Business chamber moves to new location for more visible presence
The Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce has moved to a new downtown location to have a more visible presence in the community.
The new office space is located in the Chinook Centre at #4 – 240 Central Avenue North in Swift Current’s downtown business area.
Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony at the new location, Jan. 12. He congratulated the chamber on the move and presented a plaque on behalf of the City of Swift Current to CEO Karla Wiens.
He thanked the chamber for its ongoing efforts on behalf of local businesses and the community as a whole, and he noted that the city and community will thrive when businesses are able to thrive.
“We’ve seen firsthand how our business community with the support of the chamber had been able to adapt and innovate to keep business operating and keep staff employed during the pandemic, and this is a true testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of our community,” he said.
He added that the City will continue to partner with the local business chamber to work towards a prosperous community.
“Not only do we have a strong chamber and a strong business community here in Swift Current, it gives me great confidence that there will be no challenge too great for this city,” he said.
Wiens said the chamber is looking forward to work with businesses and other organizations in the new year.
“We are also very excited to hit the ground running,” she mentioned. “2020 has been a challenge and we’ve had to pivot and learn a lot of new things, but we’re very excited about the opportunities that 2021 is going to present for our entire community.”
She provided more details about the chamber’s decision to move to a new location during a media interview after the ribbon cutting.
“We first started investigating a potential office change in 2019, and the reason for that was the board at the time wanted to have a more visible presence,” she explained. “So Central Avenue has a lot more traffic than where we were previously. Our previous building was wonderful of course and the landlords were easy to deal with, but we wanted to have a more visible presence, more easily accessible to everyone to attend.”
The idea to move to another location was revisited last summer and the chamber decided to move to this office space on Central Avenue. The chamber office was previously located in the Swift Current Business Centre on 1st Avenue NE. It used that office location for about 11 years.
The chamber’s new office is well located in relation to other relevant organizations. It is sharing office space with Community Futures Southwest, the nextdoor office is occupied by Partners in Employment, and the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre office is directly across the street.
The arrangement to share office space with Community Futures Southwest was the result of a conversation during which both parties discovered they were looking for a new space.
“We’re both two organizations that want to be very economical and office expense, I don’t want it to be a big line item on our budget,” she said. “We have lots of other important things to do.”
The new office includes a large boardroom that can accommodate chamber board meetings, when there can be close to 20 people present.
“That’s a benefit that we’re hoping to offer our members as well,” she said. “It’s got state-of-the-art
capabilities. So hopefully our members can reap the benefits of our new office space as well.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused various changes to the work environment in many organizations, including a move towards staff working from home. However, the chamber still feels it is important to have a physical office presence for its members to connect with the organization.
“The board of directors had a very good discussion that we’re hoping COVID is shorter term rather than long term, and going forward the chamber having a presence here in town that people can stop in, a onestop shop so to speak, is valuable,” she said.
Wiens felt the services offered by the chamber is even more useful to businesses during the pandemic, and the chamber continues to sign on new members.
“It was alarming at the start of this pandemic and throughout the summer, because our wallets were being pinched,” she said about the pandemic’s impact. “So I was worried and our membership ebbs and flows so to speak, but we have new members signing on all the time. January and February are traditionally our membership drive. So of course, we’ll be reaching out to any new business to town. We like to reach out and try to connect those people, especially if they’re new to town, with other local folks.”
The chamber is able to offer various services to members, including networking events. The pandemic makes it difficult to host such events, but the chamber is looking at new ways of doing things, for example last year’s SCBEX awards night was presented in a virtual format.
“So networking we’re going to do some different things and for educational sessions we’re partnering with Community Futures and the United Way,” she said. “We’re doing an eight-part webinar series for
non-profits and that will cover various things. Key on the list will be grant writing and applications.”
She added that the chamber will continue to disseminate information to members about funding programs, grants and other resources.
The chamber partnered with the City of Swift Current in the run-up to the Christmas shopping season to produce a Talk Local series of videos that featured local businesses. The promotion of local shopping in support of the local business community remains an important focus of chamber activities.
“That was a nice campaign coordinated with the Christmas season,” she said. “I think it worked really well. The participants were very, very happy with it. We had a waiting line of people wanting to participate. We’re always open to explore a similar kind of format going forward and times are changing very quickly. So we’ll roll with the punches and anything that we can do to showcase our businesses and community groups we will definitely do that.”
Wiens indicated there might be an exciting announcement in the near future about an online platform to promote and facilitate online shopping with local businesses. She noted that the pandemic has really magnified the importance of the shop local message.
“I think whatever we’re going to do and focus on going forward, it will be to promote shopping local, staying local, promoting our local community,” she said. “And that’s Swift Current and southwest Saskatchewan, not just in the city. I’m excited that we are partnering more with other RMs and chambers of commerce throughout southwest Saskatchewan, tourism, you name it. I think the collaboration going forward is going to get some really good results and activity happening.”