IN FOCUS
and features examining subjects ranging from JCB’ s hydrogen technology to opportunities for Staffordshire SMEs in Heathrow Airport’ s supply chain.
Since then, its pages have featured some of the county’ s biggest businesses and most interesting personalities alongside emerging entrepreneurs, community organisations and the issues affecting the regional economy.
There have been special editions celebrating Staffordshire Chambers Business Awards winners, interviews with the speakers taking to the stage at Let’ s Do Business, features on skills, ceramics and innovation, and conversations about the economic opportunities and challenges facing the county.
The magazine has also provided space for something increasingly difficult to find in a fast-moving digital world: proper interviews.
People can explain how they built their businesses, what went wrong along the way, what they have learned and what they think should happen next.
That editorial approach has quickly become part of Feature Focus’ s identity.
The magazine is distributed in print to Chamber members and is also available digitally, bringing traditional magazine publishing together with the reach of the Chamber’ s online channels.
And the edition you are reading marks another stage in that evolution, with a richer digital format creating opportunities to incorporate video and other multimedia content alongside the words on the page.
Which makes the arrival of In Focus particularly timely.
Getting behind the microphone
The podcast adds the human voice.
For Chief Executive Stuart Elford, that opens possibilities that even a long-form magazine interview cannot quite replicate.
A conversation can wander. A guest can tell a story nobody expected to hear. Humour, emotion and personality come through differently when people can actually hear somebody speaking.
Stuart wants In Focus to make the most of that.
“ Really, it’ s about stories, about people, about what’ s going on,” he says.“ Yes, it’ s produced by Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce, but it’ s not a business podcast.”
The distinction is important.
In Focus will feature businesspeople, but the guest list is intended to stretch much further into Staffordshire’ s sporting, charitable and wider communities.
The conversations will be recorded as audio and filmed, creating full episodes alongside video clips, photographs and social content.
That means one good conversation can travel.
Someone might discover a guest through a short video on LinkedIn or another social platform, watch the full interview online or listen to the podcast while driving to work.
They might then encounter that same person in Feature Focus or see a story about their organisation through Daily Focus.
The different platforms can support and amplify each other.
One Chamber, different voices
That is perhaps the most interesting development of all.
Staffordshire Chambers increasingly has the ability to communicate at different speeds and in different formats.
There is the immediacy of Daily Focus.
There is the depth and permanence of Feature Focus.
And now there will be the personality and intimacy of In Focus.
The aim isn’ t simply to create more content. It is to make sure worthwhile Staffordshire stories have the right place to be told and the best possible chance of finding an audience.
That matters to Stuart because he is particularly interested in the audience Staffordshire Chambers isn’ t reaching yet.
“ Where’ s the audience we’ re not talking to?” he asks.
In his main interview in this edition, he talks about meeting someone in a pub who assumed a Chamber of Commerce was part of government.
It is an important point. A Chamber can do extraordinary amounts of work for a place, but its influence is limited if the wider community doesn’ t know about it, doesn’ t understand it or doesn’ t believe it has anything relevant to say to them.
Media can help close that gap.
A business owner might first encounter the Chamber because Daily Focus reports on their industry.
Another might pick up Feature Focus and recognise an entrepreneur facing the same challenges they are.
Someone else may never read a business magazine at all but discover an In Focus conversation on YouTube, Spotify or through a clip shared on social media.
Different doors into the same organisation.
And behind all three platforms sits the same fundamental purpose: to champion Staffordshire, connect its business community and make sure the people shaping its economy have somewhere to be heard.
For a Chamber that describes its role as providing a local presence with a national voice and international reach, having a strong media voice of its own is becoming increasingly important.
Daily Focus can tell you what happened today.
Feature Focus can tell you more about the people and ideas behind it.
And now In Focus can let you hear from them directly.
Staffordshire has plenty to say and the Chamber is making sure there are more ways than ever to hear it.
40 ISSUE 7