Industry Trends with Joe Henning

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Joe Henning. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

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Introduction

Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now, your host. He loves hearing stories of listeners connecting with his podcast guests. He’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast . I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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Brandon Burton 1:01
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting HolmanBros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Joe Henning is Joe is served as the president and CEO of the Henry County Chamber of Commerce in Georgia since 2019. Prior to that, he served 14 years as president and CEO of the aurora Regional Chamber in Illinois. Joe is a 2009 IOM graduate he holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and a master’s degree focused on organizational development from Northern Illinois University, as well as a certificate in nonprofit not for profit management from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has served as chair of the Midwest Board of Regents in 2012 and 2013. In 2017, he served as chair of the National Board of Trustees for the program and continues to serve as a faculty member. He has taught on collaboration, industry forecasts strong chambers for the future, and marketing and membership in 2007. Under Joe’s leadership, the Aurora chamber received its first accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce with four star distinction. In 2012, and 2017, he led the reaccreditation efforts and successfully achieved consecutive five star distinction. In 2015, the Chamber received chamber the year from the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, as well as three star chamber of valor by Hiring Our Heroes, US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. In 2014, he was named chamber Executive of the Year by the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, Joe supports and serves on the boards of a number of organizations that impact equity, inclusion, mental health, among others. I’m excited to have Joe with me today on the podcast, Joe, if you take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little bit better.

Something Interesting About Joe

Joe Henning 3:11
Well, thank you, Brandon, I appreciate it. I look forward to the conversation today. And I’ve been most appreciative of your podcasts and the insights that they give with all the peers. As you said, I’m a native of Illinois, I born and raised there and about two years ago, moved down here to Georgia. And so right now, I’m having a little difficult time, loving my Chicago Cubs and what they did with the bloodletting this year, but especially living in Atlanta, Braves country after the World Series wins. So thank you for your time today. Appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 3:47
Absolutely. It’s a pleasure. Before we get into our discussion today, I’d like for you to sit to take a few moments just to share with us a little bit about the Henry County Chamber, kind of the size, scope, staff budget, just kind of give us some perspective before we get into our topic.

About the Henry County Chamber

Joe Henning 4:03
Sure. So excuse me, so I’m Henry County Chamber. It’s a little bit larger than I had. When I served in Aurora. We’ve got about 800 members. We do have the dual role as Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for Henry County. There are four cities within Henry County we have about a I think we’re things that last census, we were pushing the 300,000 mark, maybe just a little bit over that. And what we’ve seen and this occurred prior to my coming here, but round 20 around 2000 or so. The population just exploded in Henry County. We’re just slightly south of Atlanta, about 30 minutes south of Atlanta, and the population exploded and that diversity that came with it is something that we’re still addressing, working with and supporting change management within that realm. So we’ve got, we’ve got kind of a southern hospitality, but we’ve also got that Atlanta metro feel to it. And so I think we’re all trying to figure out what that looks like for each one of us individually for businesses, for organizations, and that. So we’ve got about I’m sorry, we’ve got about seven employees full time employees on staff split between that tourism and the chamber. And I’m looking forward to the conversation today, kind of the lessons I’ve learned. And hopefully, as people follow the your podcast and hear this, maybe they’ll be able to share a couple lessons that they’ve learned too. And I always appreciate these programs, because I get something out of it as well.

Brandon Burton 5:39
Absolutely. Which our topic for discussion today is going to be around industry trends as we kind of look forward into the future some, and I appreciate you mentioning, you know, for listeners that hopefully they can provide some feedback as well. I recently started a Facebook group, chamber chat champions. So that is a place where we can kind of park some of these episodes. So after people listen to them, get on there and share some of your ideas. What are some of your thoughts going forward with industry trends? Let’s, you know, get some more discussion going around these episodes, make it a little bit more interactive, and said, well, we’ll jump into this discussion around industry trends as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Industry Trends

Alright, Joe, we are back. So as we look at the Chamber industry trends going forward, what are some of those things that are kind of top of mind for you that other chamber executives, other chamber professionals should be mindful of at least going forward?

Joe Henning 8:49
Well, I I’d like to, I’d like to take us back, it’s probably it’s probably been at least five years. And the ACCE, he put out their Horizon Report. And I believe at the time that they first launched it, there were eight influences. And then right after that, within about a year, they added the ninth one with limitations of government. And if nothing else, between the political and social fragmentation and the population shifts and the resources, and all of that, those nine areas that they identified. If nothing else in the last two years as a chamber leader, we’ve realized is that it was spot on. Like they knew what we were talking about, right? Everything that came to the global impact, the scarcity and abundance, all of these different pieces that they were looking at that were influencing the way we would be. And what they figured was 2025 hit us about five years early. And so, you know, as we look at that, I think one of the key takeaways is that people haven’t read that report and really looked at what those influences have, can do for their organization. They really need to check that And ASAP has a similar a similar identity that they’ve done for associations in general. And kind of, I’ve used them both in in teaching industry trends and chambers and associations in the future. But it really does help to go back and look at that. And what we’ve done in the past is group work, whether it’s a committee, you know, maybe it’s the ambassadors or as our Government Affairs Committee, is we’ve taken one of those nine influences and really dissected it down and said, Okay, if we’re looking at population shift, what does that mean? And for us, that’s become an abundance. Like I said, we’ve doubled our population within the last 30 years. And so we have an abundance of population. And with that shift, that changing demographic, what does that do for our community? And what do we need to do in order to embrace that support that that growth? So I think really looking at the influences over the last year, I think any any of us within the chamber world can can identify where those influences have impacted us with COVID pandemic. You know, its its impact on education. You know, we’ve got a one hand we’re sitting here in Henry County, I believe, at the end of October, we had a 2.6 unemployment, right. But that’s not taking into account those that have left the workforce. And so I still have businesses here that are struggling to hire, you know, they might, they might normally run three shifts, but they’ve only got enough employees that they can do two shifts. And so that impact on the local economy and the whole state’s economy is an issue that we have to address and figure out how we get that workforce back.

Brandon Burton 11:37
Yeah, there almost needs to be a different metric beyond Yes, sir. appointment, because it’s not showing what the true yeah, issue. Yeah, it’s,

Joe Henning 11:45
it’s truly a dated metric, when you think about it, when you think about how its measured, and why they chose that. It’s definitely a dated metric.

Brandon Burton 11:52
Absolutely. So as we are looking at the future of chambers, I mean, I think that’s spot on. If somebody is not familiar with the horizon, report, by ACC, to, to go download it, read through it, and be very familiar with it. And you’ll see a lot of things. It’s like, oh, yeah, this has happened.

Joe Henning 12:11
Oh, yeah. But there’s really,

Brandon Burton 12:16
but there still is useful information that is going to be very relevant to making sure your chamber is up on the trends and, and being insightful as to what the future has to offer. And if anything, I would say in the age of technology we’re in, it just speeds up the change. So you mentioned that these changes coming five years earlier, I think it has a lot to do with that. But

Joe Henning 12:38
it does, you know, one of those areas was that communicate the Communications and Technology. And I think if we weathered it successfully, we all realize that the only way we were going to be able to communicate with our members and our community was through technology, we weren’t going to be able to do we couldn’t do face to face for a number of months. And we couldn’t do the networking. And believe me, I am so glad that we were able to put that aside because you know, anybody that does a survey, networking is always at the top of the member wanted member need. And yet you get the same small group that shows up every month for the networking events. And so I think for all of us that were able to put that on the side burner, and really focus on being a resource for our businesses, whether they were members or not, you know, to be that resource to be relevant and essential to their success. I think that was the best opportunity, we all had to prove that we were more than just a networking organization, that that’s not what we were solely put here for that we had other things that we could provide to them. And that we were successful in doing that. And so when I look back at 2020, Brandon, as much of a struggle as it was for all of us, I still think it was a great opportunity for Chamber of Commerce to really prove its worth.

Brandon Burton 13:58
Absolutely, it really shined the spotlight on what chambers do. And the reason they’re there. And you know, I don’t know. I mean, networking obviously has a purpose. I mean, there’s a reason people ask for it. There’s a reason chambers do it. But it also becomes a it’s not a high demand task oriented thing for chamber to do. It’s relatively simple, provide a venue some drinks some reason to get together, right? Where it can be done on another level, you know, where it’s much more carefully curated and inviting certain people the network with a purpose and really having a reason instead of just coming and pitching what you have to sell to other people. You

Joe Henning 14:44
know, I think that’s exactly I think what I’ve tried to do over the last year or so is really speak to that activity as connections. And I know that also can can kind of be overused in that but but what I want them to realize Yes, we’re doing these, these opportunities for you to expand your network. But let’s make connections, you know, know who you’re looking to meet, let one of my teammates know who it is what it is you’re looking for. And when can we create those connections, whether it’s in person at an event, or via email, or phone call, or something like that. Because you know, you can have, you can take 50 business cards home from a networking event, you’re probably not going to connect with them, you’re not going to follow up with half of them. It looks good when you can stack them there. And you feel like you were successful, because you met 50 new people. But was that a better use of your time, or you you telling me that, hey, I need to, you know, I’m a realtor, I really need to know, the mortgage people that are in the membership I really need. That’s where my, that’s where my bread and butter is. So let me help make the connection with those 1012 1515 mortgage lenders, so you know, who you can reach out to, because, you know, you might need if you’re a realtor, you might need the plumbing expert at some point, if you’re trying to get a house up to market. But the rest of them, you know, you’re, it’s a waste of your time. And that’s, and that’s where I feel sometimes we we do what we’ve always done. And this this last couple of years was really an opportunity for us to evaluate what it was we were doing, and how do we move things forward. And I think that’s where so many chambers of commerce were able to prove their worth, and prove their relevance. And I think that’s what many of us have always struggled with, because everybody sees us, you know, stodgy, you know, politically connected, you know, really only looking out for the employer. You know, we were not I mean, we spent last year, we worked with one of the cities to give away $1.3 million to small businesses so that they could stay open, and they could keep their families under a roof. We worked with a lot of our health care providers to make sure that the COVID Panda COVID vaccine was out and people were getting it and that we could keep businesses open restaurants open. But keep the schools open, too, because we were seeing that struggle. So I mean, there’s still things that we’re dealing with, we’re dealing with early childhood care, you know, that’s something that we kind of saw 510 years ago was needed. But boy, did that pandemic open a lot of people’s eyes, yes, it really was a problem. And so now we’re kind of looking at that as how do we how can we help facilitate some change within that as well?

Brandon Burton 17:24
Absolutely. So what are some of these ways? I mean, we, we probably don’t need to get super deep into it. But the ways that chambers have shown the relevance, I mean, we’re beyond the networking, we’re beyond, you know, the the Staci, you know, the the well connected organization, but it really is about building a stronger community.

Joe Henning 17:46
Yeah, you know, you asked about Henry County, and I guess I didn’t think about it at the time. But, you know, we’re fortunate, we have a great and this started, this started literally, probably three months before the pandemic, it was like, right around January, maybe a little bit earlier than that, but but the school superintendent, the county manager, the executive director of our development authority, and myself sat down and started figuring out ways that we could work together. Then the pandemic hit within about three months. And fortunately, we had those relationships. So we knew who could take the lead on what and so we we went, and we started scheduling, virtual town halls, through zoom, Facebook Live. And because we had the trust in the relationship with those other three organizations, the four of us appeared together and talked about the pandemic and what that meant for education and what that meant for employers. You know, how the county was reacting to it. And so we were able to be that, that, that resource of knowledge for them and share that information, because we had already built that trust. And I think that’s where many chambers were able to succeed in the last couple of years was they started building that trust, they had that trust in place, or they were able to quickly get that trust together and look at how they could support the community as a whole. And I think what I saw from many of them was traditionally because when you look at it, what pays our bills is our members. So we do have to focus on those those members and what their needs are. But those that were really successful, still cared about the members, but they opened up their doors to all businesses, because they realized that we needed all businesses in order to keep our local economy strong. And so what many saw was a growth in their in their membership. Because once it once it turned around and those non members that you’d helped were coming in. But I think we also we also learned a lot about technology. You know, we were good at texting and emails and everything. But we went remote for about I think it was about three months that that we had closed Our office and we had one employee at a time in the office. And so we had to start communicating as a team via zoom. And so every day at 1030, I called a staff meeting unless you had the day off, you had to be on it. I wanted to see eyeball to eyeball the day that my team was doing, okay. But I also know that we still needed to bounce ideas around and get stuff done. And so that worked really well. So the technology, you know, we were looking at it, we were looking at how do we do webinars and things like that this forced our hand. And I think there were many chambers that really found that. And I think we’ve all found our success in that as well. We had talked a little bit I think, earlier in the podcasts, or maybe just before we started about timing, and kind of that evergreen aspect of it. And it was really interesting, when we would put one of our webinars out, we were really pleased with the numbers we had when we looked about two months later, they’ve more than doubled and sometimes tripled in viewers. And so that made us realize that it’s great that we’re doing these in person events where we can allow for the networking, and we can share the knowledge. But we’re missing so many people, you know, we’re missing are restaurant owners in that that have just closed and they’re not coming in for breakfast, because they’re in bad. You know, we realized that we need to figure out what that hybrid now looks like. And so that’s kind of what we’re looking at for 22 is how do we take that that technology that we’ve embraced, and bring it back to the in person opportunities for people to connect? And so I think that’s what 22 is going to be for us?

Brandon Burton 21:29
Yeah, I can see, you know, in the future, some chambers now, you know, as they start opening back up to more in person things again, but having a camera setup, and capturing, you know, everything going on, and then having a database of resources, and so on almost an on demand library, and repurposing it through social media and YouTube and podcasts and all these different ways. Because, you know, the way that the restaurant owner versus the insurance agent versus you know, the the retail shop owner, the way they digest the information is going to be so different. And you almost got to be there in every different way to be able to That’s right. That’s what we’re fighting. Yeah. Which, yeah, we all love to hear that. Right. Just creative work.

Joe Henning 22:13
You know, I think I think that’s the key, though, is we? We, you know, like I said, we do a lot of the networking, because that’s what’s expected. And I think if we can create opportunities for people to see, oh, you know what, I’d rather do this than just the networking. And we start really prioritizing what it is that we do and what that value add is. I think that’s how we can change what our business model looks like. And I think that’s what the future is for the chamber is, is it’s time for us to change. And this is going to help force our hand to do it.

Brandon Burton 22:42
Yeah, absolutely. So what are what are some of these other trends? Maybe that you see, I know. Yeah, diversity, equity. Inclusion is one that that I noticed. I don’t know if there’s others, you want to make sure that we highlight as we go about our discussion.

Joe Henning 23:02
You know, we talked a little bit about the political and social fragmentation. We, we realized a lot of that in Georgia, between Brunswick and Atlanta, you know, during the pandemic, and we, we had nothing as severe here in Henry County, but we did have some some conflict, for lack of a better word, I guess. And so you’ve got that fragmentation. And we took the technology, and we started doing community dialogues. And we had to do it virtually because you couldn’t be in person, but we were having success with our community dialogues, and really having the conversation around equity and diversity and inclusion. And from there, you know, it’s interesting, from there, we were able to, we’ve actually got a five part series that we put together for hospitality. And it’s called culture of customer service. And it’s looking at the needs and wants of our African American visitors, our Hispanic visitors, our Asian visitors, our LGBTQ visitors, and those with disabilities. And so we really looked at the diversity within the DEI, and put that out there for hospitality. And we’ve gained some great traction and interest with that, in fact, we’ve got non hospitality, businesses that are interested in providing that for their employees. So I think when we look at that fragmentation, we need to figure out as a community leader, you know, how do we address it, it might not be the same in every community across the country. But you know, we’re all kind of struggling. I think if we’ve got peers out there that have worked with it, I think that’s an opportunity for us to align with that. And then I think the last one, you know, because I know that we’re getting close to your 30 minute mark, but I think one of the lessons we look at is that resource alignment. And, you know, as I said, there’s a lot of things that we do because we’ve always done but that eats up resources. And like you said, we’re just you know, we’re Doing everything we need to really look at what we do well, and what we do, because it’s needed to be done. And so looking at those resources we have, and really applying them to what our mission as a chamber is. And there’s, you know, it’s said that if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. It’s not gonna that alignment is not going to be the same for everybody. But you got to go back and look at mission of your organization. And, you know, our priorities, our leadership development, business success, advocacy. So that’s where we put the largest amounts of our resources in. It might be financial, it might be human capital. But we really look at what those four areas of our mission are. And that’s where those resources go.

Brandon Burton 25:40
So this thought or question is kind of a combination on these last two points that you you hit on with the community dialogues you did, Randy and I, and then the the resource alignment. So I know, during 2020, we all got hit really hard with the the idea that we we all need to pay more attention to diversity, equity inclusion. It was a hot topic. And it was right for chambers to put a focus on that shine more light on it. At the same time, well, let me let me finish that. So So you shine more light, you guys are the community dialogues, which is awesome. I think if you didn’t strike when that iron was hot, and say you just now got around to doing the community dialogues, may not have the same impact that it did when you first rolled it out. So I think being able to quit, act quickly and pivot when you see that need. So I guess my question would be how would you approach the time when it’s right to make that quick pivot versus chasing the shiny objects and the squirrels is distress?

Joe Henning 26:47
Good understood, I think there’s still an opportunity, if there is a need that you’ve identified within your community, by all means have that conversation. Interestingly enough, our first dialogue was late June. And we started with Malcolm Gladwell, talking with strangers. And if anybody isn’t aware of that is his book about Sandra Bland death in Texas. At that she was from Chicago area, she was moving down there for a job and that and she, I believe it was she was in she was found in a cell. Excuse me. Um, strangely, I don’t know how, you know, I don’t know, sometimes you just lucked into success. And, excuse me, this was the five year anniversary of this occurrence. So we were able to use that. But we also took advantage of having great relationships with our police department and our faith based leaders. And so we had a, we had a conversation with a police officer, a faith based leader, and our chamber chair, and really looked at the different pieces that each of them brought to the conversation around the Sandra Bland death. Excuse me. And so, you know, we kind of looked at that as when we were programming, we wanted to make sure we had key individuals that took part in that conversation, because we were doing it virtually, um, it was a little more difficult to get a true community dialogue. But I think if you’re doing it now, you might have that opportunity that you can have the community dialogue. And so if I were to do it today, without the experience, I’d still look at starting with conversations around some of these books that are out there. And there are many, depending on what it is you want to address, we started with the race relations, because that’s where we were struggling in Georgia and in the southeast. But you’ve got others on other disabilities, LGBT, you know, you can look it up, there’s definitely, you know, an area each month that you can focus on, I would do it in an auditorium or a church and you can still have your panel up in front. But you also have then the opportunity that your community that’s, that’s joined you there that day can also ask questions, and so it does become more of that dialogue. So I think there are ways that we could still do this, if people haven’t done it yet. You know, they’re still waiting, there’s still a way that they can impact their community positively.

Brandon Burton 29:24
So in I mean, that’s that’s one example right around the DNI but it will say technology in there, you know, yeah, a new social media platform rolls out and you got to strike while the iron Todd or else he missed the boat and, you know, being able to weigh out, you know, does this really serve our members? Is it really served the mission of the chamber, or is this just the next shiny object and it’s gonna be gone? Yeah,

Joe Henning 29:50
no, I absolutely agree. Like I I, you know, if I could get out of social media, I would, but I think I think for any of us in the industry, you have to use that as a Pulse Point. And there’s a lot that you can find out about what’s going on within your community by looking at what’s what’s happening within that social media context. And whether it’s Facebook or Tik Tok, I mean, it’s Facebook or Twitter, I refuse tick tock, it’s just too annoying for me, I must just, I’m probably aging out. Um, but, you know, I try to limit when I get in there. So I don’t end up down too many rabbit holes. But you do start seeing where people are weighing in on things. And whether it’s, you know, the the limitations of your government, whether it’s locally or at the state level, or even at the federal level? If that’s a concern, then what can you do as an organization as a community leader, to help affect change there? You know, is it a conversation with one of your elected officials, we did that during our 40 day session last year, we couldn’t get to the Capitol because of the pandemic. And so, each Wednesday, I think it was about three o’clock in the afternoon, we took turns inviting each one of our elected officials, our State House State Senate, in for about a half hour conversation on what was happening that week, where they thought certain key legislation that we were interested in was was a dying wasn’t going further. And so it really helped us then to show that role that the Chamber plays in advocating for business. And so sometimes you just look into these successes. And, you know, I think you just have to be open to try and get it. Believe me, I, we laughed earlier when we started. But we’ve had some failures. I mean, we started some of these, these programs. And, you know, I pause it because we were a little bit early, and then I forget to turn the recording back on. And, you know, those things happen. And a lot of times, it’s happened to your guests, so they understand to that, oh, we’re gonna do that again. But you just have to go with it. It’s it is a little bit of a discomfort level that that learning curve you got, but I think it just makes us stronger. It makes our organization stronger. It gives us more tools that we can reach the business community in the community as a whole, so that we can do our service to what we’re here for.

Brandon Burton 32:12
Yeah, absolutely. Well, as we do start to wrap things up here, I wanted to see if you have any, maybe a tip or an action item that you would recommend to a chamber listening that they can do to help elevate their chamber up to the next level?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Joe Henning 32:26
That’s that’s a great question. I think. I think just to take it down to the basic, I challenged them all to do, you know, as a professional within the chamber industry, commit yourself to one goal of professional development in 2022. You know, it can be if you haven’t, if you haven’t looked into Institute for organization management with the US Chamber Foundation, look into it, it’s a four year program, but my goodness, the information you get out of it, the relationships that you creates, are amazing. And for me, that’s my sounding board, when I get stuck with something or I get frustrated or don’t even know where to turn is I go back to some of my peers from my classes or on some of those boards that I served on with them. And we kind of walk through what that is to learn. It could be you know, they’re listening to your podcast, that’s great. That’s professional development, they’re learning from, you know, these these outside of mind these great minds that are out there in the country leading a chamber of commerce, and it’s helping give them ideas. But I think, don’t be afraid to learn and make sure you’re committed to that go after your CCE or your ca IE, look at your state accreditation things. But the only way we have to treat this as a profession. And I think sometimes we’ve been lost with that. And we’ve seen some people that have come and gone that might not have thought it was a profession. But if we’re here for the long haul, and I think going on about 20 years now I consider that a long haul for me. Um, we have to look at it as a professional look at what that professional development looks like. And so I challenge people just kind of keep learning it. If nothing else we learned from the last two years is we have to stay on top of the trends, the knowledge that’s out there, what it is that we can do to better serve our members in our organizations, because we’re all in it together. And we’re here as parents, we’re here to help each other. And I can’t thank you enough for being one of those resources out there for the chamber for fashion and helping all of us to see where those resources and those ideas are.

Brandon Burton 34:37
Thank you. It’s my pleasure. I think it is such a important aspect to continue that professional development wherever you find it. You know, especially everything you listed, I think, you know, having a good mentor having a group of people you can go to and bounce some ideas off of. And these are things that have been shared in other episodes as well and it’s Stay, I’d love having that reinforcement. Oh, somebody, inevitably it’s happened or somebody that that’s where I need to reach out to so and so and, and they don’t do it because they’re busy, they get caught up. And then this is that reminder, go reach out to that person, that group that whatever it is to further your professional development, do it now make a note?

Joe Henning 35:21
That’s right. I think a lot of times we don’t do it, because we’re like, oh, it’s, it’s gonna interrupt what they’re doing. It’s gonna be an inconvenience to them. They’re gonna think I want something. And I’ll tell you what, when I’ve made those calls to thank people, or to see how they’re doing, or I’ve received those calls, it’s made both of our days, right, even somebody’s thinking about me, somebody cares. And I think that’s especially, you know, especially right now, and I hate to keep beating this pandemic. But that’s all we all want. We just want to know that there’s somebody out there.

Brandon Burton 35:51
That’s a fair point. Yeah. But so we’ve been talking all about industry trends. And I like asking this specific question to everyone I have on the show is, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Joe Henning 36:08
I think they’re, you know, there’s always going to be a need. I think the challenge we all have, as chamber professionals, is moving from a relevancy standpoint. And we all proved it, in the last two years that we were relevant, we were needed to being essential, and providing services that they can’t find somewhere else, or that we do so much better that nobody else can do it. And so I think that’s where we’re all heading. I couldn’t tell you, you know, I thought, I thought maybe we wouldn’t be a brick and mortar, because we did well enough. But you know, we also have the Visitors Bureau within our, our organization, so we’d still need to have something like that. But, you know, I think a lot of people are looking at what that space looks like, do they really need that large footprint? Or is it a smaller footprint that they can use and so I think we’re gonna see a lot of changes, I think we’ll see some some mergers, I think some of the smaller chambers might merge or might merge with another entity, whether it’s a Convention and Visitor’s Bureau or an Economic Development Authority. But we’re still going to be here, as long as we’re doing our job. And committing to it as a profession, I think we’re still going to see the need for chambers, they’ve been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. So as long as we keep picking up that challenge, and going forward, I think we’ll be here.

Brandon Burton 37:23
Absolutely. Move from relevant to essential. And I’ll put in a plug for Casey Steinbacher, with her essential, great, great read and really helps to look forward as to what chambers can do to become more essential. But, Joe, I’ve enjoyed this discussion today. And for having you here on the podcast with me, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information if if someone wanted to broaden their professional network or learn more about how you’re doing things, what would be the best way to reach out and connect with you.

Connect with Joe Henning

Joe Henning 37:56
Thank you, that’s great. I my contact information, I think the easiest is probably just go to Henrycounty.com. That’s the website, you’ll find my my ugly mug right there on the homepage, and click on that and get my email address (jhenning@henrycounty.com) and phone number (770. 957.5786). And if you are interested in seeing what we did with those community dialogues on that, search Henry Georgia Chamber on YouTube, and all of those dialogues, let’s video dialogues are up there. And they’re also on our Facebook page for Henry County, chamber, Georgia. And if you have questions on you know, if you want to know what we learned through that process as we improved it, by all means, reach out to me and my team and and I honestly, credit I’m looking forward to I am in that chamber champion chat that you have in Facebook. And so I’m looking forward to learning from others too, as they give us feedback on today’s podcast.

Brandon Burton 38:48
Awesome. I appreciate that. I will I’ll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. It’ll be a chamberchatpodcast.com/episode159 and I’ll try to link the YouTube video or at least your YouTube channel in there. So people are gonna, you know, browse around and find those community dialogues that you reference when this has been fun. Thank you for joining me.

Joe Henning 39:13
This is all Thankyou. I’m glad we finally did get to connect. I apologize again for the delay but but it’s been a great conversation. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 39:20
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