The Barry County Chamber of Commerce and the Barry County Economic Development Alliance are committed to creating positive impacts within and on behalf of our Chamber members, local communities and the overall economic base of Barry County. See the following news stories to learn more about the positive progress happening through our organizations.

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January 31, 2012

Miller College to host first 2012 Chamber After Hours Networking Event in February

Hastings- The Barry County Chamber of Commerce will hold the first of their 2012 Business After Hours events on Thursday, February 9 from 4:30p.m.-6:00p.m. with Miller College as host.  To kick off this successful business networking program in a comfortable social setting, Miller college has partnered with the Seasonal Grille to host the event in downtown Hastings encouraging businesses, community leaders and members to participate.

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March 14, 2011

Get Motivated Seminar Coming To Van Andel Arena April 14

The Get Motivated Seminar featuring America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani, world famous soldier-statesman General Colin Powell, legendary president of Microsoft Rick Belluzzo and renowned Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz is coming to the Van Andel Arena.  The day-long presentation will take place on Thursday, April 14, 2011 from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.  The Barry County Chamber of Commerce has a limited number of tickets available at no cost to Chamber members.

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February 16, 2011

Renowned ZingTrain! Customer Service Workshop Coming to Barry County

The Barry County Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Leadership Barry County is bringing renowned ZingTrain! consulting services to Barry County to present their popular workshop “The Art of Giving Great Service”.  The workshop is scheduled for April 20, 2011 from 8:00 a.m. – 12 noon at Ever After Banquet Hall in Hastings.

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October 26, 2010

Barry County Economic Development Alliance and the Barry County Chamber of Commerce Boards of Directors Take Position in Support of Hastings City/Barry County Airport Millage

The Barry County Economic Development Alliance and the Barry County Chamber of Commerce have both recently voted to take an official position in support of the millage proposition on the November 2, 2010 ballot to provide funding for the maintenance, operation and capital improvement of the Hastings City/Barry County Airport.  The Airport Commission is requesting a millage of one-tenth (.1000) of a mill for ten years. 

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October 11, 2010

8th Annual Economic Development Summit Set for November 4th

Hastings, MI - The Barry County Economic Development Alliance will host the 8th Annual Economic Development Summit on Thursday, November 4, 2010 from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. at the Barry Expo Center just north of Hastings.  Keynote presentations will begin promptly at 3:30 p.m. with hot appetizers and networking from 3:00 - 3:30 p.m.

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September 22, 2010

Chamber Announces 2010 ATHENA Award Nominees

The Barry County Chamber of Commerce has announced the receipt of two nominees for the second annual Barry County ATHENA Award, Katherine Sheldon and Carla Wilson-Neil.  "The two ATHENA nominations we received this year certainly exceed the criteria of an ATHENA leader.  It is a privilege for the Chamber of Commerce to have the opportunity to recognize such amazing women as mentors and leaders in Barry County with the internationally recognized honor of the ATHENA Award," said Valerie Byrnes, President of the Barry County Chamber of Commerce.

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September 20, 2010

Exemplary Customer Service, Brick and ATHENA Awards to be Presented at Chamber Annual Dinner

The Barry County Chamber of Commerce will recognize Chamber Members on October 5, 2010 at the Chamber's annual gala with two highly commendable annual award presentations:  Exemplary Customer Service Award and the Brick Award.  The ATHENA Award will also be presented, recognizing and honoring an outstanding business and professional individual for excellence in their chosen field, for providing valuable service to the community and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional goals and leadership skills.

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August 26, 2010

Back to BIZ Open House Hosted at Hastings Public Library

Hasting, MI - The Hastings Public Library recently expanded resources available to entrepreneurs and small business owners and operators with the addition of a business resource center.  The Barry County Chamber of Commerce is also on board with this strategic effort to better serve the business community and plans to offer SCORE counseling services at the Library by appointment.

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August 6, 2010

Barry County Passport Program Offers Fall Prize Package

Active for over two years, the Barry County Tourism Council has been proactively promoting Barry County as a great place to visit and enjoy.  With summer in full swing, the Tourism Council encourages visitors and residents alike to have fun using the Passport to Barry County to explore the county collecting Passport stamps along the way both for the joy of the adventure and the possibility of winning a "Barry County travel package" as a result.

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July 26, 2010

Second Annual Barry County Chamber ATHENA Award Presentation

The Barry County Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the continuation of the ATHENA Award program in Barry County.  The program was developed to recognize and honor outstanding business and professional individuals for excellence in their chosen field, for providing valuable service to their community and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional goals and leadership skills.  Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 ATHENA Award and the recipient will be announced on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at the Chamber's Annual Dinner.  Download the nomination form here and view the ATHENA Leadership Model.

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March 30, 2010

Anita Henderson, Pennock Health Services to serve as Chair of Chamber’s HR Network

The Barry County Chamber of Commerce kicked off a new Human Resource Network group in February providing a forum for peer-to-peer learning and professional development for Human Resource professionals and small business owners in Barry County.  The group selected Anita Henderson, Director of Human Resources with Pennock Health Services to serve as the Chair of the HR Network during 2010.

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March 9, 2010

Chamber to host Barry County Healthcare Summit

The Government Issues Committee of the Barry County Chamber of Commerce will host a Barry County Healthcare Summit on Monday, April 26, 2010 at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute featuring Dee Edington, PhD, Director of the University of Michigan Health Management Research Center as keynote speaker.  Dr. Edington’s book Zero Trends: Health as a Serious Economic Strategy emphasizes the need to shift thinking to address healthcare costs and productivity by proactively focusing on systems to develop business and healthy people.

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February 17, 2010

National Entrepreneurship Week of February 20-27, 2010 Introduced in Barry County!

February 20 – 27, 2010 has been established as National Entrepreneurship Week by the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education.  Governor Granholm has followed suit in proclaiming that same week as Michigan’s Entrepreneurship Week.  The Barry County Board of Commissioners have brought the support even closer to home by considering a Proclamation declaring the week of February 20 as Barry County’s Entrepreneurship Week which will be brought before the full Board of Commissioners next week. 

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December 15, 2009

LumenFlow Corp. receives grant from Barry Community Foundation

Hastings, MI‐ Thanks to a scholarship from the Barry Community Foundation (BCF), local start‐up company LumenFlow, will receive consulting services from InnovationWorks. Based in Middleville, LumenFlow offers services in lean‐design photonics solutions. “Given InnovationWorks track record for helping West Michigan companies bring products to the market, we are very happy to receive this scholarship.”, said LumenFlow Operations Officer Brian Zatzke.

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December 14, 2009

Thornapple-Kellogg High School moving forward with Youth Entrepreneurship Program!

Middleville – Youth Entrepreneurship is again being offered at the Thornapple-Kellogg High School as part of their commitment to provide students the opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skill sets. Teacher Rachel Cobb indicated that “through the Generation E curriculum students enhance their skills through problem solving, financial planning, idea development and overall business planning.”

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October 22, 2009

Lani Forbes named first Barry County Chamber ATHENA Recipient!

Lani Forbes, Executive Director of the Barry County United Way was presented with the first ever Barry County Chamber of Commerce ATHENA Award and will go down in history as the first ATHENA Recipient of Barry County.

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September 9, 2009

Barry County Chamber of Commerce & Barry County Economic Development Alliance bolster services with new Program and Membership Development Manger

In an effort to expand resources to better serve local businesses the Barry County Chamber of Commerce and the Barry County Economic Development Alliance welcomes André Wiegand to their staff. Wiegand’s title is Program and Membership Development Manager and in addition to building Chamber membership he will focus on developing and implementing programs supporting Barry County businesses. “I look forward to assisting the Chamber and the Alliance in accomplishing their goals and to developing and implementing new programs that will bolster business development and growth.” said Wiegand.

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August 20, 2009

Hastings Farmers Market - #4

The Hastings Farmers has become a downtown fixture on Saturday mornings, and that is not going to change the week of Summerfest.

The market will be open Summerfest weekend on the brick portion of Church Street between Apple Street and State Street, so community members are encouraged to make their regular Saturday trip to the market to get fresh produce.

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August 4, 2009

Innovators and Inventors Workshop

HASTINGS, MICH. – The Barry County Economic Development Alliance and the Barry County Chamber of Commerce are hosting an Innovation and Inventors Workshop on August 20 from 9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Piece Cedar Creek Institute open to all independent inventors and inventors within local companies.

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July 8, 2009

Calling All Innovators and Inventors

HASTINGS, MICH. – Barry County has a long history of successful businesses started with little more than a new idea and plenty of hard work. An entrepreneurial mindset has long been the underpinning of individuals in Barry County and now more than ever is the time to invigorate and establish a community-wide entrepreneurial spirit. Innovative thinking is perhaps the single most important characteristic of a successful business; of a business able to weather this tumultuous economic storm. It is for this reason that the Barry County Economic Development Alliance and the Barry County Chamber of Commerce are bringing InnovationWorks to Barry County.

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June 2, 2009

Tourism Council Kicks Off “Passport To Barry County”

HASTINGS, MICH. – A group of interested parties including representatives of non-profit, for-profit, government and community partners under the auspices of the Barry County Economic Development Alliance and the Barry County Chamber of Commerce have partnered together to form the Barry County Tourism Council. The mission of the Tourism Council is to engage local and regional partners to create a dynamic and integrated approach to promote tourism and recreation that values local assets and contributes to the economic vitality of Barry County.

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May 14, 2009

Hastings Farmers Market - #3

Hastings, MI - The growing season is underway, and the Hastings Farmers Market will bring the best the season has to offer to the community beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 23, on the Barry County Courthouse lawn.

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May 2009

Chamber Newsletter

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January 2009

2009 Update

The Barry County Economic Development Alliance understands the difficult economic struggles being felt by businesses across Barry County. Our number one concern is to retain the jobs that are currently in Barry County and maintain a high quality of life for the residents of the area. We will do what we can to serve as an advocate to cultivate regional partnerships to ensure business needs are being met. Additionally, we see an opportunity to continue to draw from the assets that we have in the County to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset and assist new entrepreneurs in starting businesses and provide guidance and innovative support for those businesses that are looking to reinvent themselves in a tough market setting.

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