chamber events
2021 proved to be just as much of a rollercoaster as 2020, especially for our events diary! We had already adapted to the online environment for networking and retained this going into 2021, we were so pleased by how many people regularly joined us online and helped us maintain the feeling of community. We delivered the second online Kingston Business expo in April 2021, again with great success and attendance. As one visitor commented, “The Kingston Expo was better than last years, it gave me a chance to chat with new people and existing friends and the opportunity to learn from guest speakers” and another, “The round tables I attended were excellent, with interesting themes selected and good representation in terms of speakers from a broad range of businesses and organisations”. One benefit from being online is the sessions were all recorded and are still available to watch on our YouTube channel. Behind the scenes we were busy putting together the details for the Kingston Borough Business Awards, ready to launch in the summer of 2021. We were keen to give businesses an opportunity to
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celebrate their achievements and the new Awards were extremely well received with over 200 entries received across 14 categories. Finalists have now been announced and we look forward to the announcement of the winners in early 2022. The summer also saw a return to in-person events. The enthusiasm and noise from the conversations were so good to hear again and it was a pleasure to get back into venues (and away from screens). From the Wych Elm start up and sole trader networking, to the more formal breakfast networking, we were pleased with the consistent turn out from our members. We have kept the popular online Speed Networking and are looking to collaborate with different networking groups in the new year to add variety. We have set up a New Malden Business Forum with the invaluable help of Roger Martin at
BOROUGH BUSINESS - The voice of Kingston’s business community
Rotary Club. It is still early days and much work to do but we are determined to provide New Malden businesses an opportunity to network and a forum to share their views. The Chamber has also worked closely with Kingston Council and other strategic partners in launching THINK GREEN, a programme of Green and sustainable topics. These webinars are specifically aimed at providing ideas, inspiration and practical tips on how to move business into a greener efficient direction – and how changing could be more cost effective. There are always new ideas we would like to explore and we will try to build on these in 2022. We will continue to provide events that have benefits for your business but also the variety which will be good for your social calendar.
