This weekend we had our 21st Annual ABG Capital Company Picnic at South Park V.I.P. Pavilion in Bethel Park. We were very fortunate that we had great weather, great people and most of all great times! We organize these picnic every year so we have a chance to get together with our employees and their families. It’s a carefree time where everyone can just let loose and have some fun.

Sharon (left) and Sara (right)

We first want to give a huge shout out to Sara Warhold and Sharon Kolesar. These two worked hard to make sure everything went off without a hitch. Thank you both for all of your hard work!

The picnic ran from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. with TONS of fun activities going on the entire time. There was basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, corn hole and mini golf. We had water balloon and egg tosses, spoon races and the kids could even get their faces or fingernails painted.

Now, we mentioned already that we played a few friendly games of corn hole… But there were a few professionals at the party! Kathy Scheidlemeier brought her husband and son to the picnic and those two were knocking teams out left and right. We have reason to believe they are part of some sort of secret corn hole society because of the accuracy and technique they brought to the table. No matter how bad people won or lost, every game was a truly enjoyable one.

If you want to check out some pictures from the picnic, please visit our Facebook page!

Isn’t it great that the first day of summer falls on a Friday? We think so! Before you head out of the office to enjoy your weekend, we want to give you a recap of what’s been going on all week. Inspira and VoIP Innovations have been the busiest out of all the companies, but we did have some exciting things to celebrate this week! June marks the anniversaries of three great people: Bruce Smith (Inspira) celebrates 2 years, Erica Penrod (ABG Capital) celebrates 5 years and Jessica Young (VoIP Innovations) celebrates 10 years! Congratulations for hitting each of those milestones; you’re all fantastic members of the ABG Capital family 🙂

Inspira had a few guests from the General Accountability Office (GAO) visiting to conduct some research on Automatic IRA Rollovers for Congress. They even got to experience one of our fabulous lunches made by one of our lunch committees. They really enjoyed their visit and their lunch and even joked about paying for it since they ARE THE GOVERNMENT. If you want to read more about what Inspira has been up to this week (which is a lot!) then visit their blog and read the Checking in with Inspira post.

Moving on to VoIP Innovations, they are preparing for their trip to ITEXPO in Las Vegas. The show is in August but you can never prepare enough for such a huge tradeshow like this one. They’re feature their BackOffice, Titanium III and also their Titanium Private Label BackOffice (TPL). Earlier this week they posted an article with a timeline of features they’ve added since the beginning of the year and boy have they been busy! You can find that article and much more in this week’s Chat with Nat.

That just about sums up this weeks Just another Friday at ABG post. Have a great weekend and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Honoree Raul Valdez-Perez

WHO: Jeff Tapolci and Ron Eggert

WHAT: 2013 Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year luncheon

WHERE: Fairmont Hotel

WHEN: Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Jeff and Ron attended this awards luncheon to help honor Bill Newlin and Raul Valdes-Perez. Bill is the Chairman of the Newlin Investment Company and Raul is the Co-Founder and former Chairman and CEO of Vivisimo, Inc. Here is an excerpt about these two taken from the PVCA:

“As this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, William R. Newlin’s contributions to the business and entrepreneurial community of Pittsburgh are many. Twice named as one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” he served as chairman and chief executive officer of Buchanan Ingersoll for nearly 25 years, where he was a pioneer in providing legal and business counsel to the region’s technology start-up companies. He was a founding director of the Pittsburgh Technology Council; a co-founder of the CEO Venture Funds, which were among Pittsburgh’s first native venture capital funds for developing technology companies; and a co-founder of the Pittsburgh Biomedical Development Corporation, Pittsburgh’s first pre-seed fund for life sciences companies. In addition, he has served as chairman of the board of directors of Kennametal, Inc., and executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Dick’s Sporting Goods, as well as a director of such companies as Plextronics, Etcetera Edutainment, Calgon Carbon, and Black Box Corporation.

As the 2013 Outstanding Entrepreneur, Raul Valdes-Perez’s list of achievements include: authored 50 academic articles and book chapters, received seven research grants from the National Science Foundation, did his PhD under Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, and, most notably, co-founded Vivisimo, a company that was acquired by IBM in 2012. He has been named a regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and was twice a finalist for CEO of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council.”

WHO: Jeff Tapolci and Ron Eggert

WHAT: The Sounds of Summer Client and Colleague Reception

WHERE: Heinz Hall Grand Lobby and Garden Plaza

WHEN: Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Marty Dorfner, Ron Eggert and J. Bianchin

This event was held by Clark Hill Thorp Reed who is welcoming a new identity. Jeff and Ron were invited to attend this event so the firm could show their appreciation to them as well as their other clients and colleagues. Along with showing their appreciation, they wanted to kick off summer by connecting Thorp Reed contacts with the new Clark Hill Colleagues. While they were there, they got to meet up with Marty Dorfner, Managing Director at Resources Global Professionals, and J. Bianchin SVP, Senior Relationship Manager at Wells Fargo Bank. Overall it was a great networking event for Jeff and Ron. After the event, they stopped over at Cioppino’s for some cigars and relaxation. For pictures, check out the ABG Capital Facebook page!

Life at ABG Capital has been pretty good this week! We started a new office initiative that involves getting away from your desk and we closed out the week with some golf.

Our newest office initiative is designed to boost productivity and get people away from their desks. No, you didn’t read that wrong, studies have proven that leaving your desk for short periods of time will give your body the ‘recharge’ it needs to make it through the day without feeling stressed or overwhelmed. We’re calling our new program “Tend to You at 10 and 2”. We’ll be asking all of our employees to get up from their desks for 10-15 minutes at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and go do something. We are encouraging employees to bring in their own things like hacky sacks, basketballs, baseballs and mitts to add to the Frisbees, footballs, and other sports equipment ABG Capital will provide. We’ll be walking some laps around the lake, stretching our muscles with gentle yoga poses and becoming a fitter crew while recharging our brains! We’re officially kicking off this initiative next week so stay tuned for details on how it goes.

Jeff, Ron and Ben Witsberger

Lastly, Jeff Tapolci and Ron Eggert have been out of the office playing in golf outings yesterday and today. Yesterday they were at the ACG outing with Sean Andreas from Wells Fargo and Justin Bertram from Incline Equity Partners.  They took 3^rd place! Great job guys! Sean joined them again today in the Wells Fargo outing and Ben Witsberger, also from Wells Fargo, was there as well. For more pictures of their golfing adventures, check out our Facebook page.

That’s all we have for you today folks, have a great weekend!