It may not have moved far, but there’s a whole lot of changes around the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce.
Many got their first look at the new offices of the Ladysmith chamber office and visitor centre at an open house Wednesday night.
“It was a good turnout. We had some familiar faces and some new faces,” said chamber president Aaron Stone. “The feedback that we got from everybody there seemed quite positive.”
The chamber moved into its new offices on 33 Roberts St. in May from its previous location across the street and up the block on First Avenue.
“We just managed to squeeze it in before the height of tourism season. We had to scramble to get it all together. This place was pretty rough,” said chamber manager Mark Drysdale about the new location that has previously served as a quilting shop and jewelry store.
He said extensive renovation work took place over the summer to put in new walls for offices, replace the flooring and remodel a bathroom that featured a toilet atop stairs.
Drysdale said the three main reasons driving the move were money, space and accessibility.
“We probably had more motorhomes parking here in the two months we’ve been here than in years we were on First,” he said. “We would actually sit there and watch motorhomes go by and they couldn’t find a place to park.”
The new location features plenty of on-street parking out front as well as a lot to the side of the building.
The new office, which the chamber has signed a five-year lease on, is more than twice the size of the former location with about 1,800 square feet evenly split between the visitors centre out front and chamber offices in the back.
“As far as the visitor information part of it goes, it’s roughly about the same other than the parking. But for the chamber it’s night and day,” said Drysdale. “We now have a boardroom which we didn’t have before. It was just a visitor centre and anything we wanted to do with the chamber we had to work around the visitor centre.”
There is also a business centre which Drysdale hopes will eventually be filled with equipment and resources to support the local business community.
“They can access resources in here, there will be information on how to set up business in the community, some marketing material on why businesses choose Ladysmith, there’s going to be a lending library, an equipment library,” he said. “This will also be sort of the headquarters for any workshops or seminars we’re doing for the local business community.”
The open house also provided an opportunity for the chamber to update its roughly 170 members on its plans for the future.
Drysdale said the chamber is working on a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy, with updates in store for the website, social media strategy and newsletter.
“The way we talk to members and get the word out and communicate about things we’re doing is going to change. We’re really going to try and get our membership re-engaged with the chamber. I think it’s important that they recognize the chamber as a vehicle to do some things they can’t do on their own.”
One of the main items on the immediate horizon is the chamber’s annual fall event, this year teaming up with the [Ladysmith Waterfront] art gallery to put on Davy Jones Locker event next month.
“We’ve teamed up with the art gallery to do something a little bit different that benefits both organizations,” said Stone. “We’re adding an element of social capital to it, improving the social welfare of our community as well as the business welfare.”
