Alliston Chamber of Commerce recognizes local businesses at annual Awards Gala

April 3, 2014 · 0 Comments

With nearly 100 people in attendance, the Alliston Chamber of Commerce recognized the area’s top businesses at the annual Business Awards Gala at the Nottawasaga Inn last weekend.

“This is our third annual gala and we just want to give back to the community,” said Alliston Chamber of Commerce vice president, David Potocki. “Obviously the Chamber of Commerce is an organization for businesses and this is just one of the benefits that we’re giving to our members.”

With nearly 300 members in total, businesses were given the opportunity to submit an application about their business and what they’re all about.

“This is just the second year we have handed out the awards as part of a gala, so we’ve got five awards that businesses are nominated for,” Potocki said. “People can fill out a form about your business, which goes to a selection committee and then this year we added five more people’s choice awards.”

This year’s award winners were: Sophie’s Sweets Café& Cake Shoppe for business excellence one to nine employees; Trillium Ford Lincoln for business excellence more than 10 employees; Canadoor Door Systems for best new business; The Circle Theatre for community development; and Physiomed for customer service.

The people’s choice awards were given to Trillium Ford Lincoln for best automotive service; Bistro Seven Seven for best restaurant/bar; Alliston Home Hardware Building Centre for best retail store; Canadoor Door Systems for best home or personal care service; and Shank Law Office best professional service.

Potocki said he was pleased with the reaction and turnout that the event has received since its inception.

“It is absolutely a positive sign that we have been able to grow this event,” he said. “There’s the effort on our part to grow the event into something nicer and we upgraded the venue this year as well.”

In order to attract new members over the years, the Chamber has offered preferred discounts and benefits, holds networking events and meetings, educational programs, business promotion opportunities, a collective voice and recognized credibility.

“I like to talk about recognized credibility,” Potocki said specifically. “Back in the day, you weren’t really a true business unless you were a part of the chamber and I think we’re striving back to that where the credibility is there to the point that you want to be a part of it.”

With these benefits, the Chamber is also hoping events like the Awards Gala encourage businesses get involved.

“It has been a bit of a challenge, because there are a lot of other different options out there now, so we have just tried for the last two years to be more relevant to our members and just try to add more value to it.”

For more information on the Alliston Chamber of Commerce, visit www.adcc.ca

By Jeff Doner