By JOLENE OGLE
THE future is looking bright for the local business community as Noosa’s Chamber of Commerce announces a new plan for the region’s future.
CCIQ Noosa announced the four-part plan on Tuesday night to a packed room at the South Pacific Resort.
The plan is simple and includes a business plan, a festival, an infrastructure project and the transfer of knowledge; all designed to help boost the local business economy.
CCIQ Noosa President Sarah Fisher, who also runs the Business Mentoring Noosa program, said the four initiatives were the next step in securing the future of local business.
“When we have a stronger local business community, we have better social cohesion,” she said.
The four-part plan started with the formal adoption of a business plan at Tuesday’s meeting and will be followed by a feasibility study to determine the need for a Noosa convention centre.
Ms Fisher said CCIQ Noosa’s role was to be the catalyst for the 1000-seat convention centre and they were willing to conduct a feasibility test to show the need for such a venue in Noosa.
Next in line is the introduction of the Noosa International Film Festival that is expected to take place in November 2016.
Ms Fisher said the Film Festival would be a vital addition to the region’s event calendar as it will not only expose Noosa locals and visitors to high-quality local and international films, but it will also present an important networking opportunity.
“We want the film industry to convene in Noosa,” he said.
“This will allow networking and attract national and international heavyweights to the region.”
The fourth initiative is the introduction of business knowledge sharing forums where local business owners can attend to learn how best to carry out aspects of business such as digital marketing.
CCIQ Noosa vice-president Peter Chenoweth said Noosa business mentors would follow-up the forum with a personal visit to business owners to discuss how to apply the new skills and knowledge to their business.
“We are doing all of this to help grow local business,” Mr Chenoweth said. “Our new goal is to help grow revenue by 10 per cent by 30 June 2017.”
Ms Fisher said CCIQ Noosa was still working on ways to measure the impact of their new initiatives on local business, but a planned multi-chamber conference should help iron out any issues.
“We spoke to CCIQ and asked them for their top three performing chambers in the hope of learning from them and sharing ideas,” Ms Fisher said.
From their discussions with CCIQ, Noosa Chamber has a list of nine Queensland Chambers of Commerce who will be invited to attend a forum on 28 July to share ideas.
Among the discussion topics will be the top three initiatives from each chamber that has been successful, as well as how these chambers measure their performance to ensure they are best serving their members.
To find out more information about the CCIQ Noosa initiatives to grow local business or to become a CCIQ Noosa member, visit www.noosa.cciq.com.au.
