Chamber, Starbucks to meet, greet business owners monthly

WESLACO - That first morning cup of fresh coffee is a ritual for many Rio Grande Valley residents.

Now, for local business owners, the morning cup of java may come with the prospect of new business deals and connections.

The Weslaco Chamber of Commerce and Starbucks coffee will hold a meet and greet for chamber members and other business owners one Friday each month beginning in September.

"What we're trying to do is set up a morning networking event for our chamber members from 7:30-8:30," said Chamber Marketing Director Yvonne Chamblin. "It's just a casual informal meeting to get people to meet face-to-face. We realize that some people are morning people and we want to give them that opportunity to network."

Starbucks has already committed to the event and will serve complimentary cups of its house blend coffee during the monthly meetings.

"We kick off Sept. 19 and there will be a different discussion topic at each meeting," Chamblin said. "Also it's not exclusive to chamber members. We would like for more businesses to come and join our chamber and consider membership with us."

For the inaugural event, attendees will the types of people who visit Weslaco and why they come.

"Our visitor center tracks its visitors in the lobby area, so we will go over those numbers we have," Chamblin said. "We don't track just during the Winter Texan season. We track all year long so we can make people aware of whom their customers are and make them aware of what to expect for the year."

The coffee mixer will be used as an attempt to bolster business throughout the city and provide assistance to chamber members, chamber officials said.

"We want to keep Starbucks in town and give them a little business," said Chamber CEO Martha Noel. "We will have staff there as an opportunity for businesses and anyone who wants to come to exchange cards. If they have questions about the chamber we'll answer them and we'll have information to hand out."

Chamblin said the chamber is doing what it can to be a resource for local business owners.

"We want to give business owners some background information because a lot of them don't have the time to do the research," she said.

"We're trying to be that source of information for them. We hope that something really great will come out of it."