Chamber positioned for strong year ahead, president says
Kutcher reminds members they are ‘better together’
The Greater Summerside Chamber of Commerce is well positioned for 2017, in part because of work done within the past few years, said Dan Kutcher, returning President of the GSCC.
Kutcher was reviewing some of the priorities the board has been working towards in 2016 and looking forward to the year ahead at the GSCC 117th AGM Feb. 9.
“The Chamber’s 2014 Way Forward Conference highlighted concerns that we as a business community must address to ensure long term success and sustainability,” said Kutcher. “Then in 2015, at our second conference, we focused on proposed solutions. This past year the board made the decision to work on implementing some of those solutions, including the Forward Summerside project, engaging young business leaders and celebrating all we already have to offer in this area“. Kutcher noted that Forward Summerside was financed internally, based on the idea that the Chamber must pull up its bootstraps on its own terms and “with our investment if we wanted to get off on the right foot.”
In June, the Chamber hosted the Forward Summerside event, attended by more than 100 business people, and has since invested significant time and effort to moving to project along. Kutcher also referenced the more celebratory priority which a group of volunteers from the business community have been working on for about a year and have dubbed “#ChooseSummerside. Aligned with this is a special event the Chamber, along with Explore Summerside and Downtown Summerside, will host on May 6 with the same name.
“We have much to stand up and be proud of,” he said. “So Choose Summerside on May 6 will be a family-friendly experience, celebrating what our business community has to offer - from food and drink, to merchandise to services. It will have a bustling pop-up marketplace, delightful food, activities for the kids and a market square where attendees can gather to sit, eat and either watch or participate in activities. At this point, we’re still working through some details, but we believe businesses are going to want to be part of it, and residents are not going to want to miss it.”
“We are investing a lot of effort to drive change,” said Kutcher. “I truly believe that what we have here in the Greater Summerside business community is something special. We have a lot to be proud of here but we also have a lot more work to do to work better and smarter. We don’t have a choice about where we come from, but we do have a choice about where we live, raise our families and do business. So let’s keep at it because we are better together.”