Small Business Summit
Join us for our 2026 Annual Small Business Summit on October 22nd from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the DoubleTree Resort By Hilton
Small Business Summit: Build for What’s Next.
No matter where you are in your business journey, whether you’re launching a new venture, strengthening your operations, or planning for future growth, you’ll find valuable takeaways at this event. Through three dynamic tracks designed for businesses at different stages, you’ll gain practical strategies, expert insights, and meaningful connections to help you move forward with clarity and confidence as you build what’s next.
Choose Your Track: When you arrive, you’ll have the opportunity to select the track that best aligns with where you are in your business right now. Each track is thoughtfully designed with a progression of sessions that build on one another, offering a deeper, more cohesive experience. While optional, following a single track throughout the day will help you gain more relevant insights, stronger takeaways, and a clearer path forward.
STARTING STRONG
Designed for early-stage businesses, solo entrepreneurs, and growing teams, this track focuses on building a strong foundation. Gain practical strategies, essential tools, and key insights to help you establish the fundamentals for long-term success.
BUILDING MOMENTUM
Perfect for businesses that have moved beyond the startup phase, this track is designed for growing organizations with established teams and processes. Explore strategies to strengthen systems, improve consistency, and scale your business with greater efficiency and confidence.
SCALING SMART
Built for established businesses, larger teams, and high-growth organizations, this track focuses on leading with intention and planning for the future. Discover strategies to enhance leadership, improve operational efficiency, and drive sustainable, long-term growth.
What to Expect
Your ticket gives you access to three breakouts/expert-led sessions, peer-to-peer connections, access to Google BAIsics trainings, practical insights, direct access to local business leaders, and a networking lunch — all designed to sharpen your skills and grow your business.
Schedule
8:00 AM – Doors Open/Registration/Morning Networking/Coffee + Light Breakfast
8:45 – 9:00 AM -Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:00 – 10:30 AM – Google BAIsics
10:30 – 11:20 AM – Breakout Session 1
11:30 AM – 12:20 PM -Breakout Session 2
12:20 PM – 12:50 PM – Lunch
1:00 PM – 1:50 PM– Breakout Session 3
2:00 – 3:10 PM – Advisory Roundtables
3:10 PM – 3:20 PM – Closing Remarks/Program Concludes
3:20 PM – 3:45 PM – Resource Table Visits
3 Ways to Attend the Event:
Individual Ticket/Registration: $85
Donate-A-Ticket: $85
Give back to our Small Business Community – purchase a ticket and we’ll give it to a small business that’s interested in attending but may not have had an opportunity otherwise!
Bring Your Team/Clients Ticket Package: $225
Whether you are small business with a team or you have 3 small business clients you’d like to invest in – this option is for you!
Location
DoubleTree Resort By Hilton
2400 Willow Street Pike
Lancaster, PA 1760
Questions?
Contact Katie Young at
kyoung@lancasterchamber.com or
(717) 696-6242
Small Business B(AI)sics
As part of this year’s Summit programming, we’re also pleased to offer a special morning session in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Google. Small Business B(AI)sics is a national initiative designed to help small businesses better understand and apply artificial intelligence in practical, everyday ways. This interactive session will introduce practical applications of AI for small business, including improving marketing and customer engagement, streamlining operations and workflow efficiency, and enhancing productivity and decision-making. Designed to be approachable and relevant, it will give attendees actionable ideas they can immediately apply to save time, reach more customers, and build stronger, more resilient businesses.
Presenters: Coming Soon
SESSIONS
STARTING STRONG Track
Designed for early-stage businesses, solo entrepreneurs, and growing teams, this track focuses on building a strong foundation. Gain practical strategies, essential tools, and key insights to help you establish the fundamentals for long-term success.
LEGAL & INSURANCE
FOUNDATIONS
Speaker: Ray Durkin, Barley Snyder
Learn the legal and insurance fundamentals every small business owner should understand to protect their business, manage risk, and build on a strong foundation.
Full Description Coming Soon.
BUILDING SYSTEMS BEFORE BURNOUT
Speaker: Emily Hess, Markit
When you’re starting or growing a small business, it’s easy for everything to live in your head, your inbox, a spreadsheet, or a handful of sticky notes you swear make sense. But the earlier you build simple, repeatable systems, the easier it becomes to grow without burning yourself or your team out. In this session, Emily Hess, Owner of Markit, will walk through how early-stage business owners can spot the places where work is getting messy, manual, or too dependent on one person. Attendees will learn how to think through the basics of customer follow-up, task management, internal workflows, and simple automation so they can build a business that feels easier to run, not harder to hold together. The goal is not to build a complicated tech stack. It’s to help business owners create practical systems they’ll actually use.
MARKETING &
BRANDING
Speaker: Cara Cherry, Fig Industries
This session will provide you with guidance on building a strong, recognizable brand and making intentional marketing decisions that will help your business stand out.
Full Description Coming Soon.
BUILDING MOMENTUM Track
Perfect for businesses that have moved beyond the startup phase, this track is designed for growing organizations with established teams and processes. Explore strategies to strengthen systems, improve consistency, and scale your business with greater efficiency and confidence.
DESIGNING FOR GROWTH: THE PEOPLE SYSTEM THAT STRENGTHEN YOUR BUSINESS
Speaker: Jen Grove, Strategic HCM
As your small business grows beyond a close‑knit team where everything happens organically, informal processes that once worked begin to create inconsistency, confusion, and risk. This session equips growing employers with the essential people systems needed to support their next stage of success. Participants will learn how to transition from ad‑hoc practices to intentional structures through clear policies and HR standards. We’ll explore various stages of the employee life cycle for expanding teams. Attendees will leave with a grounded understanding of the systems that create clarity, reduce risk, and strengthen their organization as they grow.
BRICK BY BRICK: BUILDING A SCALABLE REVENUE MODEL
Speaker: Greg Orth, Sandler Training
Every business is being built brick by brick — and most owners have unknowingly become the only one who knows how to build it. Using hands-on Legos, this interactive session has attendees build (yes, actually build), then dig into why identical pieces, in different hands, produce completely different results. Through a live self-assessment, attendees will identify whether what they’ve built can stand on its own, whether someone else could pick it up and keep going, and whether it can grow without everything wobbling.”
FINANCIAL CLARITY FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Speaker: David Blain, Lindsay Young, & Zach McLaren, McKonly & Asbury
Entrepreneurs and business owners face important financial and operational decisions every day. From choosing the right tax structure for your business to understanding the difference between employees and independent contractors, the answers can have significant tax, compliance, and financial implications.
Join McKonly & Asbury professionals David Blain, Lindsay Young, and Zach McLaren for an interactive discussion on seven of the most common questions they receive from entrepreneurs and business owners. This session will provide practical insights, real-world considerations, and guidance to help attendees make informed decisions that support the growth and success of their businesses.
SCALING SMART Track
This track is designed for established business owners who want to fine-tune their operations, adapt to market changes, and plan for long-term stability. Topics will include advanced leadership strategies, succession planning, and ways to refresh your business model without losing what makes it successful. You’ll leave with actionable insights to ensure your business remains competitive, resilient, and ready for whatever comes next.
FROM TODAY’S BUSINESS TO TOMORROW’S BUSINESS
Speaker: Maian McCauley, ASSETS
Where do you want your business to be three to five years from now and what needs to happen today to get there? Long-term planning can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re busy running an established business. This session will help business owners step out of the day-to-day and think intentionally about the future they want to build. We’ll explore how to define a clear long-term vision, work backward to identify key milestones and priorities, anticipate challenges that could change the plan, and turn a three-to-five-year vision into actionable steps for the next 12 months and 90 days.
Attendees will leave with a practical framework they can use to create or refine a long-term plan and make more intentional decisions today that support the future of their business. Don’t just plan to grow. Plan for the business you want to become.
BUILDING AND LEADING A HIGH IMPACT TEAM
Speaker: Nikki Shingle, North Group
High-impact teams don’t happen by accident! They are built through intentional leadership, clear communication, genuine care, and a commitment to developing people. In this workshop, leaders will explore practical strategies to empower employees, build trust and accountability, create clarity around roles and expectations, and foster a culture where individuals feel valued both professionally and personally. Participants will discover how effective communication strengthens relationships, aligns teams, and inspires people to consistently perform at their best.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY FOR GROWTH
Speaker: Deb Joyce and Anthony Maggio, Finanta
Growth creates opportunity—but it also creates new financial pressures. This session will explore how established and growing businesses can make intentional decisions about financing expansion while protecting cash flow and long-term stability. Finanta will share practical guidance on evaluating capital needs, preparing for financing, choosing the right type of funding for different stages of growth, and recognizing when growth may be moving faster than the business’s financial capacity.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
David Blain, Partner
McKonly & Asbury
Ray Durkin, Attorney
Barley Snyder
Cara Cherry, Managing Director
Fig Industries
Jennifer Grove, Principal Consultant
Strategic HCM
Emily Hess, Owner
Markit
Deb Joyce, Vice President, Community Lender
Finanta
Anthony Maggio, Senior Community Lender
Finanta
Maian McCauley,
CEO
ASSETS
Zach McLaren, Senior Manager
McKonly & Asbury
Greg Orth, Owner and President
Sandler Training
Nikki Shingle, Consultant
North Group
Lindsay Young, Partner
McKonly & Asbury
MEET THE ADVISORS – ADVISORY ROUNDTABLES
MARKETING
Kat Squibb, Marketing Director
Ivy House Creative
Michael Matus, CEO & Creative Director
Tower Marketing
Sue Engels, Chair
Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania
FINANCE & INSURANCE
Kim Stout
Small Business Administration
Tim Kershner
Walz Group
SPECIAL NOTE:
We believe in investing in the growth of small businesses – that’s why we’ve kept the ticket price manageable and created the “Donate-A-Ticket” option so that businesses can invest in you, too. If you are interested in being a recipient of a sponsored ticket, CLICK HERE to fill out this short survey and to be added to the list of interested attendees.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS!
Presenting Sponsor
Showcase Your Brand in Front of a Small Business Audience
Are you interested in supporting small businesses or having your brand in front of small businesses in Lancaster County? Reach out to Molly Crouser, mcrouser@lancasterchamber.com to learn about sponsorship opportunities!
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