Bunbury is abuzz this weekend with the AFL Pre-Season match coming to town—I even witnessed a road sweeper whizzing around this morning at the unusual time of 10 am! What I have enjoyed hearing about is the collaboration between the City & localcommunity groups. There are many opportunities for our local football clubs and schools to gain revenue from the day, including drink sales, car parking & donations, showing the impact a large event like this can have across the entire community. The volunteers have been working tirelessly at the ground—cleaning, sweeping, and tidying—and I am sure our visitors for the weekend are in for a real treat. I know I for one am looking forward to it, and hope our retail & hospitality businesses feel the effects as well.
The Bunbury Geographe CCI kicked off the 2025 SW Leaders program this month, with 92 people (46 pairs) matched in this fifth year of the program. Founder Geoff Stewart has stepped down from the operational side but continues to manage the Leadership 30 and 60 series online, with Claire Anderson, an Executive Committee Member of the Chamber, leading the program for 2025. This program continually produces great professional development & personal growth, and we look forward to a great year.
After running a survey with our members late last year, we heard that many would like us to consider morning business events. So, this week, we launched our first Business After Hours for 2025—except we made it a Business Before Hours event! Hosting a ‘Meet the Candidate’ session in preparation for the State Election, we welcomed two candidates, Don Punch and Heather Reid, out of the eight listed on the Seat of Bunbury ticket. They joined members in a Q&A-style forum following breakfast networking. We will return to a traditional After-Hours slot next month, and sprinkle in some Before-Hours throughout the year.
Next week, to launch our Women in Business events for the year, we are hosting our annual International Women's Day lunch for our women (and hopefully some men). The lunch will be held at BREC, with our Women in Business lead, Amber Lilley, In Conversation with Lacey Filipich - award-winning author, financial educator, founder, speaker, mentor - and a chemical engineer. The topic, Financial Literacy, will explore how far we have come. For instance, did you know that women couldn’t get a loan without a male signatory until 1971? And did you know that women were not able to open a bank account until 1963? There are still a few tickets left, so if you have team members who would like to join us, please click here.
We recently launched our new TV advertising campaign onto Seven Network and it's been exciting to see some of our members showcasing what they value about their membership with the Chamber. Gaining many new members, TV works to get your message across to the broader community and we hope this campaign continues to grow our brand and awareness within the wider Bunbury Geographe region.
I also continue to meet with stakeholders & members as much as possible, and this month included;
- Dalyellup College: Principal Eloise Kyneur gave me a tour of the school, highlighting their developing STEM & trade facilities, and the spaces they have available to hire to other businesses.
- Reserve Bank of Australia: Met with Cara Holland - Acting Senior Representative and Jo Embrey- Economist from the RBA's WA office to share current business conditions in our region.
- Omega365: I travelled to Perth last week to meet with Emma Ireland, Australian Managing Director and Julie Goodwin, Talent Acquisition Manager, of Omega365, and officially welcome them as our newest Gold partner! Louise Reid, the local representative, is a talent acquisition specialist and can assist any of our local organisations with their recruitment needs.
- South32: As a Gold Partner I meet with them regularly to discuss our partnership and how we can continue to support each other
- Attended an online Regional Policy Forum with Aaron Morey, Chief Economist & Director of Membership at CCIWA, along with other regional chambers from across the state. The discussion focused on regional chamber policy priorities, with housing and payroll tax remaining key issues across the board.
- The Geographe for Purpose Portfolio held its first meeting, where Executive Committee member Lynne Harwood emphasised the vital role of community service organisations in our local economy and how we can continue to collaborate.
Thankyou,
Julie
