The BACC is happy to help our members coordinate their Ribbon Cutting ceremonies. Please read our friendly advice below for a successful event.
What you’ll need to do
- Pick a Date: Ideally, scheduling your Ribbon Cutting at least a month in advance will ensure that the Chamber and its representatives can attend. Please consult our website events calendar when planning the event. We cannot commit to a date/time that conflicts with another scheduled event. We ask that you submit an event posting in our Member Information Center to save the date with us. View this tutorial to learn how. Not only does this give you the best chance for good attendance, but it’s also a free promotion on our site. Tip: when filling out the event posting, be as thorough as possible! The goal is to make the page informative. Here is a link to a past Ribbon Cutting event post for your reference.
- Pick a Time: We recommend that people hold these events between Monday and Friday, either in the morning (between 8AM and 10AM) or at lunchtime (between 12PM and 2PM). We find these times work best for getting attendees to stop in on their way to work or on their lunch break. We cannot commit to anything on the weekends. We also find that people typically stay at these events for no more than an hour. Typically, Ribbon Cutting events are scheduled for a 2 hour period. If you’d like your event to be more of an Open House feel, with people coming and going all day, we just ask that you specify 2 hours designated to the Ribbon Cutting portion of the day.
- Invites: Choose the demographic of people you’d like to invite (friends, family, the public, employees from other locations of your company etc.)
- Photography:
- If you would like a professional to capture the event, we can make some recommendations (The BACC will take a few photos for post event promotion, but these photos are not professionally done).
- The best place to cut the ribbon is in front of an area where your logo can be clearly seen in the picture (a wall, sign, door, etc.).
- Think about who you’d like in the photo with you, and who will be cutting the ribbon in the photo.
- Typically, Town officials and a few BACC representatives in attendance are invited to join in the photo of the ribbon being cut.
- Marketing/Promotion: We recommend posting the event to any social media pages that you have and on your LinkedIn pages to create awareness in your networks.
- Media: Designate a representative from your organization to conduct a brief interview with any local news representatives in attendance Prepare a few talking points in advance to promote your organization.
- Refreshments: We recommend providing food & refreshments at the event (from a BACC member).
- Morning Events: Coffee & light breakfast snacks (fruit & small pastries are most popular)
- Lunch Events: Water & finger sandwiches/salad
What you’ll need to do
- Supplies: We will bring large red ribbon and large ceremonial scissors for you to cut the ribbon. If you prefer to provide your own branded materials, that works as well.
- Coordinating with Town Officials: The BACC will invite the appropriate Town Officials to your event.
- Invitations: The BACC will also invite Ambassadors, Board Members, and Burlington’s local cable access station, BCAT.
- Photography: We will take a few pictures of the crowd and the ribbon being cut for our post-event promotional purposes. If you’d like more in-depth photo coverage, we suggest you consider hiring a professional.
- Marketing & Promotion:
- Pre-Event: Once you post your event to our website calendar, a link to the event will be published in our newsletters as the date approaches.
- During-Event:The BACC will invite BCAT, Burlington's Cable Access station, to conduct on-site interviews and media coverage.
- Post-Event: A brief write-up and picture will be posted in our Newsletter and on BACC social media accounts.