Our team is committed to sharing our work, successes, and advocacy efforts we do on behalf of the business community through a quarterly newsletter — Chamber Insight.
Memberships on the rise
The Steamboat Springs Chamber is proud to welcome our 32 new members who have joined us in 2022. Since seeing an increased percentage of businesses drop membership due to challenges faced in 2020 and 2021, we are rebuilding our membership.
Our membership team has worked hard to revitalize benefits while evaluating what our business community needs and values. By joining the Chamber, members not only receive valuable benefits, but they contribute to the strength of the entire business community.
As part of our new membership initiatives, we have overhauled our Chamber and membership webpages. This has made information more accessible to our businesses, streamlined processes and allows our team to better share our efforts.
New to the membership website are the Advocacy page, Chamber and business facing events calendar, New to Steamboat resources, along with visually stunning graphics and business Instagram feeds and more.
If you know of any business or if your business is interested in joining the Chamber or learning more, visit our website or email angelica@steamboatchamber.com.
Programming revamped: Mixers, professional development and more
In addition to growing continuing programs such as the Economic Summit, Navigator Awards, Thrive Together Women’s Summit, and the Winter Expo, we are focused on working with our membership to bring in programming and content that directly impacts our local businesses and solves for community challenges.
Child care, housing, employee retention, and HR and employment law, were all identified as top priorities. This year we launched our Creating a Culture of Retention series along with Employment Law Update sessions.
We successfully hosted a Roadmap to Social Media success seminar that addressed how to maximize in-house social media on a budget. New in 2022, we are also very excited to announce the first ever Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Summit that will take place in September featuring Joelle Martinez from the Latino Leadership Institute in Denver.
Routt County Economic Development Partnership
As our community’s economic development program transitions from a department within the Chamber to a nonprofit organization, we are continuing to focus on primary industry diversification countywide.
Smart industry diversification work starts with retaining the primary businesses operating in a local economy. RCEDP is prioritizing creating a full-time business retention and expansion program to serve Routt County. We are pleased to welcome Keith Hensley as our new Business Retention and Expansion manager. Keith will be focused on leading RCEDP’s full-time BRE program.
Housing solutions
The Steamboat Springs Chamber has been convening a group of local business and community leaders to explore current housing challenges facing our community while proactively looking for actionable solutions.
This group brings together stakeholders to collaborate, pool resources and advocate for solutions as a united front. The housing group has been regularly meeting with Rep. Dylan Roberts on needs and possible funding efforts.
Industry advocacy
The Steamboat Springs Chamber will be continuing the industry advocacy efforts by convening the sectors once a year to bring together a broader base of our community, give updates, answer questions, and to listen to and understand the challenges, opportunities and needs of each of your specific industry sectors — covering workforce, legislative, and operational areas. Please join us on Aug. 10 and 11 to give your perspective and feedback on the challenges and opportunities your industry is facing.
Destination management
In early June the marketing department launched the new destination management communications campaign, Kindness Floats the Boat.
The campaign includes digital advertising, a social media campaign, a PR push and physical activations in town and at the Visitor Center. The campaign also includes a Code of Kindness, which encourages visitors to adopt our new code, pledging to take care of others, the environment and themselves.
We have released two new videos in the campaign and have seen over 13,000 views just days after the launch. We have also seen over 8,000 page views to the campaign homepage where visitors are spending an average of two and a half minutes digesting the content.
This campaign represents 75% of our efforts this year. The remaining 25% are dedicated to destination promotion to maintain long-term brand awareness as a vacation destination.
Seeking to lower health care premiums
Our Business Development director sits on the Peak Health Alliance Steering Committee representing business. Peak Health Alliance and the Routt County Steering Committee are working to reduce health care premiums in Routt County.
The committee meets every other week, has collected 100 letters of interest from local business, held informational webinars and is currently negotiating with local providers. The committee hopes a new lower-cost option will be brought to Routt County in 2024.