Fairfield County Business Journal 090318

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SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 | VOL. 54, No. 36

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

westfaironline.com

SiW rises from the ashes of Stamford Tech Week BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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Welcome to all PAGE 2

Katia Capozziello, owner of the LGBT-focused Trevi Lounge in Fairfield, said her venue is a friendly environment for all residents. Photo by Phil Hall.

Golden days

VIDAL/WETTENSTEIN FOUNDER SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING, 50 YEARS IN BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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sk the founder of most companies observing their golden anniversary the obligatory question of how long they expect to remain hands-on and you’ll receive modest replies to the tune of “as long as they’ll have me” and/or how they’re looking forward to retirement. Randy Vidal is not one of those people. “I’ll be here as long as I have my health and my marbles,” said the founder and principal of Vidal/ Wettenstein LLC, the Westport commercial real estate firm now in

its 50th year. “The ones he hasn’t already lost,” quipped Bruce Wettenstein, who’s been a partner in the firm since 1996. The resulting laughter was shared by the five other employees in the conference room at its 719 Post Road East office. That they were all in attendance for Vidal’s 50th anniversary interview is indicative of their leader’s career-long philosophy: That nothing works as well as teamwork. “When you have real skin in the game, that makes the whole difference,” Vidal said. “Why do so many partnerships fail? Because the staff works their butts off and the senior people take the cream off the top. » GOLDEN DAYS

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tamford Technology Week is dead; long live Stamford Innovation Week. The latter, stylized as SiW, shares with its predecessor a mission to connect entrepreneurs, tech talent and investors. Taking place at a number of Stamford venues from Sept. 13-23, it is composed of more than 100 events including conferences, panels, speakers, open houses, networking, and after-hours socializing with live music at pubs and restaurants. “I’ve hosted and been to so many meetups and other networking events over the past couple of years that it just made sense to make this happen, and to continue what Stamford Technology Week was all about,” said Jonathan Winkel, SiW founder, managing partner of Stamford-based marketing agency SquareWheel, and chair of Stamford’s Economic Development Commission. The technology week had over the years become somewhat unwieldy, Winkel said. “They felt it had grown too diluted and decided not to do it” last year, he said. Hugh Seaton, who as vice president of operations at the now-defunct Stamford Innovation Center was one of the driving forces behind technology week. He now runs nonprofit entrepreneurial advisory program Innovate Stamford in addition to being CEO at Stamford software firm Aquinas. He approached Winkel to discuss the event’s future last year. “We agreed that it would be a shame to let it die on the vine,” Winkel said. “What’s been happening for a good 10 years is you’d go to a networking event, and it seemed like » SIW

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