Ireland’s Chamber Awards: Building relationships and fostering pride of place

The Chamber Awards is an annual event hosted by Chambers Ireland to build relationships and recognise the work of local chambers of commerce in enhancing the towns and cities they serve.

The event is an opportunity to learn about the best and most innovative projects undertaken by our 40 member chambers over the previous year. This helps to spread knowledge throughout the network, encourages ambition and cultivates wider recognition of the important role of chambers of commerce in helping to strengthen Ireland’s communities and economic potential.

Through the awards, we develop closer relationships among our members, develop new relationships through peer networking and partnerships, and highlight the positive accomplishments achieved by chambers, businesses and local government.

As grassroots organisations, chambers of commerce have a very close relationship with the areas in which they operate. Their members often provide significant employment, contribute to quality of life and help to make their communities livelier places.

The Chamber Awards reinforce this dynamic by acknowledging the excellent work undertaken by chambers across key areas. These include marketing, events, local government collaboration, innovation, policy, membership services and business partnerships.

Importantly, they paint a clear picture of what chambers of commerce actually do. At our most recent awards, we recognised individual members for projects which made their town easier to navigate, increased trade among local business, secured funding for an outdoor marketplace, supported local charities and provided mindfulness resources to the community.

These projects illustrate the scale of impact that can be delivered through chamber of commerce activities. This was exemplified by Waterford Chamber, the winner of our flagship Chamber of the Year Award.

Working with local government, Waterford Chamber secured €20,000 in funding through a business and community initiative from Bank of Ireland. Of this, €15,000 was allocated to the development of an outdoor market at an old railway station. The remaining €5,000 will fund the local Tidy Towns committee which helps to enhance the town and its environment through the action of volunteers.

Ultimately, the Chamber Awards help to build and strengthen the relationships which underpin social and economic activity in towns and cities across the country. By bringing people closer together and recognising the quality and impact of their work, we foster a culture of pride and further our efforts to make Ireland a better place to live, work and do business.