Cape Chamber moves annual banquet to November

The annual Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce banquet, traditionally held in January or February, has been moved to the fall.

The banquet has been scheduled for Nov. 21 this year, a change chamber president and CEO John Mehner said was “smart.”

“This has been a discussion at the board level for a couple years,” Mehner said Friday. “We have found January and February to just be very crowded with dinners and important events.”

Mehner said he and the rest of the board members thought they had the opportunity to make it an end-of-the-year banquet instead of a beginning-of-the-year banquet.

The annual event has fluctuated between the last Friday in January and the first Friday in February, he said, dependent upon other events.

“In January, it seems like every weekend there’s a major dinner of some kind,” he said. “We found January and February very populated with important gatherings. November was not so much. We moved it to November, before the holidays.”

And that’s the primary reason, he said. The second reason for the change is unpredictable weather.

Similar to other dinners, Mehner said, “sometimes there are weather situations, which are tough to deal with when you’re expecting 800 people at a dinner, trying to make a call two days ahead of time about what you’re going to do.”

He added, “In November, you still have the possibility (of inclement weather) but not near the possibility you have in January.”

As of Friday, there was no location officially set for the November banquet, Mehner said.

Each year, individuals are given awards within the following categories: Ambassador of the Year, Small Business of the Year and Rush H. Limbaugh Award. New this year, Mehner said, will be the Drury Family Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award.

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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