>> My name is Meghan Reed.
I work for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.
I am the Emmaus Main Street Manager and the Assistant VP
for East Penn and Western Lehigh Chambers.
We get to be feet on the streets.
We get to help promote our downtown and try to revitalize, support and really drive traffic
into our local economy through events whether that be festivals or networking events
or even just you know using social media and our website as a way to reach out to the community
and bring visitors and residents alike into the downtown district.
So I do a lot of different types of relationship-building throughout the day,
whether it be phone calls or meetings.
We're a membership-based organization as well, so I'll meet with various potential members
and help them to understand what our organization does and what we can do for them.
The very beginning of someone even thinking "Hey,
I'd like to come into your community" setting them up with knowing the right people
within boroughs and townships so they understand,
even places that are potential locations, understanding zoning
and regulations and things of that nature.
And you know if it's a business that's already you know open and established,
you know helping them with maybe a ribbon-cutting or you know walking them
through steps and tips on how do you make a successful social media page.
We can also help them with job searches as far as hiring candidates and helping
to train their workforce through the Lehigh Valley Workforce Development Board,
we have a relationship with them as well.
So there's a ton of different ways that someone
like myself can go in and say "Let's get creative.
What is it that you need and how can I connect you with the appropriate people and channels?"
You're that kind of that point person to bring people together, whether it be you know ideas
to create a new event or a new business comes into town and you want to share
that with people from the region.