Our 11th interview in our 2020 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series is with Eric Godet Sr. from the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce in Florida. In the interview the main areas that we covered were the highlights of their synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application, what makes the Greater Gainesville Chamber stand out, their plans on how to lead through the recovery from COVID-19, and words of advice for other Chamber Champions to improve their own Chamber.
Eric covered two highlights from their Chamber of the Year synopsis. The first program he addressed is called Transforming Greater Gainesville. The Chamber looks to the greater community to make Gainesville greater. They have over 55,000 people each day that commute into the city to work. They are focusing on creating key jobs in their 5 targeted sectors (logistics, materials, agricultural/life sciences, humanities, and IT/software). They set out with a goal to create 3,500 new jobs and exceeded that number while seeing an increase of over 5,000 new jobs. The second program is Putting Children First Infrastructure Investment Initiative (i3) focusing on the utilities in the community and the i3-Infrastructure, Investment, and Initiative.
When Eric talked about what makes the Greater Gainesville Chamber stand out, he talked about synergy and the ability their Chamber has for collaborative impact.
The Greater Gainesville Chamber plans to lead through the recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 by staying safe, helping to define essential businesses, assist to obain government funding, sharing of information on phases for recovery, and they will share best practices as businesses get back to business.
As Eric shared his piece of advice for the Chamber Champions listening, he encourages others to really listen to their community. Listening shows you really care. Then always follow up.
If you would like to connect with Eric, he can be reached below:
Email: egodet@gainesvillechamber.com
Phone: 352-334-7100
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