For the second year the Soldotna Chamber of Commerce (SCC) has invited its members to a free informational breakfast and benefits program. About 238 members RSVP’d for the event Tuesday at the Central Peninsula Regional Sports Complex that featured a full breakfast with all the trimmings served up by Kenai Catering. “It was a really great turn out this year and we had a nice breakfast and got to share some of the benefits that Chamber membership offers to their businesses as well as hearing from some the businesses what they are bringing to the community as well,” said Ryan Kapp, SCC Board president.
Using the Chamber’s new instant response survey technology those present responded to a series of relevant questions to the community, its quality of life and demographics. “We were able to get immediate response results which is really cool for everyone. We’ll go back and crunch those numbers and study them which will help us steer our services as well as provide the results to our members, because it might impact how they do business. The results showed us some of the things we may not have been aware of, but is good information to have,” said Kapp. According the results Baby Boomers still dominate the business population making up 47% of those in attendance followed by Gen X those born between 1965 and 1980 and trailed by Generation Z, 1995-2014 with only 2% present. “It’s pretty encouraging that we have lots of years to continue running businesses with those folks. The other big surprise for me was the largest group answering the survey had been in business 25 years or longer so that speaks highly of the long term quality of business climate that is here on the Peninsula and that they are still active and participating in Chamber functions,” said Kapp.
With an average of 50,000 some visitors annually visiting the SCC Visitors Center the future expansion of the facility seems to be on the horizon, “It’s a big project to look at an expanded visitor center, but we see it as important and are putting some energy into and are moving into some planning phases to see if we can make it happen in cooperation with the City. These are some very exciting times and in the meantime we will continue to serve our visitors as we have at the facility by the river where folks can come and get direction and find the location of the different businesses that are available for what they are looking for,” said Kapp. Some members stated that they felt to be successful in business in this community that you had to be a SCC member, “Susan Dowell of High Adventures shared that with everyone that it’s really mandatory to build your business because of all the services that the Chamber offers as well as the importance of getting involved in the community,” added Kapp. Complete survey results and more information about benefits of SCC membership are available by calling 262-9814 or visiting on line at visitsoldotna.com.
