If you hang around our staff for a little bit, you’ll most likely hear us throw out a few letters—BTR. In our office, BTR means “Build the Relationship.”

For us, building strong and lasting relationships is vital in creating trust, working together with our stakeholders, and influencing change. It’s about creating connections. This past week, our Chamber lunch was all about building connections. To do that, we held a “Networking Biz Quiz” themed lunch and introduced a new strategy to achieve one of our Chamber goals.

If you couldn’t attend the lunch, I must say, you missed a fun event. We know from our members that networking is a major factor in joining the Chamber. The Biz Quiz lunch was a fun way to encourage networking through an engaging game. For the first half hour, we had free-flowing networking, where members could interact to learn about each other and their businesses. Afterward, attendees formed groups and filled out a quiz with facts matching the different businesses. The winning teams received some great Heber Valley swag prizes. The day was a great success and an easy way for people to engage with each other. It was so much fun to see all the connections being made.

This year, we have a goal to increase referrals and connections among our Chamber members. Ryan Fritzsche, who serves on the Chamber Advisory Board, announced a new system that will be used at each lunch moving forward. We will have a large notepad labeled “Recognition” and another labeled “Needs.” Chamber members can write on a sticky note a business they have worked with or highly recommend under “Recognition” or list topics or ideas they are struggling with on the “Needs” board. Then other Chamber members can read the recognitions or reach out to the businesses to help with their needs, as they can. We’ll continue this setup each month to establish the habit of sharing recognition and seeking solutions for business needs.

Many of our activities, from lunches, mixers, and golf tournaments to the Ice Cream Social and Community Expo, are about creating connections from business-to-business and business-to-consumer. The more we know about each other, the more confident we are in our recommendations. We’ll see you at the next Chamber event, and we can’t wait to connect!