The Economic Development Role of Every Chamber with Bill Sisson

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Bill Sisson. 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.

Feel free to join our Chamber Chat Champions Facebook Group to discuss this episode and to share your own experiences and tips with other Chamber Champions.

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 is excited that his new home gym is now complete. Here’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:20
Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, where it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Tony Felker, President and CEO of the Frisco Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for him.

Tony Felker 0:43
One of the key benefits that we’ve realized from Holman Brothers it’s actually happened many years after we started using them. We just completed our new strategic plan and understanding those subtle differences between transactional benefits and transformational benefits. The companies that knew what they expect has been a key part in our strategic plan. And we really want to thank Holman Brothers for that.

Brandon Burton 1:04
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guests for this episode is Bill Sisson. Bill is the president and CEO of William B Sisson and Associates, an economic and community development consulting business located in the Atlanta Georgia area. Prior to starting his business, he served as the president and CEO of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and Mobile, Alabama, from 2013 through 2021. Bill also served as executive director for the Mobile Alabama airport authority from 2008 through 2013. In that position, he was responsible for the mobile Regional Airport at Bakersfield and the Brookley industrial complex near downtown Mobile, the two airfields combined to make up more than 3700 acres of prime industrial development property in the central Gulf Coast region. Before joining the airport authority bill served as vice president of economic development at the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and as Vice President of Business Development at the Birmingham Alabama Regional Chamber of Commerce. his professional career includes positions held at the University of Southern Mississippi and at Dominion Bank shares and first Virginia bank in Roanoke, Virginia. Bill earned his MBA from the University of Alabama and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from James Madison University in Harrisburg, Virginia. He also holds a diploma from the Institute of organizational management. He is a member of Rotary International and has served on the boards of various local community organizations. He has also served on the board of directors for ACCE the committee of 100 of the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of Alabama, and is a past chairman of the Chamber of Commerce association of Alabama. Bill, I’m excited to have you with me today here on chamber tap podcast, I’d like for you just to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little bit better.

Bill Sisson 3:11
Well, Greetings, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be with you this morning, Brian, and thank you so much for the invitation to join you. You’re asked to share something interesting. And you sort of covered that in the bio in that, although I have worked in economic change or development really for most of my career over 30 years. And I did have that stint at the mobile airport authority. And that was decidedly different than anything that I had done before. It probably makes more sense if I explained that a lot of economic development was taking place at the at the mobile airport authority because of, as you mentioned, the Brookley aeroplanes, which is the largest industrial, you know, site in the in the mid the mid Gulf Coast. So that’s where Airbus located a number of years ago, and they just recently announced an expansion there as a matter of fact, so that was a different world going into aviation. I’m not a pilot. And in fact, when the board of directors came to me to ask me to take the position as executive director there, I was at the Chamber of Commerce at the time doing economic development. My first response was, Well, I don’t know anything about running an airport. So you can learn that and, and actually, it did end up being a great experience. So that’s a sort of a outlier part of my career, but it was certainly good for me during the process.

Brandon Burton 4:40
I could see where that could be a little bit overwhelming jumping into a field that you’re totally unfamiliar with, but I see a lot of parallels with economic development, as he had mentioned. Absolutely. So well share with us I know I shared in your bio, but I’d like for you to share maybe a little bit more background on your background working at chamber and economic development work just to kind of help set the table for our discussion today. And, and it may help just to give some perspective to the size of those organizations you

Bill Sisson 5:09
worked with as well. Yeah, I’d be happy to do that. While I was in graduate school at the University of Alabama, I’m actually did an assistantship there, I worked for the Alabama Productivity Center, and there was an executive on loan from Alabama Power, who introduced me to a job that was coming up at the Birmingham Regional Chamber. So people often wonder how people get into the chamber. That’s how I fell into it. I’ve always been interested in chambers of commerce, you know, even growing up, I was interested in what they did. You know, business developments always been something that I have observed and watched and wanted to be involved in. So it’s actually a really good fit for me. And as they say, the rest is history. I was involved in business development at the Chamber in Birmingham, which scale was a very large chamber. They had, I think, 55 on staff, or 4000. Members. And that’s where I first got involved in economic development. It’s when I went to chamber Institute learned more about the profession, we were working hand in hand with the separate economic development organization in Birmingham called the Metropolitan development board. But we still had a very strong role in economic development, which I can go into a little bit more as we continue this discussion. But we were basically responsible for ancillary economic development, you know, retail development, working with smaller prospects, providing research to the economic development, organization, and so forth. I left there to go work at the University of Southern Miss, and I worked there and they’re ran their community, their Center for Community and Economic Development, their people can get their their master’s degree in economic development in Southern Miss. And so that was, you know, a great learning experience for me to understand a little bit more how universities tick, because they have a huge role in economic development, as we all know. And then, of course, the research side of that, you know, that that was a great experience, I was recruited to come back to Alabama to be the economic developer, the Vice President of economic development for the mobile area Chamber of Commerce. And, you know, I did that stint for, you know, five, almost six years before, as I mentioned, going to the airport authority, and then was brought back to the chamber immobile to be the president and CEO, which I was in that role until very recently. That chamber also has a large chamber, they affording on staff, about a $6 million annual budget, little over 2000. Members. So I have primarily worked in larger, larger chambers, but I’m certainly a partner with smaller chambers, all along that, you know, along that road.

Brandon Burton 8:06
Yeah, I think that really helps is, we haven’t mentioned yet what our topic is today, but people may have seen from their podcast player, the topic being the economic development role of every chamber, so not just the big chambers that have that that task and responsibility of economic development. But even some of these smaller more local chambers, they have a role as well. So I’m excited to dive into this discussion with you as you’ve had experience with that direct responsibility and not so much directly. So to get your perspective on that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-The Economic Development Role of Every Chamber

All right, Bill, we are back. And as I mentioned before the break our topic of the role of economic development for every chamber. So obviously, you’ve had a vast experience with economic development, whether it was something that you were tasked with directly or you were helping to support the economic development agency in your area, all the way to being the Director of Economic Development. So you’ve seen the the wide spectrum. So I’d love for you just to share from your experience. Maybe first of all, let’s let’s talk about some of the smaller chambers. What what role could a smaller local chamber have in economic development, if they’re surrounded by, you know, the 800 pound gorillas in the region that really run away with with economic development?

Bill Sisson 12:12
Well, I think that I’m very bullish on the fact that all chambers no matter the size, no matter whether they have direct role in economic development, or not, that they should be involved in that process. So I think as a director or vice president of a chamber, you really ought to be pushing to have a seat at the table. And here’s why really, um, as we all know, you know, chambers are different in every community, they take on the character of the community in which they’re located. This is true, but sometimes I hear small chambers say, Well, I don’t really do economic development, but but really, they are involved in economic development, if nothing more than on the existing business side of that side of the equation. I think that a smaller local chamber has an extremely important role in helping business prospects, businesses that are and individuals that are moving to the community, relocating to the community, helping them to connect with existing businesses that are there, and then is a very, very important role. As new businesses relocate, especially if they’re coming from overseas, they really want to know, hey, the water’s fine here. A chamber even if they’re not directly involved in the economic development process, the chamber can certainly set up those meetings, and help that company to understand the experience, hopefully positive one that existing businesses have had and are having in the community. And I think maybe most importantly, the chamber can illustrate that it is a pro business environment in which a business can grow, be happy, healthy, and continue to expand and add additional jobs as as time goes on. So that’s one very important role, and there are others. But that one, certainly in my opinion, sort of rises to the surface of what any chamber can

Brandon Burton 14:12
do. So as you mentioned, the role of connecting these businesses that are looking to relocate to a certain area and connecting them with existing businesses and showing them you know, how great the community is, would you suggest maybe connecting them with other businesses of a similar size, maybe different industry that similar size or maybe supportive type businesses who could develop a long term relationship with them? Should they make the move what what would be your thinking behind that?

Bill Sisson 14:41
So my thinking would be all of that, really, I mean, I think some, you know, of course meetings with similarly sized organization in similar sectors, but I think also hearing from other sectors and other sized businesses is helpful, as well. And of course, the site if there’s a site selector involved in this process, they would, of course, help direct that they would, they would ask you to, you know, find those existing businesses that are appropriate for those for those interviews, but being the facilitator and the convener of that, really nobody else that can do that quite like a chamber, or they are the members of the organization. So, you know, and in most existing businesses want to help, they want to help and they want to, you know, the sing the praises of the community, from the rooftops, so to speak. So, it’s a pivotal role in the process.

Brandon Burton 15:33
Yeah. What about any kind of, for lack of a better term on the call it marketing material from a smaller chambers perspective to maybe as packages are getting put together, I come from the publishing, industry, chamber publishing. So I think in terms of a media kit, right, somebody wants to do some advertising and send them some samples, media kits, I would anticipate with economic development, there’s some sort of package, it’s probably done more digitally now. But maybe there are some physical items, you send, magazines, brochures, maps, you know, things that have the area, are there things that come to mind, again, from the smaller chamber perspective that maybe they ought to be mindful of to try to include in these type of packets that go out to these businesses,

Bill Sisson 16:24
I’m really glad that you brought that up, Brandon, because I don’t think anything has changed as much as that since I’ve been in this business, you know, used to be you put those physical packages together, right, that you sent out to the business prospects, everything’s digital now. Which means that it has to be the, it has to be up to date, it has to be very current, there’s no forgiving of, you know, research or information with whiskers on it, that this is not going to work. And I think that it’s important for, for chambers to realize that they are the gateway to the community in many cases. So there may be some research that is going on way before anybody locally, or at the state levels, even contacted by the business or the site selector, where they’re doing some pre, you know, work some some research. So if they have bad information on their, on their website, that is going to get the community eliminated pretty quickly. So it’s really important for the chamber, regardless of whether they think they had that role or not to have information digitally, completely up to date, as if they’re on display display, you know, at any given moment, which they could be. So that’s an, I’m so glad you brought that up, because I think a lot of communities miss the mark, because of because of that,

Brandon Burton 17:46
I had actually just come across a chamber probably a month ago, that really was talking about their relocation guide that they, you know, their chamber directory relocation guide. And their economic development director said, you know, we use these in our packets that we send out for, you know, trying to recruit businesses to the area, because it’s a great snapshot of what our community is about, it gives a feel of the vibe and the community layout and all that. And that’s a great idea to include something like that, as you try to attract business to your area. So having something you’re proud of, to showcase and have have good articles and information in there that can help guide a decision. So

Bill Sisson 18:25
it also, you know, the service after the sale is so important in this work. And a lot of times I see that get I see that sort of fall through the cracks, but communities that do that, well, you know, really are going to be successful. And what I mean by that is, you know, helping the company assimilate into the community in a positive way. I’ll be honest with you, I have seen, particularly international companies relocate and do it very well. And I’ve seen them do it poorly. And, you know, their success in the community has to do with how well they assimilate into the, into the community. So wherever the chamber can help with that, to help, you know, connect them help them to understand what’s important in the community, whether it’s United Way or or what other, you know, whatever organization is integral to the community, but also helping individuals families to settle in smoothly, particularly with international prospects, because there’s, there’s families are moving here and know very little of how things really work. You know, how to get a cell phone, checking account, you know, just so many things that we just sort of, you know, sort of do in our sleep. They’ve got to start fresh and do it in a different way. So anyway, one of the things we did to iMobile chamber which I was quite proud of is develop a program called mobiel Connect, which was all about helping families that were moving to the area to I’m connect with, you know, movie Aliens into, to sort of develop those friendships quickly. So that those folks can be ambassadors and help them get get used to the community and to feel a part of the community as quickly as possible.

Brandon Burton 20:14
So I’m glad you brought that up. Because I think that is a key part of making a move easier, right, to be able to welcome those employees, that company with open arms, help them become part of the community. What are some examples with mobile connect that, you know, some tangible items that people can maybe get some of those ideas? And again, we can implement something like that in our community?

Bill Sisson 20:38
Where do you see success? I’m happy to share that. Yeah, um, you know, we did bimonthly, every other month sessions, where we would have a topic about the community, whether it’s the history of the history of the community, you know, the arcs in the community, certainly, you know, we did an economic development, you know, section of that as well to help them understand how economic development, you know, works in the community. But it also provided a social environment, because we always, you know, had heavy hors d’oeuvres and encouraged people to invite the newcomers out to dinner afterwards, to, you know, make those connections as quickly as possible, but giving them sort of a an overview of the community. I kind of, you know, I explain it, it’s sort of like a leadership class, except for the newcomers, so that they can learn more about the community quickly, and it was wildly successful, I was sort of surprised at how appreciative they were, the newcomers were to learn about the community and to understand a little bit more about the arts, fabric, and, and so forth. So, you know, I would highly recommend people look at that, maybe just some simple way, maybe one session, you know, but do something like that, to help people to connect quickly.

Brandon Burton 22:01
So, as you were explaining about that, it made me think, Yeah, I’ve seen before where a big corporation moves to a city, and they get a lot of attention from the city from the chamber, economic development. And you’re always going to have a handful of those Chamber members that feel slighted. Like you’re getting all the attention to the big corporation that just moved here, they can have a role in helping to welcome them, helping them to integrate into the community, I can see where that really strengthens the relationship, even with those existing members to say, look, you’ve got a new customer base, if you’re making new connections here. You’ve I mean, it just supports everything. So I think that is such a key part to not Shun, you know, the your existing members, but make them be a part of welcoming these new companies into town.

Bill Sisson 22:51
Yeah, Brandon, you’ve actually cracked the code there. No, seriously. We saw it as a way to not only help the new business coming, and certainly the families coming, but as a way to thank our investors, who were so involved in the process and helping us help them to make those connections, because, you know, the bonuses is that in many cases, they develop those relationships, and they end up being able to do business with, you know, some of those businesses that are that are coming to the area. So we saw it as a membership retention tool, as well.

Brandon Burton 23:27
Yeah, absolutely. So, maybe share with us some some thoughts from the larger chamber perspective. They are tasked with external economic development, they may have dedicated staff, you know, a number of staff dedicated towards economic development. I think some of this is becomes a little bit obvious because especially those listening, they’re kind of in the trenches, and they’re, they’ve been trained and they go to seminars and everything they certifications, they know, kind of the ins and outs. But I’m curious, from a larger chamber perspective, how can they work together with some of those smaller chambers within their region, to really boost economic development as a whole?

Bill Sisson 24:11
I think one of the main ways that the to sort of be a regional approach with all the regional chambers involved would be in the tradeshow arena. You know, I’m a big believer in when you’re showcasing your community at say, like the Paris Air Show, for example, that you have a regional push. And that means involving the other economic development organizations in the region, maybe throughout the state, but certainly the chambers of commerce in that area, invite them to come along, be a part of the booth, be a part of the process because I think whenever you can show that your community is united, and that it will be sort of a one stop shop for the business if they really relocate to the area. It is a huge positive for the community. So that’s one, you know, easy way to, to have that regional push that’s so important in this in this business.

Brandon Burton 25:11
So talent attraction, workforce development, they’re hot topics in the chamber world economic development as well. So they’re very closely related to economic development. It’s kind of a chicken or an egg. Kind of a thing, though, as I see it, you either have the workforce to support that company, or you’re trying to attract the company, and then hope with the promise that you can deliver the workforce. How do you think a community goes about workforce and talent attraction?

Bill Sisson 25:43
I think really focusing on why people rooms, I think, is incredibly important these days to sort of like I was talking about with that mobile Connect program, to have similar programs that are geared towards college graduates or about to be college graduates to help them connect with businesses in the local community, if your community is fortunate enough to have a university, there should be a lot of effort and helping those students to stay in your community, and to end up with a job in your community. So programs to help make those connections to to help the businesses to connect with those seem to be graduates, it’s golden. And again, I see a lot of communities sort of forgetting to do that. And if you just rely on businesses to reach out to those local graduates, you’re probably going to be disappointed. As we all know, they will often complain that they can’t find our workforce, but they’re not necessarily going to have a an organized program for reaching out to the local university graduates. So that’s where the chamber can come in. And, I mean, we’re the best conveners out there. Right. And so that’s an example of convening and bringing together those, that that workforce with business in the local area.

Brandon Burton 27:10
And I think being that that convener, that facilitator of setting up some internships, you know, in a sophomore and junior year of a college student is so critical for them to see I can stay here I love, you know, going to school here, why wouldn’t I develop the built my my life here after graduation?

Bill Sisson 27:27
Exactly. And then, you know, of course, that same program can be used to attract college graduates from outside of the the region as well. So, if a chamber does not have such a program, they need to get to work on developing that kind of program. Because as it’s almost cliche to say, but the workforce today they move where they want to move. They’re not necessarily just moving to where you know, the industry is or the businesses, they’re gonna pick their location. So chambers may be involved in helping sell the community that hey, this is a great place to live, work and eventually raise a family brass?

Brandon Burton 28:08
Absolutely. Well, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you, if you might have one tip or an action item for Chamber Champions listening that they might be able to do to lift their organization up to the next level.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Bill Sisson 28:22
You know, plain and simple I, you know, if you’re not already involved in your state, chamber Association, I’m a big believer in ACCE. I’m also a big believer in education through podcasts, like like, like the you facilitate Brandon, those ways to continue to learn and to network. And I just look back on my career. And I think that where I grew the most and learned the most were in those associations where I can meet with people that were dealing with the same things that that I was dealing with. And maybe I could not make the mistake that they made. Maybe I could share a mistake that I made, you know, it’s just a great way to learn and to continue to grow. The other thing is, and I had a professor years ago, you know, because I’m an old guy now, but years ago, he said, one piece of advice is to not be tied down to a house or community too much. It’s very easy to be comfortable wherever you know, you’re located. But in many cases in the chamber of business, if you’re going to advance, you have to be willing to make some moves. Now, having said that, I completely respect if somebody wants to sort of stay in place while their kids are in those formative years and in middle and high school or, or whatever. But I think the willingness to move to advance the career, it’s not bad advice

Brandon Burton 29:57
at all. Yeah, and Add them may be a tough one for somebody to swallow you get so committed in your community to then uproot and start over at a new community that can be so well, I like asking everyone that I have on the show this question is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Bill Sisson 30:23
I think that chambers must get more and more involved in entrepreneurial activity. And that has been a big change since I first got into this business. Now, I think, you know, the entrepreneurial side is overshadowing everything else. And I really like it because it enables a framework for so much more diversity, equity and inclusion than typical economic development. And, you know, it leads to the business community beginning to look more like the demographics of the community in which the chamber is located. What I mean by that is, you know, we started an incubator at the mobile chamber while I was there, we were fortunate to get an EDA grant. It has exceeded every expectation we had as it relates to diversity, equity inclusion in that over 60% of the businesses are either minority or women that have started up out of that out of that incubator. That’s more that’s more like that’s more like the true face of the community. So I see that certainly as the future. And I think that the convening role that I talked about earlier, that’s the future we will continue to be a great convener organization in any community, I’ve always joked that, you know, being in the chamber business ensures that your conservative friends will swear that that you know, the chamber and you are, you know, wildly liberal. And your liberal friends think that the chamber is all about corporate greed and such, right, yeah. So I guess that the the true testament of that is that we’re in the same middle, which, you know, that’s a very strong position to be in as far as being able to convene all parties and bring all parties to the table. So I hope that doesn’t change. But I think that will continue into the future.

Brandon Burton 32:24
Yeah. And I think that need is so much more right now, to be able to do that, that same middle, that same center to bring together both sides and say, Yeah, we are working towards a common goal here.

Bill Sisson 32:35
So absolutely,

Brandon Burton 32:36
yeah. I love your response about entrepreneurship. At the chamber, I’ve not heard that response and the tie to entrepreneurship and diversity, equity inclusion, I think that’s so spot on. And I see that I see that as, as you embrace the the entrepreneurs in your community, you’re gonna see more of that reflection of the demographic and your community. Absolutely,

Bill Sisson 33:00
I would just add one thing, bring it in. And that would be you know, you can’t recruit your way to mirroring the demographics of your community isn’t very difficult to do, but you can begin to develop it from within. And that’s the beauty of that entrepreneurial, you know, economic development.

Brandon Burton 33:18
I love that. Hopefully, everybody took a note of that and start putting together a plan. But, Bill, this has been great having you on the podcast, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information. I know you’ve you’ve recently retired, so you might be a little harder to find than you were in the past. So what would be the best way for listener to reach out and connect with you?

Connect with Bill Sisson

Bill Sisson 33:40
Yeah, I retired from the chamber business, so to speak. But I’ve started my own consulting company. And, you know, I’m gathering clients. As we speak, I will be doing international economic development, kind of I talked about earlier, helping businesses that are relocating to the United States to understand and easily assimilate into the community in which they’re located. So if anybody needs any help with that, certainly reach out to me. It’s williambsisson@gmail.com, William B. Sisson and Associates, I’m on LinkedIn. And I would love to connect and partner and do whatever that could come out of potential relationships with folks related to consulting. So I appreciate your allowing me to, to be with you today. And certainly to provide that contact information. Thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 34:29
Absolutely. And we’ll get that contact information in our show notes as well. So if somebody’s walking the dog or driving in the car and can’t write it down, just go to the show notes, and you’ll find it in there. But Bill, this has been great, great discussion and appreciate you spending time with me today here on timbertech podcast providing great value to the listeners. This has been a wonderful discussion. So thanks a lot.

Bill Sisson 34:50
Thank you, Brandon. Thank you for what you do.

Brandon Burton 34:53
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