The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce’s Network Cafe initiative, which promotes networking and cooperation among local businesses, held its first meeting at the Chamber’s newest member.
Greco’s Restaurant celebrated its partnership with the Chamber with a ribbon cutting Tuesday morning. The Network Cafe’s first luncheon was held shortly after, with local organizations and municipal representatives gathering for lunch.
According to Mike Howard, the Chamber’s vice-president of membership, events, and education, the initiative aims to get business owners and representatives talking amongst themselves at monthly events.
“It’s for business owners, sales folks, financial advisors, people that are members of the chamber to come together for coffee, breakfast or lunch … and just network, get business names (out there) and talk about business issues,” he said. “We’ll do this once or twice a month and see how it goes at the coffee shops, restaurants, or even businesses that want to host us.”
According to Howard, the Network Cafe will be especially beneficial to smaller businesses that may not have the advertising budget to put their names out there on a regular basis.
“What it’ll do is bring awareness to smaller business establishments that don’t have as much marketing as we bring our people there for an event,” he said. “… We hope this will go on for a long time, and make an opportunity for businesses to grow and flourish.”
Contact of Wheeling Chamber
If your company would like to host a Network Cafe event, please contact the chamber at wheelingchamber.com or Howard at mhoward@wheelingchamber.com. Eric Bennett, co-owner of Greco’s, expressed gratitude for being a member of the Chamber and for the networking opportunities provided by the Network Cafe.
“The more community involvement you have, the more relations you make,” he said. “… It just makes your community relations a little better, to support Wheeling as a whole, its growth and its future.”
Source : theintelligencer