May Chapter Meeting — Special Thank You

Clare Marie Kronemeyer, AKBD
VP Communication/Technology

NKBA wishes to extend a warm thank you to RC Cabinets for hosting our KBIS Recap meeting. The food from Café Paris was wonderful and the seating arrangements allowed all of us to see Josie Jewart, CKD as she guided us through her KBIS experience. Thank you very much Josie.

Featured Article — Around the Valley…

Clare Marie Kronemeyer, AKBD
As Your Like It Designs LLC

With the economy still in a slump, members of the Valley design community are utilizing their time on three well known and important business strategies: Networking, Education/Training and Organizing. We recognize that this is the moment to fine tuning our skills and to form alliances if we already haven’t, so that when this new economy does settle down we can hit the floor running. At every event I’ve gone to this month I have asked members what they are doing differently and the majority expressed that they are using the time to regroup and enhance product knowledge. Good for us.

SunWest's Coffee and Dessert Pairing Event

I always enjoy going to events sponsored by SunWest, but they outdid themselves with this one. The setting was casual yet elegant, and the full breakfast followed with an array of pastries, beautifully paired with just the right coffees, was fabulously delicious. This event was to demonstrate the Brew Express Coffee machine and to give the participant a true culinary experience that is offered through their new cooking program: Cooking Studio AZ. The Cooking Studio offers cooking classes in SunWest’s live Viking kitchen and you can request a class scheduled online at www.sunwestdist.com. I have already asked one of my clients to choose the class she would enjoy the most and I would treat her as a thank you for giving me the opportunity to design her kitchen and bathrooms. Of course, this event could not have been the success it was without the help of Michael Cusack of Coffee Roasters of Arizona. His expertise in the coffee industry brought the Brew Express to life. I later toured the roasting plant and was very impressed with the range of products they offer as well as the general information he shared. Did you know that all decaffeinated coffee is processed in Germany? Well, I didn’t until that tour. I love strong coffee and took home some of their Italian Roast and the Vienna Roast – wonderfully strong and richly flavored. For more information please check out: http://passportcoffee.com. Needless to say, I, like several others that day, bought a Brew Express Coffee machine, so I really do have great coffee every morning and love the extra counter space now available in my kitchen. For installation of the Brew Express please check on our Tips and Techniques tab and if you have any questions just give me a call or email me.

The Great Indoors — For the Trade Program

The Great Indoors in Chandler offered a Viking training event along with breakfast to all of their For the Trade professionals. Jim McCabe, Director of Sales and marketing for SunWest Appliance Distributors was there to answer designer questions and we talked about a new line that Viking is coming out with - a more contemporary, sleek design that will rival the high-end KitchenAid appliance market. Informational literature will be available for this new line on September 1st.

For the Trade events will be held monthly in the Chandler store so you may want to join their For the Trade the next time you are in the Scottsdale or Chandler store. As a member of the For the Trade Program I know the program can be very beneficial for a designer. In one year I received $4,000.00 in gift cards through the program since several of my clients routinely shop at the store and bought Thermador products that year from The Great Indoors because they had what they wanted at a price comparable to other places. For more information just call or email Ryan Gates, Project Business Manager at the Chandler Store, , 480-792-6013.

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