SPARK Business Summit

The best event that I have ever planned was the 2025 SPARK Business Summit.

The Oro Valley Chamber had just developed its Business Summit when I joined the team. Although I missed the first one, it quickly became my favorite event of the year.

Although all Chamber events create networking opportunities and areas for growth, the Business Summit focuses on education for small to midsize businesses to grow. These are the mom and pop shops that benefit the most from access to education and are eager to invest in themselves. Although my intention was to create educational opportunities for them, I found myself taking notes and learning along the way, too.

I’ve always been a good student (humble brag), and I loved school. Getting to participate in educational summits gives me the opportunity to flex my learning muscles and slip into a comfortable norm. I’m consistently eager to grow in my knowledge and capabilities, so the Business Summit and I became close friends.

Everything changed, though, when the Chamber and BBB Serving Southern Arizona came together to collaborate on the event in 2025. We wanted to create a cross-collaboration between the two organizations that would benefit members across the region. We decided the event needed to be a full-day’s worth of workshops interspersed with networking opportunities and a business expo.

I wanted to communicate to guests that the ideas they were learning in the workshops weren’t isolated lessons. Each topic worked in unison with one another to create a thriving business ecosystem. To convey that ideology, I turned to the use of color. Each workshop was given a certain color. The room was decorated using that color and it was repeated when marketing speakers, designing programs, and even in the event logo. Each topic became one color.

In the central ballroom we held a business expo; this was also where lunch was served. In this ballroom, each color mixed and mingled with the others. I handmade over 300 yards of hanging fringe banners for each ballroom we used. In the central ballroom, three mixed-color fringe banners hung from the ceilings. There was a collage of bright colors that hung above a mass group of business leaders networking with one another and sharing ideas. The symmetry of my color theory to real world implementation was a breathtaking effect that made me emotional to see work.

Not only did the use of color communicate a deep message throughout the event, it also helped with organization and communication! Attendees were able to find their next workshop room with ease because they weren’t looking for a room name, but a room color. Signage guided them to where they needed to be, and breathtaking florals confirmed they had made it to the right place.

The Oro Valley Business Summit may have started as purely a brief, educational event, but when combined with creativity and thousands of yards of tablecloths, it transformed into a community event that united Southern Arizonan business leaders.