Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce gets creative with online ideas as COVID-19 endures

Matt Baird understands a vibrant Lee’s Summit Chamber of Commerce gathers together at face-to-face events like ribbon cuttings, committee meetings and happy hours.

But that was before COVID-19 changed every aspect of doing business in Lee’s Summit.

So Baird, who is president of the 980-member chamber, looked to the Lee’s Summit business community for inspiration.

“Businesses are becoming more creative in this whole process,” Baird told members in the chamber’s first virtual Chamber Chat earlier this month. “They are really doing different things.”

And so must the chamber, as Baird explained during the chat on April 2.

“This isn’t what a chamber of commerce does; communicate virtually all the time. We are a networking type of organization,” Baird said. “We are having to change our model.”

The new model is virtually reaching out and connecting online.

For example, the chamber launched that weekly online live conversation, “Chamber Chat.”

The educational forum will have guests who can share important information to chamber members. Online participants can also ask questions. The first “Chat” included Lee’s Summit Mayor Bill Baird and Lee’s Summit City Manager Steve Arbo. The conversations are being archived.

The Lee’s Summit Chamber website now includes a business resources page with specific information and news for chamber members during the current health crisis. The resources page includes links with updated information from such organizations as the Jackson County Health Department, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration.

It also has information on financial aid and unemployment resources, as well as a section for updates and news from chamber members.

“We want to make sure our business members have all the resources that they need to get through these challenging times,” Baird said.

Baird said the resource page is important because information and data pertinent for businesses is coming out almost nonstop.

“We are really doing a good job of trying to take the data and instead of just throwing it out to the members really trying to put it in an orderly fashion that makes sense, that’s clean, so it causes less confusion because there is so much coming,” Baird said.

Baird, the chamber’s former director of business and governmental relations, said the business resource page was actually something the chamber has been thinking about creating for some time.

“This is something the chamber has wanted to put together for five years, and in two days we put it together,” Baird said. “That’s how things are working these days.”

In addition, Baird said chamber committee meetings are being conducted virtually.

The Lee’s Summit Chamber also has launched several features on social media.

A public group page has been created on Facebook called “Moving Forward Together – Business Community Group.” The group page is intended as a place for chamber members and nonmembers to post a question or a best practice.

And the chamber has launched a virtual happy hour called Five At Five on its Facebook page. This virtual happy hour is being held at 5 p.m. Wednesdays and asks participants to post their responses to five questions.

Questions include: “What do you do for a living and why you love it?” and “Elevators may be frowned upon right now, but if you were in one, what would your elevator speech be?”