First Meet Up of 2024
On Wednesday the 21st GIBC welcomed members and prospective members to kick of the year with an informative meet up with guest speaker Diane Gray from Business NSW
The evening kicked off with Admin Officer Kate welcoming attendees and sharing some of the initiative the chamber is working on for the year ahead. This included:
Creating and providing direction to online resources that members can access in their own time – our members are predominantly small business owners and we understand that taking time out of a business can be difficult.
Supporting businesses to enter and progress into the Regional Business Awards, and work closely with Business NSW to align the process for future
Collaborating with businesses and organisations to help run events, campaigns and initiatives. The first of which is the International Womens Day Long Lunch with the Glen Innes Services and New England Clubs.
Helping to elevate the quality of our businesses professional branding and online. To help achieve this we have partnered with Jim Baker, a local photographer to come up with Member packages for head shots or in-business shoots to capture the essence of our members businesses.
Kate then welcomed Di to introduce Business NSW and the types of support and initiatives they offer as part of the Alliance Program which GIBC is a part of.Di began by introducing herself and expressing her love for the New England Region. After hosting roles in bushfire recovery and AusIndustry she is a familiar face to many members in the room.
To help explain her role, Di explain a bit about the structure, roles and hierarchy of chambers in Australia
The Australia chamber of commerce and industry exists at a national level and deal with the high level policy at a federal level.
Business NSW is a not-for-profit Business and industry advocacy organisation that was previously known as the NSW Chamber of Commerce. It is split into several regions with Di looking after the New England North West, including Glen Innes, allowing the concerns in our region to be pushed through and heard by State Government.
Then we have the local chamber network that run independently to Business NSW and has a specific focus into the business community in specific areas
This creates that communication channel that starts with the laser focus in a small community through to that regional, state and lastly federal and allows those critical conversations to be had.
Now where Business NSW can help businesses in these regional communities is through the Alliance program which is intended to unite local chambers, and provide access to advice, tools, products and services that create value for its members.
The benefits for Chambers as whole in being a part of the alliance program is to gain access to advocacy and policy updates, connection with chambers across the state, Business Awards Program and alignment with regional and state processes, local Events invites and valuable content to with our members.
The level of access you have with Business NSW depends on the type of membership you have:
Free Subscription – any business owner can have this type of membership you just sign up online. You have access to 1 x advice calls, newsletters, select webinars and online resources through My Business Portal.
Alliance Membership – this is exclusive to members of a Local Chamber and is covered by your GIBC membership fees. As an alliance member you receive 3 x advice line calls, open access to Webinars and Resources via your My Business Portal, Business Awards program, Modern Awards sent to you and Energy Savings and Advice.
Insights Membership – This is a paid membership for $650 per year and include the above, plus additional access to Briefings, Special interest groups, Interactions with policy experts and discounted legal advice.
Another key point, and something Di is passionate about is the Business Conditions Survey. This participatory survey gains feedback from businesses on local business conditions. In turn this allows economists to analyse and predict the trends for the region. Given there has not been much representation in the region in past years the survey has jumped from 40 to 60+ responses since Di took over in mid-late 2022.
She is passionate about getting more businesses to complete the survey to better enhance to data, and ultimately decision making for our region. This is then reported back by Chief Economist – Dr Sherman Chan. Chamber can welcome their members to the economic luncheon hosted by Dr Chan where these trends are discussed in detail (luncheons are held twice per year).
Di also reminded members that they are not automatically Alliance Members. During the GIBC membership process you needed to ‘Opt In” to the Alliance Program. If you are unsure if you are an alliance member, or whether you opted in you can get in touch with Kate, who can check on the status of your membership.
The presentation was concluded and Di expressed how excited she is to be in the roll, and is here to support GIBC and its members as we move in 2024!