Connecticut Business Day Unites Voices Across the State

There were some great Chamber events last week, and I would like to thank all of our members for showing their support as well as our sponsors for making these events possible.

Thanks again to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal for speaking to our chamber on Monday. Pratt & Whitney was the event sponsor and thanks to Pratt for hosting the chamber’s board of directors at a luncheon at its Middletown facility. Every year, the company and its customer and community relations manager Rosario Rizzo do a great job of hosting our group. 

The seminar—sponsored by Murtha Cullina, LLP—that immediately followed the breakfast was outstanding and we had a full room for the event.  Titled: How to Recover When Disaster Strikes, each panelist was an expert in either emergency preparation or energy solutions for businesses. Panelists were: Paul McCary of Murtha Cullina; Kate Novick of Gradient Planning; Michael Callahan of Fuss & O’Neill and Mark Kopera of Pratt & Whitney.

State Sen. President Pro Tem Don Williams spoke to the chamber’s legislative committee and guests last week, sponsored by Connecticut Light & Power.  Senator Williams deserves a lot of credit and is someone who truly realizes the importance of the small and large business community.

One such business in our county held an open house last week that was a big hit:  Bouvier Insurance in East Haddam.  A recent member to join our chamber, the agency has been very proactive in engaging in its chamber membership and thanks to Sales Executive Janet Mislick for her enthusiasm.

Matt Fraulino, Brian O’Connor and Joan Wood from my staff all attended this great event.

It gave me a great honor to attend the Kiwanis club of Middletown’s meeting on Wednesday.The group asked me to speak about the chamber and the activities that we have going on within our office. It is always great to let people know just exactly what we do here with our staff of 20. 

Thanks also goes to Kiwanis for recognizing the value of the chamber and joining us as a member.

One component to the chamber that makes it so effective is its individual divisions, which are used to bring individuals together from the same town or sub-region within the county. Probate Judge Joe Marino, who started his tour of our divisions in Cromwell, will continue his tour at the All-Middletown division on Wednesday as the featured speaker. These meetings continue to be a valuable tool to connect business leaders with each other and with local officials

I will attend a Pratt & Whitney employee rally Tuesday at the company’s East Hartford location with U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman and U.S. Congressman John Larson. It will be an honor to attend this event with the men and women who make the company move forward in addition to its Engineer of the Year award recipients.

I also look forward to our legislative committee’s 2012 legislative breakfast meeting with all of our county’s legislators on Feb. 24 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell. 

Each year, our audience poses very educated questions of our representatives and it is so, so important that we engage them in this type of dialogue.  The event will begin at 8 a.m. and I encourage any member who has not already registered to attend this exclusive event.

Another big legislative-oriented event that the chamber will participate in is Connecticut Business Day, which is held at the state’s Legislative Office Building in Hartford. We rally our chamber members every year to take part in this very important event that unites voices in business across the state. This event will take place next week on Feb. 29 at 7:45 a.m. 

We have chartered a bus and will pick up members in front of the chamber, with a second pick-up at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell. All members are encouraged to attend.

After a full day at the Legislative Office Building, we are very excited to hold a Business After Work at the newly-refurbished Hawthorne Inn in Berlin. This is a facility that is full of history and tradition; a new chapter in this history has begun under the new general manager, David Weber, who has completely rebranded the establishment.

For information, contact Matt Fraulino at (860) 347-6924 or matthew@middlesexchamber.com.