Business & Tech

'Big Event' Draws Over 100 Networkers

Program featured attendees from Westfield, Scotch Plains, Fanwood and Springfield.

Networkers crowded the Mattress Factory in Fanwood Wednesday night for an evening of appetizers, wine and building business.

The "Big Event," a joint program of the Westfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Scotch Plains Business Professional Association, the Business and Professional Association of Fanwood, and the Springfield Patriot Chamber of Commerce, drew in business people from the four towns, along with several neighboring towns, for an evening of networking and building business relationships. Over 100 people attended the event.

Neil Pinkman, executive director of the Westfield chamber, said the goal of the event was to find new ways for local businesses to interact and build relationships. The concept of co-hosting with business groups from neighboring communities was designed to help small businesses break down town barriers.

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The Wednesday evening program is part of a new push by the Westfield chamber to up programming in the wake of a leadership change last year. The chamber has moved away from the traditional lunch time educational programs and has started breakfast networking events and the evening cocktail party situation. Pinkman said that while the lunch time programs will remain, the chamber is looking to expand into more time slots for its programming.

The Westfield chamber has been using a new membership survey, along with focus groups to build out new programming and find time slots conducive for networking programming. Pinkman indicated that Wednesday evening's program will not be the last to be held amongst the four communities.

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