Solid turnout for Work it Wednesday
The Lost Sierra Chamber of Commerce and Nakoma Resort held an informal, hour-long networking event early March 3 at Nakoma.
Organizers invited Chamber members and local businesses to spend a few minutes brainstorming ideas for growing commerce in the area.
The meeting started with business members introducing themselves and giving a brief description of their business.
More than 15 businesses were represented at the first meeting, including Lost Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Touring Company/Diamond S Ranch, Arty-Parts, Sierra Mountain Properties, Feather River College, Alliance for Workforce Development, Kinship Ranch, Burton & Associates, Brookside Construction, Maple Studios, Sierra Brides, Spanish Peak Productions, PSREC/PST and Nakoma.
Tracy Metzler, Nakoma Golf Operations Manager, introduced herself by saying that she had lived here in the past, left for a while, and has now returned. “This is home,” she said. “I love it here, and I just want to see the area flourish.” The sentiment was shared by several attending the meeting.
Metzler and Donna Mills, LSCC president, then launched a brief discussion on how businesses could work together to identify and achieve a few short-term goals that would benefit the community as a whole over the next several months.
With just 30 minutes left in the meeting, Mills began brain-dumping ideas from attendees onto a flip chart — like developing more high-caliper shoulder season events including fun runs and wine tastings that might be unique to our area, and using ‘geo-fencing’ to capture and market to various target audiences.
The need for a centralized community calendar was mentioned, and several people in the audience offered existing community calendars like ones on the Chamber website, Plumas News, PSREC’s website, and Plumas Arts.
Tiffany Lozano of Spanish Peak Productions and Dr. Kevin Trutna of Feather River College also emphasized the importance of using social media tools and “outward-facing content” that focus on user experience.
Folks shared several other ideas as well. Meeting organizers plan to summarize these and bring them back to the next meeting in April.
As the meeting wound down, each business was challenged to come back in April with more ideas and one new attendee.
Future meetings will be ongoing and held at Nakoma Resort’s Wigwam Restaurant the first Wednesday of every month. The next “Work It Wednesday Coffee Hour” is April 1 at 7:30 a.m.
Additionally, the Lost Sierra Chamber of Commerce is scheduling monthly evening mixers, called “Commerce and Cocktails.”
The first of these will be held Thursday, March 12, at 5 p.m., next to Sierra Mountain Properties, in Clio. Organizers have extended a special invitation to V.R.B.O. property owners who may or may not yet be Chamber members.
