ANOTHER BUSY YEAR FOR THE GEELONG CHAMBER
The Geelong Chamber is the envy of other Chambers of Commerce around Australia because of the continuing popularity of its monthly After Five functions which attract hundreds of its members on each occasion.
Its first 2010 After Five in February, sponsored by the Geelong Cats and held at the Alex Popescu Room, Geelong Football Club, saw more than three hundred and forty members and guests in attendance!
These functions are free to members and only Chamber members are eligible to sponsor them. The continuing popularity of the After Fives to sponsors can be gauged by the fact that all available months in 2010 have been booked for some time! Further, some Chamber member companies have sponsored After Fives on a number of occasions with Bell Potter Securities booked to sponsor its eighth annual After Five in September.
But these are only a part of the Chamber’s yearly program for its members.
The Chamber also runs a number of Q & A Panel sessions for smaller groups of members each year on a range of topics including networking, online marketing, advertising and promotion, retaining staff, work life balance, management styles, and other topics chosen by members.
Last year, the Chamber devised and ran its very successful Survive & Thrive in ’09 workshop sessions for small businesses to help them deal with the impact of the global financial crisis. The Chamber was financially assisted with these by the City of Greater Geelong, Gordon Institute of TAFE, the Committee for Geelong and Regional Development Victoria. Attendees at the nine separate sessions scored them very highly in terms of professional advice and guidance for them.
The Chamber will stage a new series of eight sessions this year on the Survive & Thrive theme but will include topics on both financial and environmental sustainability and hopes to get some funding assistance from its previous partners and Small Business Victoria.
This year, the Chamber is also planning to hold open forums for its members with local Members of Parliament from both the Victorian and Commonwealth governments which should be of great value to all particularly with 2010 being an election year for both governments.
The Chamber is also negotiating with the Mayor, Cr John Mitchell, and CEO, Stephen Griffin, to have an open forum with Chamber members on topical issues relating to the City of Greater Geelong.
The Chamber was pleased to auspice the Geelong Young Professionals Network which was launched last month and will host a number of events each year to bring young professionals together from Geelong businesses to hear guest speakers with a difference and also provide opportunities for them to engage with others with similar interests and to develop additional business skills.
The GYP Network is also supported by a number of Geelong businesses and they all see that the Network promises a great deal of benefit to its young business members. The Network’s launch featured Adam Elliott, Oscar winner for his short film “Harvie Krumpet”, as the guest speaker.
President’s Luncheons were introduced by the Chamber last year and the guest speakers were Tim Costello, CEO, World Vision Australia, Roger La Salle, Matrix Thinking, and Russell Rees, Chief Officer, Country Fire Authority. These will continue in 2010 but will have varied formats.
The Chamber’s main social event is its annual dinner which is now held in June to mark the month when the Chamber was established in 1853 which was just two years after Victoria separated from New South Wales as a colony.