HANSON – When the going gets tough, Americans have long found success in joining forces to meet the challenge.
Unions have provided that for laborers of nearly every stripe, chambers of commerce have represented the interests of the business communities at large and even the National Grange, and its local granges, was founded in the 1860s to provide a cultural outlet and work to improve quality of life in rural America, as well as helping farmers in some areas pool their finances to cooperatively purchase needed equipment.
Hanson businesses, may be able to benefit from that outlook, if not the same kind of practices, when they come together from 5:30 to 8 p.m., on Thursday, Feb. 27, for the inaugural Hanson Business Summit.
It’s certainly the intent.
“We’re trying to connect businesses with the resources they need, but may not know how to get in touch with,” said Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, who chairs the Economic Development Committee and the Hanson Business Network and is chair of the Hanson Select Board, noting that, among groups attending for that purpose is Granite State Development and representatives from local and state government.
Government personnel will be able to answer questions about permitting and other regulatory requirements.
Ernie Foster, of Webster Printing, will be the keynote speaker addressing the session on, “Why he loves Hanson to do business in, why he’s stayed in Hanson and why he’s grown his business in Hanson,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re going to have people that are [human resources] experts coming to talk to us, we’re going to have someone who’s a social media expert come and tell us how to use social media effectively – it’s going to be a mix of all kinds of resources for people.”
The Economic Development Committee is hosting the event and has been reaching out to the Hanson Business Network to encourage business owners and leaders to attend through emails to contact, mailed flyers, newspaper ads – and FitzGerald-Kemmett said the hope is that the town’s business community RSVPs, so they have an accurate headcount on how many people to set up for, as refreshments will also be provided.
“I think it just came about naturally,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said about the genesis of the event. “The Economic Development Committee was talking about what we could do to support businesses and, at the same time, I’m part of the Hanson Business Network and we were talking about how we could do that, and I don’t really know who came up with the idea for this summit, but I liked the idea of some kind of networking event.”
Once the idea was on the table, regardless of its pedigree, the members of both groups soon got down to discussing what they’d like it to look like. The program on which they settled was a short program of speakers followed by break-out sessions.
“It’s our first one, so I’m really hoping that we get people to attend,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s tricky, though, when people are self-employed, getting anyone to do something after-hours [is difficult].”