SRP Board Appointments

Karen Fisch, Salt River Project manager of Community Outreach, has been named to two non-profit boards. Fisch will serve on the Arizona Business Education Coalition, an alliance of business and education leaders from across the state focused on the success of the K-12 education system in Arizona. Fisch also was named to the Arizona Theatre Company, which has offered award-winning performances in Phoenix and Tucson to a combined audience of more than 150,000 since 1983.

In other SRP news, David M. Hall has been appointed to the Valley of the Sun United Way board. Hall is a Principal Engineer in SRP’s Electrical System Planning and Engineering.

More here: SRP

Scottsdale Arizona Kitchen Design Gallery Wins Second Place in
THERMADOR Freedom® Collection™ Design Contest.

Luxury appliance manufacturer Thermador® and Candice Olson, host of HGTV’s “Divine Design,” recently announced the winners of the Freedom® Collection™ Design Contest. Featuring both traditional and contemporary styles, the final kitchens all demonstrated total design freedom by utilizing Thermador’s ingenious modular column refrigeration system. The three winners will share $150,000 in cash and prizes, as well as recognition in a national advertising and publicity campaign.

“The Thermador Freedom Collection refrigeration, freezer and wine columns allow designers and consumers to create truly custom kitchens with unprecedented flexibility, rather than be limited by the placement of a bulky refrigerator/freezer combination,” said Holger Fietz, director of brand marketing. “We sent out a call to the design community and they responded with a lot of creativity, so we applaud all the winners and entrants of the Freedom Collection Design Contest.”

FIRST PLACE: Jennifer Allison; Redondo Beach, CA

Offering spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, Allison’s open kitchen features custom-made alder wood cabinetry with hand-applied distressing and finishes. She chose to flank a buffet, treated with a six-step color process that differs from the rest of the kitchen, with her Thermador Freedom Collection refrigeration and freezer columns. In effect, Allison decided to visually, as well as functionally, separate her refrigeration to allow for multiple work spaces. The buffet’s signature color also matches the handmade tiles on the backsplash for her Thermador 48″ Pro Grand™ Professional Series Range.

“Jennifer’s design made beautiful use of two key features of the Thermador Freedom Collection: the ability to separate the columns from one another to create multiple functional work spaces, as well as the seamless integration it offers with custom cabinetry,” said Candice Olson.

SECOND PLACE: Johan Bolle; Scottsdale, AZ

Johan Bolle, a principal of EuroDream Kitchens & Design Gallery, created a luxuriously modern kitchen for his Scottsdale client. He utilized European-style cabinetry in a Wenge finish, manufactured by Notle Küechen of Germany. Bolle explored several design options but kept encountering space limitations with a traditional side-by-side built-in refrigerator. By incorporating the Thermador Freedom columns, the overall kitchen now offers more functional space and flow. This was an important criteria for the client, who travels frequently for work, yet likes to relax when home by cooking a fabulous meal.

Visit the following links to read and view more about Johan Bolle and EuroDream Kitchens & Design Gallery’s

Kitchen Designs - Window Treatments - Kitchen Appliances

THIRD PLACE: Patricia Coburn; San Diego, CA

Coburn and her husband drew up the plans themselves for their kitchen remodel, with the sole purpose of enlarging the overall space to create more work areas. Both avid cooks, their small kitchen needed to accommodate their love for frequent entertaining of family and friends. Limited by the size of traditional built-in refrigeration, the Coburns instead installed separate Freedom columns. Yet they were still able to increase their overall refrigerator and freezer storage capabilities, to fit more foods for their numerous tropical and holiday themed parties.

The built-in Freedom Collection features the industry’s first fully integrated and Truly Flush Mounted™ refrigeration columns that can be placed anywhere in the kitchen. The collection includes counter-depth fresh food, freezer and wine columns in different width sizes, as well as the industry’s first integrated and flush-mounted three-door bottom-freezer; a two-door bottom-freezer is also available.

Each ENERGY STAR® rated Freedom column has its own compressor and evaporator to eliminate air exchange and odor transfer, which can be a concern with traditional refrigeration. The exclusive FreeFlow® Air System perfectly regulates the interior temperature within a variance of only 1.5 degrees, resulting in consistent air regulation and distribution to help keep “market fresh” foods longer. Other interior features include the motorized Liberty Shelf®, which conveniently moves a fully loaded top-shelf up to 22 pounds with the simple touch of a button. The heavy-duty Freedom® Hinge allows all the columns to be flush mounted to cabinetry, without sacrificing accessibility to the full extension drawers by opening up to an amazing 115 degrees.

As a result of its ingenious design and flexibility, the Freedom Collection has been awarded with numerous distinctions, including a: 2007 Design Journal Platinum Award for Design Excellence (ADEX); 2007 Excellence in Design Gold Award from Appliance Design Magazine; 2007 Woman’s Day Specials KB Awards honorable mention in the refrigeration category; 2006 Home Magazine American Kitchen and Bath Award; and 2006 Product Innovator Merit Award from Kitchen and Bath Business.

Thermador now also provides a new electronic catalog for its Freedom Collection refrigeration in 20-20 Design software. This gives designers using 20-20 Design an extensive number of 3-D, photo-realistic visuals of the modular columns so that clients can experience the look and feel of their kitchen prior to installation.

The Freedom Collection is among the quietest refrigeration units in the built-in category and has an MSRP of $3,099-$7,449; wine columns have an MSRP of $4,149-5,249. For more information about the Freedom Collection and the Design Contest, or to access the product’s 20-20 Design catalog, please visit www.thermador.com/freedom.
About Thermador

Thermador is part of BSH Home Appliances Corporation, a fully-owned subsidiary of BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH, the third largest appliance manufacturer in the world. For more than 70 years, Thermador has been empowering America’s cooking enthusiasts with revolutionary products — from the world’s first wall ovens to gas cooktops with the patented Star® Burner and a speedcooking oven that reduces cooking time by 50%. Today, Thermador continues to fuse state-of-the-art cooking functionality with classic American style to create the ultimate in powerful luxury kitchen appliances. For more information, please visit www.thermador.com or call 800.656.9226 to request a catalog. Thermador, Freedom, FreeFlow Air System, Liberty Shelf, Freedom Hinge and Star Burner are registered trademarks; An American Icon, Freedom Collection, Truly Flush Mounted and ProGrand are trademarks of BSH Home Appliances Corporation.

Magnetic Flowmeters - As processors continually tighten their belts, new loop-powered magnetic flowmeters (sometimes called mag) are also showing up as a cost-cutting alternative to other measurement methods in the CPI. “Traditionally, magnetic flowmeters were the choice if there were solids involved because the design is free of obstructions,” explains Bob Harvey, director of sales and marketing with Yamatake America Inc. (Phoenix, Arizona). “But, being four wire devices, they were overlooked by chemical processors because of costly installation issues and hazard risks in chemical plants with explosive environments.”

“Mag meters are free flowing, so there are no issues with solids coming down the line, which reduces maintenance costs associated with older style meters that seize when jammed by solids,” says Harvey. “We have situations where people were spending $200 to 300 a couple times a year rebuilding turbine and other meters. Then they spend $1,800 to $2,100 on a two-wire mag, eliminate maintenance expenditures and the payback is fast.” He adds that the accuracy, ability to handle solids, reduced mechanical wear and reduced need for calibration can quickly provide further savings.
Read the rest of this Flow Meter article here

Paddock Pools

Paddock Pools Honored with 2008 Merchandising Award

Scottsdale, AZ - Paddock Pools, Patios and Spas, the Southwest’s largest retailer of swimming pools, patio furniture, pool supplies and spas, was awarded Casual Living Magazine’s 2008 Merchandising Award for Best Outdoor Display in the multistore category.

Casual Living recognized Paddock for its wide assortment of backyard living products, including children’s play sets, Sport Courts and trampolines, along with outdoor kitchens, and entertainment accessories.. The magazine also noted Paddock’s use of color and foliage to highlight the displays. But according to the magazine, Paddock’s Gardentown Pool Pavilion in Scottsdale is the main reason for the award. Gardentown is the world’s largest pool and spa display and continues to impress Casual Living’s judges year after year.

Merchandising Award

Book Review of a Buzz Marketing Book - “Buzzmarketing - Getting people to talk about your stuff.”

Buzz Marketing - Buzz Marketing Tips -

Online Buzz Marketing

Buzz Marketing Book Review - Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff by Mark Hughes. Cutting to the chase in his first chapter, Hughes discusses his own experience in traditional marketing of name brands for large corporation and his less than stellar results.

“When I worked in the Corporate world of big brands,” he writes, “I spent millions of dollars on conventional advertising. And guess what I got? I got conventional results.”

“Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About Your Stuff” is a book about creating buzz about products, services and ideas, at little to low cost using unique, catchy campaigns designed to get people to talk, thus the buzz. The basic premise is that by developing buzz marketing campaigns that lead people to share your content and information about your product or service with others, you end up creating a buzz around that product or service which is far more effective today than the conventional marketing techniques of yesteryear and far less expensive than traditional marketing campaigns and advertising that are now, forever changed.

Mark Hughes offers many good ideas that can be used to produce a buzz marketing effect and word-of-mouth campaigns that can work. He says, by pushing the right button at the right time you can generate free media attention, free word-of-mouth buzz and capture the attention of your perfect customer.

While the book has some excellent points, it is not the be-all, end-all for buzz marketing, social media and viral marketing campaigns and should be utilized as a useful tool to integrate with your own unique marketing strategies. As with all marketing self help and marketing methodologies, none are 100% exclusive to their author, but Hughes’ book Buzzmarketing, certainly fills the bill with an extreme value for the price.

The picture below is of Bill Austin and Mike O’Neil at LinkedIn Live In Phoenix.  They have both just recently reached four thousand direct connections on LinkedIn and had also just met in person for the first time.

This was the inaugural event and launch party for Integrated Alliances LinkedIn Live Phoenix events and it was held on November 6, 2007 at Ruth’s Chris Steak House on Camelback in Phoenix Arizona.

Arcadia Farms Cafe in Old Town Scottsdale Now Serving Breakfast.

SCOTTSDALE Arizona - Arcadia Farms Cafe in Old Town Scottsdale is now serving breakfast daily at 8am. Fresh baked pastries including strawberry and apricot scones, blueberry coffeecakes, almond cream-filled croissants, sticky buns and cinnamon rolls are served Monday through Friday. A full breakfast menu is offered Saturday and Sunday, including fresh berry crepes, lemon curd bread pudding, egg strada cobbler and breakfast panini.

CBI Group launches Arizona Acquisition Fund to purchase Undervalued Phoenix Real Estate for Canadian Investors.

CBI Group, the new face of Keystone Real Estate Investments, has announced the launch of a fund that will allow Canadian investors to profit from the downturn of the Phoenix Arizona housing market. The Arizona Acquisition Fund will raise up to 12.5 million (Cdn) to purchase approximately 175 single-family homes in the Phoenix area over the next 12 months.

The Arizona Acquisition Fund is an opportunity for Canadian investors to enhance and diversify their portfolios without the traditional hassles associated with foreign real estate investments. Institutional financing, tenant prospecting, property management and sales processes will handled by CBI Group and their extensive network of Phoenix Arizona Real Estate industry experts residing in Phoenix area.

“Most Canadians are starting to realize that we have ideal market conditions to invest in the U.S. thanks to a strong Canadian dollar and extremely low home prices due to the sub prime mortgage crisis. The Phoenix market remains an area of interest for baby boomers, so we expect that it will produce the greatest profit when it recovers over the next five years.” explains Travis Cadman, co-founder of CBI Group.

For a minimum RRSP eligible investment of $10,000 investors in the Arizona Acquisition Fund will receive a 6% annual bond interest that will be disbursed as cash flow permits as well as a share in 60% of net profits when the homes are sold.

Technorati Profile

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano announces local toll-free Foreclosure Prevention help line.

“MORTGAGE TROUBLE? DON’T DELAY. CALL TODAY.”
Governor announces local toll-free help line

PHOENIX - Governor Janet Napolitano announced today the latest effort in a series of state initiatives to better serve Arizona families facing foreclosure. Homeowners who are either delinquent on their mortgage or face foreclosure now have a new, dedicated 24/7 toll-free help line to reach a local Arizona foreclosure counselor: 1-877-448-1211.

“In response to a problem that is increasingly affecting so many Arizona families we are launching this new toll free number in an effort to urge homeowners to not delay – to call today,” said Governor Janet Napolitano. “Troubled Arizona homeowners now have a phone number that will connect them to specialized services right here in Arizona. We urge anyone who may be at risk of foreclosure to call a local foreclosure counselor today.”

The Arizona foreclosure help line, made available through a $1.3 million federal grant, will be a vital link between families facing a housing crisis and access to free foreclosure counseling appointments. The Arizona Department of Housing is contracting with Community Information and Referral Services to staff the call center which will connect homeowners to a local, certified foreclosure counselor.

Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force

Economic Growth Is Revised Higher

The economy grew at a faster pace than originally estimated in the first quarter, the government said on Thursday, but the nation remained mired in its most stagnant period of growth in five years.

Skip to next paragraph

The New York Times

Gross domestic product, a measure of overall economic growth, expanded at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the first three months, according to a Commerce Department report. That was higher than the initial estimate, released a month ago, which had put the growth rate at 0.6 percent.

Economic Growth Is Revised Higher - NYTimes.com