The next FINE meeting is scheduled for Thursday, December 15 at 9:00 A.M. at the Westport Country Playhouse. The Playhouse is about 1/4 mile east of the library, just off the Post Road at 25 Powers Court. The meeting will be in the Lucille Lortel White Barn Center, to the left of the main stairway to the Playhouse.

9:00 to 9:15 Networking
9:15 to 9:30 FINE Business
9:30 to 10:30 "A Taste of New Haven" and our speaker is Colin M. Caplan, founder and owner of Taste of New Haven food and drink tours
10:30 to 11:00 More networking

Our speaker at the December 15th meeting of FINE, will be Colin M. Caplan, founder and owner of Taste of New Haven food and drink tours. Colin started this company in September of this year as a way of providing a one-of-a kind event for both Connecticut residents and tourists. For the restaurants and shops the tours provide direct stimulus, new and potential repeat customers and an image of busting activity. Colin also felt that this idea would change people's perception and image of New Haven, which has been plagued with negative publicity in recent years.

Colin will talk about how he took a traditional education and career like architecture and turned it into non-traditional entrepreneurial ventures with multiple streams of income including leading culinary walking tours, authoring published and non-published books on history and architecture and historic design and research. Colin will explain some of his methods of marketing and the technology he used to do it. He will also talk about the challenges he has faced in getting started and his ideas for growing the business in 2012.

Colin is Historic Officer of the Friends of Edgewood Park, Historian for the Broken Umbrella Theater Company, past Chair of the Alliance for Architecture, past board member of the New Haven Preservation Trust and in 2008 Colin was recipient of the Annual Arts Award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Colin has published four books on New Haven history and architecture. He has written and is continually researching and writing histories about towns, neighborhoods, buildings and families all over Connecticut. His collection of vintage photography is viewable and reprints are available for purchase online at www.magrissoforte.com. Colin's tour company is also online at www.tasteofnewhaven.com

Hope to see you there. For more information contact Ed Fitzgerald by e-mail at ed.fitzgerald@coldwellbankermoves.com or call 203-227-8424. The FINE website is www.finenetworking.org.

Now in its 18th year, FINE provides peer support, training, client referrals and networking opportunities in a friendly atmosphere. FINE provides the opportunity to meet new people, make business connections and to hear and discuss topics of current interest. FINE was formed by a small group of people who left the corporate world and wanted a place to network and provide support to each other as they ventured out in the world of entrepreneurship. FINE usually meets in the Westport Library and the Westport Country Playhouse. For more information, contact Ed Fitzgerald at 203-803-0714 or ed.fitzgerald@cbmoves.com.