• You should be within your first year of opening your business

• OR you should be within a year of purchasing an existing business

• OR you should be an existing business in a new business location

There are many benefits to having a ribbon cutting ceremony for your new business or location. Ribbon cutting photos appear in the Business News, which is mailed to our 2400 members and distributed in 45 business locations around Salem.  The Salem Chamber Ambassadors attend ribbon cutting ceremonies on behalf of the Chamber Members.  Having Ambassadors in your business provides an excellent networking and publicity opportunity.  For more information, contact us by clicking here.

WHAT THE CHAMBER DOES: (Costs are covered through your Chamber Membership)

• Sends out a broadcast email to Ambassadors, Chamber Board Members, and dignitaries to notify them of your opening

• Promotes the event beforehand on SalemChamber.org, and on our calendar in Business News (subject to BN submission deadlines)

• Provides the “giant scissors” and ribbon to cut

• Attends the event and takes pictures – Photos emailed to you upon request

• Publicizes the event with a photo in the next edition of Business News

• Typically our Ambassadors and Membership Director attend.  On occasion, the Chamber Executive Director, President of the Board, Mayor of Salem, City Councilors, County Commissioners, and Board Members attend, as well.

WHAT THE COMPANY DOES:

• Sets the date and time of the event – typically at the end of the work day (4PM or later) – please coordinate this with the Chamber if at all possible well in advance to avoid date and time conflicts

• Determines which public officials will attend – those you invite could include:

  • For the City – Mayor, City Manager, City Council Members

  • For the County – County Commissioners

  • State officials if applicable (depending on the nature of the business)

  • Your Board of Directors, if applicable

  • Friends and Family

  • Those who helped with your new location – contractors, bankers, etc.

• Invite the media – Statesman Journal, South Salem Post, Salem-News.com

• You provide any refreshments for those in attendance – this is entirely up to you

• Prepare an agenda (We strongly encourage you to prepare an agenda, even if it’s just a back-of-an-envelope kind of thing. Things run much more smoothly with an agenda, even if it’s just sketched out. See below.)

• Provide background information on your company ahead of time to those who are speaking so they can prepare remarks

HOW IT RUNS: Your agenda could be something like this...

• Welcome Guests – done by a Chamber membership director

• Introduction of Chamber Representatives in attendance, dignitaries, Chamber Staff. 

• Introduction of Company President or Manager

• Congratulatory Remarks – from Chamber or other dignitaries – these are very brief (1-3 minutes)

• Cut the ribbon – usually done by dignitaries and head company rep, some choose to have all employees do the cutting

• Thank you for attending – by a company rep

• Intro on the company – done by a company rep – Explain what you do if a new business, about your new location – if a second location or a move, your hours; introduce your staff

• Then you offer everyone to come take a look at your facility, and if large enough, you might want to offer tours

KEEP IN MIND:

• The further ahead you contact us the more publicity we can give your event

• Weekend grand openings (including Friday after 5:00) are harder for the Chamber to draw attendance to than weekday events

• Keep in touch with the Chamber as your plans progress

• If you've asked for RSVP's, people will typically wait until the last minute, or will show up without RSVP-ing

• Will parking be an issue? If so, please let us know where you would like guests to park so we can inform them in advance