Johnson County and Southern Indy News

Chamber Earns Statewide Recognition, Awarded for "Excellence"

The Greater Greenwood Chamber was awarded two 2016 “Excellence in Communications Awards” from the Indiana Chamber Executives Association (ICEA).

The Chamber won the “marketing campaign” award for its comprehensive business attraction campaign and accompanying “Greenwood Business Guide,” and the “innovative new idea” award for a “thank-a-thon” member outreach effort.

The goals of the two programs were to ease the opening of a business and discover member service improvement opportunities. Chamber board directors significantly engaged in each project. The City of Greenwood, through the mayor and community development services offices, as well as the Greenwood economic development commission, partnered on the Greenwood Business Guide.

“Each program was a collaborative team effort which makes this recognition even more rewarding,” said Christian Maslowski, president and CEO.

Award submissions were evaluated by a committee of out-of-state experienced chamber professionals and expert private-sector marketing professionals. ICEA raised the 2016 minimum evaluation score needed to win an award. The Greater Greenwood Chamber was the only chamber to score high enough to win in its two respective categories.

This is the fourth consecutive year the Greater Greenwood Chamber received an Excellence in Communications Award from ICEA.

The Indiana Chamber Executives Association is the statewide association focusing on professional development and best practices for staff members leading local chambers of commerce in Indiana. Founded in 1915, ICEA membership is comprised of more than 275 professional staff members representing one hundred local chambers of commerce from around the state. More at www.ICEAonline.com.

About the “Greenwood Business Guide”
The Chamber knew Greenwood needed to stay competitive for new commercial development in Central Indiana. A board task force conducted confidential discussions with commercial developers, architects, and engineering firms to discover Greenwood’s business attraction strengths and weaknesses.

The Chamber, in partnership with the City of Greenwood, subsequently published a guide based on the research and discussion findings. The guide summarizes key steps to open a Greenwood business, key points of contact, and “tips” to avoid common setbacks. Greenwood, and the guide, were advertised with a business attraction campaign via two popular central Indiana business e-newsletters.

The awards evaluation committee gave this program a near-perfect score and remarked it is “impressive” and “something that should be in the marketing arsenal at every chamber of commerce.”

Read more about the guide here and request the guide at www.Greenwood.in.gov/Open4Biz.

About the “Thank-a-thon”
The Chamber strives to continually discover member service improvement opportunities in order to remain a valued business partner. To this end, Chamber board directors participated in calling sessions to thank companies for their Chamber membership and engage in conversation about business, and how the Chamber can be a resource. Board directors contacted about 40% of members and documented member feedback.

The results were positive. Members received a clear, sincere expression of gratitude, and enjoyed a unique private discussion with one of the business community’s most influential, successful leaders. Board directors contributed to the membership’s success in a meaningful way, and learned first-hand about members’ business successes and challenges.

In recognizing the Chamber for this program, the awards evaluation committee said this was a “Great way to reach out… Too many chambers want to share all about the chamber when they call a member instead of just LISTENING to the member concerns.”