You Spoke – We Listened!

Thank you for the many responses we received to the questionnaire circulated to Chamber members and the Chesham business community at large. This has given us a very good idea what your priorities are. As you will see in this and future Newsletters, we fully intend to deliver against those priorities.

First and foremost with 100% listing it as a top 5 priority, you have told us that you would like the CCTC to organise a monthly networking event.

In response to this and with the kind support of The Garnett Foundation, we are planning a series of monthly breakfast networking events. Each event will feature a speaker on subjects relevant to the Chesham business community. At the first event our speaker will be The Garnett Foundation’s Director of Learning and Development on the subject of Effective Networking, a topic suggested by several of you.

Also as requested we hope to have Graham Hull as one of our featured speakers soon. During each breakfast event we will ask those present to propose speakers and/or subjects for future events. That way we can be sure that these networking events remain firmly focused on what is important to you.

At least half of the time available at each event will be dedicated to taking on board a breakfast designed to get you motoring at the start of the day and, of course, for you to practice those effective networking techniques on each other!

You will shortly receive an invitation to the first Effective Networking Breakfast. Members will get a big discount and priority in allocating the places available.

Your other top 5 priorities were, in order of the number of votes cast:

#2 - Expert Directory: A self-maintained Internet based directory with search capability of Chesham businesses setting out their types and levels of expertise in detail, offering their services at a discount to other members.

Call for assistance: If you have or know of anyone with experience implementing an expert directory system, please contact Fred Wilson (email address: thijscouk@aol.com)

#3 - Business Meeting Place: Provide a comfortable, presentable space for members to meet business guests around small tables. Light refreshments should be available. Also some rooms for hire for presentations and private meetings.

Your suggestions please: We are starting a review of suitable locations for a meeting place. Please send any suggestions to Fred Wilson (email address: thijscouk@aol.com)

#4 - Annual B4B Conference; with a preference for reverting to the pre-2007 exhibition and conferences format.

#5 - Business Referral Scheme (BRS) to facilitate business referrals between Chesham businesses. Within the 600+ strong Chesham business community we surely have all the skills required to deliver any service and complete any project for even the largest customer. The trick is to know where to find those skills. The BRS would facilitate this process at a fraction of the normal cost of sales.

Watch this space for further information on these priorities.