2013 Board of Directors

PRESIDENT 

Michael Ketcher

michael_ketcher@yahoo.com

VICE PRESIDENT

Jennifer Salci

jjsalci@yahoo.com

PAST PRESIDENT

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BECOMING AN UBER-NETWORKER...

When I moved back to St. Louis some years ago, after having been away for 17 years, it didn't matter much what high school I had gone to. I felt like a newcomer to the city and decided to start networking. The first group I attended was the local MCA-I chapter, as time went on, I've expanded my networking to include other organizations and informal groups.

St. Louis offers a wealth of opportunities for networking, and I'd like to share some of my favorites. I would urge you to explore and to find your own favorites.

THE BIG BASH is coming this month, on September 12; it's the #1 business networking event of the year, and we hope you'll attend this year, as the MCA-I has been a participant in this event for several years. Every year, there are people who tell me about the important connections they make at this one event. Go to www.bigbash.org. Make sure that when you sign up, you choose MCA as the group through which you'll be registering.

I have found tremendous benefits in networking with the entrepreneurial community in St. Louis. Entrepreneurs face many of the same tough issues that many film and video people face: Coming up with a good idea (or story); protecting your idea through intellectual property laws; raising money; producing your product or service; and distributing or marketing it. Within this dynamic community, there are several organizations I
attend regularly and would urge you to check them out. Once you start attending these, you will find out about other entrepreneurial events and organization on St. Louis' explosive entrepreneurial scene.

HERE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITES.. 

Entrepreneurial Organizations

ITEN: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEUR NETWORK meets at the Tavern of Fine Arts on the second
Thursday of every month, with fascinating panel discussions about a range of topics: developing a business plan,
crowdfunding, finding investors, and much more. They also sponsor other events related to infotech entrepreneurs.
www.itenstl.org.

The MISSOURI VENTURE FORUM is a non-profit organization that serves as a catalyst bringing together the people
genuinely interested in helping entrepreneurs. Their mission Missouri Venture Forum's Mission is to serve entrepreneurs
- those leading the growth of earlier stage businesses - through peer networking, topical education and access to capital resources. http://www.missouriventureforum.org/

ONE MILLION CUPS is a simple way to engage entrepreneurs in communities around-the-world. Each week it offers
two entrepreneurs the opportunity to present their start-ups to a diverse audience of mentors, advisors, and entrepreneurs.
The group meets on Wednesday morning, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM, at the KETC Channel 9 studio in Grand Center at
3655 Olive Street. Presenters prepare a 6 minute educational presentation and engage in 20 minutes of feedback and questioning after they present. Entrepreneurs gain insight into possible ways they can improve their businesses, gather realtime feedback, connect with a community that truly cares about their progress, and walk away feeling like they have advanced their business. See more at: http://www.1millioncups.com/about.aspx#sthash.peNTxJDd.dpuf

YELLOW-TIE describes itself as a "professional business organization for those with the courage to leap off the entrepreneurial cliff and the unwavering faith that a net will appear. Yellow-Tie's mission is to build that net by helping members to join forces and leverage the power of the group." Find out more at www.yellow-tie.org

Media Organizations

ADVERTISING CLUB OF ST. LOUIS works to raise the awareness of St. Louis advertising, educate and inspire, foster a community, and to celebrate our profession. Go to: http://www.adclubstlouis.org/

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES, Mid-America Chapter, produces the Mid-America regional Emmy award ceremony (held in St. Louis this year on October 5th) For more information, go to http://emmymid-america.org/

SCRIPTMECHANICS, founded and run by former MCA-I chapter president, screenwriter, and teacher, Sandy Olmsted, is a group of screenwriters, filmmakers, and actors that meet to read a locally-written script aloud, and then critique it. Attending is free, and if you go regularly you will find it a great way to learn more about scriptwriting; for actors, it's a chance to fine-tune your cold reading skills. For information, write to Sandy at wryteralways@earthlink.net

I've just scratched the surface of networking opportunities in St. Louis, If you have your favorites, feel free to share them with us.
You can learn about many other local networking groups by going to the local Meetup web site: http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/mo/saint_louis/

Also, Don Barnes puts out "The Business Networking Calendar" for St. Louis. You sign up for free to get notices of updates to

the calendar here: http://www.thebusinessnetworkingcalendar.com/index.php?section=1

Happy networking!

Cost:

Mike Ketcher reports that a documentary he worked on as a producer, "Joplin, Missouri: A Tornado Story," directed by Chip Gubera, has been nominated for an Emmy. Mr. Gubera, was born and raised in Joplin and teaches film post-production at the University of Missouri -- Columbia. Mike's fellow producers on the project are Donny Blake, Conrad Gubera, Rick Gary, and George Noory, host of the #2 talk radio show in the country, who also narrated the film. This makes the second year in a row that a film that Mike was a producer on was nominated for an Emmy. "Joe's Place," the documentary about a unique home in Maplewood for homeless high school students, was nominated last year. This is not the first award for "Joplin, Missouri." It also won Best Documentary at the St. Louis Filmmaker's Showcase in 2012, and Chip won Best Director, Documentary, at that same festival. It also won Best Feature Film at the Cornfed Film Festival in Macomb, IL. The Mid-America Emmy awards will be held in St. Louis this year on October 5. For information, go to: http://emmymid-america.org/ Mike also worked in the casting department for the NBC television show, "The Voice," when it held regional auditions in St. Louis at the Chavitz Center in July.

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