Fort Smith Chamber Kicks Off Business Focus
by January 28, 2008 12:00 am 61 views
The Greater Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce recently commenced Business Focus, a new series of development seminars geared toward small business owners that might not have the time, personnel or resources to attend out-of-town professional development courses, said Drake Pothier, vice president of operations for the chamber.
“Disaster Recovery Planning” featured speaker Gary Campbell, a member of the Fort Smith Board of Directors.
Campbell addressed various aspects of emergency and business continuity planning.
Pothier came to the Fort Smith chamber in October 2006 from the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce in Lafayette, La.
Similar presentations were very successful there, Pothier said.
“The chamber here has a ton of events, but most of them were networking events,” he said. “We needed something more on the professional development side.”
Chamber members have responded very well to the idea so far, and have sent in numerous suggestions for other seminars.
The series isn’t designed to be a complete education on a topic, but rather to familiarize members with a concept and to point them in the right direction if they want to learn more, Pothier said.
Many of the speakers at future seminars will come from the Fort Smith region, although not exclusively.
Some likely future topics will include protection against fraud, creating effective presentations and Internet marketing.
Seating will be limited to no more than 30, because smaller groups are more conducive to question and answer sessions, Pothier said.
The cost for each seminar is $10 for chamber members and $25 for non-members.