Norfolk Chamber as you’ve never seen it before…
We are changing and moving forward with a new voice and a new mission. The Norfolk Chamber of Commerce is evolving to become the ‘Norfolk Chambers of Commerce.’ With our new mission of ‘Connecting, supporting and giving voice to every business in Norfolk’- we are reaching beyond our previous boundaries, striving forward, to ensure that we connect and give voice to all businesses, in Norfolk and beyond.
Our new name, ‘Chambers’ and a fresh brand echoes an organisation with a rich heritage of serving the business community for over 122 years and now also encompasses the modern businesses of today, tomorrow, and the future.
We are Chambers that engages the whole of Norfolk: from West Norfolk to North Norfolk; from Breckland, to Broadland; from Great Yarmouth, to South Norfolk; and the whole of Greater Norwich. This is why the change in our name is so important, we want to include everyone.
Chris Sargisson, CEO of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, said: “One of our roles is to make sure that we’re fundamentally supporting every single business element in the region, rather than just a few. So, moving to Chambers is a way that we can actually start to indicate how we are understanding now unique each region of Norfolk actually is, whilst acknowledging that there are many areas of common ground that we can all work together on.”
What does your new Chambers look like?
We are here to bring people together, to share knowledge, whilst ensuring that we understand your business needs and the challenges of doing business. We can then ensure that we effectively influence and lobby the policymakers on your behalf. Being sure to get the Norfolk business voice heard loud and clear, to help support the economic growth of our region.
In 2018, we accomplished lots of work behind the scenes – such as talking to our members, and non-members about their perception of what the Chambers is and what it should be. These conversations have helped us to form and shape our mission and to grow into the forward-thinking organisation we are today. For example, did you know that we offer a whole range of international services and that we are involved in getting the business voice heard on skills, infrastructure and business rates both regionally and nationally? With over 900 members, who have businesses of all shapes and sizes, and it’s important that they know and understand how our Chambers can help them. We are here to change this!
Part of this change has involved the creation of a new Customer Experience Team to support you and your business. To build your network and to work in partnership with you to help resolve some of the challenges you face. Our team will be working across the county, in both the city, the main towns, the market towns and the rural locations. We are already doing some great work in West Norfolk, where we have several networking events to support the local business communities to share their skills and knowledge.
What’s coming next
In time, you will see a new Digital Platform to support our members to get the most out of their membership, this will involve a tailored networking account, with informed and innovative information. Chris Sargisson, CEO of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, “When you log in, your account is engineered to be able to provide you with some real beneficial insight along the lines of, ‘If you go to one networking group this week- it’s this one, because actually, they’re talking about a subject that I know that you’re interested in.’ It might not have anything to do with the Chambers of Commerce, but that’s fine. The same with reading one article, or if you listen to one podcast, and so the conversation continues.”
Our printed magazine ‘Norfolk Voice‘ is now moving towards the Digital Platform under the same name ‘Norfolk’s Voice.’ And will now have a whole host of interactive features including; videos, blogs, podcasts, member news, specialist subject/knowledge articles and an opportunity to showcase the best of business thought-leadership articles, and companies as well as the opportunity for sponsorship and advertisement too. In time there will be a printed edition to support this content.
Chris Sargisson, CEO of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, “So, we’re taking the Norfolk voice concept, the magazine concept, and we’re opening it up as a very wide digital channel over the next two to three years, that will gain more and more momentum for every business in Norfolk, that’ll help us achieve that ‘Every’ element so it ties in. And then the second element is to move away from the concept of having a website where you go and you trawl through and you find things, to actually having a very interactive platform.”
From now onwards you will see our new brand rolling out over our various media channels, with our big launch happening at The Royal Norfolk Show, this June. Watch this space.
