St. Charles Chamber of Commerce ■ education and leadership
Educational and Leadership Symposium Keynote Speaker:
i
Ron Onest
President & Founder, Onesti ent Entertainm & Arcada Theatre
J
ust in time for Small Business Week, the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce is hosting its Educational & Leadership Symposium on April 29.
It’s a half-day event beginning with check-in and breakfast at 7:45 a.m. and ending at 12:30 p.m. This will be followed by an optional networking lunch. “We did this event last year, but we get new topics and participants all the time,” said Cindy Zemko, chair of the Chamber’s Education Committee and director of education for the Association of Nutrition & Foodservice Professionals. “It makes a lot of sense to attend. We listened to membership after last year’s event and took their feedback. So the topics we’re presenting come from our members and this is another opportunity to expand your network with other chambers as well.” Actually, attendees have an even greater opportunity to network since St. Charles is partnering with the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce for this event, even hosting
it at Elgin Community College. CIBC and Solutions Networking are our lead sponsors for this program.
business coaches during a “speakers corner” as well as plenty of networking opportunities throughout the day.
So in addition to the almost 700 business members and over 2,500 individual member representatives of the St. Charles Chamber, there are approximately 600 other Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce business members throughout the nearby Elgin area, ranging in size, revenue, industry and strategic focus that you may learn a thing or two from this year.
“Speakers will have time to talk directly with the attendees,” Zemko said. “So it will be similar to last year, but with less breakouts then they did before so we can be more focused. Last year there were lots of choices of speakers and sessions at the same time so we’ve changed that, based on participant feedback.”
“People want to grow their business so they have to grow themselves,” said Michael Shoultz, a member of the Education Committee and chief inspirational officer for Spirit Rising Coaching. “This is a great opportunity to get some new skills and knowledge with leadership, sales and marketing and to move your business forward.” There will be three breakout sessions focusing on leadership, business strategy and sales and marketing. There will be an opportunity for participants to meet with
The idea is to build off the momentum and learning experience of hosting an event like this for the first time a year ago while taking the valued input of members to make April 29 a day your business can’t afford to miss. “We surveyed the membership, so the three topics are the top ones according to our membership,” Zemko said. “The Education Committee really looked at the feedback of what our members want to hear and focus on, and networking is a part of that.”
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STC Chamber Newsletter Feb 2020-smaller.indd 6
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2/12/20 3:53 PM
