We kindly remind AmCham member companies that, since August 2020, we offer access to CONNECTS, an online B2B platform, as a standard membership benefit.

AmCham members enrolled in CONNECTS can view and advertise business opportunities to buy or sell products and/or services and to connect with other businesses around the world. Membership on CONNECTS requires affiliation to a partner chamber of commerce, contributing to increased trustworthiness of potential business partners on the platform.

Since 2020, the platform integrated new features and is now offering live online learning sessions on hot topics for the business sector, such as ESG or strategy design and implementation. For the past year, CONNECTS has also significantly developed its ‘community’ feature, allowing companies enrolled in the platform to join fellow members with similar interests on dedicated forums. Topics for the forums include industry or geography specific groups, live online events or cross-cutting topics like business growth, ESG or digitization.

Today, we would like to bring to the attention of our member companies three communities on CONNECTS that could help in facilitating B2B engagements.

(1) CONNECTS Skills Academy (available here) provides a program of training modules that are designed to help chambers of commerce and their members to implement their networking and business development strategies using digital tools. All training modules are developed and delivered by subject matter experts that are members of the Digital Transformation Community on CONNECTS. The program consists of three different modules: (1) digital leadership and transformation, (2) standing out in a digital business world and (3) B2B and B4B sales.

(2) ESG for SMEs (available here) serves to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, insights, and new business opportunities amongst SMEs and other key stakeholders in the field of Environmental, Social & Governance strategy and reporting.

A spin off community, the ESG Countdown, aims to  achieve the EU’s ambitious green transition goals through building awareness among and educating companies in the EU on ESG reporting, providing ESG standards and metrics for companies to report and disclose ESG journey progress, provide companies with an ESG ecosystem of trusted partners and service providers, and recognize, celebrate and reward companies engaged in and making progress on ESG topics.

(3) Strategic Doing (available here) provides a safe space where companies can learn from each other. In this community, CONNECTS advances the teachings of Strategic Doing through reflective practice. Members of the community can learn from the experiences and stories of other practitioners and find tools, frameworks, and perspectives that help address the wicked problems confronting the business sector.

On February 24, 2023, starting with 4:00 pm (EET), the Strategic Doing Community will host Ed Morrison and Brian Kolenich, with the U.S. Strategic Doing Institute, for a webinar on why strategic doing is an effective agile methodology.

Ed Morrison is the founder of the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab and now the Director of the Lab at the University of North Alabama. Ed’s work emphasizes the strategic value of focused regional collaborations and open innovation, network-based models in today’s global economy. He is the co-author of “Strategic Doing: 10 Skills for Agile Leadership”.

Brian Kolenich is the principal Instructor, Workshop Lead, and Consultant at the Strategic Sandbox LLC and he is involved in quality and performance excellence through the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, as a Master Examiner.

All members of the community can register to attend this webinar for free.