Our Year in Review

We started out in January of 2020 with our Interim Executive Director, Lisa Gray from Levridge Resources. Soon after her arrival, COVID-19 was a household name. She helped spearhead our partnership with CPCC’s Small Business Center to bring over 15 Biz Briefings, free courses that focused on how to help businesses deal with topics relating to issues caused by the pandemic. She helped keep the Matthews Chamber of Commerce as a top resource for businesses not only here in Matthews, but around the country. We are so thankful to have had Lisa on our team.

While we were restricted due to COVID-19, we have still managed to have several Ribbon Cuttings as we welcomed new members to the Matthews Chamber of Commerce and Matthews Community. We’ve also been able to host Business Before Hours/Business After Hours for socially distant networking opportunities. We had 3 In Person Luncheons this year, with the remainder being virtual options. We’ve had a variety of topics discussed during our luncheons from Marketing to Mental Health Awareness provided by Atrium Health and the State of the Town of Matthews by Mayor Higdon. We are looking forward to the day that we can bring back our First Friday Lunch Connects and our Monthly Luncheons.

Our Women in Business ladies have enjoyed many virtual events from topics such as Organizing Your Home, to How to be Resilient in Times of Stress. From Coffee Connections discovering that Your Network is Your Net Worth, to Happy Hours and Friendsgiving, these ladies have still enjoyed connecting virtually with one another!

Our Young Professionals group enjoyed small in-person networking events at locations throughout Matthews including Grace O’Malley’s Irish Public House, Carolina Beer Temple and Club Pilates.

And lastly, we are thrilled to have hired our new Executive Director, Jessica Tullar, in mid-August.

Major Events from 2020

• The Greater Matthews Business Expo was held over at Central Piedmont Community College just prior to the pandemic. We had close to 60 vendors and Speed Networking was a hit yet again!
• The Healthy Living Expo was canceled for 2020 but we are looking forward to bringing this event back in 2021!
• The Golf Classic Tournament was a success thanks to Harris Teeter as our Title Sponsor and to Mike Huckaby as our Golf Committee Chair. Typically held in the Spring, this event was pushed back to October when we could have larger crowds. We are so pleased to share that this event sold out!
• The Auto Reunion and Motorcycle Show was also canceled for this year, but we hope to hold in person this Fall in person if we are able or virtual if we must. We appreciate our Title Sponsor Atrium Health. 
• The Artwalk & MusicFest went virtual this year and ran for 2 weeks in October with over 20 online artist booths and 16 musical performances. We’d like to thank Novant Health as our continued Title Sponsor of that event and entertaining the idea of taking it online this year!  This was our first shot at this and while we learned a lot while building this online event, we think this would be a great addition to our event in years to come while giving great exposure to our Artists, Crafters, Musical and Visual Performers that participate. 
• We added 2 new Holiday events this year! The Hometown Holiday Scavenger Hunt sponsored by Novant Health Matthews Medical Center had over 40 families and groups competing to win the prize basket full of Matthews goodies, swag and gift cards.  The Shop. Play. Eat. & Win! Local campaign sponsored by Atrium Health gave exposure and business to many of our members as one lucky winner in Matthews won the $1,000 grand prize for supporting our local businesses and nonprofit organizations!  
• Our Annual Gingerbread House Display also sponsored by Atrium Health drew in 12 very impressive entries! Our own Adam Sellars of Keller Williams Select came away with a win of 3rd place in Adult Amateur Family!
• And last, but not least, we are rounding out the year with our Annual Gala. Thank you to Novant Health for your Title Sponsorship and to Live Events Media Group for making this virtual event possible.

While 2020 may have not gone the way we expected, we’ve still had 33 NEW members join the Matthews Chamber of Commerce and over 250 renewals from our Members.  We wouldn’t be here without your continued support, and we are looking forward to a very bright future in 2021!