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.

• Click Here to Download the Latest Newsletter

July 26, 2010

Second Annual Barry County Chamber ATHENA Award Presentation

The Barry County Chmaber 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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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. 

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.”

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post

May 2009

Chamber Newsletter

• Read Full Post

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.

• Read Full Post