Year in Review 2011 | Page 23

EVENT PICTURES EVENTS 2011 SACC-Philadelphia hosted a number of successful events throughout the year of 2011. The Vodka Tasting was the first event in the calendar for the chamber and the annual Glögg and Christmas Party marked the end of SACC’s year. Vodka tasting- February On February 24 SACC-Philadelphia hosted a Vodka Tasting, the first in what we hope to become an annual tradition. The event was held at the prestigious Racquet Club of Philadelphia and hosted approximatley 75 people. David Engstrom, SACC President, introduced the event and thanked the guests for coming. Among the guests were the Honorary Consuls of Sweden, Norway and Finland and SACC members from IKEA, SKF & Thorp Reed and Armstrong LLP. The evening included by a raffle conducted by SACC Event Chair Brendan Walsh where each of the sponsors had generously donated one bottle of Vodka each. The response was overwhelmingly positive from all of the attendees, who couldn’t wait to come back for the next event. We thank the sponsors Absolut Vodka, Boyd & Blair, Finlandia and Philadelphia Distilling for making the event possible, as well as Lotis Media for providing great music to set the tone for the night. Social Media Business Mixer- March The social media event on March 23 was an opportunity for Philadelphians to meet and hear Nathan Egan, the founder and CEO of Freesource LLC, and a former top sales executive on LinkedIn. The distinctive feature of Social Media as opposed to traditional media is that it is interactive, meaning that the end user also is a content provider. Popular examples are Facebook, web blogs, Twitter and various internet fora. As popularity has increased, so has the importance of social media in business life. Mr Egan discussed the keys to holistic Online Reputation Management (ORM) and how to take advantage of LinkedIn and other social networking platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Blogs,etc.) to leverage your brand, make contacts and expand your network.