Good morning #ChamberWorld! It's going to be a GREAT day!
Valparaiso chamber receives national recognition
The Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce was named the No. 2 chamber in the country for a community of 100,000 people or less at the recent Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives convention in Des Moines, Iowa. Pictured, left to right, with the award are: David C. Adkisson, board chair, Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives; Kurt Gillins, vice president, programs and communications, Valparaiso chamber; Christine Pazdur, CFO, Valparaiso chamber; Rex Richards, president, Valparaiso chamber; Danielle Oeding, vice president, sales and marketing, Valparaiso chamber; Sue Stymiest, resource director, Valparaiso chamber; Julie Gaskell, executive vice president, Valparaiso chamber and Sheree Anne Kelly, president & CEO of Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives. Read more and see picture: NWI Times
Governor Northam, Mayor Bowser, and Governor Hogan to Speak at Annual Capital Region Business Forum on September 6
On September 6th, Muriel Bowser (D), Mayor of the District of Columbia, Ralph Northam (D), Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Larry Hogan (R), Governor of the State of Maryland, will discuss their plans to work cooperatively to bolster the regional economy at the Annual Capital Region Business Forum.
This prestigious event will be held at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner from 7:30 – 9:30 AM and will address the most critical, pressing issues and opportunities that affect the District of Columbia, the State of Maryland, and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Topics will include:
• Infrastructure and transportation initiatives,
• Outlook of federal presence and implications of change,
• Identifying ways to apply smart cities regionally,
• Collaborative opportunities for economic development and regional cooperation, and more.
This event, a joint initiative of the Northern Virginia Chamber, Board of Trade, and Prince George’s Chamber, will provide the leaders the opportunity to discuss their plans to work
cooperatively to bolster the regional economy in an ever-competitive global marketplace.
Registration is available on the Northern Virginia Chamber’s website. Individual tickets are $160, tables of 10 are $1,500. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Ryan Pitts, rpitts@novachamber.org
Media interested in attending the event should contact Elaine Gilligan, egilligan@novachamber.org, to register.
Follow the event on Twitter @NOVAChamber and #DMVBizForum.
Contact:
Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Contact: Elaine Gilligan
Director, Marketing & Communications
egilligan@novachamber.org
703.752.7521
Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce
Contact: Chauka K. Reid
Business Development Manager
creid@pgcoc.org
301.731.5000
Lauren Sackett New Executive Director at Rhineland Area Chamber of Commerce
It took The Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce just two days to replace its executive director. Lauren Sackett took over the position Monday.Maggie Steffen announced her resignation Saturday after less than two years on the job.
Sackett was the event coordinator at the chamber. She has worked under three different directors since 2014.
"I really look forward to filling those shoes and continuing projects that have been initiated over the last several years and maybe working on a few new ones," said Sackett.
Sackett's first big event as executive director will be the Hodag Musky Challenge in September. Steffen said she resigned for personal reasons. Read more: WJFW Newswatch 12
City of Flint awarded $30-million HUD grant to transform neighborhoods in south & north Flint
The City of Flint and the Flint Housing Commission have been awarded a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace the obsolete Atherton East complex, the city's most isolated and distressed public housing property. HUD Secretary Ben Carson on July 19 to presented a check to Flint Mayor Karen Weaver before a standing-room only crowd at a news conference held in the lobby of City Hall.
READ MORE
Elsewhere, Genesee County Parks has been awarded a $315,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for the Chevy Commons redevelopment project.
Portage County Business Council: Business Retention Expansion Initiative
The Portage County Business Council (PCBC) is continuing to lead the economic development effort with a Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) initiative throughout our community. PCBC is seeking perspectives from stakeholders that will assist policy makers and business advocates to determine priorities for our community. The ultimate goal is to enhance the economic vitality of our region.
While there is no charge for these conversations, we ask that those who plan to attend to please register, but individuals may come at the last minute and/or invite others to participate based on the business sector. These are not networking or new business opportunities. Registration can be found at: http://business.portagecountybiz.com/events.
Businesses that participate in the focus group will:
· Share what is working well in our current economy and within your business & sector
· Acknowledge challenges to your business model, both short-term “red flags” and longer-term issues, that can be addressed individually or collectively in our community
· Assist with mapping local, regional and state resources that support our economic vitality
The focus of the initiative is to gather qualitative data through face-to-face conversations with targeted businesses sectors and work with governmental units and other organizations to implement programs and services based on responses that best support economic growth. Previous conversations included agriculture, manufacturing, finance, insurance, professional services, and healthcare,
“While we certainly understand that talent attraction and retention is a key priority, we need to better understand and share best practices related to business success and challenges,”, according to Todd Kuckkahn, Executive Director, Portage County Business Council. “With nearly eighty percent of our businesses with nine or fewer employees, we need to better understand how to help them grow their business and these conversations will help do just that. We want to do all we can to remove obstacles.”
BREs involve partnerships of government, business, education and community leadership that continuously assess the existing economic base and the physical, geographical, financial, technological, and human resource needs of individual businesses with the community.
The key areas to examine in assessing our communities’ strengths and weaknesses include (but are not limited to): access to markets, education, govt./policy/taxes/utilities, housing, quality of life, regional supply chain, site availability, talent/workforce/labor, and transportation.
All of the focus groups will take place at: Portage County Business Council; 5501 Vern Holmes Drive; 7:30-8:30 AM (days/dates/sectors below):
Date Business Sector
Wed., Aug. 1 Non-profit, Community Services
Thurs., Aug. 2 Information Technology
Thurs., Aug. 16 Retail, Restaurant, Hotel, Entertainment, Recreation
Wed., Aug. 29 Construction, Real Estate
If any business would prefer a one-on-one confidential conversation, please contact Todd Kuckkahn, Executive Director, Portage County Business Council; tkuckkahn@portagecountybiz.com; 715-344-1940.
East Mississippi Business Development Corporation recruits for the Leadership Lauderdale program
The East Mississippi Business Development Corporation every year holds business leadership program called Leadership Lauderdale. The program provides participants an opportunity to enhance their civic knowledge and network.
The program has helped participants better understand how our community works, build relationships with the area’s current and future leaders and become inspired to serve our community.
Today, the E-M-B-D-C is ramping up their recruiting period to work with a whole new batch of business professionals.
“This program is an opportunity for people in our community to be able to go through it, we do several different things, we go through the seven habits of highly effective people by Steven Cubby and then we also look at our community, and we break that down into building blocks. We talk about our military; we talk about our hospitals, we talk about education, our workforce, our existing industries and so we take the opportunity to really give people an insight into everything that Meridian and Lauderdale County has to offer.”
Casey Holaday says Leadership Lauderdale program has been in existence for many years now.
“Around 20 years is how long Leadership Lauderdale has been in existence.” Read more: WGBC TV
Sauk Valley Chamber news: Please join us in the branding of the City of Sterling…
The City of Sterling has engaged the firm of Arnett Muldrow to create a Brand Identity System for the City. A strong “Brand” involves storytelling, community engagement, messaging, and marketing, to change perceptions, engage citizens, instill pride, and give a fresh outlook to a city.
As part of this process, an hour long public forum will be held that will allow a wide array of input on the marketing and image of the City of Sterling.
This public forum will take place on Wednesday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall.
For additional questions on the branding process that will be taking place, please do not hesitate to contact City Manager Scott Shumard or Mayor Lee at the City of Sterling 815-632-6621
The Prairie du Chien Community Guide
The Prairie du Chien Chamberr of Commerce Community Guide is available today at the Chamber of Commerce! Thank you to Bob Moses and the Chamber team for their help and direction putting this together!
Town Square Publications (www.townsquarepublications.com) can help you accomplish your chamber's gloss map, directory, community profile or publication needs at no expense to the chamber. Please email John Dussman at jdussman@tspubs.com or call (847)-427-4633.
From Michael Ashcraft, Ky SBA: 10 Things You Might Not Know About SBA
SBA Celebrates 65 Years
LOUISVILLE – On July 30, 2018, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) celebrated 65 years of powering the American dream and helping entrepreneurs start, grow, expand and recover their small business. Following are 10 facts you might not know about the SBA:
- The “grandparent” of the SBA is the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The federal funding program was created by President Herbert Hoover in 1932 to alleviate the financial crisis of the Great Depression. Twenty years later, the SBA was officially founded July 30, 1953 by President Dwight Eisenhower.
- The SBA is a Cabinet-level federal agency, not an association. No membership is required.
- The local SBA office in Louisville has experts in lending, government contracting, economic development and exporting that connect small businesses with the resources needed at various stages of the business lifecycle.
- Following disasters, the SBA provides low-interest disaster loans to small businesses, nonprofits and home owners. For example, more than $5 billion in disaster assistance loans went to businesses and residents impacted by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
- The SBA has an independent Office of Advocacy that listens to small business and industry concerns regarding burdensome federal regulations. Regional advocates are a voice for small businesses and propose recommendations to the White House, Congress and federal agencies.
- The SBA provides no-cost, confidential, high quality small business mentoring through a resource partner network of business experts and no- or low-cost trainings to help entrepreneurs with topics like finance, marketing, business certifications and taxes.
- The SBA has a variety of loan programs ranging from $500 microloans to $5.5 million loans; and, can be used for startup costs, equipment, commercial real estate, lines of credit, refinancing and other uses.
- Since the U.S. government is the world’s largest customer, purchasing billions of dollars in goods and services, the SBA helps small businesses win government contracts through a variety of small business certifications. In fact, the SBA publishes an annual scorecard that assesses how well federal agencies reach their small business contracting goals.
- Two-thirds of the world’s purchasing power is in foreign countries, so the SBA provides a variety of resources and services to help businesses expand into international markets.
- The SBA supports America’s innovators through various programs like the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program which annually provides $2.5 billion in research and development funding to commercialize innovative technologies.###About the U.S. Small Business Administration: The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow expand and recover their businesses. It delivers services to people through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov. The SBA Kentucky District Office serves the entire state from its office in Louisville. Vist www.sba.gov/ky for details.
Contact:
michael.ashcraft@sba.gov
Internet Address:
SBA Kentucky District Office
Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories and Community Profiles: The best in the U.S.
Town Square Publications, a division of the Daily Herald Media Group, is a national chamber custom publishing group that specializes in developing partnerships by producing high-quality print and digitally integrated publications along with other added value programs dedicated to creating relevancy for local chambers of commerce and other membership focused organizations interested in raising non-dues revenues.
Town Square Publications parent company, Paddock Publications, has over 100 years’ experience of print product development and dedicated customer service in communities throughout the Midwest. Our experience allows Town Square Publications to offer you attractive royalty and non-dues revenue share streams, provide direct distribution of your custom designed printed publications, including digital and mobile integration, and all with the quickest turn-around times available in the industry. Town Square also offers multi-media maps in both print and online formats, both with our No-Cost guarantee. More information: Town Square Publications
Chambers of Commerce and member focused organizations serve as a valuable resource in the local marketplace. The networking opportunities and representation with a wide variety of diverse businesses in your community is the catalyst of a successful organization. For further information about Town Square's publishing partnership with chambers of commerce and our No-Cost guarantee and Earned Revenue Share Program, To request your chamber publication or map proposal, contact Town Square Chamber Proposal
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