Fired Up

Chamber of Greater Easthampton Executive Director Moe Belliveau

Technology, marketing, and talent.

Those are three elements virtually all businesses must take into account if they want to grow and thrive in 2024. They’re also the main themes of this year’s ignite conference, a “professional learning opportunity” being hosted by the Chamber of Greater Easthampton on Tuesday, Oct. 22 at Abandoned Building Brewery in Easthampton.

This year’s program, dubbed ignite:SPEED, aims to be a fun, fast-paced learning opportunity designed to empower leaders, business owners, professionals, entrepreneurs, employers, and employees with the knowledge and skills required to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of work.

“In today’s business world, change is the only constant,” chamber Executive Director Moe Belliveau said. “To ensure success, all levels of employees must not only keep pace but anticipate and adapt, turning the momentum and speed of change into a catalyst for growth.”

Sean Hogan certainly sees value in such a conference. The president of Hogan Technology is one of the presenters in the technology category, kicking off the first cluster of presentations with an overview of safety in the dark web. Participants will learn how businesses can be protected from attacks such as webite hacking, security breaches, cyberattacks, ransomware, and phishing schemes.

“I’ll talk about what the dark web is, why it was created, what it’s used for, how to avoid it, and, once your information ends up on the dark web, what to do next,” Hogan told BusinessWest — a relevant concern, especially after the National Public Data breach, reported this summer, exposed some 2.9 billion personal records.

“In today’s business world, change is the only constant. To ensure success, all levels of employees must not only keep pace but anticipate and adapt, turning the momentum and speed of change into a catalyst for growth.”

A credit freeze with the three major credit bureaus should be the first step for anyone exposed, he said. “If you’re not buying something like a house or a car, nobody’s running credit on you, so just freeze them and then unfreeze them if you have to apply for credit somewhere, and then freeze it again.”

This year’s ignite conference is a one-day event following last November’s two-day affair at Abandoned Building, which focused on the latest trends and best practices in artificial intelligence and explored the intersection of AI and the human workforce.

More recently, the Chamber of Greater Easthampton and the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce partnered to bring an ignite conference to the latter’s backyard in North Grafton. That two-day conference took place in April and was aimed at professionals who want to improve their emotional intelligence and learn how to interact with co-workers, customers, or donors more effectively.

Clearly, there’s no shortage of key topics affecting businesses and entrepreneurs, which bodes well for the prospect of keeping future conferences … well, ignited.

Robust Roster

As noted, Hogan will give attendees a crash course in the dangers of the dark web and how to use monitoring tools and other resources to respond to breaches and stay safe.

“If there’s a breach out there, assume that somebody is working to get into more accounts, trying to open credit cards,” he said. “When it becomes identity theft, it’s serious. You can paralyze somebody. You can lock up their bank accounts and ruin their credit for a long time.”

Sean Hogan

“If there’s a breach out there, assume that somebody is working to get into more accounts, trying to open credit cards. When it becomes identity theft, it’s serious. You can paralyze somebody. You can lock up their bank accounts and ruin their credit for a long time.”

Following Hogan’s presentation, the technology cluster will continue with Michael Lareau, vice president of Solution Engineering for SourcePass, who will discuss AI governance in the workplace. A recent blog post by Marsh McLennan noted that, while the explosion in AI usage by businesses has driven innovation, efficiency, and profitability, it can also expose businesses to organizational, reputational, and regulatory risks. Lareau will explore how businesses can appropriately govern the use of AI oversight to address risks such as bias, privacy infringement, and misuse while fostering innovation and trust among customers and employees.

Pat Brough, head of Sales and Marketing for Finck & Perras Insurance Agency, will review cyber insurance. According to Cybercrime magazine, 60% of small businesses go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or cyberattack. Cyber insurance covers a business’ liability for a data breach involving sensitive customer information, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, health records, and more.

The second cluster of presentations will focus on the changing landscape of marketing. Jeff Uzzel of Uzzel Design Co. will focus on telling a ‘brand story,’ which entails communicating a mission, values, and purpose in a way that that creates an emotional connection between an organization and its customers. Uzzel will discuss how to successfully tell a brand story and how it can build an organization’s reputation, customer base, and bottom line.

“Building Networks for the Long Game” will be the focus of Bob Burch, owner of Bright Cloud Studio. He will explore how to understand and process what is changing with networking and relationship building, how people can nurture customer relationships, and how to curate marketing to keep pace with it all to build lasting, trusted relationships resulting in repeat, long-term customers.

Blair Winans, president of Rhyme Digital, will end the cluster with a focus on the ever-changing social media algorithms. Social-media platforms utilize algorithms to keep users engaged and ensure users are seeing relevant content. Winans will talk about the various platforms and their algorithms and how businesses can adapt their social-media content to maximize each algorithm to reach a wider audience, increase consumer engagement, and boost their brand.

The final cluster of the program will highlight change in the workplace. With a tight labor market, top talent is in high demand, and talent recruitment, assessment, and retention are critical success factors that can yield a competitive advantage. Allison Ebner, president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, will discuss how businesses can adapt to the future of work, embrace generational diversity, better engage employees, and reskill and upskill to support retention.

Creating stability in the age of uncertainty and change will be the theme of Tricia Canavan, who will share insights gained as a former business owner, and now as CEO of Tech Foundry. She says technology has always been an industry in constant flux, but newer advances are creating a constantly changing work landscape and environment, causing employers to continuously adapt and upskill, and employees must learn to self-educate to keep pace.

“The fact that we could bring together dozens of partners at both the state and local levels, raising nearly $500,000 to bring this project to fruition, is a clear indication of the value WorkHub on Union will bring to our community and the local economy.”

Shannon Mumblo of Shannon Mumblo Consulting will close the cluster focusing on cultivating robust agility around change. She will help participants discover how to stay confident and resilient in times of uncertainty by embracing discomfort and cultivating a supportive network, and how to expand potential beyond a job description by thinking creatively and continuously adding new skills to one’s personal toolbox.

Registrations for ignite:SPEED cost $75 for chamber members ($110 for non-members) and include a casual dinner provided by Vegan Pizza Land. To register, visit easthamptonchamber.chambermaster.com/eventregistration/register/1690.

And That’s Not All

The ignite conference is just one development that has the Chamber of Greater Easthampton excited; another is last week’s ribbon cutting of the WorkHub on Union project, an ambitious co-workspace project providing resources for entrepreneurs and businesses in the Greater Easthampton region.

In addition to offering flexible workspaces, WorkHub on Union will provide access to mentorship programs, networking events, educational programming, and other support services from the chamber designed to accelerate the growth of startups and small business.

In 2020, the chamber partnered with the city of Easthampton to undertake an extensive analysis of the city’s economic climate relative to entrepreneurialism and innovation. This analysis revealed that businesses would choose to relocate or locate in Easthampton if a supportive entrepreneurial community could be better enhanced and marketed. The analysis also revealed there are more than 13,000 companies in the region that are less than one year old, many of which have no employees and operate from a kitchen table, and could benefit from a resource like WorkHub on Union.

“The fact that we could bring together dozens of partners at both the state and local levels, raising nearly $500,000 to bring this project to fruition, is a clear indication of the value WorkHub on Union will bring to our community and the local economy,” Belliveau said.