HORIZON Initiative: Chambers 2025
Workbooks and Chamber Board Planning
Video #1 – The Nature of Belonging & Gathering
Recap:
· Value does not equal events.
· Audience does not equal network.
· Motivations for engaging the Chamber can be very different.
In this section they talk about how Chambers often equate events to value but that members do not always look at it that way. What challenges and opportunities do you see in looking at our Chamber’s events?
· Challenges:
o Event timing for those with young children or family obligations
o Perception of elitism or “do I belong”
o Hosting isn’t enough
· Opportunities:
o Some people are highly engaged in the community
o Tie into community pride
o Offer ‘speed networking’
o Attracting younger people, like informal setting, community oriented
o Business to business groups – boot camps – small business/home business
o 80% don’t attend but are those that do attend the higher paying/top tier members
o Make them informal – less formal labels (“meeting”)
o Have a follow up after a workshop
How can we further help our members build their networks in new & meaningful ways?
· Identify prime network interest before planning events
· Based on commonalities
· Information dispersal
· Survey Membership
· Member Overviews
· Trade Organizations
Looking at the Member Matrix below, what are the top 2-3 benefits you think members are looking for in each quadrant?
HORIZON Initiative: Chambers 2025
Video #2 – Communication & Technology
Recap:
· New technology will continue to drive change, but technological capabilities will not differentiate your Chamber.
· The key is personal, human touch: customization for everyone.
· Information is a commodity. Chambers add value by filtering and analyzing information.
Other than an annual member survey, how could we better collect and analyze feedback from members?
· Frequent, shorter surveys on specific topics (legislation, community issues, etc)
· Member luncheons to solicit feedback (small, selected group where Chamber pays lunch)
· Incentive plan to drive member involvement (ie. attend ‘x’ events, receive ‘x’ prize)
· Do a mentor program to pair up new members with existing member for feedback/support
· Brainstorm ways to keep membership updated when we are working on something (ie. estimated repair time apps)
· Personal visits with members throughout the year
· Utilize technology at events – app/social media/survey, simple but specific questions
· Run Facebook contest where people comment on a question, entered to win a prize
· Post-event – send a follow up survey to attendees (2-3 questions)
· Using social media/blogs for conditional content, using inbound marketing tactics
· Looking more at social media/website analytics
· Send questions out with renewal to get feedback on why they did/did not renew
· Some way for members to post positive & negative comments, like a product review
Think of your business & the community. What type of community/local information are you using now? What information would you like to know but don’t know where to look for it? Is there an opportunity for the Chamber to “analyze & filter” that to make it more valuable?
· Calendars of Events
· Business regulations info, permitting info
· GIS Data and business data like Reference USA. Have profiles on small business clusters. What are we missing? Then build programming around those.
· More demographic info would be very helpful – especially trends.
· Business growth trends, employee location & job numbers
· Growing business sectors.
· Location decisions? What are these based on? What do businesses track/decision points/sector regulations?
· Be a “go to” source for all things business in Richland County.
· How do people find out about new businesses in town? Whether they are joining the Chamber or not?
· Better tracking of what our members products/services are to provide more specific referrals
· Product/software reviews, best practices, ‘need to know’ stuff
· How to find specific contacts within a company. (ie. HR Director)
Broadly speaking, at this point, the Chamber is still ‘mass marketing’ and we haven’t gone down the path of customization or segmentation (though it’s been discussed). We have members on the whole spectrum of technology from no email to very active in social media and beyond. From your point of view, what do you think the most important thing is that we can do to improve our communication & prepare for what is ahead?
· Do it all until you can determine the dominant tools to use. Also, think about what forms of communication can be let go? Then move on.
· Utilizing multiple channels of communication
· Boost more posts on FB to drive recognition of events, etc.
· Find out how members prefer to be communicated with (phone/personal/email/social media), then segment to their preferred form.
· Know your customer, consider segmentation based upon tech ability, etc.
· Continue to utilize a variety of platforms but make sure each is specific to the event/target audience/information needed.
· Watch what else happens in the industry and prepare to follow those successful folks.
· Keep a live person to answer the phone.
· Consider a YouTube channel with brief videos detailing the different benefits of Chamber membership.
· Personal appearances by the President/leadership in public venues that are NOT Chamber events.
· Validate that your message is getting out with those you intended to communicate with.
· Are we exploring using a Chamber app? One that includes member directory, links to coupons, events, etc.
· Inbound marketing – give the people what they want. More quality, less spam.
· Targeted emails – instead of broadcast emails.
· Targeted events/education/information
· Make it personal. Be everywhere.
HORIZON Initiative: Chambers 2025
Video #3 – Scarcity & Abundance
Recap:
· Abundance is the question for Chambers – how do you leverage it?
· Scarcity & Abundance can be about natural resources, human capital or other assets.
· Chambers have to be KAPS to be able to respond to problems that quickly arise
· How can you break the traditional model for evaluating your regional strengths?
o Need to stop looking at the past. What can we do to position ourselves for the future?
o We traditionally focus on the physical assets. How do we identify the areas of creativity and ingenuity and who are the KAPS?
o Ask outside organizations for their views.
o Not only talk with community leaders but involve outsiders (those who may live outside community but work locally)
o Market our region as lower-cost and higher quality of life vs. other areas.
o Consult with entrepreneurs who have joined the community in last 5 years. What are their thoughts on our strengths? They will see opportunities that we don’t
o Look at human capital as a resource
o We fixate on scarcity. Focus instead on change opportunities.
o People and our spirit are one of our greatest assets. We’ve had to be scrappy, entrepreneurial & innovative to survive.
o Change the internal message of the community.
o Rustbelt – past positives still exist – location & Midwest work ethic
o Search and evaluate on the ‘fringe’. Some of the best feedback is never heard. Benchmark new and innovative tools.
· Not all resources are natural – abundance of government-related jobs, transportation infrastructure, viable downtowns, top quartile rated education institutions are all examples. How can you itemize abundant man-made resources and identify the 3 that you need to work on to build bragging rights?
o Manufacturing Community, Transportation, Downtown
o Lots of open positions in private industry, how do we brag about that?
o Brickyard, Mid-Ohio, Campus District
o Location/proximity – major N/S and E/W roads
o Presence of local higher education facilities needs to be marketed more strongly
o Quality of life
o Diverse recreation
o Proximity to major airports
o Cultural/arts, educational opportunities
o Educating the incarcerated for when they leave
o Partnerships – Business/Career Ctr/Community College/Govt
o Auto & Mfg clusters
o Inexpensive education at NCSC
o Abundance of vacant buildings
o Downtown is prettier than most with room to grow. We could be Portland without the rain
o Tourism, Manufacturing, Prison
· What perceived scarcities in your region can be repositioned to highlight a related abundance? – e.g. shortage of developable greenfield space creates “natural” drive for walkable living of a dense new urbanist community.
o Scarcity of qualified employable individuals. Cincinnati works program here?
o Workforce, we are a community with opportunities available.
o Youth – getting them involved in the community and creating an environment that make more young people want to live here.
o Lack of workforce will lead to automation, promote hi-tech mfg.
o Downtown renovations into a more walkable community
o Lower educational attainment being improved through design of the campus.
o Recent downtown space repurposed in non-traditional methods
o Less people = less traffic & congestion
o NCSC’s free associates degree might be moving the needle for some kids to keep them local.
o Uber vs. public transportation
o Vacant buildings make great warehouses – can we be a hub?
o The prison is the elephant in the room and we always seem to ignore it
o Flip workforce scarcity into “Land of Opportunity”
o Abundance of unleased commercial property or a scarcity of tenants? How can we turn that around? Follow Brickyard model to encourage growth.
· Since people and talent are the new inventory for economic development and investment decisions, what aspects of your workforce and talent pool are abundant, but largely unidentified, misunderstood, or exported?
o How many people living here already commute to CLE or COL and can we create opportunities for them here?
o We are KAPS and run on a speed model, but I think we are misunderstood by our customers.
o Vets, Disabled, low income/low-skill
o Have a large capacity to train, but few people to train.
o What the career centers/NCSC/OSU are doing to provide talent to area
o Senior employees generally have talents, hobbies or avocations that could be leveraged for startup businesses
o Recent retirees
o Younger workforce
o Making leaders, training gaps that exist
o People with compromised backgrounds
o People who are underemployed
HORIZON Initiative: Chambers 2025
Video #4 – Global Impacts
Recap:
· Global Impacts are going to come to our community
· International Trade is a huge revenue opportunity for our Chamber.
General Comments:
· Great potential to rally existing members to explore international sales.
· Overcome the fear of shipping & payment process
· The global world causes us to be more collaborative & regional in our approach in order to be more competitive
· Help members to understand that it might not be as complex as they think
· Use Bob Cohen as a resource
· There are also buying opportunities abroad, not just selling
· What opportunities exist for international trade that businesses just don’t know about?
· Development of the airport is essential, continue to work with city officials to develop other airport related businesses to the airport
· For most small businesses, Canada is clearly the most likely international experience.
The “Global Impacts” chapter suggests getting “closer to the companies in your region with overseas connections or owners” as a strategy to expand your international connections and support for members
· What steps could you take to better quantify and understand the international connections among your larger-active members?
o Take an extra look to figure out who the suppliers are for a company and who is the end user for the product.
o Survey interest in international shipping workshops
o NCSC is teaching Chinese language classes. They have Chinese faculty on campus and also do exchange trips. They also host Fulbright Exchange with Europe.
o Host a forum for larger members who already deal with international business. Allow them to give us insight on what effects this could have on their industry in the future.
o Examine foreign owned co
o Companies like Newman Tech to better understand what brought them here.
o Website, ask more questions
o What are the missed opportunities for international trade
o Contact customers to offer UN Packaging for international shipment & suppliers
o Market & communicate via social media
o Make members aware of existing resources like: our role in Certificates of Origin, Foreign Trade Zone, NEOTEC, Image grant from ODSA
· What countries seem to be most connected (as suppliers, customers or investors) to your member businesses?
o North America - Canada
o Central America - Mexico
o Asia – China, Japan, Vietnam, India
o Europe – UK, Germany, Luxemburg, Turkey
o South East Asia - New Zealand
o South America – Brazil
o Middle East – Israel, Dubai
· Who are the “fixers” or partners your members use to connect in other countries? How can you connect with those well-placed experts?
o Offer seminars from real, practical ‘fixers – ITAC, PTAC, trade shows, gold passport service, USEAC, SBDC
o NCSC connects with U of Toledo who connects them with the Confucius Institute, Hanban & Yanshan University in Beijing
o Sister plants within larger companies, many have locations in foreign countries
o Parent company – Atlantic Packaging
o They use the expertise of larger customers shipping/export/purchasing when necessary
· What questions can you include in your routine member visits to ensure that you know whether companies already trade internationally, or whether they want to? How can you break the traditional model for evaluating your regional strengths?
o How much of your business is exports? To Where?
o Are you facing any challenges with supply or exports that we may be able to refer you to another Chamber member?