Chamber of Commerce Program Manager, Winter Park

>> My name is Megan [inaudible], I'm the program manager at the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and just in case you're not familiar, the chamber is an organization which was put forth to support, develop and sustain a thriving business climate, in addition to also enhancing the civic wellbeing of the Winter Park Community. And my job in particular with the Chamber as program manager is working with all of those reoccurring programs that we have. More specifically, our leadership program, which we do with adults and youth and the community really teaching that about Winter Park and exposing them to leadership development opportunities, as well as an executive women program and a small business education series, we're just across the board. We're very busy. I mean the benefit to small businesses to being part of the Chamber is really to get that exposure and be more connected with the community. We provide several opportunities for them to grow their business, really get the education, the tools and the resources that they need to grow and be successful in Winter Park and the Central Florida community but also giving them a chance to meet other people in the area, you know, make contacts and really just be involved and know what's happening in the area. Yeah, I mean it's kind of funny, I would say that there's no typical day at the Chamber. We're always doing something different but on a usual basis, I am prepping for the leadership program, contacting speakers, getting them set up and creating the fliers. I do a great deal of marketing through the Chamber through some of our resources, like constant contact and such but really, you know, kind of just communicating with several different people. We have a lot of volunteers that we work with so making sure that they're actually accomplishing their tasks, handling event registrations, prepping materials for the event days, a lot, a lot of emails. Yeah, on a typical day, I would work 8:30 to 5 but of course there's always those event days and things that come up where your hours need to change and we just have to be flexible with that. It could be as early as 6:30 or 7 in the morning, we're coming to set up for an event, prep, you know, get everything ready before the attendees start to arrive and, you know, they could go as late as 8, 9 o'clock, even sometimes because then we even have turnover some nights for another event. So, you know, you just have to work through the whole process and be prepared to get the job done.