Lee Pulaski, lpulaski@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Tammy Brzeczkowski, far right, co-owner for Dynamic Designs Unlimited, explains how her business operates during the first Coffee Connections facilitated by the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. Listening to Brzeczkowski’s pitch are, from left, Scott Parson and Stacy Eggelston, of Thrivent Financial, Shawano County Economic Progress Inc. executive director Dennis Heling and chamber executive director Nancy Smith.
Leader Photo by Lee Pulaski Kristy Hesse, left, human resources manager for Krueger International’s Bonduel operation, talks about her business during Coffee Connections on Wednesday while Donna Hobscheid, a real estate agent with Hilgenberg Realty, takes notes.
The Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce has tried many ways to bring local business people together, but its latest road builder is paved with caffeine.
The chamber held its first Coffee Connections on Wednesday morning at Glas Coffeehouse, merging two existing programs into one in an effort to get businesses to network and find out what services are available in the area.
“It’s just an informal little breakfast get-together where people introduce themselves and tell about what’s going on with their business,” said Lisa Meisner, who works at Orthopedic and Spine Therapy and helped organize the Coffee Connections. “We’ve got an agenda that we can or cannot follow, if folks have other ideas.”
The new program combines the chamber’s Speed Networking, where business owners got together and gave one-on-one elevator pitches about their businesses to 20 or more people in the course of an hour, and Breakfast Connections, which included breakfast and a presentation on a business topic.
As in Speed Networking, the new Coffee Connections format still requires short pitches, but now the business owners give one pitch to the whole group.
“We thought it would be a good idea to merge the two groups and get more bang for our buck, so to speak,” said Nancy Smith, chamber executive director.
The Coffee Connections can provide information on new trends and activities. On Wednesday, Matt Melotte, a physical therapist, discussed a new method of therapy called dry needling.
“It’s kind of a focus on muscular pain, and it’s still new in the field,” Melotte said, noting he will get his final certification on the technique in May. “It has really brought us up a step in our care.”
The informal gatherings also provide some new facts and statistics. Scott Parson, financial consultant with Thrivent Financial-Wolf River Associates, noted that most people spend more time planning for family vacations than they do for their financial futures.
“About 93 percent of people spend more time in a year planning for their vacation than they do their entire life for their retirement,” Parson said. “In one year, you’ll plan to go somewhere for a week or two weeks for a vacation, but your retirement that you could be in for 30 or 40 years, you spend less time planning.”
Some of the business operators injected humor as they spoke with colleagues. Kristi Hesse, human resources manager with Krueger International in Bonduel, a furniture building company, elicited a few laughs.
“As soon as you all leave, I’ll have to look under the tables to see if these are ours,” Hesse said.
The Coffee Connections will be held on the first Wednesday of each month at Glas Coffehouse, 511 N. Main St., Shawano.