On Thursday, August 11, the Camp Verde Chamber and Business Alliance hosted the first of a new series of second Thursday Mixer events in the Terracotta Room of the Camp Verde Community Library.
CVCBA President Greg Ellis opened the mix by asking attendees to stand up and introduce themselves and their respective companies.
A variety of local business owners, from massage therapists to real estate agents, were in attendance, as were economic development specialists from the Camp Verde Economic Development Center and the Business Resource and Innovation Center and the Arizona Association for Economic Development.
Tom Pitts, one of the founding directors of the Verde Valley Regional Economic Organization, said he has volunteered with several business-related organizations in the region, including CVCBA, “to connect people to a whole range of things that happen to make business operations in the city has access to such things.”
“Yavapai County is kind of unusual; they don’t “do” economic development,” he said. “It’s one of the few [counties] not that one. There is no economic development department, no economic development director, and no economic development budget, unlike in Maricopa County or many other places.”
Pitts spoke to attendees about organizations that support local business owners and encouraged them to attend an upcoming open house at the BRIC at 385 North Main Street in Camp Verde on Thursday, August 25.
“That’s a pretty good resource to familiarize ourselves with. So try to make it on the 25th and see what’s going on over there,” he said.
Crisi Clark, economic development specialist at the BRIC, said the event will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and will be attended by representatives from Yavapai College SBDC and other organizations.
The open house is also a celebration of the official launch of the BRIC, which opened earlier this year.
“There’s cake if you want to stop by,” Clark laughed.
In addition to networking, the mixer included a presentation from Glorybound Publishing owner and former President and longtime member of the CVCBA, Sheri Hauser.
Hauser’s presentation included a 20-minute introduction to small business networking site Alignable, where she highlighted some of the site’s features and compared them to features on Facebook and LinkedIn.
“Social media is very, very beneficial for all of us here,” Hauser and Ellis said.
Following the presentation, lots were drawn with winners receiving gift baskets containing a variety of locally produced goods including books, wine and more.
Copies of the Chamber’s new Resource Guide 2022-23 were also available.
The guide, which is also available online through Barnes & Noble and Amazon, states that it “provides the answers to your questions about the services available in the Camp Verde business community.”
The book also states, “It is the only book of its kind with a complete list of companies in the area, their services and contact information.”
In addition to the second Thursday Mixer events, the Chamber is also hosting “Third Thursday Zoom Mixer” events, the next of which will be on Thursday, August 18th at 9am
You can find more information about the CVCBA mixers on campverdebiz. com.
Lo Frisby can be reached at 634-8551 or email [email protected]
