The Chronicle Herald (Metro)

A December state of mind

Wrapping up another successful year with our members

- PATRICK SULLIVAN PRESIDENT & CEO HALIFAX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

It’s hard to believe 2019 is already coming to end. In the last year, we’ve seen huge event growth, welcomed new staff and new members, built our voice for advocacy and started to work on our 2019-2023 strategy.

We’re grateful to our members for their continued feedback on our initiative­s. Your comments and suggestion­s help us shape our events, our membership engagement and our advocacy work. We work for our members.

In 2019, we garnered hundreds of responses to our new website polls, from the fracking conversati­on to cannabis. Our executive team held close to 100 meetings with government officials, community groups and members on advocacy issues and strategic plan initiative­s. Thanks to our new website, we’re able to interact in even more twoway communicat­ion with our members.

We implemente­d our “host” initiative at luncheons to provide a platform and exposure to members and to ensure better and more diverse representa­tion on stage. Ninety two per cent of the time, these hosts were women who were able to show the great talent and organizati­ons we have locally.

We’re also introducin­g a Halifax Chamber Annual Report this year, to be released in late January 2020 and at our Annual General Meeting in April 2020. Members will be able to see a snapshot of all the work we’ve done together, from event numbers, to advocacy meetings with government, to new members. Look for that in 2020!

In December’s issue of Business Voice, we’re excited to focus on our Agents of Change, the eighth edition. We’ve included local leaders with a variety of background­s. It’s important to showcase our range of businesses here in Halifax and we’re always looking for new speakers and new businesses to highlight. If you know of a local business leader working on a great new project, send them our way! We’d love to hear from you.

 ??  ?? Patrick Sullivan is the President & CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.
Patrick Sullivan is the President & CEO of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce.

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