June – Inspired

Since beginning working at the Chamber in March, I’ve met some inspiring people and attended some fantastic events. Even in the short time I’ve been here I’ve been wowed by the diversity of what our members have to offer and the wealth of knowledge that we can all share between us. Lessons in transparency, positive thinking and pride in the local area have stood out the most for me. This is what has inspired me to write a blog for Moray Chamber of Commerce. We should share what we are doing each month behind our office doors to inform, comfort and inspire our members about ways to get involved with our incredible network.

The beginning of June was welcomed with open arms. May felt a little tricky; although comforted by the safe and healthy delivery of Baby Medcraf we spent time getting to grips with being just Lara and I. Having such a useful handover from Sarah, we were always destined to fall on our feet. June arrived and things fell into place. We have had a busy month of meetings, getting to know a few more of our members, organising events and juggling everything else in between.

High on the agenda for this month in my diary has been the Annual Awards Dinner. Apologies for bombarding with emails regarding sponsorship and donations, but also thank you so much to the many people that have come forward in assisting me in making the dinner a success. The dinner has always been such a successful event in the past and replicating that is certainly a daunting task. Our members are constantly over whelming me with their generosity and support, giving me faith that this year, as in previous years, should certainly not disappoint. We still have space in our raffle, auction and goody bags for your donations, so please let me know if you’d like to get involved.

This month I attended my first Moray Business Women event. It was great to walk into a room and start to recognise a few faces and also make connections with so many more. Lara and Sarah had mentioned to me what a great event the Breakthrough to Excellence was last year, and it surpassed all my expectations. The speakers were invigorating and inspiring, the food was great, and it was all in fantastic company. It reminded me of the importance of positive thinking, and so even on these grey June days, it’s easy to look forward to all we have to look forward to. After sitting with Denise from Lossiemouth Business Association at dinner, we finalised their membership with the chamber and got invited to their networking event at the Harbour Lights in Lossiemouth. Although I wasn’t able to attend, Lara went along and made some outstanding connections resulting in another round of new members.

Since this event we have welcomed our career ready intern to the office, Josie. Josie is focussing her work with Moray Speyside Tourism and has aspirations of becoming an events manager. Having an intern in the office has been refreshing for us all. We all have memories of what it’s like to be the new kid on the block and to feel a little lost. We are all making a conscious effort to not process our work in our heads and share our knowledge and experience with Josie. Hopefully she’ll have a great month and get what she wants from the experience, and in true Chamber office style, eat far too many sweets!

Between all this fun, there have been more pressing issues to address like elections and business rates. With the support of our wider chamber affiliations we have been answering questions to our members and bringing matters to the attention of local influencers. We aim to do what we can by lobbying for your interests to maintain and environment where local businesses can thrive and prosper.

Writing an extensive list of every meeting and interaction we have at the Chamber would make for a rather lengthy blog post, but I hope that this will give our members a little insight into what we do and how we interact. We have lots to look forward to in July as Award Dinner loose ends get tied, our next Chamber Connect on 27^th here at the offices as well, and plenty of meetings lined up across Moray and beyond. We do our best to keep in contact with many of our members, but please feel free to reach out to us, even if just for a coffee and catch up.

See you all soon,
Georgia