Category: Networking

Chamber Tech Innovations with Christopher Patton

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Brandon Burton (00:00.876)
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. Joining us today is a tech industry veteran turned chamber innovator, Chris Patton. With over a decade of executive experience in the tech world, Chris has scaled companies through major growth and multiple mergers and acquisitions.

But it was opening a kid strong franchise and joining his local chamber that sparked a whole new passion, which is transforming the way chambers connect with their members. saw firsthand how chambers were lacking modern user friendly tech that delivered real value to their members. That insight led him to found Chaymber, that’s C-H-A-Y-M-B-E-R, a company dedicated to building an elegant, intuitive app that helps chambers

It helps chamber members do what they came to do, network, build relationships and grow their businesses without the clunky watered down CRM experience. Now laser focused on innovation in the chamber space. Chris is on a mission to make member engagement seamless, effective, and actually enjoyable. Chris, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening. And if you would.

share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you little better.

Christopher Patton (01:30.394)
Yeah, I’m grateful for the opportunity. I was glad we got to connect recently and learn more about each other. You know, being somebody newer to the chamber industry, right? It’s always nice to have new connections. That’s what it’s all about. As far as something interesting, you know, it’s always subjective, right? I’d say the most exciting thing in my life right now is that I have what will soon be an eight month old daughter, Juniper.

So as you can imagine, she is really the focus and highlight of everything I’ve got going on.

Brandon Burton (02:03.693)
What a fun stage too. Just starting to wake up and experience the world. So that’s very cool.

Christopher Patton (02:09.572)
waking up, waking up at all hours, for sure. Yeah.

Brandon Burton (02:12.353)
That’s right. Just waking up in general. Very good. Well, usually at this point, I have the guest tell about their chamber or their organization just to kind of give a little background and kind of set the stage for a conversation today. So maybe just take us through high level what chamber is all about, what it is, and then we’ll dive into the details a little bit later.

Christopher Patton (02:36.484)
Yeah, yeah. So we do two main things. We provide Chambers of Commerce, a new medium to be able to interact and engage with their members through this mobile branded experience with push notifications and more. And then we provide their members a tool to actually be able to engage and network with each other. So those are the two main things. We certainly have a whole bunch more features within the application and system and a whole lot more in our roadmap coming.

But you know, I always like to say that, you know, this is a platform that’s built by a chamber member for chamber members, right? So really trying to take that member experience that I know so well and my technology background and connecting the two.

Brandon Burton (03:21.291)
Yeah, now that’s great. I love it when somebody comes into it from the perspective of seeing the issue themself and then creating the solution to the problem that they’ve seen. So it tends to add a lot more value and insight to the product as it comes out. Well, today we’re gonna dive in on a topic of how chambers tend to facilitate through using their CRM to connect with members to.

just manage the organization at large, the reasons why people join Chambers to begin with, and seeing how Chamber, your app, can be a solution to some of these issues and struggles that we see on a regular basis. So we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Chris, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking today about how Chambers tend to rely maybe a little too heavily on their CRM to manage the organization. And don’t get me wrong, CRMs are great. I don’t know how chambers would function without them. But share with us from your perspective, what do you mean when you see chambers relying too heavily on CRMs?

Christopher Patton (04:28.476)
So.

Christopher Patton (04:36.006)
Sure, I think what I’ve learned, well, maybe I’ll share this tidbit. Every single sales demo call I do, feels like it turns into this therapy session about their CRM, right? And I appreciate that we’ve established that good of a relationship, kind of from the get go with lot of these folks, but it’s…

It’s a necessary evil for lack of a choice. I use a CRM for my business. It’s part of how we do business nowadays. sometimes they kind of get sold the bill of goods as far as like it’s the panacea that will do everything for them. And what I’ve come to learn being in the tech industry for a while is if you have a tech product that’s trying to do everything for everyone, they’re delivering to no one.

Brandon Burton (05:07.063)
Sure.

Christopher Patton (05:28.636)
because there’s really a lack of product vision. And I feel like that’s what we have, Is really focused product vision. So when I talk to these shamers about their CRM doing everything, right? Whether it’s the events, the billing, the emails, right? A lot of the times they’ve got all these things in the systems, but they are just super clunky. They’re not intuitive for them to use.

It scares them off more than anything, to where it’s possible that their CRM does some things that maybe we do, but it is so tough for them to navigate that they start looking elsewhere. With that being said, I know we’ve got features that their CRM does not do for sure, but I think that’s how I’d explain it is they’re under the impression the CRM will do everything for them, but it’s almost like information overload and

It’s really tough to navigate. It makes it hard.

Brandon Burton (06:30.894)
And I think, you know, bottom line is that a CRM can be great when, when it does do what you want it to do, when you can plug in with the calendar and you can, you know, have everything recorded in a CRM. There’s a ton of value to be able to go back to that and see what are all the touch points with their customers, with our chamber members. But the reality is when it becomes too difficult to use and they don’t use it and they start looking for other solutions that maybe don’t communicate with their CRM, that

end up being its own clunky system in its own by trying to kind of patchwork different things together. So having somebody like you who’s bringing something from the perspective, as we’ve talked about, where you’ve seen where these struggles, where these disconnects are, and with their tech background, to be able to find a solution that actually works. I think there’s so much value to that. Yeah.

Christopher Patton (07:27.554)
Ditto.

Brandon Burton (07:29.814)
I love the therapy session too, about CRMs. Because there’s so much good in them, but it’s like some of these things get added in almost as an afterthought of, yeah, we can do that too, but it’s not being done really well. It’s just in there because they can. But being able to maximize how these different tools work together is where you really get the key impact.

Christopher Patton (07:51.686)
Yeah. Hey, could I share another anecdote about the therapy session real quick? So I use AI note taker for all my calls so long as the person’s okay with me using it, which is pretty normal to have on our calls nowadays. And I always take my transcripts and I think you and I talked a little bit about this where I’ve got my AI business advisor, right? And I upload my transcripts for what I did for the day as well as everything else.

Brandon Burton (07:56.077)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (08:14.062)
Yep.

Christopher Patton (08:18.344)
A tool I’d recommend for everyone is create your own AI board of directors or some version of that. My business advisor at this point, man, they get it. like, this CRM is really causing these people, it’s happened again. Even my AI business advisor knows and they get it now.

Brandon Burton (08:35.073)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (08:39.426)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We did talk about that. Having that, that AI board of directors and, and we’re not talking about, you know, the board of directors of the chamber, but people that you value their input, their insights where you can take issues and, and really just have their, virtual essence, you know, give you some positive feedback and help guide you. So great, great advice. so Chris, I know you’ve looked into the reasons why people join a chamber, why businesses join the chamber.

Christopher Patton (08:49.222)
Correct.

Brandon Burton (09:09.27)
to begin with. mean, you’re a business owner with Kid Strong. What did you join the chamber for with Kid Strong?

Christopher Patton (09:17.572)
Yeah, the real first reason was ribbon cutting, right? That was such a special moment for me to open the doors to my business, right, in my community. So, you know, naturally I was like, okay, this is how we do like the formal ribbon cutting, right, is with my local chamber. And it’s that day one high of when you’re with your Chamber of Commerce. And I love my local chamber here in my community. They do such amazing things.

But it was impossible for me as a business owner and being somebody on the tech side to not start connecting the dots after that. But then I’d say the other two main reasons is the same reasons, the data shows the top two reasons are because people want to network with fellow business leaders and they want to get more exposure for their business. And that was really my thesis behind Chamber and the direction I went in when we started building it out.

That was my motivating factor for joining and eventually building our product too.

Brandon Burton (10:15.475)
Yeah, so talk to us more about chamber. How does it help solve some of these issues of why, I mean it’s not doing ribbon cuttings for chambers, but how is it addressing some of these other things that people are joining the chamber for?

Christopher Patton (10:31.868)
Yeah, I need to go talk to my AI advisor to figure out how can we do ribbon cutting for Chambers. Now, yeah, so it serves, again, there’s two main purposes, which is giving Chambers of Commerce the new medium to be able to communicate with their members. And then, and I’ll jump into some more detail, and then there’s the member-to-member interaction side of things. So, what I will say is, there are even some CRMs that have an app that you can get. And…

Brandon Burton (10:35.638)
Right?

Brandon Burton (10:54.67)
Thank

Christopher Patton (10:58.972)
You know, I’d ask those chambers when they think of when they bring that up is how’s the adoption in those apps? And is it because the concept of an app is not good or is it because the app is not good? Right? There’s plenty of apps that are really successful. So, you know, that’s again another one of my core beliefs is that just giving your members a portal to like update their billing information, you know, and things like that is not going to be this

this really motivating factor for them, right? So when we come back to the first item with the ability for chambers to be able to communicate to their members, right? You’ve got the events, you’ve got the news where they can do the push notifications to their members and even transactional emails to folks that haven’t downloaded the app yet.

Brandon Burton (11:39.992)
the facts we want to

Brandon Burton (11:50.03)
Thank

Christopher Patton (11:54.938)
And then we’ve got things like exclusive offers and business spotlights so they can highlight more of their businesses in a new way to their community. And then we also digitize their directory. So it’s pretty standard that most chambers of commerce have a list of all their businesses. And we’ve actually got an integration with Google Maps. So that way, we take all of their businesses and give them their own localized Google Maps within the app as well.

Brandon Burton (12:18.606)
Thanks

you.

Christopher Patton (12:22.596)
as well as like group chat functions. So can take your committees and give them their own group chats within the app. Plenty of other things. And then when it comes to the member to member interaction side of things, the real kind of real world use case I like to give is Brandon, let’s say we go to a networking event together. What typically happens is like we meet each other and the relationship probably ends there until we see each other at another event. And

What we’ve done is tried to change that, right? So if we meet at the event, we can connect in the app. And once we connect in the app, our system sends out a branded email for whatever Chamber of Commerce. So we own all the automations. So the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have to worry about it. It actually connects us both through email. So then the next day when we get back to our office, wherever the eager beaver there is, can pick up the communication from there. And we can set up a business meeting. can…

just be connected for whenever we wanna connect again in the future. So it really takes those in-person connections and brings more value to them overall.

Brandon Burton (13:29.454)
Yeah. So the networking piece of it really is what captures my attention. That’s the big differentiator that I see is being able to take those in-person interactions that we’ll admit can be a little awkward sometimes, especially the follow-up can be a little awkward, bit salesy maybe, you know, depending on what it is. But when you can make a connection and really, you know, see that there’s something there, you know, mutually beneficial.

to connect on the app and then let that drive, you know, continued interaction down the road is so valuable.

Christopher Patton (14:04.028)
Yeah, because what happens, the real example I always give, and I always get smiles, and so it validates my thought here is, you give me a business card, I give you a business card, if we’re lucky, we remember to take it out of our pants before we do laundry. And know, best case scenario, it ends up in a pile in the corner of our desk, and you know, we like never get around to sending it. Yeah, don’t show whoever that is. But yeah, that pile.

Brandon Burton (14:25.48)
This pile. Right? Yeah.

Christopher Patton (14:31.836)
But that’s what I love, because now I go to my chamber events and I’m like, no, no, no, I’m not taking your business card. I’m going to connect with you in the app. then boom, we get an email into each other’s inboxes right there. And even if they haven’t downloaded the app yet, they get a notification through email saying, hey, Chris is trying to connect with you. And it prompts them to download the app. So we’ve tried to set up a lot of automations as well. When we think about why are other systems not being successful?

other apps not being successful. That’s a lot of it is you can’t just send an email at once telling your members to download something and assuming it’ll be successful. You got to really integrate it into your daily operations, but also you got to give them a tool that they actually want to use. That’s what it really comes down to.

Brandon Burton (15:17.398)
Yeah. Yeah. For me, seeing an unread email or an unread alert, you know, in an app is going to get my attention and bug me a lot more than seeing a stack of business cards on my desk that get buried by other papers. So I see where that, that really can propel, you know, those connections. so when you talked about the adoption of apps, just in general, like the CRM has an app. so it made me think I’ve been working with chamber since before iPhones came out.

Christopher Patton (15:27.836)
Yeah. That’s it.

Brandon Burton (15:47.457)
So not trying to date myself too much, it’s a, that where the iPhones, the androids came out and it was probably within two to three years, you start seeing the CRMs, the chamber CRM starting to launch apps because that was the new sexy thing is to have an app for your, iPhone or the Android. And it really was just super, super basic. And I really haven’t seen a whole lot of innovation going forward with those.

And I don’t know that the adoption was ever great in the beginning because it was essentially what you’d find on their website, just in an app. And if you don’t have to download an app to access the information, why would you? So anyway, I see where, where the adoption can be a challenge. Um, and for those who are, who are listening, who say, yeah, we have an app and nobody downloads it and nobody uses it or whatever. I think it all goes back to the value. Yeah. I believe it all goes back to the value. What’s the purpose of the app?

Christopher Patton (16:23.932)
Mm-hmm.

Christopher Patton (16:39.782)
Yeah, I believe you. I believe you.

Brandon Burton (16:46.798)
How’s that bettering to, working to better enhance the business environment, the interactions with individuals. So having something of value is very helpful and we’ll get that adoption going.

Christopher Patton (17:02.342)
Yeah, and if I could say real quick, whether it’s about CRMs or something else that the chambers use, a lot of technology they adopt is understandably so to help with their operations, right? So they can run their chamber more effectively. I totally understand that. And that’s where we are different. It’s like, we’re trying to cut through the noise and bring value in a different way, and we’re giving you a tool for your members. So no, we’re not your CRM. We’re another CRM.

And in some cases, are, yes, we are an added cost compared to what you’ve been paying. And that’s usually why they’re reaching out to me is they’re trying to see if they can find a cheaper CRM that still does a lot of the things, right? So, that budget conversations are real, but luckily I know we’re priced really competitively. But that’s where sometimes I think chambers get a little focused on

just having tools and tech for them and not the people they’re supposed to be servicing, the people that are paying the bills.

Brandon Burton (18:07.456)
Exactly. So talk to us about your app and how it works as far as like a chamber being onboarded. Is there data that’s provided to them as far as the user experience and feedback that maybe they can record some things in their CRM so they don’t totally lose, you know, that information? Because I do see a lot of value in that and who’s engaging and at what level.

Christopher Patton (18:32.026)
Yeah, great question. So, you know, all the members get pushed to download at the Chamber app. But as soon as they’re in the app, everything is white labeled and branded as whatever Chamber of Commerce. So they’re getting that experience, both in the logos and the coloring they’re seeing, as well as the push notifications that they’re seeing. And then, you know, as far as using this, the information they already have available. So the good thing is they’ve got this information in their CRM.

Truth be told, I talked to plenty of, I talked to.

they rely on spreadsheets as well. They don’t even have a CRM. so nonetheless, they just can simply upload their member information and that’s what provides access to the members. Same thing with the directories. When I talked about that Google Maps, right? They just download the list of their member businesses from their CRM or their source of truth spreadsheet. They just upload it into the backend admin system that they have access to. And that’s what…

dictates what businesses are listed in there, what businesses can get spotlighted. So we can pull all that industry data and descriptions from Google itself.

Brandon Burton (19:46.733)
Yeah. So I think it’s important for Chambers to be tech forward thinking. I mean, that’s the way everything is going, right? When you just said spreadsheet, it made me cringe because I know there’s a handful of Chambers out there that are still trying to do things by a spreadsheet. So I know you have some thoughts as far as the tech forward thinking and especially as it relates to Chambers.

Christopher Patton (20:14.458)
Yeah, yeah. You know, I’m lucky in that I’ve had the chance to work for some pretty great organizations in the tech side for a while. So being an outsider to the Chamber of Commerce niche has been a learning experience for me. But at the same time, it’s helping me kind of show some folks some opportunities. I met with somebody recently who is new to their sales job, and I was showing them some of the tech tools I use.

for my outreach and just the automations and they were like, this is really cool. I need to get this set up. And so always happy to talk to people about that. yeah, Chambers of Commerce, right? They serve such a pivotal role in all of our local communities and they’re representing all these businesses in their community. And then sometimes they’re probably, sometimes they’re the least.

tech savvy organizations, not the people. And sometimes it’s budget limitations, It’s not for lack of care or effort. I see that in my conversations. There’s definitely that desire to adopt new technology because as you mentioned earlier, some of the bigger players in the market, they’ve been around for a while in the chamber industry as far as technology products and there’s just a lack of innovation.

Is the most blunt way to put it and and they’re raising prices at the same time. I mean I hear that constantly And you know, that’s what happens when you have somebody that has a massive market share right or there or there’s fewer players in a marketplace But I view that as exciting because that means there’s an opportunity for disruption both with what we’re offering and and this is really like V1 of our product I’m I am so stoked about all the things we have in our roadmap and I

telling you guys like we’re building a CRM. Like it’s happening. And you know, with all the feedback that I’ve gotten, I’ve done a number of discovery sessions with different chambers of commerce. So naturally I want to make sure we build something that people love. I mean, there is nothing scarier. I’ve done it. When you migrate CRMs, right, you’re just like, you know, please don’t let me lose all my data.

Christopher Patton (22:32.773)
So I get that and there will be that trust building process for sure as we start rolling that out later. Right now we’re hyper focused on just this end user experience for the members. But there’s no doubt that that’s in our roadmap and I’m excited about that because I mean the chambers are just to say they’re asking for it would be an understatement.

Brandon Burton (22:53.122)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And to your point, you know, with some of these bigger companies have been around a long time with the CRMs and whatnot. When it comes to like you mentioned, lack of innovation, I think the ideas are there. They get the feedback, obviously, but it’s like turning a huge ship versus a speedboat. Right. And when you got that much more people and to weigh in on decisions and what direction to go, it just takes longer. It’s a little slower.

lot slower. So to be able to pounce on that opportunity, you’re in a great spot.

Christopher Patton (23:29.967)
Yeah, it’s something referred to as tech debt. A lot of these older tech companies, not necessarily a chamber of commerce related, but just in general, they have tech debt where they have these really old tech stacks and old code in their code base. And to roll out net new features requires a lot more work than maybe a company like mine, because we don’t have to go back and fix this popsicle stick house of

of craziness that’s been built over the years in addition to just being able to roll out a new feature. So a lot of that exists right now.

Brandon Burton (24:05.036)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You talked about right now really focusing on that end user experience and for the chamber members, that’s what it’s all about, is giving them a good experience that’s going to keep them around, that’s going to help support their business and help them grow and thrive. So I think that’s obviously where the focus needs to be, but along the way it’s supporting chambers. I see where that continual growth and evolution will be. But yeah, I’m excited to see what comes out with the

the CRM as you guys work on that coming up in the future.

Christopher Patton (24:38.319)
Yeah, I guess I’ve kind of put it out there now. So it has to happen.

Brandon Burton (24:41.346)
That’s right now it’s real. That’s right. What other features do you want to highlight or or aspects of the app and the platform that maybe we haven’t covered yet?

Christopher Patton (24:55.896)
You know, I’d say one of the things that I like them or yeah, one of the things that comes to mind is again, like I’m trying to take that member experience, like what are the real problems they deal with and they face? And sometimes it’s basic things, right? So an example I give is like, I meet somebody at an event and then I go home right to my eight month old daughter and I completely forget that person’s name.

I cannot remember what company they work for, right? Like we’re all so busy. And you went there to network and you’re like, I can’t even remember who I networked with, right? Maybe I remember their face. So within the app, that’s where you actually do have the ability to, you see all the people you’ve connected with, very, very short term we’re gonna have you where you can see what events you met them at. So you can be like hyper focused on remembering.

Brandon Burton (25:51.147)
Christopher Patton (25:53.849)
So things like that, again, those are the problems that I feel like we’re trying to solve in that what are the problems that are audible amongst chamber members, right? In like the pain points that they have, but then also there’s that Henry Ford put, which I’ve heard he may or may not have said, which is if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse, right? So part of this too is trying to also be innovative on my side.

Brandon Burton (26:17.208)
Try it.

Christopher Patton (26:22.573)
and come up with features that maybe members aren’t even thinking about because they don’t even know that it’s an option, right? So, you know, whether it’s in the near term checking in at events so they can see who’s at the events, right? So they know who they want to focus on talking to, you know, being able to just more intuitively search for specific industries. So like, I’m not necessarily just seeing like a business that does accounting on a directory, but I like

Brandon Burton (26:38.53)
Like that.

Christopher Patton (26:51.418)
I specifically who are the members and I can talk to them directly in the app and connect with them and try to meet with them. So again, just thinking about what is that member experience now and what could it be and really trying to digitize and improve that as much as possible without it feeling like a social network or like an online forum, right? That’s where companies go to die nowadays. So we’re not trying to do that.

Brandon Burton (27:14.04)
Yeah.

Christopher Patton (27:19.093)
Those things exist and it’s crickets. I’ve seen those with chambers of commerce. So we’re trying to do something that’s a bit more innovative.

Brandon Burton (27:27.276)
Yeah. I can see for the user to be able to see, you know, what events they connected with somebody at and over time to be able to see where are the events that are most worth my time to be at? Where do I make the best connections? And then, you know, as you continue rolling out features, if it becomes an option where I don’t know if you guys would do geo-fencing or anything at an event location, but then people show up and they get an alert of, you know, people that they’ve connected with in the past that are there and maybe, you know,

Christopher Patton (27:40.081)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (27:57.475)
rekindle those connections. So lots of exciting ways to go about it. it’s very cool.

Christopher Patton (28:02.801)
That may or may not be very short term in the road map.

Brandon Burton (28:06.604)
Yeah, right. Well, Chris, I wanted to give you an opportunity for for those listening who are wanting to take their chamber up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you leave for them as a suggestion to help them in that in that goal?

Christopher Patton (28:28.433)
Sure, and I appreciate the opportunity to have people even hear me out on my thought on this. Something that I find super valuable as somebody that’s like across multiple industries is dedicating time to like listen and learn both from your existing industry, right? That’s a value that you serve, right? Like if folks are CEOs or member services and they are not dedicating an hour a week,

just for learning to improve the business. You’re just in reactive mode all the time. And that’s not me chastising, that’s just something I’ve learned. I’ve got something on my calendar twice a week that’s just like education time for me, both for industry and then external industry, right? So an easy way Chambers can do this if they’re looking for outside industry time, because again, number one thing I’ll say is listen to the Chamber Chat podcast or…

Brandon Burton (29:27.054)
Great, great suggestion.

Christopher Patton (29:27.121)
You got to do that, right? Yes, yes. But as far as looking outside, right? That’s where you can learn some other technologies that, you know, chambers aren’t thinking about, or, you know, other tools that, you know, maybe could be adopted by their organization. You know, a great way to do that is just pick your AI source of choice and just like, create that business advisor, you know, get in there on an ongoing basis and dedicate that time.

So it understands who you are, what mission you’re trying to serve and what your pain points are. And keep prompting and asking more questions. Don’t give up on that. you’ll uncover things, right? Because sometimes we just, I always say like, I don’t know what I don’t know, right? So that’s why you just got to keep asking questions and keep digging. And I think that’s where sometimes all of us as business owners or business leaders, we can get a little blindsided by just what’s directly in front of us. So I think that’s probably my suggestion.

I recommend.

Brandon Burton (30:25.91)
Yeah. To your point about getting outside of the, where your blinders are kind of those other, other industries, other organizations. And I think chambers by nature do that. They kind of cross pollinate because they have to, but, my oldest kid, he’s getting ready to do course selections and stuff for his first year of college coming up. And, and he’s looking at the honors program. And I didn’t understand this, but at the school, the honors program is not just Harvard classes.

But it’s an environment where there is that cross-pollination. So you might have a certain direction with your major, but it’s like, how does that relate to mathematics or the sciences or whatever it is? you cross-pollinate from different perspectives and really work together more collaboratively too. And there’s just a lot of value in that. So I appreciate that tip.

Christopher Patton (31:14.885)
Yeah, teaching them to think and not just remember.

Brandon Burton (31:17.57)
That’s right. That’s right. Well, Chris, as we look to the future of Chambers of Commerce, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Christopher Patton (31:28.475)
Yeah, I think the way just we’re heading as a business industry, right? Like it’s impossible to not, and I hate to do this, but it’s impossible to not bring up AI, right? It’s becoming integrated and everything. So with Chambers staying relevant in their local communities and looking to

Brandon Burton (31:41.367)
Yeah.

Christopher Patton (31:58.673)
you know, like meet the needs of the next generation of business leaders, right? You know, I kind of, I kind of think of myself, I’m, I’m, I’m on the cusp, but I’m not 40 yet. And so, you know, I’m on the, I’m on that generation of business owners, right? And, know, those are the folks that, that are using AI a lot that are looking for ways to, to, you know, interact with their local business community. And I think matching that with what is a really clear need in society right now for

for community, right? And that’s something that excites me about what we’re doing, right? People are joining lots of organizations. There’s a bump again in the data of people joining organizations. So I think as chambers look down the road and they think about, sure, they service the business community, but how can they be that organization that connects people, that provides community to the people in their area?

in that sense, while also looking at some of the technologies that are coming down the pike and how they can incorporate them. I think those are two really pivotal things, We got every business always has to be looking at how can they adapt. And people my age and younger, I think have this really strong sense and desire for community because we spent so much time online, right? And so giving us…

Brandon Burton (33:21.248)
Thank you.

Christopher Patton (33:25.083)
types of people, the opportunity to network and connect with people and feel that sense of belonging I think is really important. I think chambers are really positioned in an awesome way to do that.

Brandon Burton (33:36.736)
Yeah, I would agree. would agree. Well, Chris, why don’t you share some contact information for listeners who might want to learn more about Chamber. Where would you point them? How can they connect with you to set up a demo or anything else you have to offer?

Christopher Patton (33:52.805)
Yeah, sure. My home address is, no, I’m just kidding. You can email me at patent, P-A-T-T-O-N, like the general, at chaymber.com, so C-H-A-Y-M-B-E-R (patton@chaymber.com). You can find me on LinkedIn, Christopher George Patten on LinkedIn. You can also do support at chamber.com. If you go to our website, chaymber.com, you can just simply book a meeting or check our pricing on there if you want to. So, number of ways for you to do that with ease.

Brandon Burton (33:54.786)
Yeah.

Brandon Burton (34:21.15)
Very good. And we’ll get all that linked in our show notes for this episode as well. So make it easy for people to connect with you. But this has been great. It’s a fun conversation whenever we can talk about the innovative things that are happening in the chamber space. And I’m curious to keep an eye and see the continued evolution and how you guys grow and continue to develop. But thank you for being with us today and sharing these insights and valuable resources with us.

Christopher Patton (34:48.783)
Awesome, thanks again for the opportunity.

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Business Building vs. Networking with Sharon Mayer

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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Becki Womble 1:03
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I’m excited today to have Sharon Mayer with us Sharon is the President and CEO of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce and a little bit of background on Sharon. She was named the President CEO of the Allen Chamber in August of 1997. She began her career in her chamber work career as a part time employee at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce in 1989. She then quickly moved up the ranks and in 1995, she accepted the position as president of the DeSoto Chamber. During her tenure at the Arlington chamber she completed the IOM program in record time and continuing education in chamber work is still important to her today she has to Institute for Advanced Management courses that she’s participated in when an SMU and went to Colorado Springs Institute programs. Working with other chambers and within the state association is extremely important to Sharon. during and following her tenure on the TCC board she facilitated retreats for area chambers and assisted in the planning and facilitation for annual programs and chamber basic courses hosted by that association. Sharon joined the Board of Regents for the Center of Chamber Excellence in 2004, where she participated as an instructor for member bait membership basics, and served as Chairman of the Board of Regents. She also served as board member on the North Texas Chamber Executives which represents over 42 chambers in the north Texas area. And as the 2023 board chair. She is a past member of Board of Directors for WAC II, and Sharon serves on the North Texas Commission Board and their executive committee in 2011. Under Sharon’s leadership, the Allen chamber expanded to become the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce serving two very diverse communities in 2022, that marks Sharon’s 33rd year in the chamber business, and 25 years as CEO of the Allen Fairview chamber. In 1997. She married Paul Mayer, who’s the CEO of the garland Chamber of Commerce. Together they have five children and nine grandchildren. Sharon, we’re excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Sharon Mayer 4:28
Well, hello, everyone. I am absolutely thrilled to be here with you today and looking forward to our discussion. You pretty much told everybody about my life

Brandon Burton 4:40
secrets, right? There

Sharon Mayer 4:43
are a couple of things that were not included on that. So I have a certification from the University of Texas at Arlington and as a paralegal, which I’ve never used one time in my entire life. I was also I’m a licensed real estate agent and sold one house. But the only reason that I was involved in real estate is because my late husband away, and I owned a real estate company in order for me to keep it going, should anything happen to him? And unfortunately, it did. I had to be a licensed Realtor so that, you know, we built houses. I had a business, especially advertising business that did hand engraving on sunglasses, and our biggest client was Harley Davidson for 1000s of pairs annually. And then guess what they did, they found out that you could go to China and have them stamp for a lot less money. So pretty much tied to that business.

Brandon Burton 5:50
That’s the story of a lot of small businesses these days. Right.

Sharon Mayer 5:53
So so that’s a lot of historical stuff that that I don’t mention in my bio.

Brandon Burton 6:00
Yeah. So tell us a little bit about the Allen Fairview chamber just to give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work, you guys are involved with staff budget, just to kind of set the table for discussion.

Sharon Mayer 6:13
All right. So our chamber is right under 600. Members at this time, our budget is a little over 500,000 annually. And I will say that, probably 55% of that goes for staff. Because if you if you don’t invest in those resources, those people resources, then you’re doing your chamber a disservice. I have four and a half, three and a half employees. We have a finance director, a membership director and a programming special events director plus, I am so fortunate to have a part time law student who was actually started with our chamber as an intern when she was in high school, and worked has worked remotely for us all the way through her undergrad, and now her law school. And she’s in her third year of law school. And she works remotely and does all of our social media and marketing and things like that. So and she’s she’s just excellent.

Brandon Burton 7:33
So that was my next question with her working. So I love hearing about chambers utilizing interns first. But then to have her working remote to retain her as she goes through her schooling, what type of stuff she’s doing social media marketing, what other kinds of things do you have her

Sharon Mayer 7:51
to keep the graphics, but she does all the social media stuff. And you know, she does the promotional graphics and things for all of our programming. And I mean, she’s really creative, and does a great job she just completed we just had our annual gala and she did all the collateral for that. And it was it was done as well as the marketing firm that we had been paying $26,000 a year you know, on a contract to do and you know, and she’s she I think she she’s just under $20 An hour and she tracks her time and it’s definitely saving us money plus it puts money in her pocket you know, and

Brandon Burton 8:41
love her find a big chunk of change in the budget like that. Well for our our topic today we’ve titled this episode business building versus networking. And we did that because of the approach that the Allen Fairview chamber takes in approaching their members and, and how they call different things you know, the the Cymatics, if you will, so we’ll get into a much deeper conversation on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 11:37
All right, Sharon, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break business building versus networking, what’s the difference?

Sharon Mayer 11:46
Great, big, huge difference. So everyone does not everyone does networking, one way or another, obviously. But the reason that we chose to focus on this building business is because you got to go back to our mission, the mission, our mission is to advocate educate and build relationships that enable our communities and our members to prosper. So everything that we do to us back to our mission, and changing the name of what we at one time called Allen net, that was when we were teeny tiny and there were 12 people in the room networking, and then we changed it to Tuesday morning Live, which everybody still calls it Tuesday morning lab, at least those who have been around for a while it has transitioned to now it’s coffee and connections. And so we wanted to use the connecting and the building and all of that together. And it is now grown to around 90 in attendance every week. And these people understand the value of building a business network, which is not the same thing as networking, they do not spend their time shoving their business card in somebody else’s nose under their insight, you know, here, I have something that would benefit you. And you know, just going on and on and talking about yourself. What’s really interesting, if you attend one of our networking’s is that you find out that they’re not talking about themselves. They’re talking about everybody else in the room. They’re talking about how Joe really helped Sammy over here, you know, find a plumber, and it was an emergency he needed somebody. And, and they also have I mean, they have fun with it because they make up silly sayings and silly names about their other businesses. And they just, they make it fun. And I think if you talked about the whole atmosphere, around our business building, whether it’s the morning or whether it’s a an after hours event, or whatever it might be, you’re gonna find that people talk about us as a family, not as a membership organization, because they are all so connected, and their friends and they invite others to come in all the time, which is the reason that it has grown the way that it has. And it all goes back to the to what we originally said is you’re in these seats and in front of these people to build your business. But the best way to build your business is to and we’ll use the word network to network with people that you know I can trust and the people who are in that room Boom, know, like and trust one another. And a byproduct of that is that they know, like and trust staff know, like and trust the organization. And it just, it helps us to increase our influence within the community. But it also helps us when we’re building our membership.

Brandon Burton 15:20
Yeah. So I know, I get the sense that networking is like a four letter word there that now in Fairview chamber? How did you successfully go about changing the mindset for people as they’re set on? Using that four letter word, networking, and converting that to business building?

Sharon Mayer 15:43
We just stopped. We didn’t, we never, we don’t ever tell anybody anything. We just sort of start using a different term ourselves, and move on from there. And it just catches on.

Brandon Burton 16:00
So about how long ago did you guys make the shift from calling these networking events to build business building events? Well, it

Sharon Mayer 16:08
started during and right after the pandemic. You know, that was, you know, well, that was a really horrible time in our lives. And thank God that we’re, you know, on the other side of that, it was also from our chamber perspective, and our engagement. And like I said, our, I guess we’re influenced within the community, probably the best thing that’s ever happened to us. Because our chamber had to keep connecting people, but we had to do it the, you know, like we do now, with Zoom calls a lot of times. And so that was when we thought, you know, okay, we’re not, we’re networking, but we’re not networking. And we’re not doing this face to face thing. So let’s just kind of change the way that we present this and the way we said, so if they became business building opportunities, and we’ve just kind of hung on to it after that.

Brandon Burton 17:09
Yeah. Yeah, I know, a lot of people networking can be a very intimidating phrase, if you say, to a new member, for example, Hey, we have this networking event coming up. And you see the sweat start coming down their foreheads, I got to talk to people and get uncomfortable and do you know, pass out business cards and be sold by everybody in the room, versus changing that and saying, we’re having a built a business building event, come and learn how you can grow your business. And it’s a totally different perspective for the similar kind of outcomes. But it changes that perspective coming into it for a different objective

Sharon Mayer 17:47
does and in fact, if I were to tell you something else, about myself and my husband as well, that nobody that we interact with, when believe is neither one of us are extroverts. We are not, we would rather than being alone in the office door closed, nobody bother you. But you, it’s so it’s not a natural thing for us to do. But at the same time, this is something that we have to learn in our positions, and we put ourselves out there so we can really understand. And I particularly can understand the reluctance of someone to just show up cold at a networking event. So what we have done other than Chase, or is that we make sure that there is someone there to greet them and someone to take them and say, Come over here, let me introduce you to these people, you know, and our members do not sit with their friends, because we tell them when you’re sitting with your friends, you’re not building your business. So you just sit with someone that you don’t know. And the best ones to sit with. And the ones that you get to know really well as time goes by is that if you’re the first person that that a new person that comes to one of our events meets, then they automatically feel like if you’re open and welcoming, and all of that they feel like okay, they’ve made one friend in a group of 90. And so it’s a little less intimidating that way.

Brandon Burton 19:12
Yeah. So I’ve recently heard a term when you’re in a situation like that social setting, that you tend to see the circles of people, right that stand in the circle and talk. And the idea was instead of creating circles to create horseshoes to where it’s open for newcomers where you can be welcoming for newcomers to join the conversation. They don’t feel shut out because they’re looking at everybody’s back. And you purposely leave an opening.

Sharon Mayer 19:38
Yeah, and our volunteers, basically our ambassadors, our business success advocates, both of them. Both groups are really really good about taking a member or a visitor under their wings. And they don’t talk to them about the chamber but they they actually stay And during the 32nd commercials, and they do the first commercial for them, so that they actually feel more comfortable the next time they come back.

Brandon Burton 20:09
Okay. Yeah, I like that having the volunteers there to just help make sure that they have a good experience that they’re meeting people getting connected with those right individuals that will help build their business. So. So you also take a different spin on some other vernacular than your, in your chamber. For example, members versus investors. You had another one it had to do with sponsors, that have sponsors, partners, and so the sponsors, talk to us a little bit about the the thought that goes into those names.

Sharon Mayer 20:48
Well, my staff gets worried when I start thinking. And because I like changing things up, because I think everything gets old, it gets stale. So we may do the same series of Legends, or breakfast meetings. But we don’t call them them. I mean, you know, so So I sit down and I go, Okay, let’s see what would be start, let’s start your day. And then I go start smart topics and relevant themes. So I mean, you know, everything has a meaning to me, I have to have that. So. So we changed the name of start. And then we changed the name Merlin engines to bold bol D stands for nothing, just bold topics, okay. And speakers. So that led to the whole thought process of Okay, now we’re looking for sponsors for these events. And why not just say, hey, come partner with us on this event. Because partnerships, in my opinion, are a much closer, more personal relationship than a sponsorship, sponsors write checks, partners get involved in the whatever event it might be. And we involve them ahead, we promote them like crazy, but we involve them by asking them to come in and introduce the speakers, give them time on the program, you know, to talk about their business. And that’s how we refer to them. So and then you talk about the the member versus investor. So members are easy to lose, investors are a little bit harder. Because what you’re doing is you are working within your organization, but you’re you’re drawing them in, and when you refer to them as investors, then they see that what they’re doing with those dollars, is that they’re investing not in the chamber. They’re investing in their business. And they’re investing in the community and economic growth within our communities. And we use those terminologies all the time, invest in your business, invest in your community.

Brandon Burton 23:12
I like that. Yeah, the investor definitely brings a level of commitment, where a membership is like, you know, see how it works for me see what’s in it for me, right?

Sharon Mayer 23:22
We still get a lot better, you’re always gonna get what’s in it for me.

Brandon Burton 23:26
Right? Right. So another terminology that I picked up on is you don’t necessarily call your volunteers or ambassadors these, you said six business success advocates. Yes. Is that are those essentially ambassadors or do you have ambassadors as well,

Sharon Mayer 23:44
we have ambassadors as well. But what we’ve done is we’ve taken some things away from the ambassadors and given it to this new group that we’ve had in about two years now. So our ambassadors are still the meters in the greeters and the the ribbon cuttings and you know, open houses, all of that. Our business success advocates are BSA as we call them, are focused on retention. And they are focused on building relationships after someone joins Not, not when they show up at one of the coffee and connections or that sort of thing, because they’re the ones that will, will call members, especially first year members every three months. So they’re kinda like a mentor. They tell them about not chamber events, but they tell them about chamber benefits, particularly at whatever level they have joined it because we have a, you know, tiered dues investment schedule. And they forget, they join, they choose this level, and they think, oh, yeah, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna do that. Well, we track what they do and what they don’t do. And so our Business Success Advocate which is really hard to say. I actually have a list and they know what the expectations were when that member joined. And they can relate to them. Because I mean, they’re members themselves. And so they’re peer to peer. And it’s a lot easier. And a lot, it’s really a lot better and more impactful conversation when you’re talking to someone who is is your peer, rather than you’re talking to this chamber staff person.

Brandon Burton 25:28
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m curious, the question comes to my mind, as you talk about these PSAs business success advocates. There, they’re there as mentors to help guide these new investors along their path at the chamber. As a new business joins the chamber invests in their business and their community, are you having the opportunity to evaluate where maybe they can get involved with whether it’s a committee or as a weather ambassador, or Business Success Advocate or partner, whatever it may be?

Sharon Mayer 26:09
Yes, but we do have some rules. You need to be a member for at least a year, before you can join either the investor group or the business success and this good group X PSA Group. But those are the only two where we really have a rule. I mean, we have a dei committee, we have a legislative affairs business advocacy committee. So those were, if that is your, what you’re interested in, then you can join immediately if that’s what you want to do. And we introduce them to these things gradually. It’s all in their membership packet that they you know, but the other thing about membership packets is, you know, they’re drinking through a firehose, instead of, you know, a water fountain or a water bottle, whatever it might be. And they forget and so that’s what the BSA is, do they remind them that you know, here’s an opportunity to hear but also don’t forget, you know, you get on the chamber podcast at your level of membership, you get three minutes on the you know, the podcast, you get a free hole at the golf tournament, you get all you know, other things, the

Brandon Burton 27:28
podcasts that you guys have in your chamber, right.

Sharon Mayer 27:33
Past Al Anon action, don’t ask me why didn’t say Fairview in action, but it started out Elden an action. And that’s the way it’s remained. So yeah. And it’s kind of fun, because we get to talk about our members. And we do and they get to participate depends, like I said, depending on their level of sponsorship members, what’s that word investment? Yes. But yeah, it gets a little tongue twister when you get right down to it. But you know, we have, we have not a huge audience. But we do have our regulars who listen all the time, we have a little over 600 that, you know, that subscribe to the podcast, very easily found right there at the top bar website, on the left hand side, along with our blog, and all the other things that I add to it continually.

Brandon Burton 28:28
That’s great. I’m a big fan of chamber soon podcast, as you can imagine, so glad to hear you’re using that as a platform to tell the stories of your members and, and highlight them. So I’d like these, you know, taking these old terminologies freshen them up a little bit, maybe giving a more meaningful definition to them, to allow these investors to really get more bang for their buck to really build their business stronger, and to see their involvement with the chamber on a different level. So I think this has been a good exercise, and hopefully chambers listening or jotting down, you know, some of their own terminologies that they use, they might be able to freshen up a little bit.

Sharon Mayer 29:13
If you if you don’t look at things annually, whether it’s the name of coffee and connections to you know, whatever it might be and thinking, Okay, we’ve been doing that for two or three years that’s getting really old. Let’s put a little zing in it. It’s like our new member orientation, it was called a new member orientation. And we’re going to call it chamber 411. And guess what time of day, we’re going to have it for 11 at the end, and our battle fab after hours battle. People know people remember those times that are odd, you know, that are off kilter. And they remember for lemon and 505. So that’s what propose things to I mean, there is nothing too small or too big in your chamber that could not stand a little refurbish refresh at once. No. Well,

Brandon Burton 30:08
absolutely. So Sharon, I wanted to ask you if for those listening who would like to take their chamber up to the next level, what tip or action item might you share with them to accomplish that goal?

Sharon Mayer 30:24
accreditation through the US Chamber, we have gone through the process three times. And we moved from being an accredited chamber to a four star chamber. And then last year, we are awarded our five star chamber recognition. And every single time you go through this process, you have to take a really in depth look at your chamber and what you’re doing. And while a lot of chambers will involve a large group of members, in going through each of these different aspects, we do not and we did not. And we had one or two of our board people involved. And what we found out is volunteers unless you’re in a smaller chamber, or a really, really large chamber, and they understand the benefit of this will drop the ball every single time. So as much as I love them, God bless them, don’t count on them. And so they what it really has done for our chamber and our staff is it’s made us look internally, instead of externally. And, and the feedback that you get from the US Chamber on when we got our four star accreditation. The one little Hickey that we had was Governmental Affairs. And I had four years to fix that. And and what was that mission statement again, advocate, educate and build relationships. So we went to the top of the page. And now we have a very, very, very active business advocacy committee. So it’s, that’s that’s really and that’s important to me, especially in the state of Texas, because we’re kind of crazy here right now.

Brandon Burton 32:21
That is a good tip to go about the accreditation process.

Sharon Mayer 32:26
And you know what? I mean, it’s so gratifying because let me tell you what it did. I have been talking about getting my CCIE and God knows I’m putting this out there to public for 30 years. And after that five star came in, I went okay, that’s checked off my list. Now it’s time for the CC anything. So I am everybody listening

Brandon Burton 32:49
can help keep you accountable to that.

Sharon Mayer 32:54
Email me, Sharon and LM Fairview chamber.com. Wish me luck and ask me how it’s going. And I’ll be happy to share the good, the bad and the ugly.

Brandon Burton 33:02
That’s good. So I like asking everyone I have on the show about how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Sharon Mayer 33:10
You know, what really bothers me is when people say chambers are becoming obsolete, that the younger generation doesn’t know what a chamber is. I was in Austin yesterday. And I was at a legislative affairs thing. But I had a little bit of time. So I went to the mall. And I am walking into the mall next to this young man, and he’s very places how’s your day? Go nuts. Have fun. How’s your son? He said, Are you just out shopping? You’re on your way to work? And I said, No, I’m here for a legislative session. And he said, What do you do? And I said, I run a chamber of commerce. And he looked at me and he was like, I said, you don’t know what Chamber of Commerce is, do you? And he said, no, no. And I said, most people your age No. And most people who are a lot of them who are older than you don’t. And I said, but let me tell you what we do. We advocate educate you build relationships, and keep going back to that. And we are a business association that works on the local level within a town in a community to help businesses thrive. And to help them with so many business issues that are coming up right now. One of the things that and I’m gonna throw this in there you didn’t ask. I’m really proud of our legislative affairs stuff, but I am exceedingly excited about our diversity, equity and inclusion committee. And the fact that we are making such strives to get not only our work with our city and our school districts and to get the word out that this is what we’re doing. But we are working towards getting minority veteran Now, women on LGBT queue businesses certified so that they can actually do business with our local municipalities or county state and beyond that program, once we get that launched is really going to be what will be remembered in our community and within our membership as something that was done well and is extraordinary for them. So

Brandon Burton 35:30
that’s fantastic. So Sharon, before we go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect or keep you accountable and your CCE, you threw your email out there already, but what would be the best way to have someone reach out and connect with you?

Sharon Mayer 35:49
Well, the very best way to is to email me because I will probably answer it at two in the morning. So it’s sharon@allenfairviewchamber.com.

Brandon Burton 36:03
And I will get that in our show notes for this episode. So it can be nice and easy as someone’s listening before they go to bed and they want to send you a message that you can respond to at 2am. There you go. Oh, Sharon, I appreciate having you on the show today and setting aside some time to be with us and share the approach that you guys take there at the Allen Fairview chamber. I think that’s something that’s kind of been on the radar for a lot of chambers. But it just made me that reminder that they needed to keep things fresh, keep things with purpose, to give the best experience for their remember investors.

Sharon Mayer 36:38
I have told you all about our mission statement. I didn’t tell you what our vision is to be an indispensable resource to Allen, Fairview and Collin County businesses. And that’s what we’re continuing to work towards to be indispensable.

Brandon Burton 36:53
I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for for being with us today and sharing your example. I do appreciate it.

Sharon Mayer 37:01
It was my pleasure anytime.

Brandon Burton 37:05
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How to Increase the Quality of Your Networking Events

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Typical Chamber Networking

Chambers of Commerce have promoted networking opportunities as a key selling proposition to prospective members for decades. Many businesses are sold on the idea of networking events creating leads which will sustain their business.

What typically happens, and you can ask your members, is everyone comes for the happy hour drinks, and they bring their business cards, and they are super uncomfortable. They might stay for a little while with the hopes that the evening will take a turn for the better but ultimately end up leaving early. Oftentimes, they feel as if they were a target for other networkers to try to sell them the whole time. I know this is the case because I hear it from Chamber members everywhere I go. These members are so uncomfortable and disappointed with their lack of real connections made from these networking events that they stop attending all together. Once this happens, then one of the big outward facing benefits that your Chamber provides is no longer of value to these types of members.

As I meet with member businesses as I sell advertising for Chamber publications, I often joke that I feel like a bartender…everyone is very open to share their experiences with me (good or bad) about their Chamber. These discussions are very insightful and they have no idea that I host an industry wide podcast or that I write this blog, but their honesty is very revealing.

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Your Impact is Much Greater than Networking

Before I go any deeper into increasing the quality of your networking events, I want to make mention that I am a big believer in the positive work that Chambers do to strengthen and develop their communities. I believe that networking is often done because this offering is the easiest to explain to a business owner the value that the Chamber can provide for their business. It is a starting point!

If you can create a high quality first experience for your members, then it will be much easier for them to understand your greater mission. You will be much more successful at having your members catch your Chamber’s vision and join in with your cause.

Has your Chamber participated in leadership trips? Think of the connectivity that is created with group travel. You want to try to stimulate these connections among your members too.

So, how do you create a great first experience with networking for your members?

It Starts with an Invitation

I recently read a book by Jon Levy called “You’re Invited: The Art and Science of Creating Influence”. In the book, Jon explains that for years he has hosted very exclusive dinner events. He invites people from all walks of life, who have never met each other to his home. His guests only use their first names as they converse with each other. They also prepare the meal, eat, and wash the dishes together. At the end of the evening as these groups of individuals have created and shared a meal with each other, and shared laughs and stories, they then go around the room and share their last name and who they are.

Jon has had olympic athletes, scientists, authors, garbage collectors, doctors, celebrities, coaches, influencers, and some of the biggest names in society as guests of his dinner parties. Once the true identities are shared, shock fills the room as the other guests learn who they have been sharing their evening and experiences with.

Jon has created an alumni group of all of his past dinner guests and he still brings them together and has built a rather large following with one invitation and one dinner party at a time.

Marjorie Hinkley shared a great thought “There isn’t a person you wouldn’t love if you could read their whole story.” I think this quote resonates well with the idea of truely getting to know a person before casting judgments or trying to sell them your products or services.

Imagine Your Networking Event

I believe that Chamber networking events could be done much better with more intentionality. I will share a thought of how this might look…

You could start by identifying a segment of your membership to focus on for a specific event. This could be those who are connected to the real estate industry, or hospitality, or tourism, or retail.
You look through your membership list and find some options for activities that this segment of members could participate in together. For example, painting at a board and brush member business or being taught by a chef at a local restaurant how to cook the perfect steak. You can and should get very creative with the event ideas.
Set some rules for the event to make it more into a game. It may seem counterintuitive, but one rule might be that you are not allowed to talk about your business for the first 30 minutes or hour. This will create some tension but it will also allow for the attendees to fully engage without the fear of becoming a target.
Create and send out physical invitations that create a little bit of mystery which will insight curiosity.
Assuming that the event goes well, you could solicit feedback and suggestions from your guests for future events for guests from other segments of your membership.
You could take this to another level by capturing some of these positive outcomes and testimonials that come as a result of your event to show how creative your Chamber is. This will show how much you really do care about being a convener of leaders and influencers in your community.

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Consider Diversity in your Segmentations

As you look forward to future events, I would encourage you to think out of the box when it comes to the segments of your membership. With diversity, equity, and inclusion being top of mind for so many, it would do your Chamber well to purposely think about who is not being represented. Most Chambers do well with segmenting and focusing on women owned businesses and young entrepreneurs. You could host an event for veteran owned businesses or black owned businesses. The key is to get the right people into the right room, while creating an experience that builds relationships beyond the superficial business card exchange.

Nobody likes to be sold to, but everyone appreciates being noticed.

Stronger Relationships Create Greater Purpose

I have a theory that has me believe that if you can create a high-quality early impression for new Chamber members, they will be more willing to hear what else you have to offer to support their business. This in turn will lead to higher membership retention and overall growth and these business owners tell others how great your Chamber is and why they need to join.

Just today, I had a Chamber member who is also an ambassador tell me that she invited one of her business neighbors to the Chamber’s annual banquet. The neighbor told her that they were not Chamber members so she replied by saying “Well, then you need to join. It is the right thing to do.” This Chamber ambassador then confided in me that she was so disappointed that she didn’t have any better reason to give this other business to join the Chamber other than it is the right thing to do.

Flex Your Influencer Muscle

Many of your members may not be completely convinced about why they are a member of your organization or how long they will continue to be a member. Once you can give them a solid, compelling, great experience, they will never have to question what they get from your Chamber ever again. They will also become an advocate for your organization if you create a believer out of these members early on.

We all understand the great power that comes with a group of like minded individuals who get behind a cause. Before a person can fully support a cause and join a group, they need to have a strong enough why. Chamber networking events are the visible, outward facing membership offering that most people can relate with. Now we just need to use a powerful enough hook to help them catch the Chamber fever.

What creative networking events have you tried? I would love to hear what you are doing and what works. You can email me at brandon@chamberchatpodcast.com to tell me your stories.

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