The following provides our ‘Chamber Roadmap’ for the coming year, highlighting some changes and some exciting new initiatives to help business thrive and connect. We will remain open minded and continue to adapt to change as needed. Here are some of the things you can enjoy as part of your Chamber membership going forward.
NEW LOGO AND WEBSITE
Like many businesses our website has been key to us throughout the pandemic and we have made constant changes and updates to reflect up to date information. We have conducted a thorough review of the site with our designers Diagonal Design and have now made some changes to update the look and provide an easier way to navigate, book events and search for other members. Our new look will be revealed at the first Wednesday meeting in April and this will be built on to ensure our members get a good user experience and to help attract new members. Watch this space for the new look……..
A NEW HOME FOR THE CHAMBER
The Chamber will be relocating to the new Business Hub at the Council Offices in Bradbourne Vale Road. This new space will offer pod offices and flexible workspace options for businesses and fantastic meeting spaces with parking. We are very excited to be moving into this new space and to hosting some of our meetings and events there. COMPETITION TIME – A chance to win a bottle of prosecco for anyone who can come up with a good name that represents the site and the diverse businesses that will be housed there including us – ideas to info@sevenoakschamber.com by April 30th.
WEDNESDAY NETWORKING EVENTS
Our Sevenoaks, Swanley and Westerham networking will remain online for the foreseeable future. The numbers attracted for the meetings has been fantastic and we have received excellent feedback from members about how efficient the networking is. We feel we cannot go back to the large networking groups we enjoyed before the pandemic for some time yet, so for now the online version is still very much thriving and open to guests and members. Our online networking will remain free to attend for members.
WORKSHOPS
We will be launching our recovery series of workshops starting with Computer Trouble-shooters, covering the hugely important topic of Cyber Security on 10th June. Our workshops will focus on hot topics relevant to business, and to help business resilience. A nominal fee will be charged for attendance of these workshops to cover the fee of the guest speaker and the organiser.
SECTOR SPECIFIC MEETINGS
As the restrictions are eased and in line with Government guidelines, we are planning to launch a series of sector specific networking. We will be kicking off with Construction on 23rd June and although the earlier meetings may be online, we are hoping to host these face to face as soon as we can. Numbers will be limited to ensure that a more intimate level of networking is achieved and will be either sponsored or a small fee charged to attend. If you have a specific sector you would like to see included please get in touch..
SOCIAL EVENTS
Our popular Summer Reception is the highlight of the year, but this year we are uncertain about the timings and possibilities of this going ahead. As this is our 110-anniversary year, we will definitely look to hold a celebratory event, but this may be late Autumn, early winter depending on restrictions. In the interim we are planning to hold smaller, breakfast and evening events that offer a more relaxed networking experience with interesting guest speakers. The numbers will be determined by government restrictions but for members who cannot wait to meet face to face there will be plenty of opportunity to meet fellow Chamber members. Our first Breakfast is planned for Friday 25th June and we will be announcing a guest speaker soon.
SWANLEY EXPO
We are hoping again to hold a Swanley Expo at the Alexandra Suite on 11th November. We have held two successful events here previously and are looking forward to helping businesses get back on track with a bigger and better Swanley Expo 2021.
SPONSORSHIP
We have put together a comprehensive package of sponsorship that offers excellent value for money. Our sponsorship offers members an opportunity to promote their businesses and get further exposure through our membership communications, social media channels and presentations. Sponsorship provides a significant income for us as a Chamber, and we rely on the support of our members to achieve this. Sponsorship is always hugely popular from within the Chamber membership, please get in touch to let us know if you would like to sponsor any of our events in the following year. See below just some of the packages available. To discuss the packages in more details please contact kathryn@sevenoakshamber.com. We are always open to new sponsorship ideas from members:
- Sevenoaks First Wednesday Sponsorship – £175
- Swanley and Westerham Sponsorship – £125
- Sector specific networking sponsorship -£125
- Breakfast or Dinner Sponsorship – £250
- Key event sponsorship – Starting at £250 – £500
BUSINESS PARTNERS
Our Business Partners continue to be an integral part of our Chamber structure. The additional revenue gained from our partners enable us to continue to develop our services to meet the needs of our members. There are many benefits from the Business Partner programme, offering opportunities to directly communicate with our members, whilst demonstrating support for new initiatives and helping the Chamber flourish. If you would like to find out more about being involved at Business Partner level, please get in touch. Our current business partners are: Beer Mergers, Hilden Park Accountants, Vintage Financial Planning, Warners Solicitors and Welham Jones Funerals.
NEXT GEN
We are very much committed to developing the Next Gen initiative for our young professionals and entrepreneurs. Our team of Ambassadors Amy Lane, Thompson Snell and Passmore – Alexander Stennings, Vintage Financial Planning and Paul Stevens, Sanlam Wealth Management are working closely with us to engage with the Next Gen community. The team have remained motivated throughout the pandemic and are now looking forward to organising further relaxed social events to create friendly networking opportunities.
We hope this provides you with an overview of how we intend to operate in the coming year. Obviously, we will remain flexible and able to move quickly with changing circumstances to ensure we are here for our members.