Business Showcase planned for June 1

Northwest Connecticut’s Chamber of Commerce has announced The Great Giveaway Business Showcase will take place on Thursday, June 1 at Chatterley’s Banquet Facility in Torrington.

This one-night event, scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m., will be heavily promoted in all media providing vendors the opportunity to be seen by hundreds of potential customers. The Great Giveaway Business Showcase will feature multiple vendor giveaways that will create excitement and draw traffic to the event and to vendors’ booths. The Chamber will provide free admission, free parking and free food with a cash bar.

Exhibit space, including an 8-foot skirted table, 2 chairs and a company sign, is available for $200 for Chamber members. Non-members are invited to participate for $300. Sponsorships offering additional publicity and promotional opportunities are also available starting at $500. For more information, or to reserve an exhibit space, please contact Lauren Zordan at the Chamber via email lauren@nwctchamberofcommerce.org or call 860482-6586.

Working Cities Challenge

The Chamber is thrilled to announce the City of Torrington has been awarded a $15,000 design grant through the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Cities Challenge (WCC), an economic development effort that builds cross-sector collaboration and leadership to solve challenges affecting urban communities. The Chamber, along with the City of Torrington, are coleads on this initiative.

A group of individuals have been working together since the fall to determine a 10-year vision which has been identified as: “Torrington’s goal is to retain and attract a younger workforce and make Torrington more affordable by improving our economic security and quality of life by reversing the downward trend ratio of millennials to seniors. In 2010, the ratio was 1.2 and in 2025, the ratio is projected to drop to .66.” The economic growth challenge identified as the challenge to be addressed through the WCC is: “As the largest ‘micropolitan’ center in Connecticut and a distressed municipality, Torrington is burdened with supporting the entire region. Combined with an aging population, declining student enrollment and loss of millennials, these demographic challenges strain our tax base, our ability to provide services and increases the cost of living.”

The team will now work together to develop an implementation grant application, which if awarded, would be $300,000$500,000. The group will attend four full-day sessions to learn more about the core elements of WCC: collaborative leadership, community engagement, systems change, and measuring progress.

Welcome New Members!

Aflac- Thomas McKiernan

Cardinal Engineering Associates, Inc. Kôta Mad River Lofts/XKL Capital, LLC Paul Patch Silverspiral Creations Greg Tuers