Got advertising dollars to spend? Advertise with the Chamber!

If you’re looking for a great way to get the word out about your company, consider advertising with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. We have several on-going advertising opportunities available:

2012 Location Guide
Our location guide is distributed to members, individuals looking to relocate to the Tampa Bay area and those seeking more information about our local economy, business and industry, arts, healthcare, education and local neighborhoods. Advertising in our guide allows companies to make a great initial impression to new residents and visitors. Tampa Bay is truly a great place to work, live, play and stay – don’t miss this opportunity to market your company’s message to an engaged audience.

Time is running out to secure a prime space! The back cover and inside back cover are still available, along with a wide-array of sizes for the inside of the magazine.

For more information about advertising in the 2012 Location Guide, download the spec sheet or contact Felicia Harvey, Director of Communications.

Electronic Advertising
Semi-Weekly Newsletters
The Chamber’s two weekly electronic newsletters are sent to representatives from our 1600 member companies, as well as nearly 500 non-members, for a total distribution of over 6,500. The Chamber offers one banner ad per month, per issue as an advertising opportunity to only Chamber members.

• eView focuses on both Chamber and member news and is released on Thursdays.
• Events highlights the Chamber’s upcoming events and is released on Tuesdays.

Website Advertising
Advertising on the Chamber website is a cost effective way to market your business to thousands of visitors each month. The Chamber offers one banner ad per month on each of our most visible pages:

• About Tampa
• Chamber Events
• Chamber Programs
• Business Resources
• Business Advocacy
• Membership
• Your Chamber

For more information about newsletter or website advertising, download the spec sheet or contact Brianna Faulkner, Graphic Designer. You can also view the newsletter archives on our website.

To read more about these advertising opportunities, please download our 2012 Media Kit.

Chamber President Appointed to Government Efficiency Task Force

Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce was appointed by Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon to the Government Efficiency Task Force for a term ending June 16, 2012. The Task Force was established in 2007 to develop recommendations for improving governmental operations and reducing costs and is composed of 15 members of the Legislature and representatives from the private and public sectors appointed by the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“Government efficiency is one of the areas the Chamber is currently studying and I am honored that Speaker Cannon has appointed me to this task force. I look forward to working with the other members towards the goal of identifying and recommending $3 billion in spending cuts to the Florida Legislature,” said Rohrlack.

For more information on the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, please visit http://www.tampachamber.com.

Bolts of Brilliance with the Tampa Bay Lightning

Join the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, Emerge Tampa and Presenting Sponsor AT&T on Tuesday, November 8 at the St. Pete Times Forum for our Annual Tampa Bay Lightning event!

Go behind the net with Tampa Bay Lightning CEO Tod Leiweke, Head Coach Guy Boucher, Center Steven Stamkos and other Lightning players for autographs and a panel discussion.

In addition to Stamkos, you’ll be able to meet and get autographs from:

• Center Dominic Moore
• Right Wing Teddy Purcell
• Center Nate Thompson
• Defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron
• Defenseman Matt Gilroy

Get the jump in leadership and mentoring and face-off with players and executives while gaining their insights and the keys to success.

Cost to attend is $35 for all Emerge and Young Professional group members or $45 for all others. Registration and networking begin at 5:45 p.m. and the program will run from 7 to 8 p.m. Afterwards, join Emerge Tampa and community leaders for a power play of networking and celebration at the new Bud Light party deck.

For more information or to register, visit www.tampachamber.com or call 813.276.9448.

Volunteers Inspire Hillsborough County 8th Graders

More than 200 volunteers stepped back into the classroom today to help inspire 8th graders in Hillsborough County during our annual Diploma-See Initiative. Participants who sign on to present Junior Achievement‘s Economics for Success may be business people, company employees, educators, parents, students or community leaders.

The objective? Share personal work and life experiences which reinforce the importance of staying in school.

Here’s a peek at some of the happenings at Franklin, Ferrell and Young Middle Schools. For more photos, visit our Facebook page.

Couldn’t Make it to SBOY? Check out the photos!

Just in case you couldn’t attend our Annual Small Business of the Year Awards banquet on September 16, we’re happy to share some photos from the evening! Visit our Facebook page to see more.

Come out and support Tampa Bay’s 2015 Super Bowl Bid!

Tampa Bay is bidding to host its 5th Super Bowl in 2015, and Tampa Bay & Company needs the community’s help!  Tampa Bay’s bid video is culminating with a group video shoot this Wednesday, Sept. 21 at Skyway Park in Tampa.

Tampa Bay & Company is asking that community supporters and their family, friends, coworkers, colleagues, neighbors, staff and other supporters come out to be a part of Tampa Bays’ bid to host Super Bowl XLIX.  Here are the details:

Who:        ALL Tampa Bay area residents and supporters

What:        Video shoot for Tampa Bay’s bid to host Super Bowl XLIX in 2015

When:        Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011.  Please arrive promptly at 7:30pm.

Where:    Skyway Park in Tampa – 3901 George Rd., Tampa, FL 33634.

Details:    Participants will gather on the field at approximately 7:30pm to support Tampa Bay’s bid to host Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.  Collectively, the group will welcome the NFL and team owners back to Tampa Bay.  The entire Tampa Bay community is invited to attend to show their support.  Those who plan to attend are requested to RSVP by noon on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011.

RSVP:    Please RSVP to Tony Diaz at TDiaz@VisitTampaBay.com.

This is a tremendous opportunity for the community to show its support for Tampa Bay’s efforts to bring the Super Bowl back home to Tampa Bay.  Those who plan to attend should confirm their attendance and how many representatives they’ll be bringing to Tony Diaz at TDiaz@VisitTampaBay.com.

Courtesy of Tampa Bay & Company

Congratulations to the 2011 Small Business of the Year Award Winners!!!

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of the 2011 Small Business of the Year Awards at a ceremony on Friday, September 16, at the Tampa Convention Center.  More than 850 attendees celebrated the accomplishments of Tampa Bay’s small business community and toasted the evening’s big winners.

This year’s event was presented by Sam’s Club and represents the 31^st year the Chamber has recognized this key segment of the region’s economy.  Small business awards were presented in three categories based on the number of employees.  Companies are evaluated on financial success, community involvement and ethical business practices. An award was also presented to the Outstanding Small Business Leader of the Year.

The 2011 Small Business of the Year Award winners are:

Outstanding Leader: Olin Mott, Olin Mott Tire Stores

Olin Mott opened the first location of Olin Mott Tire Stores in 1955 on Hillsborough Avenue.  Since then, the company has grown to four company-owned locations and two franchise locations.  Mott’s dedication to his customers and employees is paramount; one great example is his financing of an employee’s dream – resulting in Big John’s Alabama Barbeque.  Mott is dedicated to the community as well, establishing the Michelin/Joshua House Golf Classic in 1994 and Tutor-a-Bull in 2005 – a partnership between the Michelin Golf Classic, the USF College of Education and Hillsborough County Public Schools – designed to provide one-on-one tutoring for middle and high-school students.

5 – 20 Employees: Majesty Title Services, LLC

Majesty Title Services, LLC (MTS) is a National Title and Settlement Agency headquartered in Tampa, offering buyers and lenders a full range of title insurance and escrow services for real estate transactions.  Majesty Title’s focus is on serving clients in Florida and New York, and wherever their business takes them throughout the United States.  MTS began as a New York/New Jersey regional title agency in the 1990’s.  In 2006, three partners acquired the infrastructure of the NY/NJ agency and re-branded the company as Majesty Title Services.

21 – 50 Employees: Italiano Insurance

Italiano Insurance Services, Inc. is a family owned and operated insurance agency whose principals have served West Central and South Florida for over 50 years.  The agency has grown into a thriving, full service agency offering commercial, home, auto, boat, flood, life, and health insurance.   Even though their client base includes many large corporations and multi-national firms, Italiano Insurance has never allowed its focus to stray away from their core business – individual consumers and locally-owned small businesses.

51 – 250 Employees: Creative Sign Designs

Creative Sign Designs (CSD) serves the commercial and architectural signage market on a national basis, providing a full array of interior, exterior, and digital signage solutions. CSD is a turn-key operation offering consultation, design, engineering, permitting, fabrication, installation, and ongoing maintenance for signage projects of all shapes and sizes. CSD has supported many causes over the years including Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, Tampa General Hospital Foundation and Berkeley Preparatory School.

 

How the Chamber’s Brand is Evolving (Part II)

Last week, I outlined how the Chamber’s website and electronic newsletters have evolved. Read more here. This week, I’d like to continue with how some of our marketing and event collateral designs have changed – and also discuss how we’re utilizing social media to grow our brand even more.

Marketing Collateral
With the creation of the Chamber’s marketing brochure, I was given real creative freedom to further develop and enhance our brand. The brochure is a snapshot of what the Chamber does and what it has to offer its membership and the community – in essence, it is showing how being active with the organization can offer you and your company a “Greater Return on Investment. Greater Return on Involvement.”

The brochure quickly became my point of reference when it came time to think about redesigning many of our other marketing pieces – especially the things that are most often included in new and potential member information packets alongside it.

Event Collateral
After debating whether each of our signature events should have it’s own logo, it was decided that rather than putting two Chamber logos on all of our event collateral (in addition to sponsor logos), the Chamber logo would appear above or next to the event name, and then the theme (if applicable) would be a separate element in the design. This way, there would be no question as to whether the event was the Chamber’s. We began implementing this concept with the 2011 Small Business of the Year Awards and 5^th Annual Women of Influence collateral.

Event Signage
We recently obtained several retractable banner signs – welcoming Chamber, Leadership Tampa Alumni and Emerge Tampa Bay guests to their respective events. The goal was to have something alongside our sponsorship signage – which is typically branded for each event, but not necessarily for the Chamber – that tells attendees they are in the right place (and to further brand the Chamber).

In addition, we have a small sign with our logo on it that we place on the podium at each event so that when the speaker is photographed, our logo is always present.

Social Media
For a while, our Facebook page was mostly about events and event photos. More recently, we have implemented landing pages and a banner for our “profile” picture, rather than just our logo. Our posts have also become more engaging as we try to get followers to comment, participate in discussions and repost things that we share. Facebook has also become a place to share ribbon-cutting photos that previously were shared in The Inside View printed newsletter.

Twitter and LinkedIn are also outlets for branding growth. Our tweets regularly talk about the happenings in the small business community in Tampa Bay and LinkedIn is becoming more and more active with members posting discussions and questions to one another daily.

In order to drive more people to our social media pages, we added links (and our logo!) to our email signatures. As we continue to connect those platforms with each other and this blog, we will become an unstoppable entity in the social media world!

Brianna Faulkner
Graphic Designer
Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce

How the Chamber’s Brand is Evolving (Part I)

When I started working at the Chamber as the Graphic Designer three years ago, it seemed like the extent of the Chamber’s “brand” was slapping the logo onto whatever flyer or invitation I was creating. With some help from internal discussions and our Marketing and Communications committee, we have been steadily increasing, improving and changing the use of our brand. Hopefully it is becoming more recognizable!

Here are some things you may have noticed:
Website Redesign
Mid-summer 2010 was highlighted by the launch of the Chamber’s completely revamped website. The new design brought our website into the 21^st century with an eye-catching, interesting layout.

One of the best features, in my opinion, is the rotating graphic banners on the homepage, where we share details about upcoming events, membership perks and initiatives we are supporting. These little snippets are not only cool to look at, they give the homepage a dynamic look and feel that was definitely lacking in the previous layout – plus, they are fun to create! Also, the information on the site was rearranged, consolidated wherever possible and rewritten, to freshen it up and make it easier to navigate.

Electronic Newsletter Redesign
With the changes on the website, it seemed only natural that we redesign our electronic communication as well. We surveyed members about how they liked to be communicated with and decided that two weekly emails would be better than the daily communication that had become the norm. And so, Events and eView were born and rehabbed, respectively. Both designs reflect the website and each other – and therefore enhance our brand recognition.

The Events newsletter is distributed on Tuesdays and contains a preview of the upcoming 30 days or so of Chamber events – along with featured events on the left-hand side each week.

eView is distributed on Thursdays and highlights Chamber news and on the first Thursday of each month, the newsletter also shares member news. With the phase out of our quarterly printed newsletter, The Inside View, in early 2011, we began including things like ribbon cuttings and event wrap-ups and photos as they were happening, making the publication a more timely venue to share things with our members.

If you are not currently receiving our electronic newsletters, click here to subscribe.

How the Chamber’s Brand is Evolving (Part II) will discuss some of the marketing and event collateral being used currently, as well as a brief outline of how we are using social media outlets to enhance our brand.

Stay tuned!

Brianna Faulkner
Graphic Designer
Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce

Small Business of the Year Awards is almost here!

We are closing in on the 2011 Small Business of the Year Awards! This is a very exciting time for our finalists who have completed their judging process and are looking forward to the highly anticipated banquet on Friday, September 16th. We already are expecting over 800 attendees.

Interested in participating next year?  Nominations start every year in January and you can either nominate your own company or have someone nominate on your behalf.  Your company must be in business for at least three years, have between 5-250 employees and headquartered in Hillsborough County, Pinellas or Pasco county.   If you are not a Tampa Chamber member, then your headquarters must be in Hillsborough County.

The Small Business of the Year Awards has been recognized and received excellence awards by the ACCE (American Chamber of Commerce Executives) for consecutive years.  Join us for the most exciting and prestigious awards for small businesses in Tampa Bay! For more information, you can email cstrandberg@tampachamber.com or call (813) 276-9402.