Year Winds Down as FCS Cranks It Up

Tonight is the FCS’s first Holiday Party in New York in two years, and we’re looking forward to a great event with a great turnout. We’re expecting more than 100 people at The Explorers Club – a wildly unique venue on the Upper East Side. Our supporting sponsor The New York Times has arranged for Patron to be on hand for a “top-shelf” pouring of its tequila, rum and brand new vodka. We’ll be raising money for our three children’s charities with a fun tricky tray raffle, featuring donated prizes from our Board of Directors and other friends of the FCS.

Our calendar year will close out with a very special luncheon, focused, as we do each December, on Strategic Philanthropy. On December 15th, the FCS welcomes Kimberly Davis, President of the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. Kim will talk about the firm’s great success in this field, and how strategic philanthropy fulfills the overall marketing objectives of JP Morgan Chase.

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for the FCS, with a record number of events, spanning from New York to Chicago to San Francisco. On November 1st, we held our inaugural event on the West Coast, with nearly 90 people attending our breakfast on Social Media. A San Francisco based steering committee is now working on plans for multiple events for 2012. The seeds for an official chapter there have been planted!

Meanwhile our Chicago Chapter has enjoyed a fantastic first year, staging event after event of truly compelling content. With major marquee names, like CBOE’s Bill Brodsky and CNBC’s Rick Santelli, and important topics like ETFs and global branding, each event affords the attendees a chance to build a tight-knit community, sharing the latest industry information.

In 2012, we hope to return to Boston, where we staged a successful luncheon in 2010 featuring Putnam Investments; the goal is for two events there next year. Also, plans are under way for our first-ever international event, as the FCS looks to host an event in Toronto. If you’re interested in working on the committee for either Boston or Toronto, please contact me.

In New York, we’re coming off of two great events this fall: In October, we held a Cocktails with Content reception focused on “Mobile 101.” About 100 guests attended the presentation/panel discussion hosted by CNBC.com at famed 30 Rock. The event featured Bryan Van Dyke, Prudential; Michael Lacorazza, TD Ameritrade; John Nitti, Zenith Media; Peter Kafka, All Things D; and Michael Ellison, Corporate Insight. Our November luncheon at the New York Yacht Club welcomed John Owens, head of marketing for ING DIRECT U.S. In all we will have held 16 content-driven events in New York this year, plus Bowling (twice), Golf, Wine Tasting, our legendary Portfolio Awards, and of course, tonight’s Holiday Party.

Next up for major events is our 13th annual FCS Race for Kids. We’re expecting more than 300 attendees again this year, including many corporate, agency and media friends and their families. I hope to see you at the Stowe Mountain Resort, January 5th through 8th. For full details, go to http://www.fcsraceforkids.org/ for details.

As always, I invite you to get involved in all that we do at the FCS. Just email me at kevin@fcsinteractive.com or follow me on Twitter, @FCS_Prez.