This year, for the fifth year in a row, Arizona’s entrepreneurial community will be gathering at AZEC10 on November 17, 2010 at the Desert Willow Conference Center in Phoenix, AZ for a day where we will share ideas, engage, and build the kind of connections that help our businesses and community grow. I will be there and I hope that you will join me.

The theme of this years’ full day conference is The Great Re-set. Together we will hear from nationally known thought leaders including Silicon Valley VC, Dave McClure, Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group, social media icon Brian Solis, Kathy Kolbe, the world’s leading expert on conation and how we get things done, Sharon Lechter co author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and founder of Pay Your Family First; PLUS a panel of local VCs and Angels who actually invest in Arizona. In addition, we continue the AZEC tradition of bringing local CEOs to the stage to share their insights on what they are doing to in their businesses that works . You can see more information on this year’s speakers by clicking here.

This conference is different than others for the following reasons:

· This is a conference by Arizona Entrepreneurs and for Arizona Entrepreneurs. Every session is designed to share information, tips and insights you can take back to you business the very next day and it does not matter if you are leading a team of 1 or a team of 10,000.

· All proceeds from the conference go to support the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation’s work to help at-risk members of our community reach economic self sufficiency through entrepreneurship.

· Even if you can’t make it, you have the opportunity to share the learning with others by Sponsoring a Student who might otherwise not be able to attend.

Between now and AZEC10, I will be sharing a behind the scenes look at some of the people who are making things happen at AZEC10 and in our community at my blog and at the Examiner. Feel free to follow along, there are some great stories to tell.

The conference and our entrepreneurial community is supported by wonderful organizations that all of us at OTEF are very grateful to: The Phoenix Business Journal, Infusionsoft, Altimeter Group, Arizona Technology Investor Forum, BC Graphics, Beanstalk CFO, BrainSavers, Caffe Social Media, Callaman Ventures, CorePurpose, Inc., Deru Internet Services, Drip Media, Eco-Edge, FlowTown, Gangplank, Hot Ventures, Kolbe Corp, Mashable, MyTekLife, Metro Studios, Pay Your Family First, Pillsbury Wine Company, Robert Dunaway Attorney at Law, rYnoweb, Sacks Public Relations, Satow Strategies, Shwaag, Social Marketing Conversations, Strategic Resource Group, Stealthmode Partners, and Yeager/North Creative Marketing. We also appreciate these awesome Community Partners: Arizona Angels, Arizona Technology Council, City Of Phoenix, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Funding Universe, Greater Phoenix SCORE, Ignite Phoenix, MIT Enterprise Forum, NetworkingPhoenix.com, North Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce, Phoenix Innovation Foundation, Phx Social Media Club, PodCampAZ, TIE-Arizona, WordCamp Phoenix.

Oh, one last note. There is an early registration discount of $25 if you sign up before 1 AM on October 16^th. Every year someone sends me a note saying “why didn’t you tell me!” So here you go.

Thanks for making the time to read this. We are all super busy and I appreciate that you stayed with me until the end. I hope I will see you at AZEC10 so I can thank you in person!

All the best,

Joan Koerber-Walker

Chairman, OTEF, The Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation