Last week, at the 1Berkshire Annual Meeting at Greylock WORKS, we celebrated all of our successes from the past year. Over 200 members of the Berkshire business community joined us for great food, beverages, and community as we showcased last year’s highlights.
Location: 1Berkshire Annual Meeting at Greylock WORKS, Photo Credit: Eric Limon
The evening kicked off with networking and an exhibitor showcase featuring many of our members. Then John Bissell and Diane Pearlman took the stage to offer a moving tribute in memory of Lauri Klefos. We heard remarks from Kelli Kozak of MountainOne and Danielle Gonzales of Williams College highlighting the growth and opportunities here in the Berkshires and the benefits 1Berkshire offers. Jonathan Butler, 1Berkshire’s President and CEO, concluding the presentation by offering a recap of 1Berkshire’s work, including successes achieved this year, upcoming trends, and a look forward to 2019. We closed out the night by awarding over $8,000 in donated door prizes to our attendees.
Highlights from the Annual Meeting presentation and 1Berkshire’s year in review include:
- Our community is over 1,000 members strong, with businesses from every sector, size, and regional geography participating in the narrative of the Berkshires.
- We offered 40 networking events last year, giving over 2,000 attendees the chance to develop new connections and grow their business.
- We offered over 200 business consultations to help start, grow, and pivot businesses in the Berkshires.
- We launched a curated job board called the jobs thing., which showcases top professional jobs in the Berkshires and markets these jobs both within and outside of the region.
- We generated 162+ million PR impressions, 17 + million advertising impressions, and 10+ million social media impressions, keeping the Berkshires on the top of minds of people around the world all year long.
- We celebrated the 20th class and 20 Year anniversary of the Berkshire Leadership Program, plus our 8th class of the Berkshire Youth Leadership Program.
- We documented almost $1 BILLION of investment into the Berkshires in the past two years, adding to the narrative that the Berkshires is growing and thriving.
- We facilitated the development of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, a region-wide economic development map for the growth and prosperity of the Berkshires over the next 5-10 years.
Thank you for your support and partnership this past year! Together, we continue to make the Berkshires a premiere place to live, work, visit, and grow a business. We look forward to all that 2019 will bring 1Berkshire and the Berkshires.