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Gary Molberg from the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce was a fantastic guest to have on the podcast! Gary recently learned the importance of bragging about his Chamber because they are doing some great things. This is an episode that you will want to be sure to listen to.
Gary has been the President & CEO at the Amarillo Chamber since 1997 and during this time, they have built some great momentum, not only with their membership but in large part with their non-dues revenue events. Gary shared with us the top 4 non-dues revenue events that their Chamber hosts each year.
The top 4 non-dues revenue events are:
- The Chamber Golf Tournament with 288 golfers.
- Summer Celebrations/Fireworks Show.
- Business Connection with over 380 business booths.
- And the big one is their BBQ Social with over 7,000 people and 100 businesses participating with their cookers.
We spent a good amount of time talking about the BBQ Social because it is an awesome event. This even ranked #9 in the nation by the US Chamber for non-dues revenue events and has been implemented by several other Chambers.
The format for the BBQ Social is Tuesday is the set-up day. Wednesday is Team Night where each “Team” or participating business is able to invite their VIP guests to cook them a special dinner. This portion is by invitation only. Thursday is the big day where over 7,000 people show up from 5-8 pm to try all of the great food that is prepared. During this entire event, great relationships are formed and business deals are done all along the way. Gary was nice enough to invite me to come to their BBQ Social and to participate as a judge!
The Amarillo Chamber has a couple of other neat programs. One is called “Mayor Calls” where twice a month, Gary as the Chamber President & CEO gets together with their Mayor and the President & CEO of their Economic Development and they go out to visit businesses. They ask what their struggles are and how they can help. They have many success stories by going out to the businesses in their community.
The other program that Gary discussed is called “Buy the Way” which used to be “Shop Smart, Shot Local”. This program does just that, it encourages people to purchase local before the look to make online purchases. Before implementing “Buy the Way”, they were seeing the sales taxes trending in a negative way but they are now trending more positive.
One thing that stuck with me is a quote that Gary shared which is “You have to have the team to live the dream”.
If you would like to connect with Gary about anything that he discussed or about how to start your own BBQ Social, he can be reached by email at gary@amarillo-chamber.org or by phone at 806-342-2001.
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