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Chairman's February/March Message

Chamber Kicks Off The New Year With A New Member Benefit...

We are off to a running start in this New Year. All of our committees have had their first meetings and are now digging into what will surely be a productive program of work.

I am pleased to announce an exciting new benefit for our members. This month the Chamber will unveil an upgrade to our Web site. The new service will offer a cost effective way for our members to create an online presence and market their products and/or services with a virtual tour. Chamber website visitors will simply click on a merchant in the Chamber’s online directory to virtually tour the selected organization and learn more about its business and offerings.

Wells Fargo and the Chamber have pledged the financial support to establish this new feature so that our members can enjoy the service at a subsidized level. Up until now, many of our community’s small business merchants and hospitality providers have not had the opportunity to present themselves on the Web because of high cost. We recognize that small business is the backbone of our economy and this is reflected in our membership with 75 percent of our members as small businesses that do not presently have their own site on the web. The site
will also highlight points of interest in Redwood City and San Mateo County so that visitors and those thinking about relocating here can see what a special place this is.

Since the debut of our new site last year, the attention it has gained has been enormous. In the last three months alone, your Chamber’s web site was viewed more than 150,000 times. Chamber of Commerce web sites consistently report statistics showing that dining, accommodations and real estate are the most popular search topics on their sites. Visitors and those considering relocating to our community are the most common web site users. During the last three months, the Redwood City Chamber’s web site top 5 searches were for restaurants, attorneys, real estate, hotels/motels and banks.

We believe this new benefit to our membership comes at an important time in our economic cycle. As the renaissance of our
downtown builds steam and our county and state economies slowly improve, we are redoubling our efforts to attract new businesses and support the existing businesses that make up our thriving local economy.

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