In Chamber Shoes - Ehte Sham

Monday

The morning is spent catching up on all things MSC.  I am studying my master’s in Islamic Finance, this is what brought me to this beautiful city where I study at the University of Dundee and in my spare time enjoy the cultural change from my home country of Qatar.  Free time this afternoon will be spent by dropping by the office to pick up one of our new electric bikes recently named 'Hardly Davidson' and 'Bike Tyson'.  I am acting as the guinea pig in trialling out the bikes before we let our members take them out for the day.  My planned route will take me past the V & A where I will meet friends for a catch-up and a wander around this truly magnificent museum – my 10th visit there so far!

Tuesday

My working week always begins in the spacious area of the Members' Lounge in the Chambers.  I too can take advantage of these surroundings available to our members, but I probably like it more for the great cappuccino and americano coffees to be fair but, the view over the water is a close second!  

I work with a small dedicated team at the Chamber, we are here specifically to build up awareness of the Dundee Loves Local campaign and sign up businesses to participate in the Dundee Loves Local Gift Card – last week we had some great wins with Ferry Potty, The Cake Guru and Sheila McFarlane Pharmacy signing up to accept the card and this week we have appointments with Love your Planet and Indos Restaurant in Broughty Ferry all to tie in with the Gala  – we are sponsoring a prize for the window campaign this year with our gift cards valued at £20, £30 and £50 will be in the hands of deserved winners by the end of next week!   

My teammate Fatima Bakir; a whiz on the graphics and social media for the campaign, joins me with Hillary Bett who leads the team and we sit down to plan the week.  We are looking to see what groups we can get involved with and sponsor prizes with to raise awareness of our project so, if anyone out there has a suggestion please get in touch!!!!!

Wednesday

The Calvary has arrived in the form of Ross and Glen – we have a steep hill to climb today to get everything in place for the Brought Ferry Gala.  Ross and Glen work in our Membership Team and are responsible for working with the Dundee and Angus business community to remind them of the great benefits of the Chamber.  Hillary our new team leader has been waxing lyrical all week about what she is learning and is delighted that she is also going to be able to take advantage of Westfield Health benefits.  She thinks the fuel card must be so welcomed by our members at the moment.  Anyway, today is all about the gift card so we three Amegos head out to enjoy a day in Broughty Ferry.  Ross has stopped for a drink though, as the journey on the electric bike Hardly Davidson, has really tired him out! Fatima is back at the ranch lining up the social media posts.

Thursday

As my final working day, it is mostly all about the admin so back to the Members’ Lounge and the Americanos!  This is when we take time to get everything in place for the new business sign ups and Fatima and I plan the communications for the coming week.  Fatima is working on a promotional reel for McManus Galleries, a service we have added to our marketing assets a few weeks ago; they are really great at getting our business partners’ messages out there.  Broughty Ferry is still high on the agenda as the Gala starts on Monday, so the remaining businesses to sign up take priority for the day to make sure they are ready with their window stickers and are good to go! Brilliant news Indos and Love Your Planet confirmed participation!

Friday

I recently got myself a drone so I went out today to visit some landmarks around Dundee, taking some pictures and videos we can use with our marketing.  Thoughts however, don’t stray too far from my studies; after all that is the primary reason I am here in Scotland but its Friday, so I have to have some fun too!