This year's Mayor's Breakfast is shaping up to be a well attended and interesting affair. Mayor Bill Weber of course will be on-hand to give you some directional insight from Lambton Shores Council and answer any questions you may have.
Also on-hand to bring you news you can use will be Tourism Sarnia Lambton's Interim Manager Joy Sim and Southwestern Ontario Tourism Corporation Executive Director Jim Hudson. Once again, John Fraser from Monte McNaughton's Constituency Office will be attending to take back any questions you may have for your MPP.
Thank You to Stone House Brewing's Mike Corrie for being this year's event sponsor.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday, February 28
1pm-2:30pm
Royal Canadian Legion, Grand Bend
By now ALL OF YOU should have received several notifications for this very important Chamber business meeting.
This annual meeting of the members is the method through which your Board of Directors reports to you on activities during the year and presents the audited financial statements. In addition, new directors are confirmed to the Board for the coming year and we deal with any other business and member questions and suggestions.
We are looking forward to confirming
Mike Corrie (Stone House Brewing) to the Board of Directors for the 2017/18 year.
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Michele Romanow, Entrepreneur on
Dragons Den
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TOURISM CONFERENCE
March 7 & 8, 2017
London Convention Centre
Ontario's Southwest (SWOTC) is excited to announce their 2017 Keynote Speaker is Michele Romanow. Michele is the newest entrepreneur to join Dragons' Den and has been named one of the "100 Most Powerful in Canada" by WXN, and a Forbes' "Millennial on a Mission".
Conference topics include culinary and cultural experiences, business incubation and expansion, offering small batch and artisanal, marketing and communications, JackRabbit - custom online reservation program, tapping into the US market and others.
The FULL 2-DAY CONFERENCE is only $150.
TOURISM UPDATE & OPPORTUNITIES
In January, Chamber Member Oakwood Resort hosted a very positive meeting with key tourism and community representatives including ourselves (Glen Baillie, Mary-Jo Schottroff-Snopko, Susan Mills), Tourism Sarnia Lambton's Interim Manager Joy Sim and staff Christine Bregman and Beverly Horodyski, Lambton Shores' Mayor Bill Weber, CAO Kevin Williams and Recreation & Leisure Facilitator Ashley Farr, Dark Horse Estate Winery's Ashley & Greg Horlor and Oakwood Resort's John Scatcherd, Natalie Core, Randy LaRoche and Amanda to talk about the tourism needs within the area.
Topics included Fam Tours, frontline customer service training designed for tourism businesses, on-site and locally held workshops on tourism marketing and packaging, and product development and support.
Look for announcements and workshop opportunities coming throughout the year. In addition, TSL's Beverly Horodyski - Product Development & Group Coordinator - hopes to spend up to two days per week at the Welcome Centre in Grand Bend at some point this year. Schedule's are still being worked out, but we're excited about hosting Beverley at the Welcome Centre as this will help area businesses become more acquainted with the full breadth of support available through TSL.
SPRING MIXER - MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Thursday, April 6, 5-7pm
Oakwood Resort
Tourism Sarnia Lambton and Coldwell Banker Appleby Real Estate are the event sponsors of the Spring Mixer being held at Oakwood Resort - our venue sponsor. We're planning fun activities and even live music - so mark your calendar and look for more announcements coming soon.
OCC's TOURISM & ECONOMIC INITIATIVES
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce recently published a report on the state of tourism in Ontario along with recommendations researched and identified by it's 2016 task force of several tourism representatives including the Chamber's own Susan Mills.
This week, the OCC published its Economic Outlook 2017 Report along with a press release stating only 24% of OCC members surveyed are confident in Ontario's economic outlook. The survey results, the economic outlook, business prosperity index and policy priorities are all available online at www.occ.ca/oer.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Since our last Mixer in October 2016, we're pleased to announce the following businesses have joined our Chamber!
- Bad Apple Brewing Company Ltd
- C.C.C. Cleaning Service
- Oakridge Resort
- Pinery Bluff Chalet
- Pinery Bluff Developments
- Southwind Corporate Development Inc
- Stone House Brewing
MAYOR'S BREAKFAST