Thank you to all of our members and partner organizations for a great 2023! It has been a year of planning and change while we work to modernize the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce to fit today's business needs, we hope that in 2024 we can bring you more services and more (and bigger) community and business events. We will also be asking for more community volunteers as the events get larger so keep an eye out if you are interested in helping!
Membership Growth: Welcomed 12 new members, showing a buzzing business scene in Springfield. We've been stepping up our outreach and giving more value to our members.
Eventful Year: The Chamber hosted or collaborated in a total of 37 events, offering valuable networking opportunities, community events, and collaborative platforms for businesses to connect and grow, and bring in new people into town. We're passionate about bringing new faces to town and creating opportunities for local businesses to shine.
Over the Summer we held our 51st Annual Hacker’s Golf Tournament. Despite a wet summer, we managed to end up with beautiful blue skies and a great group of golfers.
Our signature Fall community event is The Vermont Apple Festival and Craft Show. We didn’t manage to dodge the rain, but we still had a wonderful event. We even sold out all the gym spots and ran out of indoor overflow spaces! We also launched a new segment to the Apple Festival as a nod to the old Home Show and as a way for us to help support local businesses. The Home, Health, and Business Corridor is a space for businesses to set up booths to promote their goods and services to the local population that comes out for the festival. While the festival was larger and had more activities and performances this year, the weather unfortunately resulted in having approximately the same attendance as last year. Hopefully next year we can have great weather AND great entertainment and blow that number out of the water.
We also held several more business and legislative events, such as the River Valley Employment Fair and Governors Lunch.
Strong Member Retention: The Chamber maintained an impressive 90% member retention rate. We hope to continue this trend by updating and increasing our membership benefits based on feedback from our membership base.
Community Impact: Through various events and initiatives, the Chamber continued to make a positive impact on the local community. From committees to community events, we're making Springfield better. Whether it's linking locals with businesses or just making things happen, we're all about Springfield's growth.
The chamber has been very involved with several committees and boards this year. Most of them focus on increasing the Workforce as that is one of the biggest barriers facing our members right now. The Chamber has been able to add value to these groups by working as a connector between like-minded committees, organizations, projects, and workgroups.
As the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce looks back on 2023, these achievements reflect a dynamic and resilient business community. The Chamber is committed to its members' success and the overall economic vitality of the region. The coming year holds the promise of further growth, collaboration, and prosperity for the Springfield business community.
-Taylor Drinker - Director