Cincinnati Gets Ready for 150th

[TSteven]

The Cincinnati Enquirer featured Sigma Chi in a recent article about the fast-approaching 150th
Celebration. Visit the 150th Web site here.

Sunday, April 10, 2005
Sigma Chi meeting a sweetheart deal
Fraternity's convention coming to Cincinnati
By John Eckberg
Enquirer staff writer

Is it worth more to Cincinnati's national image to have a couple of billionaires and 3,000 to 4,000 members of the national fraternity Sigma Chi convene in town than, say, a convention of Rotarians, teachers or swimming pool salespeople?

No doubt, says Sigma Chi Keith Krach, the billionaire founder of Ariba, a global business software provider in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Krach is national president-elect of the fraternity, which was founded in 1855 at Miami University in Oxford.

He was in Cincinnati on Friday at a planning meeting for the June 24-25 celebration of Sigma Chi's 150th anniversary.

The June celebration already has filled up one hotel for the weekend, said Doug Partin, president of the Cincinnati chapter of Sigma Chi.

But it has the potential to do far more good for the region than putting a few thousands outsiders into downtown and suburban hotel rooms over one weekend in June.

The event could bring the region new jobs, particularly if executives decided to relocate companies here.

"We'll be all over the city: at the Museum Center at Union Terminal, area hotels, the convention center. We'll have (fraternity) brothers coming here from all over the world," Krach said. "They will get a first-hand look at how nice this city is."

Krach, a 48-year-old Rocky River, Ohio, native, was a Sigma Chi at Purdue University, where he graduated in engineering in 1979. He is retired from his job as chairman of the board and chief executive of Ariba. During his five-year tenure, he led the growth of the company from start-up to a firm with annual revenues of over $500 million.

Besides Krach, the June event will bring plenty of other high-net-worth Sigma Chi fraternity brothers to Cincinnati, from Marriott hotel chain executive J.W. Marriott Jr. to actor Tom Selleck and perhaps entertainer David Letterman, an Indiana native.

"Probably 1,000 of the guests will be undergraduates," said Partin, "but there will also be a couple thousand people who are very wealthy.

"They're going to spend money, and that money will stay in Cincinnati. But even more important, they'll return to California or Minnesota or where everybody is from and say, hey, Cincinnati is a heckuva town," Partin said. "It's not the stodgy city that some people think it is."

[mmcat]

early tip of the hat to sigma chi for 150 years

[sueali]

Our convention was in cincinnati last year and it is a beautiful city. Early congrats to sigma chi on their 150th.