Leveraging Your Rankings with Jay Byers

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 116 — Leverage Your Rankings with Jay Byers
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Jay Byers
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.842 Brandon Burton
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:19.958 Brandon Burton
Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Burton, where it is my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to help you better serve your chamber members and your community. I'm excited about our guest today. we're grateful to have Jay Byers with us. And Jay has been a highly requested guest by by previous guests that I've had on the podcast. And We're happy to get our schedules to line up to make this work out. But Jay Byers serves as the president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The partnership is the regional economic and community development organization serving Central Iowa with 24 affiliate chambers of commerce and a network of more than 6,600 regional members. Jay is a certified chamber executive, graduate of U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organization Management. Graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute and graduate of Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, Ford Foundation, Regionalism and Sustainable Development Fellowship. Jay currently serves as chair of ACCE and on the Executive Committee of the Iowa Chamber Alliance, the General Council of the World Chambers Federation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. He is a member of the Professional Developers of Iowa. Iowa Association of Business and Industry, International Economic Development Council, and Young Presidents Organization. Jay also serves on the boards of Simpson College, Catch Des Moines, Greater Des Moines Committee, Iowa Healthiest State Initiative, and ChildServe. Jay was named to the ACCE 2009, 40 under 40 rising stars of the chamber world. Des Moines Business Records 40 under 40 Class of 2006 and Business Records 40 under 40 Alum of the Year in 2012. He received the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitor Bureau Community Champion Award in 2014 and the Simpson College Alumni Achievement Award in 2015. Prior to his current role, Jay served as the partnership senior vice president of government relations and public policy.
02:41.89 Brandon Burton
Before joining the partnership, he worked as district director for Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell and as an attorney at the Ice Miller Law Firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jay is a graduate of Simpson College and the University of Iowa College of Law. He resides in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife Katie and two daughters, Sophie and Charlotte. As we have Jay on the podcast today, we're going to talk about the idea of leveraging rankings to help. Tell the story of your community and what your organization is doing. We will get into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break. Would you be interested in creating even more value from the processes that you're already doing on a daily basis? Swipe It has been one of my sponsors for ChamberChat from the beginning. Swipe It provides credit card payment solutions that will save your chamber up to 40% on your processing fees, and Swipe It can integrate your credit card processing seamlessly into your existing membership software. Swipe It does not charge chambers to switch. And they will make switching simple. In addition to these savings, Swipe It has an affinity program for Chambers of Commerce so you can earn more non-dues revenue to support your budget. Learn more about Swipe It by requesting your free cost savings analysis and become more profitable today by visiting https://chamberchatpodcast.com/cc as in credit card. Again, that's https://chamberchatpodcast.com/cc. And you can join many other chambers as you begin swiping with swipe it.
04:28.206 Brandon Burton
All right, Jay, we are back. Thank you for joining us here on Chamber Chat Podcast. If you would take a moment, say hello to the audience and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know Jay Byers just a little bit better.
04:42.274 Jay Byers
Well, Brandon, thanks so much for having me. really appreciate it. you know, I I guess I'm one of these, I guess nobody really goes into the chamber world or very few people, you know, grow up saying, you know, I really want to be a chamber executive or really know that much about it. I'm you know, some people think I'm, you know, from Des Moines or, you know, a big city kid, but I'm from a really small town in Northwest Iowa, a town of, you know, less than 200 people. My grandparents on both sides were farmers, my parents were teachers. grew up in a town that didn't eat out a stoplight. at one point in my high school class, I had 13 in my class, moved in high school, moved to a bigger town. I graduated in the class of 39. I like to say, proud to say I was fourth in my class, but it still wasn't good enough to be top 10 percent, which is true. and but but again, I I think that that's something that's a big part of who I am. you know, I grew up in rural Iowa farming care farming territory and I think, you know, in today's world there's, you know, there's so much sort of division with urban and rural and red and blue and have and have nots. But I always I always carry that with me in terms of, you know, where I came from and where my family's from and and it's a big part of what I'm all about.
05:58.764 Brandon Burton
I like that. I think that brings a great perspective, especially into Chamber World. yeah, I've heard it said several times that no matter where you are in the spectrum of politics and you get into chamber world, you you kind of go a little more the other way than the other, you know, and and kind of meet in the middle. So having that background of, you know, the small farming community and and and small town feel, even in the bigger city, it's you're able to to mesh that together. So I think that probably plays very well for you to have that background. Well, share with us a little more about the partnership. I talked about it a little bit in as I introduced you with your bio, but I think there's some unique setup with your with your partnership there, if you wouldn't mind sharing with us.
06:43.886 Jay Byers
Sure, well well thanks. Thanks, Brandon. And and you know, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, as as you had mentioned in the intro, we're the regional economic and community development organization serving Central Iowa. fairly unique model for a a region of our size. Our MSA is, you know, just over 700,000 plus. but we are, you know, we're re the regional economic development organization, you know, with with 10 counties in our economic development area. We're also the regional chamber of commerce with 24 affiliate chambers of commerce with dual members, more than 6,600 members. And then we also, as part of our organization, have the downtown organization for downtown Des Moines to really focus on the core. So I think that's pretty unique for an organization like ours of in a city this size to have all three of those. And definitely that dual membership model is very unique where if you join any of our twenty four affiliate chambers of commerce, you automatically become a regional member of the greater
07:46.456 Brandon Burton
That's fantastic. So I think I'd like to have a lot of my guests share some of this information too, just for perspective, especially as we talk about the the the topic that we'll be discussing of leveraging rankings. what resources do you have as far as staff and budget? just so those listening can kind of see where they fall and make make some adjustments for their community if they need to.
08:12.078 Jay Byers
Yeah, it's it's a great question. we our our budget is just over $10 million. our our staff is right around 40 FTEs. it fluctuated a little bit in in 2020. We are staffing up a little bit, but that that's that's approximately where we are right now.
08:31.456 Brandon Burton
And I imagine those those forty full time employees are divided up kind of between the economic development chamber work and the and the downtown.
08:39.809 Jay Byers
We we yeah, we really have s sort of four platforms of work. and it's you know economic development, it's it's talent development, downtown, and then business resources and community development, which is more the traditional chamber. and then sort of within each of those platforms, you know, we have a government affairs team, PR and marketing, and then just more sort of admin with with finance and those sort of things.
09:06.36 Brandon Burton
Yeah. All right. So without further ado, let's dive into our topic today of discussion of leveraging rankings. like how when you introduced yourself, you're just shy of of making that 10% in your graduating class, like number four out of 39. So that that's one way of of looking at rankings. But when you think of of leveraging rankings, what are you looking at? What's important to you and and how do you leverage it to tell the story of your organization?
09:36.076 Jay Byers
Yeah, it's it's it's it's a really great question. And you know, what when I talked with with you know with our with our team and with our board about rankings, you know, there's a lot of different rankings out there right now, right? And you know, they're associated with, you know, publications and research institutions and educational institutions and so forth too. And you know, really it's it's it's what I always say, it's really not necessarily about one specific ranking. or if you're on one specific ranking, if you're you know number one or number 10, it's really sort of the body of the work, right? And and you know, as you look over the course of of different years, you know, do you consistently show up in rankings with with you know categories that are important to your region? and do and and who else is on those rankings, right? And so do you consistently sort of show up with other communities that you like to be compared with or that you want to be in that sort of same league with that you're competing with, whether that's for talent, whether that's for for for economic development. And and and really it's really all about that sort of body of work. And
10:47.69 Jay Byers
And then, you know, how then how do you use those rankings, right? It's with PR and marketing, right? I mean, whether it's you know, traditional you know outreach, you know, and pitching media stories or social media stories and telling and and continuing to tell the stories, in many ways it's it's I we I always sort of try to take a money ball approach, right? It's sort of you know, in our world, you know, sometimes people think, especially those of us who are in economic development, think it's all about sort of these grand slam projects or, you once in a lifetime project. I mean, these are these are few and far between, even fewer and far between now than they've ever been. It's really about what do you do every day to get up and for your community and get on base and steal bases, score runs, right? It's all about money ball. And it's really about that collective body work. And rankings are a part of that too. When rankings come out, how do you share those? how do you make sure that you know you're sharing them whether through your various social media channels, how do you make sure that they that, you know, site selectors and and and and and talent from outside of your region are seeing that. One of the things that we do is we've got a DSM USA ambassador program. So anytime a ranking comes out, or you know, major rankings or sometimes we bundle them, we've got a long email list that basically we'll put together a draft, a tweet, Facebook post, Instagram picture, those sort of things with some sample messaging and say, hey, can you help us tell the story, right? And so if we've got our investors and our regional members and the public at large they're helping tell this story and using our DSM USA hashtag, obviously, yes, it pushes our metrics out, but it helps tell that story to the world, right? Because for us, sitting in Des Moines, Iowa, if you're in Iowa, you're familiar with Des Moines, but you if you go beyond the Midwest or you know you're on a coast, you're like, where's Iowa? What's Des Moines? I don't really know that much about it. But but that's the other power of these rankings, right? It helps, it helps create an identity of what people might not expect for your for for your region or for your city. And and how do you continue to tell that story? And how do you get your community to tell that story? because again, you know, people in this, you know, anyone who's in this town has got, you know, vast networks, right? You know, it's family networks across the state, across the country, across the world, it's business networks across across the state, across the country, across the world.
13:10.904 Jay Byers
How do you sort of spider web that out? And again, you can't always quantify exactly what that means, but as you continue to build that out, it continues to build that image for your city and that positive image for your city. And it's also, I think, really important for rankings in terms of community pride. you know, one of the one of the, you know, you talk about rankings and people ask me, you know, what what rankings are most important to you? And it's like it's really hard, it's sort of like picking your favorite kid, right? But But but there's there's one well I'll point to a couple that that have been like like game changers for us. and I don't even I don't even think Forbes does this one anymore. but for a number of years they were doing best place in the country for young professionals and we were number one a couple of times and people think it's boy and you know but but but but again you know it's sort of that unexpected and I always sort of challenge our team and our and our community, what can we do to fight above our weight class, right? And and tell that story. And people say, Des Moines, why would that be the best place for young professional? But if but then you look at our demographics, our four fastest growing demographic has been 25 to 34 year olds. also, you know, we also have a foreign-born population that's been growing at more than twice the national average. so you know, it's there there's a reason why we've been you know, at least in the in with all the other surrounding larger metros and and and fastest growing metro in terms of percentage of population growth, percentage of GDP growth, percentage of job growth for a decade in all three categories. If you look at all the surrounding metros that are that are all larger than us. But but the other one that that I always that I'm that I think means a lot is Gallup. And I I haven't seen this, this is the last time I've seen it was probably three or four years ago and I haven't seen it since. But they, you know, Gallup is based off of science, you know, the polling the world, you know, literally every day on a variety of different topics. I'm a big fan of Gallup. And they measured community pride, right? They're all, you know, they one of the things they've measured is hope, community pride. And the last time I saw this, which would have been at least three or four years ago, and I haven't seen them even push any rankings out since, but we were number one in the country in community pride, right? And some people say, well, that's soft. What does that mean? But those of those of us in the chamber world know that community pride means everything, right?
15:28.302 Jay Byers
You know, I mentioned that, you know, I grew up in rural Iowa. I did l I'm a boomerang, right? I left the state for a while after law school. I went to work in Indianapolis, which for some of your listeners is, you know, you know, it's not as big as Dallas, but it's, you know, Indianapolis is twice as big as Des Moines, more than twice as big as Des Moines. but then you know, came back because, you know, really wanted to have an impact in my state and was always proud of of being in Iowan. And and but but community pride means everything because if you look in even a place like Des Moines, you know. 70s were pretty rough around here, right? I mean, the the the you know, I mentioned what our what our what our stats have looked like in the last you know, over the last decade, but it's not always looked like that, right? And and it was pretty stagnant around here in you know the early 80s and the farm crisis was really rough in Iowa, and a lot of people in my generation left and never came back. And there just weren't the opportunities. And and so it was always sort of like, yeah, I'm from Iowa, almost sort of, I wouldn't say apologetic, but yeah, it's a nice place, not that exciting. If you want to raise a family, it's, you know, there's some good jobs, good insurance jobs, ag jobs. but people weren't like fired up about, I am fired up to be in Des Moines or I'm fired up to be in Iowa. But then to say, you know, if you look all across the country, we're number one in community pride, there's a lot of great places across this country, right? All a lot of your listeners work in awesome cities and awesome places that maybe have oceans and have mountains and we don't have any of that. But but to say we're number one in community pride because this is what it means. It means we we believe in the future. We, if you're a company, you're gonna invest in quality of life amenities because you're proud of this place and you know, invest in arts and culture, invest in outdoor recreational amenities and hire more people and say, if I'm gonna expand, I'm gonna expand here and and not somewhere else. And I'm gonna keep my company here. And I'm gonna t and and you know what? If I'm really proud about this place, I'm gonna talk about it on social media and I'm gonna try to get my family to move back. I'm gonna try to get my friends who maybe have never lived here to think about moving here. And by the way, if If if I'm really proud of this place and I've got all these suppliers that my company is working with, and maybe I want them closer to me and they should be thinking about IELTS, right? So so you know, getting back to that community pride means everything and it means everything in in Chamber of Commerce world, as everybody knows, right? If you get a community to believe in itself and they can fight above its weight class and can fight on the international, you know, the international platform against communities much larger than ours because we can believe in it ourselves.
17:52.662 Jay Byers
It means everything. And this is a town now that thinks that they compete can compete for any deal. And that wasn't the case fifteen, twenty years ago.
17:59.724 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. So I think that's interesting that community pride is something that Gallup measures, you know, when they're based on science, that that seems like a hard thing to measure, but it like you said, it is everything when it comes to the chamber. so as you look at different lists, different rankings, are there certain you had mentioned trying to be on lists with, you know, some of the other cities that you admire or you want to be in the the same ballpark with. Do you just kind of see what list you kind of pop up on and then work to get higher? Or are there certain lists that you see and you think, we need to be on that list and then you work with the focus to get there?
18:41.672 Jay Byers
it's all the above, right? I think, you know, we we've got you know, our PR marketing team has great relationships with lots of different organizations, right? And we're you know pitching stories to you know Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, mentioned, you know, before we got this call, having a call with NPR today. and and and all that sort of matters too because I think some of these, you know, Forbes has been doing this, for example, for a long time, but you know, a lot of others have sort of gotten into it. There's, and you know, there's various levels of science depending on some of these. And then, you know, some of these new rankings that are out there, there's a lot of them that are out there. Then they just sort of take them from others, right? They'll say, well, if so and so on's talking about this, then maybe I should talk about it. So some of it's, you know, for you know, it's anecdotal, but you know, the the more sort of national sort of radar screens you can get on for different types of stories, you know, it's gonna help you sort of position yourself for these other. Well then sometimes these lists come out and they you know we sort of look at them and and you're like, you know, why aren't we on it? Or you know, we should be higher, or then sometimes they come out and say we didn't even know it's gonna happen and you know we're two or three again, right? So again, it's a little of both, right? But I I think that you know, we also are you know, those of those those type types of organizations that you know sort of high impact with with lots of eyeballs that we are constantly you know sharing sort of information as we're getting new deals and those sort of things and trying to develop, you know, if they are associated with you know specific reporters or that we can develop those relationships that that that I think that is important. And it's and I think that's more, you know, I would say even more important than lists, right? Because like for example, if you can get a really great, you know, Wall Street Journal article Or a Washington Post article, I think that's even significantly more powerful than any list, right? Because it's that sort of third-party national validator in terms of things that you're doing, right? If you can highlight an economic development project or a unique sort of talent attraction or retention project or those sort of things. And then you just, you know, again, market the heck out of it through your own social media channels and share that with the world again, too. Because I because I think that that's those are even way more important than than than any sort of ranking in my opinion.
20:55.67 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. So I like earlier you had mentioned the hashtag. It was it DSM USA and encouraging people to help you tell the story of your community. is that something that you encourage them just to post on their social media, use that hashtag, and that's kind of gets feed on its own to tell the story, or are you recapturing and repurposing some of that story in other ways? And are there any examples that that you can share with us of how you might have done that?
21:26.318 Jay Byers
Yeah, it's probably a little bit all the above. you know, just a little bit of the history on why we use DSM USA, and you can see some of it behind me here too. But you know, this is something, you know, we've we've had different hashtags over the years years, but you know, a few years ago, you know, there's definitely that that sort of trend out there with you know, with with my lar larger metro well partially because you know, we have the city of Des Moines, we've got lots of pig suburbs and the rural area cover a lot large area and what we're looking for, what's a sort of this regional way to sort of to to really share you know who we are with you know sort of this sort of cutting edge new way to talk about our region. And so you know for a long time, you know, think of you know LA, NYC, ATL, or even STL for St. Louis, KC, just down the road from us, MSP, Minneapolis, St. Paul. So DSM is our airport moniker. And so that's why we've really started, we started using DSM a lot, lot more. A lot of people around here have been doing that. We added the USA just to really make that point that we are global, right? And so that's where DSM USA came from is is to you know, we we have lots of companies that are big time global players that are doing business all over the world. you know, as an as an ag state, you know, you know, we're we're a big time net exporter. and and and global trade is a big part of of our success. Insurance and financial services as well, too. and you know, manufacturing, right? So we are We are a global city, despite the fact we're not very close to any ocean. So that's why that's why we've used that DSM USA as again, what's sort of that forward looking, you know, regional moniker tied with a global strategy. but in terms of you know just encouraging folks to use that specific hashtag, you know, some of our other initiatives we use other hashtags as well, too. It allows us to track, not only track, but also, you know, again, yes, you know, if if people tag us with stories. you know whether it's through the hashtag or or otherwise, you know, it it does help bring bring to light some of these other stories that we might not have known about, right? And and a big part of what's been happening, you know, even you know pre-COVID and and and definitely post-COVID is people relocating here that you know can work anywhere because it's a great place to live, you know, it's great, you know, we got you know really excellent, you know, top tier arts and culture, top tier recreational amenities, you know, excellent.
23:53.038 Jay Byers
schools, low crime, you know, low housing costs, you know, and and so really sort of you know making that case that this is this that you can lead a really great life here. And then at the same time it's easy, right? You know, you can, you I'm I'm at my desk in 10 minutes every day, right? And we've got and people sometimes are shocked that we've got like a real skyline. Our skyline is significantly bigger than a lot of cities, way bigger than us. And that's one of the things we sort of heard when ACC came to town is like, my God, I can't believe your skyline you know, at the same time, you know, I'm home, you know, I'm I'm home in 10 minutes every day, right? And and and and and live right in the city. but but but again, I think that storytelling is really powerful and and when we can get you know, people who have moved back here, you know, whether they grew up here or not, or they've relocated here and then can tell that story in their own voice and why, you know, why they came here and and what that and and how that how their experience has been. If if they've never even, you know heard of this place before. There's there was this amazing story in the Des Moines Register, which is our you know sort of flagship paper for the state that's been around for forever, right? And they they had this this amazing story within the last two weeks about a professional skateboarder who relocated from Long Beach, California, and not only moved here, but moved his business here making skateboards. And it just happened organically. And what happened was a few years ago, he had been he's also in a band and had played at one of our venues downtown and just fell in love with downtown Des Moines. And he said, Gosh, I really want to live in a place with four distinct seasons. It's a cool downtown. And and I just want to move here. And he just did. And this this story just happened or we didn't even know about it until we were and it was amazing, right? And and his quotes were just unbelievable. And you know, you know, making skateboards, right? But But one things that people don't might not understand is we also in May will be opening the the largest skate park in the entire country, about you know, five blocks from where I'm sitting right now in downtown Des Moines. And and not only that, we attracted the Dew Tour, which you know many people who are not into skateboarding might not know about, but a huge deal for the skateboarding world. And by the way, it is the only Olympic qualifying event before Tokyo.
26:18.188 Jay Byers
it's in downtown Des Moines because we built the world's largest skate park. And by the way, you know, this guy from you know an icon in skating world moves to Des Moines and and by the way is manufacturing skateboards here. Right. So I mean that's that's what you can do in a place where you know you're not on a coast, you don't have mountains, but with you know some innovation creativity and and you know getting community behind a project to build a six million dollar skate park. in downtown Des Moines when people are like, Why would why in the world would you ever do that? And and now we have a story that says that's why we're doing it. And I think the the they've I think the our C V B has said the economic projected economic impact of this event's gonna be four million dollars, some something like that. and and and again, you know, this is a time when parts of the country, they're not doing any events yet, right? I mean the events are just barely coming back and this, you know, it'll have all the precautions and so forth too, but rolling out a brand new event. skating downtown Des Moines unexpected.
27:18.719 Brandon Burton
So it sounds like you might be making your own list there to become the skateboard capital of the world there in in DSM USA.
27:26.732 Jay Byers
Well, an another example, you know, that that, you know, things that people don't expect, you know, we've got this, I I can't remember a time when we've had so many big projects moving forward. And these all continue to push forward through COVID, right? So we're working on a new downtown soccer stadium, recruiting a new new USL soccer team to move to to our area. we've already you talked about rankings, one of the rankings we had was number one, the country for minor league sports. Right. We we've got you know triple A baseball team from Cubs. we've got professional you know basically triple A version of hockey. we've got arena football. we've got you know soon have a USL hockey team. we've got we've got a G League NBA team here, right? So so that's another sort of sort of advantage that we've had. but the other the other, you know, we're working on a new airport terminal. that's continuing to move forward, a new transload facility that's moving forward. There's a new hockey arena that's that that's moving forward. and then another project that's sort of these totally unexpected. you know, you say wouldn't expect this in Des Moines, but we have a project, a Central Iowa Water Trails project where we have 150 miles of water trails, 86 projects, three signature downtown projects that involve dam mitigation. that, you know, hopefully, you know, Brandon, next time you come to Des Moines. you'd be able to do whitewater rafting and surfing in downtown Des Moines. By the way, right next right next to the, you know, the new six million dollar skate park and then with the plans to have a zip line going across the whole thing in downtown Des Moines, right? On the unexpected, but it they're all gonna happen.
29:09.878 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Now everybody listening is booking their flights to Des Moines to when when is all this gonna be ready?
29:16.398 Jay Byers
Well the the skate park will open in May. Okay. the parts of the water trails are already moving forward. One of the three downtown projects is is is advancing as we speak. and of those other 86 projects across the region, some of the ones out in this in the in the suburb areas already done. so still raising money and so forth. But again, I don't know when the entire project will be done, I would guess. three, four years probably before all that's done.
29:50.19 Brandon Burton
So there's obviously a lot of ways that you can leverage the the attention that your your community's getting, the whether it's through social media or stories and pitching to to these bigger media outlets as well. as we start wrapping things up, I wanted to ask what would be one tip or action item that you would have for a chamber champion that's listening to help take their organization up to the next level?
30:20.294 Jay Byers
As an individual, I'm a big believer in lifelong learning and connectivity within the industry, right? I'm a big reader, read a lot of books, read a lot of publications, you know, listen to a lot of podcasts, really try to stay on top of not only sort of chamber in economic development trends, but just in in general, you know, business economic trends. and and to help you know, with. With the whether it's our organization, our community, to be thought leaders in terms of, you know, where the puck is going, not where the puck has been. so, you know, in doing so, you know, w highly encourage you know, chamber leaders to be engaged with their state associations of chambers. You know, I'm a big believer in the association of chamber of commerce executives, ACCE, and the US Chamber. Lots of opportunities to engage at various levels, whether it's on the board or various. working groups and you know the either based on you know size of chamber or whatever your sort of specialization is within your chamber. and and to really take full advantage of that and to develop you know strong relationships with peers that are you know working in organizations that are similar to yours that you've you can develop those relationships and and can and have that sort of regular connectivity. I I've got some just incredible I've had some incredible mentors in Chamber of economic development organizations across this country and and just some amazing friendships and and peers in terms of you know in terms of sharing best practices. And and and I think everybody, you know, you know, while in many times we may be competing against each other for projects, I found our indust our industry to be very collegial and trying to help each other. And and so many of these things, you know, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? And in so many ways right now. cities and regions are really sort of driving the growth in our country right now. And despite, you know, I think sometimes whether it's in DC and this isn't a knock on either political party or its states. And it's not a knock on either political party. But sometimes we haven't even seen, you know, we haven't always seen great leadership in terms of, you know, driving economic growth forward. And it's really one of the reasons I think our country has done so well is there's just some really great, you know,
32:38.572 Jay Byers
local leaders and chambers and economic development groups all across this country, they're just, you know, rolling up their sleeves and getting it done. And it's been a big part of of our country's ongoing success. And I think our country sort of built on that sort of decentralization in many ways. And what can we do to continue to push our state leaders and our federal leaders forward so that they can focus on positive, proactive economic growth strategies and spend less time, you know, fighting each other and you know focusing on issues that maybe don't matter that much.
33:07.468 Brandon Burton
I love that the emphasis the emphasis on being that same center, right? Yeah. So I like asking everyone I have on the podcast this question is everyone's always kind of trying to see where that puck is going. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose moving forward?
33:11.96 Jay Byers
You got it.
33:28.802 Jay Byers
Yeah, it's a it's a great question. you know, with at ACC ACCE I'm chair this year, which has just been an incredible experience, especially during the pandemic. as I mentioned before, just really leaning on other peers to, you know, get through 2020. it was a it was I think there was a lot of us who were really glad we had each other, right? And and I think even moving into twenty twenty one, same thing because again, you know, in in in so many ways, it's really not getting back to you know normal because it's they're know what does normal mean, right? And so we always sort of talk about here in Des Moines about what can we do to create a better normal, right? And you know, obviously things are you know things are looking pretty promising in so many fronts, right? Vaccination rates are up, you know, that that infection rates you know had been going down. There's some you know increases again a little bit, but overall the trends are going in the right way. you know, hospitalization hospitalization rates are down, major, you know,
34:27.853 Jay Byers
you know sort of infections and in you know assisted living facilities you know those are you know those are almost you know those those are going way down so you know really a lot of great things are moving forward but but moving forward what can we do as as an industry you know nationally what can we do as individual organizations to create that better normal what can we do to you know have a more inclusive normal what can we do to have a more sustainable normal what can we do to have a more civil normal what can we do to have a more innovative normal a more resilient normal And that's really what, you know, chambers in so many ways, that's we do, right? And so, you know, I I think as we we look at the future of chambers, you know, collectively across the country, we look at the future of of of of our own chambers and economic development organizations. some of these sort of mega trends that I think are have never been more important, especially if you look at trends like remote work and all these other things, I I sort of look at three things. you know, one is is placemaking. Right. And I talked a lot about that earlier, right? And placemaking has never been more important than it is right now. again, because, you know, while I do believe that a lot of people, you know, a lot of remote workers will eventually be back in the in in the workplace, that some won't be. And some employers are it's gonna be more important than others. Some are gonna be, you know, and I think that, you know, definitely with sort of the white collar type jobs, there's gonna be more flexibility. So and and there will be more opportunities to to work remotely for for some companies, right? So again, when any anybody can, you know, in many ways people were mobile before, but more so now than ever, right? They can maybe work anywhere across the world and then choose to live anywhere else, right? And so as a community, you got to make that case and say, why here? And placemaking is a big part of that. And there's so many parts of that, whether it's, you know, you know, recreational amenities, outdoor amenities, parts of culture, your school. How good are your schools, crime rates, cost of living, commutes, all those sort of things, it matters more than ever. And and and while I think chambers, you know, going back to when they first started, if you, you know, maybe not always called it placemaking, but it's really been a core piece of what chambers have always done. And I think that that, you know, you can talk about evolving membership models and
36:47.8 Jay Byers
finance models and you know sort of more of the details, but ultimately it's about value. How do you create value for your members in the community? And placemaking is huge value. And the more that you can focus on that, the better said we one. Two is this sort of government affairs component, right? And we sort you you touched on that right with the same same center. I think that's never been important right now, more important than it is right now. The divisiveness that we see in our country, you know, red versus blue, urban versus rural, halves versus half nots. you know, right on down the line. And it's you know, as you know you're familiar with the book Bill that Bill Bishop wrote, you know, the the big sort, which was a number of years ago, it's just gotten worse, right? People, you know, they look at social media that they already believe in. they look at they will follow the news that that they already believe in, right? They go they pick churches where they share the same beliefs. And and so people have a really hard time, I think in many ways talking to each other and finding that common ground. And you know, whether it's at a state legislature or or you know in cong halls of Congress or in in our own communities, right? And and chambers play that very special role in terms of how can we you know come together, solve problems, get people at the same table, find that common ground and move our regions forward. I think our region has done a great job of, you know, I don't remember ever sitting at a table and saying, Are you Democrat, are you Republican? It's the I I think many times we don't even know, right? And it's harder and harder to do that. But I think chambers really need to continue to step up and figure that out. And how can we find that common ground? Because the country needs us right now. and and and and it's hard, right? I mean I I cut my teeth. I like I'm a lawyer by trade. I worked for a member of Congress for seven years, I was a lobbyist for seven years. I mean that that's I you I hone I hone my skills in the chamber world in public policy and it's really hard for me now, right? It's very, very hard. And it's sort of issue after issue in the expectations of the community, your members, of your investors, working with the politicians. it's hard work, but it's really, really important. And and so that that is definitely a mega trend and a huge value proposition for for for all of our chambers. And then and then third is definitely the whole inclusive growth, right?
39:09.516 Jay Byers
I think that that is it's been a big deal for a long time. Some people saw it, some people didn't see it. you know, the whole r racial issues that that that surfaced in a in a big, big way in in in 2020 with George Floyd and and and and and many others, right? And now with what's happened with you know Asian hate issues and and and immigration issues and so forth. All of us as as as as leaders need to be more inclusive in terms of our strategies, our economic development strategies, our talent strategies, just working on our projects and our organizations and and having that, you know, very being very deliberate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. to make sure that you know, those big gaps between the haves and have nots, that that we can address those and and and have an honest dialogue in terms of what how do we how do we move forward and make it a place that's that that that it can that everybody has an opportunity to be successful. and and I think that goes with with in many ways this whole urban rule thing too, right? It's a big deal. And and and and as chambers and economic development organizations, we need to be leaders. So placemaking, government affairs, inclusive growth strategies, I think are the mega trends that that everybody really needs to focus on
40:34.194 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I love the detail of that response because it it covers almost everything that a chamber should be doing as they look to the future. So I appreciate that response. And and really all the value that you provided in this discussion today as far as leveraging these rankings and making your community stand out and and have have that story be told throughout the community for that placemaking aspect, like we you touched on. for any listeners who wanted to connect with you or or can maybe continue this discussion offline, what would be the best way for them to reach out and and connect?
41:15.734 Jay Byers
I'm a I'm a big proponent of social media. Happy to connect with anybody via LinkedIn. All you have to do is just Google Jay Byers Greater Des Moines Partnership, the easiest way, right? happy to connect via via LinkedIn. My email is just letter J B Y E R S at DSM partnership.com. Happy to connect via email as well, too. I'm I'm pretty accessible with lots of different channels. so heavily engaged on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram as well too. And and those are I'm super easy to find on any of those. so any of those channels that your listeners prefer, I'm good with.
41:53.038 Brandon Burton
All right. And we'll we'll get those updated in our show notes for this episode too, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode one sixteen. But Jay, I appreciate you being with us today. Provided a ton of value and great discussion. And just really enjoyed visiting with you this morning. Thanks a lot.
42:13.218 Jay Byers
No, thanks, Brandon. Really appreciate what you do. you know, providing that resource for our chamber leaders, I think, is is is really important. But as I said before, with those resources, it's it's a big deal in terms of professional development and and appreciate the opportunity to to be chatting with you today and and and talking about DSMUSA. Really appreciate
42:36.992 Brandon Burton
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43:09.132 Brandon Burton
As a podcast listener and as a chamber leader, have you considered the benefits that podcasting could have for your chamber? This is what I like to call the podcast pivot. If you're like many chambers, you're always looking for