Sunday, August 31, 2008

Next AZIGG Meetings 10/6am and 11/3pm



The Arizona International Growth Group (AZIGG) had another excellent crowd - 135 - at the headquarters of Cold Stone Creamery on August 15th. Thank you to Lee Knowlton - President of International for Kahala Corporation - for hosting us.

Our next AZIGG meeting is the first Monday in October - October 6th - featuring Rod Miller of GPEC (Greater Phoenix Economic Council). Rod will be presenting his 'International State of the State' that is now an annual event at AZIGG. We'll be at Jobing.com - near 22nd and Camelback. Start time is 7:30am.

Our November meeting is another special one - on the night before the Presidential Election. On Monday evening November 3rd we'll be at Thunderbird School of Global Management and we'll be treated to presentations by successful alumni of Thunderbird. This is a joint meeting with the Thunderbird alumni association.

Thanks to everyone for your support of AZIGG. More info here: http://www.azigg.com/

All the best, Doug

Doug Bruhnke
AZIGG & Growth Nation
Scottsdale, AZ USA


AZIGG Celebrates One Year in Phoenix


It was nearly one year ago (October, 2007) that we started AZIGG - Arizona International Growth Group. Thanks to our first speaker Rod Miller of GPEC, who got us off to a fast start.



Before that first meeting I was wondering why Phoenix didn't have a business group where former expatriates like me could get together with other international folks, and where Arizona-based companies could go to get help and advice to take their business global. Why not?


The two premier groups in the Valley are mostly non-business: Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations (http://www.pcfraz.org/) and the World Affairs Council of Arizona (http://www.wacaz.org/). They're both excellent - I'm a member of each - but they don't meet the business side of things like I wanted. And so I was thinking that if I could start a group that was more business oriented, some of the PCFR and WACAZ members might be interested, and off we go.


Before I sent out that first e-mail I thought we'd get 30-50 people, and I went ahead to book Dave Sherman's Training Center. Within an hour of sending an e-mail, 50 people had signed up. Oooops - - - we moved to Jobing.com! Holly Schor and Don Mock of Jobing.com are wonderful - - - and they put up with too many people and too many cars at that first and subsequent meeting. We got 'er done thanks to the Jobing.com team!


We've subsequently moved to larger venues like Sassi in Scottsdale and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Auditorium. AZIGG was started! Andres Chagolla of MCBiz and his team have also been extraordinary in helping us get off the ground and keep it going and growing. Thanks Andres and Nelson!?


A lot of the interest in that first meeting was for Rod Miller, VP of International for Greater Phoenix Economic Council (http://www.gpec.org/). Rod is extraordinary - - - his international background impeccable - - - and he is an amazingly effective ambassador for Arizona.


Many thanks to all the internationalists who have made it possible, especially Kim Kubsch and the board of AZIGG http://www.azigg.com/.


There have been many community leaders who have helped out - including Susan Schultz of PCFR, Sharon Wilkinson of WACAZ, Steve Zylstra of AZ Tech Council, Glenn Williamson and CABC, etc etc. There are too many to count - and so thank you to all!


Thanks for visiting our blog. I'll take a few steps back to get you caught up and then hopefully keep it going and current from our next meeting October 6, 2008 - - - again with Rod Miller!


All the best, Doug
Doug Bruhnke
Founder/President of AZIGG http://www.azigg.com/
CEO of Growth Nation http://www.growthnation.com/