WESTLOCK - The Westlock & District Chamber of Commerce is expanding accessibility to the local business community with a new website, which went live Dec. 19 during the latest chamber meeting.
Murtaza Jamaly collaborated with chamber secretary Brandi Wolff to put together the website (www.westlockchamber.com), which holds a business directory of active members, contact information for the chamber executive and info on membership plans.
“(We hope) to make (the chamber) more accessible to prospective members, people in the general area, communities, businesses that are not currently in Westlock, but could be coming to Westlock. It’s putting a best step forward in those areas, to promote our membership and the businesses,” said president Graeme Harrington.
An events calendar is also an addition for the future, which will display the chamber meeting schedule and any other community-based projects involving the chamber.
Awards gala set for April
There is also a chamber awards gala in the works for April 18, 2020, a black-tie event which the executive hopes will become synonymous with the organization.
Many details are still left to be worked out, but the Westlock & District Community Hall has been booked and the chamber aims to fill it.
“(Vice-president) Paul Olsen has kind of been the lead on it. He’s very passionate about it, he’s had it in mind right from the get-go. That idea was born very early in the chamber’s existence.”
The new website will provide an easy platform for the chamber to engage potential voters in these awards, and although details are not set yet, there will be an offline vote, too. For now, they intend to make voting available in February until March.
Other parameters are still in the works as Olsen is narrowing down a list of awards to no more than 10. For entertainment and catering, the executive aims to showcase the best Westlock has to offer to make the night as attractive as possible.
An added component toward which organizers have been working is a community-related award, similar to a volunteer of the year, which prompted a conversation with Town of Westlock officials.
The idea is to make the awards gala into a flagship annual event for the chamber.
“We’re going to need a lot of community support to make it a great event, and that’s what we plan to do with it,” said Harrington.
