Seemingly overnight, the suburban community of Scottsdale became a net importer of work force and a powerful business center of its own. With
Airpark — Continued on Page 2
Kidder — Continued on Page 2 Scottsdale@WOrk - 1
Airpark — Continued From Page 1 Road. The 101 from the west was approaching what was to be the intersection with the 51. And then in the late 1990s, the unimaginable happened and the roadways met, completing the portion of Loop 101 serving the Airpark. There should have been a ceremony akin to the Golden Spike, but there wasn’t time. Business had to be done! Today, the Airpark is growing again, this time through revitalization and redevelopment. The success story has entered a new chapter, one where transportation routes through the Airpark are being redesigned for efficient mobility. Older properties are being re-purposed or redeveloped entirely. Every type of business imaginable is in the Airpark, and it has become the center of innovation and entrepreneurship in the metro area. The Scottsdale Airpark continues to be the place in the Valley to live, work, learn and play. And, oh yes, it boasts the busiest and best single-runway airport in the United States. It has been a wonderful journey from raw desert with a World War II training field to the economic powerhouse of the Valley.
Photo courtesy of the City of Scottsdale
Photos courtesy of the Scottsdale Historical Society
exponential growth that saw a remote area surrounding an airport become, in two decades, a developed economic engine, Scottsdale Airpark businesses were bringing in nearly 40,000 workers a day from all parts of the Valley. The mid-1990s was a tantalizing but frustrating time. Picture a major business center diagonally bisected by a runway that one could drive neither over nor under — only around. Picture the Airpark area with no freeway, nothing but surface streets bringing workers to and from their work homes. The 101 freeway consisted of bridges built on Salt River Indian Community land with no roadway to link them. Many of us who saw those structures on the Indian community believed that future generations of archaeologists would one day unearth them only to posit that an ancient people had once worshipped empty vistas. Scottsdale worked to accelerate freeway construction. An interchange opened linking the 202 to the 101. Roadway went in — painfully slowly — and one could drive on the freeway to Thomas
Kidder — Continued From Page 1 in numbers to get the attention of lawmakers and councilmen who are generally loathe to dismiss those who represent large numbers of potential supporters. It is that collective representation that constitutes clout. The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce works hard to exercise its clout judiciously, representing our members in thoughtful ways to help forge good public policy and strong economic development initiatives. We work with elected officials and key staff at the City of Scottsdale to help provide a balance between the needs of business and maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in Scottsdale. At the state level, we learned that bigger is better, and we added to our strength in numbers by being part of a coalition of chambers, collectively representing thousands of East Valley businesses, to become the largest
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business lobbying group in the state. The legislature listens to our representatives at the Capitol because they know that good policy means votes and economic prosperity benefits every Arizonan. Join your local chamber. Be a part of building your business and leveraging the strength in numbers that makes your investment part of your own success and part of the success for our region.
Rick Kidder, President/CEO
The Signature Event Season is in Full Swing! Once September rolls along, the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce begins its signature events, with one each month for September, October and November.
Scottsdale Business Showcase 2013
Seniors Mean Business!
Scottsdale’s premiere business-to-business tradeshow is the most anticipated tradeshow of the year! Each year has a fun and unique theme, fantastic food and drinks, lots of giveaways, a booth decorating contest and more! For 2013, the Tradeshow will have an automobile racing theme. Exhibitors can decorate their booth and dress their staff after their favorite team or racing legend! This high-energy event always provides great face-to-face networking opportunities in a unique and fun environment. Don’t miss the fantastic food and drinks, fun giveaways, booth decorating contest and more! Everyone will be there! Free and open to the public.
New to the Chamber lineup for 2013 is Seniors Mean Business, staged in conjunction with our partner Vi at Silverstone, a gorgeous and gracious senior living community. There is an incredible wealth of talent in Scottsdale for whom golf every day and fine dining is not enough. Talented people never lose that talent, and a strong community learns how to channel those talents and energy to help businesses grow and to help make Scottsdale a better community. Demonstrating that there is a huge difference between no longer heading to the office every day and being old, today’s seniors truly mean business!
The Scottsdale Business Showcase Thursday, September 12, 2013 3:30pm – 6:30pm Chaparral Suites Resort Scottsdale 5001 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 85250
The 28th Annual Sterling Awards The Chamber’s most prestigious and oldest signature event, the Sterling Awards, recognizes excellence in business and community through a rigorous juried process, culminating in a luncheon where three finalists from each of four categories and an audience of 500 learn who will be this year’s honorees of the Sterling Award. Presented annually in the categories of Micro-Business, Small Business, Large Business and Nonprofit, the Sterling Award has been called a “game changer” for many past honorees. The 28th Annual Sterling Awards Thursday, November 14, 2013 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Chaparral Suites Resort Scottsdale 5001 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, 85250
Featured Speakers: Gordon McConnell, Assistant Vice President for Innovation, Entrepreneurship Venture Acceleration, as well as Assistant Professor of Practice at Arizona State University: During his time in ASU, McConnell developed the Alexandria Network to create co-working spaces in libraries and the pracademic Rapid Startup School initiative and created the Arizona Furnace Accelerator. Previously, he held senior positions in higher education, global consulting and the corporate sector while also being the co-founder of two start-ups. Laura Grafman, Executive Vice President of Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation: Her community activities in Phoenix/Scottsdale began when she joined what was then the Scottsdale Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, and subsequently became its president in 1981. This led to Grafman’s employment by the Hospital Development Office, now Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation. In 1991, she became the Foundation’s executive vice president, which is the position she currently holds. As a passionate advocate for cancer patients and their families, Grafman considers it one of her proudest accomplishments to serve as the point person on the fundraising team which raised more than $30 million to build and endow the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea. She has also overseen the Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation Honor Ball since 1982. Seniors Mean Business! Thursday, October 3, 2013 3:00-5:00 PM Vi at Silverstone 23005 N. 74th St, Scottsdale, AZ 85255 Free but registration required at scottsdalechamber.com or by calling the Chamber office at 480-355-2700.
Luncheon tickets or tables available at scottsdalechamber.com or by calling the Chamber office at 480-355-2700.
In Business Magazine
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In Business Magazine
Photo courtesy of Sergio Dabdoub of surgedesigns-az.com
The Partner Council of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce:
Corporate Leadership for Today and Tomorrow In the early days of the growth of the Scottsdale Airpark, business leaders gathered under the Chamber’s umbrella to create an economic development initiative called the Scottsdale Partnership. Funded by corporate investment as well as economic development funding from the City of Scottsdale, the Scottsdale Partnership used corporate leaders to aid in the business attraction, business retention and expansion of companies in the Airpark.
The Chamber created the Scottsdale Partnership as a separate division within the organization, dedicated to high-end job growth in the city of Scottsdale. Charged with helping the city diversify its business base, the Partnership focused on bringing and supporting regional headquarters, corporate headquarters and white-collar employment centers to Scottsdale. The Scottsdale Partnership can rightfully take credit for filling millions of square
“The areas of greatest interest to our Partner Council members are economic development and public policy.”
In Business Magazine
feet of Class A office space in the new, exciting Airpark area as well as working with the city to help provide a more stable base for economic progress in Scottsdale. In 2001, the Airpark was nearly built out, and the Chamber, which had recently concluded that its best interests lay in no longer receiving direct city funding, absorbed the Scottsdale Partnership and rebranded it as the Partner Council. Today, the Partner Council remains the single greatest support for Chamber activities and the primary reason for the success of the organization through challenging times. Representing 6 percent of the membership of the Chamber, the Partner Council accounts for nearly 60 percent of the Chamber’s annual budget as the result of voluntary dues at the $5,000 level and above and sponsorship of signature events and programs. What binds Partner Council members together and to the organization is a value proposition rooted in the old Scottsdale Partnership but updated to reflect today’s corporate wants and needs and the reality of a community focused more on redevelopment than new development. As
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Photo courtesy of Sergio Dabdoub of surgedesigns-az.com
essentially an organization within an organization, the Partner Council has its own steering committee, chaired this year by Kevin Sellers, president of First Fidelity Bank. That steering group helps Chamber staff plan programming for what have become monthly gatherings of Partner Council members in a variety of settings. The Partner Council’s monthly events vary from formal luncheons with guest speakers of local, regional or national significance to “brown bag” opportunities to chat less formally with political and civic leadership to social connectivity events, often including spouses or significant others, where business leaders in the Valley get to know each other, learn about their respective businesses and engage in social discourse. The result of the Partner Council events is a more knowledgeable and cohesive business community, better connected and more invested in place. The areas of greatest interest to our Partner Council members are economic development and public policy. Often, those two significant areas overlap, since economic development opportunities require positive, business-friendly public policy. Partner Council membership entitles the member a seat at the table in the Chamber’s Economic Development and Public Policy advisory councils, two of the Chamber’s significant leadership advisory groups to the board of directors. It is through those two committees that ideas are vetted and analyzed
so that the board of directors may determine an appropriate course of action. A wise man once said that leadership cannot be conferred but rather must be worn by choice. Every Partner Council member is busy every day in his or
her business enterprise, but our members choose to assume the mantle of leadership, to invest in the Chamber at a high level and then also work to help shape our great community and region for the present and the future.
The Scottsdale Area Chamber’s Partner Council Has a New Sponsor and is Growing! The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce a new sponsor for all Partner Council programs and events: Arizona Bank and Trust. Here is what Arizona Bank and Trust says about the way they do business. Frankly, it sounds a lot like the Chamber! “At Arizona Bank and Trust, we believe that outstanding customer service is the most important core value we can offer you. Our employees strive
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for it by understanding your particular situation and providing products and services that exceed your expectations. We know that customer trust and satisfaction must be earned every day and in every way. We pledge to demonstrate this each time you use our bank, on site and online.” The Scottsdale Area Chamber is pleased to welcome these new Partner Council members:
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The Year of New Tech for the Scottsdale Chamber! The Chamber has long sought new technology to better serve our members, and with a successful year in our rear view mirror, this is to be the time to upgrade our technology in order to better serve our members. Here’s what to look for: New Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce website — NuWave Commerce from Chandler is currently revamping the Chamber website on an updated platform with capabilities we have never seen before. From a blog within the site to a new, clean look, the website will greatly enhance the member experience. It will automatically adjust for any device — from smartphone to tablet to PC — and make accessing information or registration for events quick and easy. Scottsdalechamber.com will look so good! New database — The Chamber has invested in a new, cloud-based database system from ChamberMaster, a company working now with 1,500 chambers of commerce and associations across the country. With its more intuitive and friendly interface, Chamber members will be able to search, indicate that they are hiring, and present themselves and be found by prospective customers like never before! New PCs for Chamber staff — We have upgraded hardware and software for staff members of the Chamber. As one staffer said, “Darn. I don’t get to daydream while staring at the hour glass spinning anymore!” The new computers and monitors will help Chamber staff serve our members better through new software and greater effieciency.
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Board of Directors Executive Committee Rick Kidder President & CEO Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce rkidder@scottsdalechamber.com 7501 E. McCormick Pkwy, Suite 202-N Scottsdale, AZ 85251 Phone 480.355.2700 Fax 480.355.2710 www.scottsdalechamber.com
BOARD CHAIR Eric Larson, AVB Development Partners CHAIR-ELECT Bryce Lloyd, FirstBank of AZ IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Kurt Zitzer, Meagher & Geer, PLLP TREASURER Geoff Beer, Crescent Bay Holdings
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL Don Couvillion, ASU SkySong MEMBER VALUE ADVISORY COUNCIL Pam Kelly, Pro One Media AT LARGE MEMBERS Jennifer Bongiovanni Karas, The Karas Group Kurt Brueckner, Titus, Brueckner & Levine, PLC
SCOTTSDALE PARTNERSHIP Kevin Sellers, Angela Creedon, First Fidelity Bank Arizona State University EMERGING ISSUES Bill Heckman, Heckman Marketing, Inc. PUBLIC POLICY ADVISORY COUNCIL Steve Helm, Scottsdale Fashion Square
Dale Fingersh, The Right Direction Rick Kidder, Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce
© 2013 Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. A publication of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. For more information or to join the Scottsdale Chamber, please contact us at www.scottsdalechamber.com. Section designed by InMedia Company, LLC.
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Infocus: Grand Openings! 1
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1. Apricot Lane, 15323 N. Scottsdale Rd., Suite 130, Scottsdale; 2. Buffalo Wild Wings, 9175 E. Indian Bend Rd., Scottsdale; 3. Chop and Wok, 10425 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale; 4. Jason’s Deli, 10605 N. Scottsdale Rd., Suite 101, Scottsdale; 5. OEI Design, 5800 E. Lewis Ave., Scottsdale; 6. Potbelly, 13610 N. Scottsdale Rd., Suite 103, Scottsdale; 7. The Surgical Hospital of Phoenix, 6501 N. 19th Ave., Phoenix
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In Business Magazine
Index Index by Name
Gannon, Rosemary, 22
Kittaneh, Firas, 12
Ornstein, Cyndi, 22
Austin, Jake, 14
Grafman, Laura, 59
Knight, Robert, 22
Pollack, Elliott, 31
Baier, Neil, 10
Halverson, Jim, 66
Koch, Richard, 29
Rea, Brenda, 14
Ballinger, Jim, 22
Hansen, Allen, 20
Krstetc, Victor, 20
Rea, Perry, 14
Bezos, Jeff, 28
Hatten, Tom, 18
Lehrman, Matt, 22
Schmidt, Megan, 14
Bonsall, Mark, 22
Huether, David, 16
Mahoney, Brendan, 22
Stanton, Greg, Mayor, 22
Booker, Bob, 22
Huntzinger, Jim, 31
Malkovich, Billy, 18
Thomas, Paul, 31
Chavez, Alberto, 20
Ingram, Floyd, 14
Martin, Juliet, 30
Ward, Jim, 9, 22
Christensen, Kate, 14
Jabjiniak, William J., 22
Maxwell, John C., 29
Washburn, Amy, 22
Cooper, Bobb, 22
Kelley, David, 29
McCallum, Greg, 20
Weddle, Randy, 30
Donat, Robert, 20
Kelley, Tom, 29
McConnell, Gordon, 59
Wiener, Matthew, 22
Feeney, Matthew P., 10
Kidder, Rick, 57
Miles, Stephen A., 28
Wilson, Kristen, 31
Foley, Rusty, 22
Kim, Nic Cha, 22
Miller, Mark, 29
Wolf, Jeffrey H., 10 Worsley, Bob, Sen., 22
Index by Company
Crescent Crown Distributing, 10
Northcentral University, 17
Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, 35
Actors Theatre of Phoenix, 22
Discover, 34
Siam’s Talay Grill, 47
Affordable GPS Tracking, 20
District American Kitchen & Wine Bar, 35
Organization of Women in International Trade – Phoenix, 33
Alerus Bank & Trust, 11
Driver Provider, The, 15
Palomar Hotel, 35
SoHo63, 14
Alliance Bank of Arizona, 2
Dry Force, 20
Peoria Chamber of Commerce, 33
Southwest Gas, 22
Amazon, 28
Economic Club of Phoenix, 32
American Express, 34
Elements, 35
Phoenix Symphony, The, 9, 22, 40, 45
American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter, 30
Elliott D. Pollack and Company, 31
Phoenix Theatre, 40
Firebird Investments, 18
Phoenix, City of, 16, 22
Americans for the Arts, 22
FordHarrison, 12
Phoenix, City of, Procurement Office, 12 Pink Jeep Tours, 20
Arizona Bank & Trust, 62
Glendale Convention & Visitors Bureau, 46
Arizona Broadway Theatre, 40
GPS Insight, 20
Queen Creek Olive Mill, 14
Arizona Citizens for the Arts, 22
Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, 31, 32
Regus, 7
Arizona Diamondbacks, 13
Healthcare Trust of America, 19
Salt River Project, 22
Arizona Helicopter Adventures, 14
Heard Museum, 22
Amerisleep, 12
Arizona Commission on the Arts, 22
Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 32 Arizona Office of Tourism, 16 Arizona Small Business Association, 31, 32 Arizona Technology Council, 32 Arizona Theatre Company, 44 Armani Hotel Dubai, 53 Association for Corporate Growth – Arizona, 32 ASU Gammage, 40 Audience Avenue, 22 Ballet Arizona, 40 Bibby Financial Services, 8 Bistro 24, 35 Blue Hound Kitchen & Cocktails, 35 BOK Financial Corporation, 31 Café Diva, 47 Cassidy Turley, 36 Central Phoenix Women, 32 Chandler Chamber of Commerce, 32 Chase Bank, 34 Children’s Museum of Phoenix, 7, 46 COBRA Solutions, 12 Cox Communications, 31, 56
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Hidden Meadow Ranch, 47 Hightail, 12 Holmes Murphy, 4 Inn at Lost Creek, 47 Innovation, Entrepreneurship Venture Acceleration, 59 Intel Corporation, 31
Phoenix Art Museum, 22, 38
Snell & Wilmer, 10
SRP, 21 Stoney-Wilson Business Consulting, 15 Surprise Regional Chamber of Commerce, 33 Sweet Basil, 47 Tempe Chamber of Commerce, 33
Quarles & Brady LLP, 10
U.S. Travel Association, 16 University of Phoenix, 67 Valley Youth Theatre, 22, 45
Ritz-Carlton Phoenix, 35
Vista Verde Guest Ranch, 47 West Valley Women, 33
SCF Arizona, 3 Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce, 33 Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation, 59 Shangri-La Hotel, 53
Women of Scottsdale, 33 Bold listings are advertisers supporting this issue of In Business Magazine.
Check Out
K1 Speed Phoenix, 4 Lexus, 34 Maricopa County Procurement Office, 12 Master Route, 20
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Mastro’s Restaurants, 11 Mesa Arts Center, 22, 44 Mesa Chamber of Commerce, 32
It's THE Hub to Building Business
Mesa, City of, 22 Miles Group, The, 28 Molly Butler Lodge, 47 Moonlight Snowshow Tours, 47 Mountainside Fitness, 18 National Association of Women Business Owners, 32 National Bank of Arizona, 68 North Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, 32
S e p t e m b e r 2013
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Roundtable
A Candid Forum
Overcome Autocorrect
Over-reliance on this technology can affect success in the workplace by Jim Halverson “Theirs a new project I’d like to discuss with you. Its a weigh to catch misspellings but to long to go into hear. Lets meet.” It’s unlikely you’ve ever received an email or other written message with that many spelling problems. But there are surely words in those three sentences that you’ve seen misspelled, and most probably you have misspelled some of them yourself. Notice that the only real “spelling demon” in the message is the word “misspellings,” and that has been spelled correctly. Why? Because if the writer had made the common mistake of writing “mispellings,” the autocorrect function would have flagged it. Not so with “theirs,” “its,” “weigh,” “to,” “hear” and “lets.” They are all perfectly good English words as written and pass muster with most spell-checker applications; the problem is, each is a homonym of the word the writer intended to use. If you do a quick proofread of what you’ve written, you may catch these slips, but because you’ve written it yourself, it’s likely that you’ll overlook them because those are your own thoughts, written moments before. That important boss you’ve sent the note to probably won’t miss the mistake, however, and that little error could undermine his confidence in you. What Mark Twain said about word choice is just as appropriate here: “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Even if your target audience is not your boss or a colleague, even if you’re the CEO of a large corporation writing to your associates, spelling errors in written communications inevitably diminish the forcefulness of your ideas and tarnish your stature in the eyes of your readers. It’s human nature. We stop reading for a few seconds and shake our heads when we hit that misspelling, and later it’s likely we’ll remember you made that error in your message just as well as we remember the content of the message. How, then, do you avoid writing “principle” when you mean “principal” or “affect” when you mean “effect”? There is no sure-fire method, but there are several steps you can take to lessen your chances of letting a mistake go unnoticed. The most effective way is to let
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someone who is a good proofreader go over your writing. But since this is often impossible to do, you need to proofread it yourself with homophone errors in mind. If you are prone to such errors, you can easily download lists of common homophone errors from the Internet, and these lists can truly help you recognize problem words. The more you write and proofread with them in mind, the more you will avoid misusing them. The issue is different for those among a growing minority who have been diagnosed as dyslexic. For people with dyslexia, spelling is always a severe trial; because their brains compute differently, they can never become good spellers. This is surely a burden, but they are in very good company — Da Vinci, Lincoln, Churchill, Einstein, Hemingway and J.F. Kennedy, to name just a few bad spellers from a long list. Charles Schwab didn’t learn there was a name for his problem until he was 40. But, like Schwab, most successful business executives who are dyslexic send out nearly
error-free prose because they recognize their language problems and get proofreading help, or they’ve developed their own personal strategies to combat them. Knowing how to spell is crucial in professional communications. People may accept a few improperly spelled words in email that carries the words “Sent from my iPhone,” but if they catch errors repeatedly, it can have a serious effect on professional performance. Whether you were born dyslexic or a gifted speller, remember: Your writing is not going to be as effective or influential if it contains spelling errors. Jim Halverson, retired from a career teaching in private schools, is the author of Spelling Works: New and Improved Lessons and Mazes to Help Students Master Spelling Rules and Spot Their Own Errors. Halverson developed the techniques over decades of teaching students how to spell. But there is no age limit on spelling problems, and he shares with In Business Magazine readers a strategy to help ensure their communication reflects well on their professional capabilities.
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