Last Thursday, fifteen of us gathered around one long table at Eddy's Kitchen & Marketplace for an Aspen Business Connect lunch. Eddy's is run by two sisters, Liz and Sondra Savickas, and after years of watching locally owned favorites close their doors, Carl's Pharmacy among them, it felt good to sit down in a restaurant run by locals who are investing in this valley.
The format is simple: everyone gets about a minute to share what they're working on, and then the table takes over. A minute rarely stays a minute. Here's what we heard.
AI 101 with Danica Weappa
Danica Weappa of Ecolens.io kicked things off with a quick AI 101 on how we can all use it more effectively, in our businesses and in our personal lives. Her example was something almost everyone at the table had been through: an insurance claim. There's no handbook for dealing with a claim, and most people walk away feeling shortchanged. Danica's point was that AI can walk you through the process, help you understand what you're entitled to and make the whole thing fairer. She also reminded us that some of the tools we're still learning will be obsolete soon as AI takes over more of the work.
Greer: Designer, Problem Solver, Translator
Interior designer Greer has rebranded herself over the past year as something the construction world badly needs: a translator. On job sites, she says, owners, architects and contractors rarely speak the same language. Greer steps in to get everyone on the same page, and she has helped projects that dragged on for a couple of years finally cross the finish line. She speaks Spanglish, builds trust with the subcontractors and treats everyone the same, whether they're a local friend or a billionaire from out of town. Her philosophy on site: nothing is personal, and if someone has a better idea, let's hear it.
Greer is now working on projects with Mike, Denise's husband and a longtime local general contractor, and she and Denise are launching a podcast called Aligned and Designed, pairing mindset coaching with intentional design. Why has that stack of newspapers been sitting there for years? They want to find out, and have fun doing it.
Mari Frankel: Fighting for Foster Kids
Mari Frankel is a child advocate who spent years working with foster children in Florida. Frustrated by a fully privatized system, she made Foster Shock, a documentary released about nine years ago that won a number of awards. Now it's resurfacing: four agencies in Tampa have reached out to use the film as a blueprint for reform. You can watch Foster Shock on YouTube.
Mary also serves with Response, where she was on the board and did crisis work. Her message to the table was about supporting families and communities with the resources we already have. Schools, libraries and public buildings sit empty much of the day, she pointed out, while parents who start work at 4 a.m. scramble to find somewhere safe for their kids. Every time a child's caregiver changes, the risk of abuse goes up. It was a heavy, important conversation, and the room was grateful for the work she does.
Denise Tanguay: Coaching Through Nature
Life coach Denise has developed a coaching methodology that uses nature as its mirror. We're cyclical beings, she says, even if we think in straight lines, and she uses the season we're in to reflect the season of our lives. Nature is where she found her own clarity and learned to trust her intuition again, and she wants to teach others how to use that free resource. She offers small-group and individual sessions outdoors, including forest-bathing style experiences, with separate pricing for locals and visitors.
She's also turning her property on Conundrum Creek into a sanctuary, with ponds, a beach, the river running through it, a hammock garden and, eventually, bell tents. This winter she's building a cross-country and snowshoe trail so she can host one-on-one sessions in the snow, with cacao by the fire afterward. The table's suggestion: host an Aspen Business Connect day out there so more people can experience it.
Derron Cloud, State Farm
Derron Cloud has been part of our group for five years. His State Farm office in Basalt helps clients with life and disability insurance as well as home and auto, and they try to make claims feel personal during hard moments. He just returned from a conference in San Diego for agents who qualified in the top 5% of State Farm's roughly 19,000 agents. Congratulations, Derron. His team is also growing, so if you know someone hungry, humble and smart, send them his way.
Jill Murphy: Nearly 30 Years in Retail
Jill Murphy owns Misstyx Boutique, one of the last long-running independent boutiques in Aspen who has been there for almost 30 years. She also owns Murphy Brown in Glenwood Springs. Her next project is the online store she's wanted to build for a decade, which is a challenge when inventory changes daily. Her youngest daughter just graduated with a degree in PR and is working with her full time. And yes, she still pierces ears.
Carlyn Porter: Sustainable Styling, AI and the Carbondale Fashion Show
Carlyn Porter is a stylist who hosts clothing swaps and just did her first Aspen pop-up. She has partnered with a styling agency that works with celebrity stylists and now refers her clients with more reasonable budgets. Her approach is sustainable styling: working with what's already in your closet, building a capsule wardrobe and donating the rest. (Her favorite tip: put half your closet in storage for a while and see what you actually wear.)
By day, Carlyn is an epidemiologist with Pitkin County, working on disease investigation and emergency preparedness. That's how she got into AI. She found software that could do a year's worth of grant deliverables in a day, and the county encouraged her to keep learning. Now she's field-testing a fashion app of her own. Her last plug: the Carbondale Fashion Show. It sells out in minutes, she's sponsoring and hosting the after-after party, and modeling auditions are December 6.
Simon Dogbe: Financial Planning Without the Gaps
Simon Dogbe focuses on retirement planning, retirement income and comprehensive wealth management. Hand him your tax return, investments and insurance, and he'll find the gaps and inefficiencies standing between you and your goals, whether that's college for the kids or retiring tomorrow. He just returned from the Million Dollar Round Table, which brings together the top 1% of financial advisors worldwide. Simon is in the top tier of that group, and what struck him most was a room full of women, people of color and advisors from Singapore, Argentina, Australia and beyond, all sharing ideas.
Karen Peirson: My Business Is People
Karen Peirson has been in real estate for 21 years, mostly midvalley, but she says her real business is people. She once ran a bed and breakfast where the goal was to get a table of strangers talking, which is exactly what we do here. Karen also co-hosts artisan markets at the Old Thompson Barn in Carbondale each June and December, free for the artisans. The next one is Sunday, December 6, from 12 to 4, with around 40 vendors. It's a great way to kick off local holiday shopping.
Amanda: The Aspen Caviar Society
Amanda has lived here about ten years and last year founded the Aspen Caviar Society. They do passed caviar service with custom caviar belts holding blinis, chips and crème fraîche, plus caviar bumps. This year they added fully customizable caviar bars with toppings, desserts, charcuterie and champagne pairings. Concierge companies are now asking for caviar gift baskets and welcome bars for guests arriving in Aspen. If you can dream it, she can probably make it happen. Think of them for your holiday party.
Katie Erickson: Creative Mortgage Solutions
Katie Erickson does mortgages from her office in Glenwood Springs, from affordable housing to large jumbo loans. Lately she's seeing investors use higher rates and a slower market to negotiate better prices. One tool she highlighted is a DSCR loan, which qualifies an investment property based on the rent it will generate compared with the mortgage payment, rather than the buyer's personal income. Complicated finances are normal here, and Katie digs in to find a creative solution.
Valerie and Marisa: Art, Design and a Legendary Legacy
Valerie, an artist and designer visiting with her friend Marisa, has been finishing her homes in Aspen and London, and admitted that she learned an artist doesn't automatically know everything a designer does. Electrical sockets, for one.
Marisa de Lempicka manages the legacy of her great-grandmother, Tamara de Lempicka, one of the most famous female artists of the Art Deco era, whose collectors include Madonna and Barbra Streisand. Marisa calls her one of the most known unknown artists: you'd recognize the paintings, from book jackets and film sets, even if you don't know her name. Marisa oversees exhibitions, copyrights and licensing, down to silk scarves made in Italy. She just returned from London, where she's developing an immersive, multisensory exhibition that pairs Tamara's real paints, boxes, hats and jewelry with an immersive film, and a movie and miniseries about Tamara's extraordinary life as a survivor of war and revolution are in the works.
The Last Word on AI
Artist Gail Folwell closed the lunch by bringing us back to where we started. Artists argue constantly about whether AI is good or bad, she said, but our thoughts create our reality, and pouring energy into fear is a waste. AI doesn't have a conscience or a soul. It absorbs what we put into it. So her advice: be kind to it, say please, and give it the full picture of who you are before you ask for anything. For every bad actor feeding it junk, there are a thousand good, quiet people who can give it something beautiful. She described asking AI for a precise botanical illustration of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly in five stages, then refining the line weight until it was just right.
Greer added that AI doesn't replace the human side of any job. People can't feel fabrics and textures through a screen, and there's always a personal element to the work. The more creative, thoughtful people who use it well, the better it gets.
Why We Gather
That's what I love about these lunches. We sit down as strangers or casual acquaintances, and by dessert we've traded ideas, introductions and plans to collaborate. Thank you to Liz and Sondra for hosting us, and to everyone who came to the table.
This is what community looks like. Every business that joins Aspen Business Connect makes our network stronger, and in a changing climate, the more of us at the table, the more connected our valley becomes.
Own a business in the Roaring Fork Valley? Reach out through our contact page and join us at the next Aspen Business Connect gathering.
