29 Jan 2024
By Sarah Heaney, Membership Manager
As January draws to a close, I thought it was fitting as Membership Manager at Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to give you my top tips for the best way to make the most of being part of Glasgow’s largest cross sector business community. We are here to support our members and to champion our city as the voice of business in Glasgow.
And here’s how you can engage…
1. Email us – contact membership@glasgowchamberofcommerce.com to set up a meeting with the membership team to discuss maximising your existing membership, upgrading to partnership, or getting started as a new member.
2. In person networking – we have a wide range of meetings, events, and training courses, usually at least a couple of things on every week. FIND HERE
3. Join an International Trade Mission - If you are interested in growing and understanding more about what the international business world has to offer or learning about new global territories, contact us. Throughout the year we will offer several market awareness events and inward/outward trade missions. Our priority markets include Germany, Italy, USA and China, as well as others.
4. Virtual networking – every month our Membership Team host WeeG Chat, an opportunity to grab a cuppa and a chat with peers from across the business community. A great way to dip your toe into networking from the comfort of your home or office.
5. Member Showcase – a brand new event designed for Glasgow businesses, providing an opportunity to hear and interact with inspirational speakers from a variety of business backgrounds, as well as to foster the community of our members. This event will feature speakers who will each have just ten minutes to share their business story. Speakers are encouraged to take an innovative, unconventional approach to their presentation. BOOK HERE
6. Tell us your good news – we love to share success stories and industry related articles. These will be featured on the News section of our website and you can submit them as often as you like, the more good news the better.
7. Connect with other members through the directory – each member has a record with named main contact, email address and contact number. We encourage you to connect as a fellow member.
8. The Glasgow Business Awards - is firmly established as the leading awards ceremony for Glasgow business and is the highlight of the Glasgow business calendar. The Awards recognise achievements and celebrate success and will launch in Spring but save the date now - Thursday 3 October.
9. Create a member-to-member offer – these are listed on the members’ portal and are exclusive to members. As well as driving business to your organisation, you can take advantage of other offers too.
10. Member Meet Up – this event is designed for new members to meet the Glasgow Chamber team, some of our partners and each other.
11. Personal and Professional Development – we have been delivering training and development programmes for over 30 years by working closely with our training partners to ensure that we bring you the most up-to-date thinking in the learning and development arena. FIND HERE
12. Connect with us on social media – with nearly 65K followers, this is a great place to engage with us and fellow members - LinkedIn, Instagram, X & Facebook
13. YouTube – here we have highlights from past events, webinars and interviews. SUBSCRIBE HERE
14. Start your exporting journey - our expert documentation team can give support, guidance and make the whole documentation process as straightforward as possible.
15. Congress of Business - during Glasgow’s Climate Week, #COB24 will bring together global thought leaders, businesses, and cities to ignite purpose-led conversations for one common goal - accelerating action on a sustainable future. BOOK HERE
16. Take advantage of our affinity partnerships - used correctly, any one of these offers can give you savings that will far outweigh your organisation’s annual membership fee. Brands include Westfield Health, MoneyCorp, Barclaycard Payments, AA and many more. START HERE
17. Use the member logo – we offer members the chance to use the Member Logo on your printed material, website or email footer.
18. Sponsor an event – this is a great way to boost your brand and includes speaking opportunities and bespoke packages that align with your business goals and objectives.
19. Glasgow Talks - monthly series of business seminars featuring influential guest speakers drawn from business and political leadership.
20. Developing the Young Workforce - how do you recruit young talent? The DYW Glasgow team offer free support and help you build connections with schools, colleges, and your young employees of the future across Glasgow and the west.
21. Circular Glasgow - is sustainability important to your business? Do you have Net Zero ambitions? Circular Glasgow is a movement to inspire businesses of all sizes to innovate and become future proof by adopting circular economy strategies.
22. Sign up to our weekly bulletin - login to the Portal to set marketing preferences.
23. Read our quarterly business magazine – does what it says on the tin, Glasgow Business news, quarterly. READ HERE
24. Let us introduce you to other members – let us know who you want to meet and why, we’ll do our best to get you in front of the right person either in real life at one of our events or by email introduction.
And if that’s not enough, then I revert you back to point 1 – get in touch. We are always happy to help you figure out what your next best move is and connect you with the people you are looking for. If I don’t know them, I’ll know someone who does. I look forward to another year supporting the business community in the city.
Let Glasgow flourish!
