Brooklyn's Progress
August/September 2005

By Harold Egeln

Over 200 Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Members and friends headed out to Coney Island for camaraderie, hot dogs, hamburgers and baseball at the Brooklyn Chamber’s July Business After Hours networking event at KeySpan Park, held on July 28, followed by a game between the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Hudson Valley Renegades.

"We have 267 new Members since January 1st and more new ones are signing up at this event, even as I speak!" said Brooklyn Chamber President Kenneth Adams speaking with excitement to a large group of friends and Members, new and longtime, under the picnic tent, applauding his announcement.

"The Brooklyn Cyclones thanks the Chamber for putting this great event together," Cyclones General Manager Steve Cohen told the crowd. The Brooklyn Chamber’s Business After Hours (BAH) is its monthly networking event, held at various sites throughout Brooklyn. Last July the BAH was held at Astroland Park, also in Coney Island.

Handing Mr. Adams a membership check at the event was the man whose company is responsible for the Cyclones fencing, Al Paciello of U.S. Fence Systems, Inc. at 553 Third Avenue.  He was referred to the Chamber by Brooklyn Chamber Historian and Ambassador Joe Stile, also in attendance. "It's very important to network and meet new people. I can see that as a major value of the Chamber, and the resources, events and connections that it offers," Mr. Paciello said, joined by his son Jonathan Paciello.

"I joined the Chamber in June," said Christian Betke, Scher Financial Group. "My membership with the Chamber has been very rewarding, by forming helpful relationships and gaining valuable business insights with other Members and at events."

A Member who joined over a year ago, Larry Zuckerberg, owner and president of CM IT Solutions, looked back on the importance of Chamber membership. "I serve on the Chamber’s Small Business Seminar Committee. The seminars the committee presents are very informative and give many people a chance to meet and become like a family, sharing their ideas."  Along with fellow Member Vince Gangi, Gangi Chem-Dry, Mr. Zuckerberg was one of two lucky winners of the evening’s door prizes of gift baskets filled with Brooklyn Cyclones memorabilia and other goodies.

Among Chamber staff working on membership at the event were Tara Levin, Manager of Member Services, and Darryl Hollon, Vice President of Membership, both very happy about the forward leap in membership this year and at the event itself.

A Brooklyn Cyclones usher, Jeffrey Steinberg, with the Cyclones since the beginning, happily greeted Chamber Members entering the picnic area behind the stadium bleachers. "The Chamber is one of the excellent organizations we host here. We're all family here in Brooklyn, and the Cyclones bring us all together."

To find out how to host or sponsor a Business After Hours event, please contact Maggie Beaute-Lucien, Director of Special Events, at 718-875-1000 ext. 105, or at mlucien@brooklynchamber.com.