By Katherine Herer

With over one hundred events, 2015 was the Newton-Needham Chamber’s busiest year ever and we’re not showing any signs of slowing down this year.

Thanks to the work of our chamber committees, new monthly networking series that launched last year and a multitude of educational workshops and other additions, we’ve vastly increased our roster programs designed to benefit our diverse and growing membership base.

And, of course, all of our popular annual events are returning too; including Spring Seasonings: A Taste of Newton-Needham, the Green Business Breakfast, Breakfast at Fenway, the Children’s Charitable Golf Tournament, the Achievement Breakfast and Member Appreciation Nights at Hotel Indigo, Newton-Marriott, Needham Sheraton and Crowne Plaza.

As the chamber’s operations director, the opportunity to coordinate our event calendar is a pretty cool gig. Last year, 2,991 individuals representing 1,297 different employers attended chamber events. With such a variety of programming targeted to unique demographics like young professionals, women, non-profits, real estate professionals, and entrepreneurs, each event has its own unique energy.

We pride ourselves in holding events in some unique places, both large and small, and I’m constantly scouting new venues, from the newest restaurants, a TV studio, a shoe store, museums, modernized mill buildings and state-of-the art corporate headquarters. As a non-traditional chamber, it’s really fun to work with so many of our members to produce and host such lively events. (If you think you have a space that might be a good fit – don’t hesitate to reach out.)

So what’s happening in 2016? For starters, we’re planning on offering more monthly networking opportunities than ever before.

In addition to our monthly Coffee Connects (wow, you folks drink a lot of coffee!) and Business After Hours, we’re scheduling monthly Young Professionals Group meetups (on the second Wednesday of each month), our Women in Networking lunches (at a different member restaurant each month) and our newest addition — “Shop & Schmooze” — afternoon networking events at independently-owned retail establishments throughout Newton and Needham.

Meanwhile, our Non-Profit and Real Estate committees are planning even more targeted casual networking events to serve their respective industries. And we’re partnering with area chambers to offer speed networking events and multi-chamber educational events to offer opportunities to connect with professionals beyond our immediate footprint.

Spring Seasonings: A Taste of Newton and Needham – our annual restaurant showcase - returns to the Newton Marriott April 25 and we’ll be back at the hotel on the banks of the Charles River for our Green Business Awards Breakfast on May 19.

On the morning of June 17, we’re once again teaming up with our colleagues at the Brookline Chamber for our annual Breakfast at Fenway (always a sell-out) and we’ll close out the month with a Members Appreciation night on the Needham Sheraton’s outdoor courtyard before moving over to the Hotel Indigo Pool Deck in July 20 (another quick sell-out) and to our pub crawl at The Street on Aug. 10.

The Chamber’s 25th annual Children’s Charitable Golf tournament returns to Woodland Golf Club on Aug. 1 (perfect weather predicted… knock on wood). And, you’ll definitely want to mark your calendars for our 101st annual Achievement Breakfast Nov. 10 at the Newton Marriott and our second annual Regional Real Estate Forum Nov. 15 at the Needham Sheraton.

Phew! That’s just the tip of the iceberg and I haven’t even touched on our educational programming, small business workshops and forums on key topics. Look on the pages to follow for upcoming event listings and at www.nnchamber.com

Contact Katherine Herer at kherer@nnchamber.com or 617-916-9064