Our Member Services Committee strives to develop and implement value-added benefits and programs that support the growth and success of our business members locally and internationally. It is RMIACC's vision also to inspire a renewed sense of community and culture by promoting Italian performing arts, language, fashion, and heritage.

We're planning to host several special events and unique opportunities for our members to share and enjoy these treasures. One of my primary objectives is  to create valuable services that promote member visibility in the business community and support their success through business services, training and seminars. This will include networking opportunities at regularly scheduled events such as Business-After-Hours and breakfast gatherings, the Chamber’s annual golf tournament and its Holiday Dinner Party, and Italian language roundtables.

In collaboration with other international organizations, RMIACC will also participate in several business and cultural events, including Italian festivals that celebrate films and performing arts, authentic Italian cuisine and wines, and other Italian industries, such as fashion and tourism.

We count on your involvement and support to make this vision a reality in the upcoming year. If you’re interested in volunteering and joining our Member Services Team in one or more program areas, please contact me at  manu@rmiacc.org or 303.527.0723.

By Emanuela Panebianco
Director of Marketing & Communications

As the Honorary Vice Consul of Italy for Colorado and Wyoming, and the only diplomat representing Italy, my Office plays a critical role in connecting our local governments with Italy's one. I'm involved as Advisor and facilitator between the two governments in creating possible trade missions to and from Italy, business relations and exchanges, and maintaining contacts with the Italian government in pursuing new leads and ideas.

I wish to congratulate and thank all of you for your involvement and commitment and I assure you that RMIACC will strive to create international and local business opportunities as best it can.

I feel extremely privileged to be a part of this Chamber -- the first ever to bridge business between our beautiful states and the great country of Italy. We are truly making history!

Again thank you,

The Sponsor Relations Committee will organize a client's network to promote business initiatives between Colorado and Italian companies. The Committee will foster increased commercial relations between Italy and Colorado both in government and private sectors by linking fashion, tourism, food industries and technology. Members of this committee have the capability of analyzing matching opportunities for interested parties.

RMIACC's collaboration with other Italian chambers abroad will also be an important key for carrying out our commercial initiatives. We will maintain a "Business Opportunities" database of companies interested to promote products and business, available to all members free of charge.

If you are seeking new clients or new products, or if you are interested in expanding your business in Italy or Colorado, RMIACC should be your starting point. To position your business strategically we will support and facilitate:

·Information updates on Italian and US markets

From the earliest days of Denver's history, Italian immigrants were vitally involved in business affairs. Most came as laborers to work in mining, railroads, agriculture and construction. Their formal educations were typically modest, but they brought skills, good character and ambition. Their energy not only served as the "on the ground" engine for commerce in the region, but they soon grew into higher levels of economic activity as skilled tradesmen, merchants, tavern owners, professionals, managers and entrepreneurs.

The early Italian immigrants farmed small plots along the central Platte Valley, Wheat Ridge, and Welby, which have now evolved into sports stadiums, high-end residential communities, and industrial plant sites. Since that time, the Italian-American community has dispersed from concentrations in the "bottoms" of North Denver's "Little Italy" community into all of Denver and its suburbs. Likewise, Italians grew with and into their communities in Pueblo, Trinidad, Grand Junction, Aspen, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne and other areas of the Rocky Mountain Region.

Businesses thrived in the community, including Italian names like:  Mapelli, Iacino, Domenico, Famularo, Pagliacci’s, Sileo, Aiello, Carbone, Valente, Dennis Gallagher (oops!),  Zarlengo, Alioto (Elliott), Mancinelli, Laurita, Marranzino, Loprino, and many others. Now, after about 140 years, new generations have emerged; the families of the laborers have become business people.  Newer Italian immigrants have come into our community, many with very specialized skills, and international business connections (and with the same magnificent style, creativity, energy and good looks).   Our region is now a major player in the global economy. 

A new group has been formed to recognize and provide assistance to this “commercio”:    The Rocky Mountain Italian-American Chamber of Commerce (RMIACC).  The group includes new blood along with the old.  It is open to all, notwithstanding ethnic background.  Part of its goal is to recognize our heritage and culture and to focus on economic health and cooperation.  My family has now been in Denver for about 100 years (from Boiano (Molise, northeast of Napoli), and I have been able to personally observe and participate in the continuing progress.  Through the legal profession, I have been able to participate in many wonderful transactions within the Italian-American community, such as real estate, housing and commercial projects, restaurants, and the formation of many businesses. Many of my colleagues, friends and clients were similarly educated in north Denver, at local universities and law schools, and have been and are instrumental in the creation of this thriving city and region. 

We invite all interested people to join the Chamber.   It will assist in many beneficial ways, locally and internationally.  The Italian community is not parochial, narrow, or provincial; nor has it been for centuries, as its heritage, culture and wisdom has been enjoyed by people all over the world. We are proud to join and assist the Chamber in its vital role in local and international business affairs. 

By Joseph Fanganello, Esq.
Legal Counsel

As a dual United States and Italian citizen, born in Italy, educated in Brussels, Belgium and in the United States, I have always believed in the importance of bridging the differences and enhancing the mutual experience of two rich and vibrant cultures and business environments. The one, young, innovative, and dynamic approach of the United States and the other, superbly creative yet traditional bent of Italy.

In the eight years I have had the privilege of living in this wonderful State of Colorado, I have been struck by the fairly remarkable similarities between the business environments of the Rocky Mountain States and the republic of Italy. Both accentuate creativity, innovative thinking, entrepreneurial spirit and new technologies. Both draw opportunities from their own individual and unique natural beauty and resources. And lastly, both flourish in a culture where quality of life is a paramount factor.

These similarities lead us to the inevitable conclusion that business and cultural contacts between the Rocky Mountain Region States and Italy, already thriving,  must greatly increase and deepen. Yet, similarities often co-exist with significant differences, practices, and viewpoints. These same affinities frequently cause undue caution, hesitation and sometimes disillusionment, primarily deriving from a mutual lack of knowledge and understanding of features and aspects peculiar to both worlds.

It will be one of the primary roles of the Chamber to enhance the exchanges and opportunities these similarities provide between the two cultures (in the broadest sense of the term), and to facilitate a broader understanding and apt management of the differences to encourage commerce and cultural exchanges between the Rocky Mountain Region and Italy.