Listen on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher
Our guest this week is Kent Oyler, President & CEO of Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI) in Kentucky as we continue with our Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.
GLI was recently awarded Chamber of the Year for the large Chamber category. Just 5 years ago, GLI was on the verge of going out of business. Since then many changes have happened including a re-branding, a new strategy, an 85% staff turnover, changing their executive structure twice, and they drafted Kent Oyler as their president from the Board of Directors. Kent has an extensive background in entrepreneurship and he has brought his business knowledge to GLI to help turn their organization around. These changes led them to be a finalist for Chamber of the Year in 2018 and then come back in 2019 to win Chamber of the Year!
One of the initiatives Kent shared came from some soul searching at their Chamber to figure out where they could make a difference and not be in competition with other organizations or businesses. This brainstorming led GLI to start an Association Healthcare Plan for businesses with 2-50 employees. Many of the participants are saving an average of 20% on their healthcare expenses and GLI has significantly increased their non-dues revenue.
Kent also shared with us GLI’s theme for this year – “Year of the Entrepreneur”. This entrepreneurial focus helped get Louisville on Steve Case’s “Rise of the Rest”. GLI also created an event called Evening of Entrepreneurship where they had speakers and gave a state of entrepreneurship address. Just this year, GLI has helped get 26 start-up’s off the ground! They feature what they call “Million Dollar Babies” which are start-ups that have earned one million dollars in revenue or raised a million dollars from a single round of equity. Last year, there were 17 Million Dollar Babies! This discussion contains much more great content given Kent’s background as a serial entrepreneur.
You can learn more about Louisville at liveinlou.com. You can also connect with Kent Oyler on LinkedIn and Twitter by searching his name or @glichamber on any of the other social media platforms.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
