Learning about VA chambers

Published in the Culpeper Star Exponent
Monday, April 4, 2011

I invested time last week at the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Executives Conference in Charlottesville. This is an annual conference where we have access to other Chamber's Executives and staff. The conference, which we call “Institute”, is designed to facilitate learning of best practices among the Virginia Chambers.

The courses are taught by Chamber Execs and various subject matter experts related to Chambers of Commerce. It was pleasure to talk with other Chambers about their challenges and successes during the time that we had to network. We took an informal pole regarding the economy and found that most sensed an improvement. For many, the benchmark for this is that they are seeing an increase in membership numbers and or new members. For the most part attendance for events sponsored by the Chambers is up as well. I was encouraged as we are seeing similar metrics in the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce this year.

There were two items that were especially interesting to me. First we were able to hear Jody Kielbasa, Director of the Virginia Film Festival as the Keynote Luncheon Speaker. Mr. Kielbasa has an impressive track record of developing Film Industry opportunities. His work in Sarasota Florida culminated in attracting over 45,000 to the Sarasota Film Festival, having it recognized as one of the Top Twenty Film Festivals in North America by SCREEN INTERNATIONAL. He took over in May of 2009 as the Director of the Virginia Film Festival. His talent has been evident with record breaking attendance in 2010 for the Virginia Film Festival.

Considering that the Library of Congress, Media Preservation Center is in Culpeper, It seemed to make sense to ask if he had been working with the staff at the LOC Culpeper Facility. I was pleased that he has and is currently working with the LOC in Culpeper.He is also aware of the State Theatre progress in Culpeper. We are on the Film Industry Map….

In addition, The Culpeper Chamber was asked to offer a session at the “Institute”.  Being good corporate citizens we accepted the offer and our session was “How to use Social Media for Your Chamber”. I was again pleasantly surprised to see the interest in the subject. We have focused on Social Media a means of extending our services to members in new and different ways.  One observation was that that Chambers have been a network for business for a long time and adapting to new social media tools makes a lot of sense for Chambers and especially to businesses.  Find us on Facebook

Finally,  The new President of the Virginia Chamber attended several of the meetings designed as round table discussions on various subjects. I was impressed with his leadership. He shared a few ideas for 2012 that are very interesting. As I see it Virginia is a great place for business.

Jim Charapich, CEO/President