The Aurora Chamber of Commerce has been working with the business community to provide leadership and support through the pandemic for the last 3 months. The support the Chamber provided began with an outreach by survey to the business community and personal calls to over 300 businesses to determine the needs of local businesses.
Pivoting quickly the Chamber moved to weekly Coffee with the Chamber meetings where politicians attended to answer questions on the financial supports available to businesses and as follow-up the Chamber advocated with all levels of government when issues were identified with financial supports, landlord agreements, etc.
As a leader, they were the first York Region Chamber to launch a Shop Local website – ShopFromHomeAurora.ca – only a couple of weeks after the country shut down and they were heavily involved in setting up the Aurora Business Continuity Task Force that has now launched a Shop Local, Support Local marketing campaign to highlight local businesses and keep dollars spent within the community.
The Chamber developed the Shop Local marketing plan and is the lead liaison with the Marketing Agency to ensure the campaign rolls out smoothly and quickly. As part of this campaign the ExploreAurora.ca website has been launched which lists local businesses, their products/services and what their delivery mode and safety protocols are post-pandemic.
Through all of this they continued to hold virtual networking breakfasts, after 5 socials and other regularly scheduled events online. They are now focused on what their offerings will look like this Fall, and what the biggest needs will be as businesses reopen and work towards finding the new normal.
