San Ramon Chamber of Commerce Mixer

This month’s Chamber of Commerce Mixer, sponsored by and held at Club Sport Fitness Center in San Ramon, turned out to be a very well attended event with business people from all over the Bay Area.  The Harper Team was there in force with John Harper and Craig Harper moving through the crowd in opposite directions to ensure we would meet as many people as possible. (we need to coordinate our pic processing for the blog!)

One interesting fellow that Craig bumped into was Kevin Horan, Executive Dean of Diablo Valley College’s San Ramon Valley Campus. The new DVC San Ramon Campus is located in the Dougherty Valley area of San Ramon at 1690 Watermill Road in the same village as the Dougherty Station Library. Kevin was very excited about the new facilities which include 16 General Education classrooms, 3 Computer Labs, 2 Biology Labs, 1 Chemistry Lab, 1 Physics Lab, 1 Drawing Studio, 1 Painting Studio, 1 Ceramics Lab, 1 Math Lab, 1 Language Lab, 1 PE Studio and in the Fall 2007 they will also be offering a Medical Lab Technician program.

I (Craig) was beginning to get a little hungry so I grabbed some of the great hors d'oeuvres (seared ahi tuna was my favorite) and grabbed a table where I met Bobbi Greer, the Sales Manager for the Tri-Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau. They are located in Pleasanton and the interesting thing is that Pleasanton does not have its own convention center.  However, Bobbi, Natalie Alvanez (Director of Communications and Memberships who was also at the table) and the rest of the TVCVB staff provide the local expertise to track down and make whatever arrangements a company or group needs for handling all the logistics of pulling off a meeting, seminar, convention or just playing tourist.

I (John) picked up about a dozen business cards and Craig did the same. I didn't get this young lady's. She is a massage therapist at Club Sport. She is from Brazil and was a judge in that country. 

I also snapped a pic of Rich McVey, the official photographer for the event. I asked Rich if he was looking for more business. He informed me that he has reached that point in life where he is very particular of the work he takes on. He's having a great time, loves the work he does and has a golf foursome that rocks.

There was an awesome spread of food provided by A Tasteful Affair caterers. I had a great chat with owner Peggy Welch about blogging and the impact it could have on her catering business in the San Ramon Valley. Here is a pic of Peggy and her daughter.

Some of the other cards I collected:

• Carol Marshall - The Write Business 
• Paul Gent - PG Construction Company
• Elizabeth Urias-Garcia - Your Coordinator 
• Monica Bass - Grand Flow 
• Mohammed Barase - Saf Keep Storage 
• Cindy Paiva - Serenity Wellness 
• Alexander Le - People Around
• Aaron Feldman - Forming Relationships
• Jennie Mitchell - Diversified Financial Concepts

And last but not least - Sandy Parkins my competitor over at Prudential Realty smiling here because the local real estate market in San Ramon is just awesome!