Our speaker last Monday was Karyn Sobels who is the President of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (formerly VECCI), a position she was elected to in November 2019.
Karyn outlined that she has many years experience in industries including banking and retail. She also mentioned being involved as a young adult with rotary in a RYLA program and even met her partner through a rotaract program.
Her main theme was about the impact of Covid on businesses and the efforts of VCCI to keep businesses ongoing and to drive growth in the future. Karyn indicated research estimates it may take five years for businesses in the City of Melbourne to get back to their 2019 levels.
Advocacy has been a major activity for VCCI as has been linking businesses with mentors.
Currently VCCI has approximately 20000 members and there is a similar number of organisations who seek advice.
Karyn responded with enthusiasm to many questions and provided a great insight into the work of VCCI.