PORTSMOUTH- With summer in full swing, and a remaining fall and winter packed with events, the Portsmouth Area Chamber of Commerce is reminding the community that their website is a reliable one-stop for information on events being organized by businesses, non-profits, schools and more.
The group works tirelessly alongside organizations like Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom and the Scioto County Visitor’s Bureau to farm popular events and local happenings to market them to the community and place them on their community calendar.
“For years, we’ve maintained a community calendar in the office. Mainly, it was geared towards visitors, for them to have something to pick up and see what was going on while they were visiting,” Portsmouth Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lisa Carver said. “In time, we learned people here needed it for planning purposes. So, we decided it really needed to be online so the general public, and anyone planning an event, could look at it.”
Additionally, the trio works to organize a quarterly Portsmouth Today forum, where a dozen community leaders meet at the Community Action Scioto County Welcome Center to speak on their events and programming to community members. That schedule can be found online as well.
“For me and the Bureau, it is a great tool to use,” Visitor’s Bureau Executive Director Nate Welch said. “Portsmouth Today is a great way for the community to know what is going on in Portsmouth and the county at large. Also, for folks to understand, even outside the area, that there is a plethora of events that go in the community, there is the calendar. There are too many for one person to track, so this allows people to see what is going on in their own terms. We will also be utilizing the calendar on our own website when we get there during our rebrand and development.”
The Chamber, however, has a network of over 500 businesses under their membership belt. Each of them have the ability to plug times and dates into their calendar without even bothering with a phone call or email to the Chamber, giving them direct access to the calendar.
“It is a really good tool for our members,” Carver said. “They just log into the system, and they plug it in and it shows up immediately. It is a great planning tool.”
Carver explained that hosting events can be complicated, especially when there are so many that organizations bump into each other while scheduling. The calendar makes that easier.
“Oh, gosh. There are so many events going on in the area. In fact, just a month ago, one of our members posted a new event in October. I immediately realized it was the same week as a major existing event in town, Glocktoberfest, and, so, I called them and let them know,” Carver said. “Luckily, they were early enough into planning that they were able to change that date and make it work. Which I think is a good thing, because I think the event will be important to them and we also want to make sure events are spread out so people can get the most out of their community.”
The Chamber calendar remains one of the most reliable for the community, but isn’t alone. There are also events found all over Facebook forums, on the City of Portsmouth website, and on the Local Happenings website. For the Chamber of Commerce calendar, visit Portsmouth.org. For more information about the calendar, or to add your own event, call Lisa at 740.353.7647
Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
