Greater Irving Las-Colinas Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Beth Bowman

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 83 — Greater Irving Las-Colinas Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Beth Bowman
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Beth Bowman
Editorial QA: Source transcript incomplete; closing segment requires recovery.

00:00.2 Brandon Burton
This special episode is part of our 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist series, where you get to hear from some of the top chambers across the country. I hope you find great value in this series, but first, the intro. 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.
00:33.102 Brandon Burton
Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your Chamber members and your community. This is episode 83 of Chamber Chat Podcast, and I'm excited to continue this ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series that we're doing now for the second year in a row. And This week we have Beth Bowman with us. She is the president and CEO of the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce and the Irving Economic Development Partnership. But I I wanted to mention too, if you are new to listening to Chamber Chat Podcast, I'd encourage you to check out our get started page at Chamber Chat Podcast.com slash start, where you can find some resources for some nondues revenues, non dues revenue ideas for your chamber. as well as our free chamber podcasting guide if you've ever considered starting a podcast for your own chamber. Again, that's found at ChamberChatPodcast.com/slash start. So as I mentioned, Beth Bowman is our our guest today as we will be talking about the great things that the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber is doing. But first a little bit about Beth. Beth Bowman is a highly regarded Chamber of Commerce executive and economic development professional. in Irving, Texas, which is the 13th most populous city in the state and one of the most diverse communities in the nation. She is president and CEO of the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce, the first five-star accredited chamber in Texas, and president of the Irving Economic Development Partnership, an alliance of private and public entities with the mission to maintain and recruit local, national and international corporations to the city. Located in the epicenter of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Under her leadership, the Irving Las Colinas Chamber was a finalist for the ACCE Chamber of the Year in 2019, which you can learn more about last year on our previous episode with her at chamberchatpodcast.com/slash episode 35. But Beth is a champion for business industry.
02:55.45 Brandon Burton
The city of Irving, Las Colinas and its citizens working to improve the quality of life, education, and opportunities for all. She was recently appointed by Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to the Dallas County Economic Recovery Advisory Committee to help develop guidelines for reopening the businesses in the COVID nineteen environment. In 2012, she was honored by the Dallas Business Journal as one of the 40 under 40 most influential businesses and community leaders. She is also the recipient of the ACCE 2019 40 under 40 award and a member of the ACCE Board of Directors 2019. The US Chamber of Commerce named Beth to its Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. She served as a judge in the 2015 and 2016 for the ACCE Chamber of the Year Award. She also serves on the board of the Texas Association of Business, one of the most influential business organizations in the state advocating for public policies. Her professional achievements include the certified Chamber of Commerce Executive designation. She's a graduate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organizational Management at Loyola Marymount University in California and is a certified lean six Sigma greenbelt. Beth is a graduate of Baylor University with a Bachelor in Arts in Communications and minor in business. She and her husband Steven enjoy spending their free time with their children. I'm excited to get into these highlights of what's making the greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber stand out to be considered as a Chamber of the Year finalist again for a second year in a row. And we'll get into that discussion as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor. Chambers are not considered for Chamber of the Year without having great programs and steady streams of non dues revenue. I want to introduce you to a great affinity program from Swypit. In partnership with Chamber Chat Podcast, Swypit is one of the best credit card processors in the business. With the Swypit Affinity program, you can save up to 40% on your credit card processing.
05:11.598 Brandon Burton
Fees at the chamber and help your member partners to do the same. Chambers who take advantage of the Swypit Affinity program can add thousands of dollars to their non-dues revenue annually. Please visit ChamberChatPodcast.com slash CC for more information and to request your complimentary cost savings analysis from the experts at Swypit. The first twenty chambers to respond will qualify for free equipment to get set up. Again, visit chamberchatpodcast dot com slash C C to start swiping with Swypit. All right, Beth, we are back. I'm excited to have you back on Chamber Chat Podcast again and would love for you to to say hello to all the chamber champions out there that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so we all get to know Beth Bowman a little bit better.
06:06.722 Beth Bowman
Brandon, thank you so much for inviting me onto your podcast. It's great to be with you again. as I believe you shared in my introduction, it's our second year that our Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce has been a chamber of the year finalist. So on behalf of our 16 member team, just really proud to represent our organization. And be recognized for for our accomplishments. It has been one of our goals in our powering progress strategic plan and a great honor to be considered amongst some of the most outstanding caliber chambers within the country. but it's a bit of serendipity that brought me to the chamber and truly an opportunity to work with not only business leaders from across our community, region, state, and nation, but also our elected officials as we keep championing opportunities for business industry, and I've had the pleasure to do that over the past 15 years. a little interesting fact, I have the privilege to be the first woman president of the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce and its 88-year history and the first female to also lead the public-private partnership where we have a one-stop shop towards our economic development approach here in Irving, Texas.
07:54.582 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. And as you were giving that little introducti you know, continued introduction about yourself, I didn't know about the the sports marketing background. That would have been a fun career too, but maybe not as quite as rewarding as what you're currently doing.
08:08.93 Beth Bowman
It was bun, yes.
08:10.828 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So if you could share a little bit more with us about the the Greater Irving Las Colinas Chamber and and you mentioned it it has the economic development responsibility as well for Irving. you had mentioned a staff of of sixteen, but if you could share with us a little bit more about the the size, location, budget. we know you're you're in the D F W Metroplex, but but share with us a little more to give listeners a a better perspective where you're coming from.
08:39.032 Beth Bowman
So I'll just share as people think about the North Texas area or the DFW area, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Welcome, you know, home to the center of that. So we are truly the center of North Texas and proud of our location. let me touch on the chamber first and then I'll broaden it up to talk about Irving Las Colinas. And so we have a small but highly productive team, as I shared in the beginning, 16 men and women that manage our programs and activities for approximately 1,900 member investors. And those member investors represent just over 220,000 employees. so we have a budget of about 4 million. that includes our member investor dues. And then a $2.7 million services contract with our partners at the city of Irving to provide economic development, marketing, business recruitment, business retention, expansion, services. And also we lead the private investor fund for economic development. It's a pleasure to oversee. Irving's International Affairs, Sister Cities Program, Foreign Dignitary and Foreign Delegations, Inbound, Outbound missions. We also organize trade missions where we get to amplify the Irving Las Colinas story, educational programs such as how to develop an import-export business strategy. We support small businesses, our entrepreneurs, startup companies, through such activities and Programs is SCORE, which is a complementary consulting service for entrepreneurs through the U.S. Small Business Administration. We also have memorandum of understandings, MOUs with organizations like the US Mexico Chamber that help us accomplish our goals and strategies laid out in our Powering Progress Strategic Plan. We amplify and support women in minority-owned businesses.
10:53.068 Beth Bowman
with programs through our partners at Women's Leadership Live, bringing awareness and celebrating International Women's Day. And we've also integrated the US Chamber of Commerce for Small Business Masterclass program two years ago. So as we transition from from the chamber to our community, as I shared, you know Irving is is really the heart of the DFW area. In fact, the airport, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, is located, a portion of that airport is located within our city limits. Our central location, our rapid transit system, modern day infrastructure, and business-friendly environment give us an important advantage for attracting major corporations. In fact, I'm sure Brandon, as you know and your your viewers know, we are the headquarters of headquarters in Texas. We're very proud of that. it is the eight Fortune 500 companies and four Fortune 1000 companies that have determined Irving Las Colinas is their home for their global headquarters. we also have about 150 foreign-based corporations. To complement about 8,500 small and mid-sized businesses in our community. We have a young, skilled workforce and one of the most diversive codes in the country, as you shared in the introduction. About 35% of our population is foreign born. Las Colinas is one of the city's two master plan communities. Las Colinas is a 12,000 acre. as we like to call it masterpiece of a master planned urban center. it's the largest master plan community in the US. It was built around a 21-acre Lake Carolyn with Venetian-style canals lined with shops and restaurants and lakefront housing opportunities. And for those that can see
13:06.863 Beth Bowman
my my Zoom digital background, you're looking at our Las Colinas vibrant urban center.
13:14.868 Brandon Burton
It's a beautiful picture and I'll I'll make sure it goes in the show notes so everybody can see where Beth is located.
13:21.294 Beth Bowman
Thank you. We would welcome anyone to come visit. And you know, our team would would really love you to stay a while. We have also brought the Toyota Music Factory, a world-class entertainment district with an 8,000-seat indoor-outdoor ample theater and 50,000 square feet of event plaza into our community. that is just down the street from our convention center and our Westin Convention Center Hotel across the street from residential living. And it's really been a great asset to our community and to capture, you know, the after-five business that our business community and their workforce has wanted for so many years. We're a model transit-oriented development or TOD, which means we've developed a complete community where people can live. work, play, walk, and visit without even getting into a car. And for that, you know, we're so thankful for our elected officials and business leaders that have laid an extremely firm foundation. And today I have the pleasure to continue to activate their leadership and foundation into the future.
14:43.35 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. So if anybody couldn't tell, Irving is a happening place. I happen to to be close in proximity to to Irving and and just I think the location being right there by the airport and just being in s very central to the DFW Metroplex make it very desirable for these headquarters, as Beth was saying, be the headquarters for headquarters. It makes a lot of sense. So Beth, as we transition a little bit into the chamber of the year application process, I know each chamber is submitting a couple of programs and your your synopsis on the application. Could you take us through and just touch on the the highlights from your synopsis that you submitted?
15:29.422 Beth Bowman
Absolutely, Brandon. So I would say, you know, the Chamber of the Year application is a healthy exercise for us to reflect on the great work that we do day in, day out to advance our mission and continue to capitalize on the catalytic leadership that we have in our community. This past year, our application really focused on two initiatives. our small business blitz as well as our share tank programs. Let me give you a couple highlights on our small business blitz. As you have shared, you know, we're an extremely competitive regional market and our focus has traditionally been on business recruitment. And but last year, prior to the public health pandemic, Data showed that we needed to shift some of our efforts to really look at business retention. So we organized our inaugural small business blitz with the goal of personally visiting 1,000 businesses in one day. Up 10% of our community, right? It sounds so simple. and with the enlistment and training of a Blitz team.
16:49.688 Beth Bowman
Comprised of 55 member investors, including our mayor and our city council, our city manager, and our chamber leadership team and staff. we were set out to accomplish three things. The first was a simple thank you to our small businesses for doing business in Irving Las Colinas. Second, We wanted to get feedback on their needs and if they had any concerns to address those or commit to get back to them. And third, find solutions to any challenges that they brought up. For example, you know, issues around signage or traffic control and flow or parking for their employees. We were able to find about 90% of their solutions were solved, which is really exciting. And the 10% that we weren't able to solve in a short term, we are continuing to work on long-term strategies. What the small bliss created was an incredible amount of goodwill for our small businesses. This effort provided a new value-based opportunity for our member investors and has become a part of our community building mission. So, Brandon, if I can just share with you and take your viewers on a little bit of a virtual small business blitz. Imagine leadership from the chamber, their business neighbors, and our elected officials coming in just to say thank you. and dropping off a small business resource kit full of swag, key numbers and information that can be key to the success of their business and and walking away.
18:56.278 Beth Bowman
Our businesses were so thankful and truly had never experienced that before. So we were really proud to be the creator and conduit to executing a successful small business split. And it's just become the fabric of our organization. And obviously with COVID 19 this year, we've had to shift a little bit. small business resource kit and swag, it's really been focused on safety and how to safely re-office or reopen. As as we like to share here in Irving, you know, our business has always been your business. Now let's get back to it. And that small business blitz fits nicely into our reopening, reofficing campaign.
19:48.416 Brandon Burton
I like that. Our business is your business. Let's get back to it. Yes. That's awesome.
19:54.494 Beth Bowman
yeah, the second opportunity that we focused on was ShareTank. ShareTank is a chamber program that collaborates with community and business partners to provide a four-day complementary business management training and educational seminars for our local nonprofit organizations. the event concludes with an opportunity for these nonprofits that participate to pitch their organization to a panel of businesses for an opportunity to receive private industry funding. Over the past four years, we've had about 50 nonprofits participate in the ShareTank program. So that's 50 nonprofits that are receiving about 40 hours of complimentary management and educational. programming as well as being provided the opportunity to receive a hundred and thirty thousand dollars in financial support to continue their mission and positive impact on on the community. this program has helped many nonprofits better manage and grow their organization. It's increased it has significantly increased interest and population Outside of Irvings. We've had many nonprofits outside of Irving that have wished to participate, and we've been very focused on supporting our local nonprofits in Irving that are helping Irving while being a conduit to helping our businesses warmly get introduced to nonprofits for them to be a part of their. giving strategy and if they're not part of their giving strategy, Share Tank is a part of their giving strategy. So now our nonprofits, instead of being able to pitch and ask for you know a thousand dollars to support a program, they might be able to secure six thousand dollars and continue to deliver their program, which helps some of our most vulnerable population in our community.
22:04.878 Brandon Burton
I love the idea that that program brings about the awareness for the nonprofit, but I'm sure there's been some good partnerships that have come out of it too, with the private funding helping out those nonprofits.
22:16.396 Beth Bowman
Yes. So, you know, we are often criticized, you know, in our community known as the headquarters of headquarters, that we we only focus on big business. And that is definitely not the case. And we're really proud of the work that we do with our small businesses, as well as being a conduit to aid and supporting our most vulnerable in the community has really provided us recognition to be a finalist for the chamber of the year category four.
22:45.806 Brandon Burton
So share tank sounds a lot like Shark Tank, and I think we talked about that a little bit last year. Have you had any luck getting Mark Cuban to come in as one of those funders?
22:57.92 Beth Bowman
we we always are open to entrepreneurs and funders to check out the program. And you know, our region is very fortunate to have Mr. Cuban be a key champion for entrepreneurs and just continues to amplify the in-lead philanthropic efforts throughout the region with which Irving has benefited from.
23:24.726 Brandon Burton
That's right. So I wanted to ask you with the these are great programs, by the way, that that you guys submitted on your application and and I can see why the Irving Las Colinas Chamber is standing out, but maybe aside from these programs, what do you feel it is about the Irving Las Colinas Chamber that stands out maybe above other chambers? What are some things that you guys are doing that maybe some other chambers wouldn't normally do?
23:53.902 Beth Bowman
Brandon, I I I believe it's three areas that that we are really standing out in a crowd and and get asked to provide a lot of our feedback or intelligence or docu share to our peers. professional certification, benchmarking, competitive collaboration, and advocacy would be the top three. Let me touch on professional certification. First of all, we recruit team members that have a spirit of servitude. They love what they do and serve to others in their Authentic skill set and priorities. So we hire servant leaders, period. Secondly, we put a lot of emphasis on professional training and certification for our staff, and we're very thankful for our board chair and our board of directors that continue to make sure that our staff is getting the training that they need to be current and allow our chamber. to be an extension of their teams day in and day out. We encourage our team to also be leaders in the community. We encourage them to serve on nonprofit boards or serve on regional foundations. So in terms of certification, you know, we we encourage our team to go for the highest certification you can obtain in the industry. the certified chamber executive. And I'm really proud to say, you know, that we have two CCEs on our team. We have one that is very close to meeting the minimum requirements and another just shortly behind that individual. So that's really exciting that we could potentially have four CCEs on our team. And then also
25:57.352 Beth Bowman
IOM through the US Chamber of Commerce, Institute of Organizational Management certification. And we not only have colleagues and team members that have gone through that, but they've gone back to serve as class advisors on the board of directors for different institute sites. And then in terms of you know, within the region, we encourage, you know, our Colleagues to take advantage of our local leadership Irving program, our regional leadership North Texas program through our partners of the North Texas Commission, and then state and national leadership programs through Leadership Texas. So professional certifications and just professional development is really a key area within our chamber. And our staff, in addition to being servant leaders, are really lifetime learners. So we're continuing to get energized and bring back latest trends and data and approaches that only helps advance our mission as well as our member investors. the second item, you know, benchmarking and competitive collaboration. So we're in an extremely competitive regional market. we enjoy collaboration with our peers and we routinely benchmark our performance with other chambers and economic development organizations. So in Irving, you know, our business industry gets to benefit from our one-stop shop approach to economic development. What does that mean? So you're a business that's looking to relocate. You believe Irving Las Colinas would be a good fit. You come to the chamber. And the chamber acts as an extension of your team, and we bring in other stakeholders, our partners of the city, our partners of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Las Colinas Association, the Art Center, and we listen and we respond and we provide solutions to your questions, overcome your concerns, all at the same table. And so really being able to deliver.
28:19.414 Beth Bowman
deliver an authentic one-stop shopping experience for our customers.
28:26.082 Brandon Burton
I I'd like to add you had mentioned being in a competitive area. And just for listeners to understand, where Irving Las Colinas is last year, the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce, which is one of the neighbors to the Irving Las Colinas Chamber, was a finalist for Chamber of the Year. And this year, the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, which is another one of their neighbors, is a finalist for Chamber of the Year. So it is very an extremely competitive area as far as chambers go. And great chamber leadership throughout the DFW Metroplex. So I just I felt like I had to add that in there.
29:00.59 Beth Bowman
Absolutely. Yeah. And we're really, you know, I I I know our friends in Arlington, my my peer Michael Jacobson and and his team, congratulations. And we know there are finalists in category three. And, you know, our friends in Gainesville and Tulsa, I mean, wow, we couldn't be in better company in category four. And, you know, the judges really have their work cut out for them. and and just to be in the company of these finalists is success. to our team as we really look to those chambers as leading the way and and an example of excellence. So we couldn't be more proud to be in the company with Tulsa and Gainesville. so getting back to the third item in terms of where we stand out is our advocacy efforts. We do what most businesses are unable to do for themselves, and that's advocate for favorable public policies at the state, local, and federal levels, and make sure that they are aligned with other like business industries so they're not alone. We get to bring the power and the access to 220,000 employees that are also in alignment with their needs. And we get to champion that effort on their behalf so they can continue to focus on running their business. We also track and report legislative updates to our member investors. And we have a PAC. It's an issues pack. It's our citizens, it's called CIVBI. It's our Committee to Inform Voters on Business Issues. And it's set up to support initiatives that are a top priority for business. So we've had the pleasure to overcome and change the Texas Constitution. We've run local elections that are really important for the future of our city and really supportive that our PAC board is pretty aggressive and allows us to really respond to business industry issues in a strategic manner.
31:16.45 Brandon Burton
Very good. I think those are all great examples of why the Irving Las Colinas is standing out of the chamber. I wanted to to shift gears a little bit. As we look around the country, many of the businesses right now are looking to to see how they can best kind of bounce back from the economic impact from the the COVID nineteen pandemic. Would you mind sharing with us what your plans are to help lead your business community? through the recovery specifically on the the economic front.
31:50.83 Beth Bowman
Absolutely, Brandon. And I'd like to touch on nine areas. And before I begin, I just want to say, you know, this is uncharted territory and an unprecedented time. And we are asking our employers, employees, including the chamber, to truly provide acts that are unhumane. You know, we first started to ask everyone to stay home. Okay, everybody was getting adjusted to that. Then we really asked you, you know, to continue to to stay at home and and really not go to any, you know, recreation or retail establishments unless it was an ins a necessity. All right. So you're home, you can't go out, you're you know, your your personal. Schedule has been significantly impacted. And then for those that have dependent responsibilities, whether you're caring for children or caring for, you know, our seasoned population, we're now asking you to be the teacher or be an extension of the teacher at home in this digital environment that some districts or private schools were able to. pivot and and execute pretty quickly. But then we were also for those that felt that their loved ones might be in a vulnerable state in assisted living, you know, some brought their loved ones home to care for them. So stay at home, continue to work, don't go anywhere unless you have to go. Make sure when you go, have PPE. by the way, while you're working and staying at home, We're gonna ask you to educate your children or provide supplementary education and entertainment for your children. And we're also gonna ask that you care for your dependents if you feel that's a better environment for them to be in. I mean, Brendan, who words cannot express in anybody that is projecting, you know, when we're gonna be back to normal.
34:06.512 Beth Bowman
I I wish I had their crystal ball. So what we can share today is really the nine areas that we've been working and so proud of our team, our elected leaders, and our chamber board for just really persevering, being patient, extending grace and kindness during this time as we work together. to reopen and re-office Irving Las Colinas. So let me share with you first. I was asked and appointed by our county judge, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, to serve on the Dallas County Economic Recovery Advisory Committee to help provide recommendation and guidelines for the reopening of businesses in the COVID-19 environment. We connect and have daily, weekly dialogue. as well as provide direct feedback to the judge. And he is very open to you know reopening or reofficing strategies that are going be a benefit to all with the focus of keeping everyone safe and healthy. Been able to bring the interaction at the county level, you know, right into our community. And our our chamber has hosted from the beginning We brought business industry to Judge Jenkins and hosted weekly calls with our county judge and other public health care leaders for the latest information on COVID-19 and how our community was responding. On a national level, as we focus on our small businesses, many of them significantly impacted, you know, we worked with the SBA. the most requested information to date is on the US small business administration program of grants and loans. We hosted virtual Zoom, you know, digital meetings with the assistant disaster informational meetings with the with the business assistance disaster international meet in informational meetings. Let me let me correct myself. Is that
36:27.755 Brandon Burton
Mm-hmm.
36:29.126 Beth Bowman
We hosted business assistant disaster informational meetings. So, how could our small businesses get disaster assistance loans that provided guidance to small business owners on applying for assistance and dedicated a section of their website to providing the latest updated information? We also took it a step further and did research in into our local banks. We surveyed more than 50 local banks to determine their participation in the SBA's PPP program or the Paycheck Protection Program, which we posted on our website as a resource for all our small businesses. So again, our team pivoting, in addition to being a trusted advisor to business industry, we were also trying to make sure to really elevate and highlight our local banks, you know, who was going to be just taking care of their current customers, who was going to be taking new customers, who was going to be participating in the PPP, not participating, etc. We provided that one stop shop of information on our website. There's no doubt the hospitality industry has been hit the hardest. And Brandon, that is our number one industry in Irving Las Colinas. Immediately we reached out to our local restaurants. We contacted about a hundred and launched a distance socially eat locally campaign, providing the latest up-to-date information on restaurants and those that were available for takeout or delivery services and just really want to amplify and celebrate our our restauranteers, those that have been able to pivot and make it through these times. We've continued to keep that restaurant on our website and also amplified their services through social media channels. Webinars, our our team has participated in webinars to stay current on developments. I mean, I think it was such an overload on information the first, you know, four to eight weeks. And once it was receiving the information, we then had to comb through it to provide the facts in a manner that
38:42.242 Beth Bowman
you know, not only our enterprise businesses, but our small businesses could comprehend, as well as helpful tips for our Irving Las Colinas businesses to begin to reopen and reopen in a safe manner. and we hosted policy experts, our partners at the US Chamber, to provide weekly updates on loan and grant relief programs. Our team turned into personal consultants. We were around the clock just checking in on our member investors. How are you doing? Are you okay? How are your employees? We are here for you. Please call or text, send an email if there's anything we can do to help you.
39:34.562 Beth Bowman
Facilitated donations. I am so proud. I mean, I think our community showed their best spirit. You know, our businesses that were willing to immediately get PPE equipment to our hospitals. And we have two hospitals in our community to where our hospital said, we are good. Thank you so much. Because of business industry's efforts, we are stopped on PPE. So then we turned to our nursing homes, our partners at the city to make sure they had PPE. And then we also made sure as we work with our small businesses that they have access to it. So again, I can't thank our enterprise large businesses for leveraging their supply network and making sure our community had efficient PPE. We also had a lot of our member investors that were pivoting their business model. we had one of our member investors that converted their plastics business to producing face shields. So that was really exciting to see our entrepreneurs really being able to pivot on the dime to serve our community. And then we continue and we have surveyed our member investors and why we want to make sure we are continu continuing to deliver service deliver services that matter. and we want to make sure during this very fluid time that we have the most accurate information to serve our business community in ways that they need help real time. And we will continue to do that through our reopening and re-officing efforts.
41:22.326 Brandon Burton
Very good. I think there's a lot of good tips in there that chambers throughout the world can can take and and apply bits and pieces that make sense to their organizations. But Beth, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you what would be one action item or piece of advice that you could give to the the chamber champions that are listening that they can do to help take their chamber up to the next level?
41:46.198 Beth Bowman
Yeah, so I would just share, you know, two two items. Very important that chamber champions are catalytic leaders and many of my peers do this day in and day out, but have an extr a very close professional relationship with your your city management, your mayor council, school districts, nonprofits. After all, we're all in this together. And if COVID nineteen has shown us anything. It's hard to build a relationship during a pandemic. And we are really spoiled in Irving Las Colinas that we have unshakable trust amongst our partners. And we've just been able to pick up the phone, text any hour of the day, any day of the week, and respond. this you especially during this unique time, collaboration and partnerships demonstrate the essential s synergies. That the community needs, including our employers, their employees, in both the public and private sector. And also, we are more than just a business membership organization. We are more than that. We are advisors, we are coordinators, facilitators, and we are the conduit in the community that drives results.
43:13.92 Brandon Burton
I couldn't agree more. The conduit that drives results. I I asked this question to you last year when when we had you on the show, but I ask everyone that I have on. As we are always thinking about chambers staying relevant, as we look to the future, how do you view the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?
43:38.446 Beth Bowman
That that is a loaded question of time. So I'm gonna respond realistically, but also with a a glimmer of of hope. And I know hope is not a strong strategy. This pandemic has fundamentally changed the world we live in and businesses that operate in it. Everyone's safety is put as the number one priority. It's startling for me to hear from our National Association, ACCE, who I highly respect and believe Sheree Anne Kelly's doing an incredible job, that about 25% of my peers are not likely to continue operating through COVID-19. We are already.
feeling the strain of businesses looking to cut costs and cut memberships or association participation.
Now is a time where chambers need to unite and help our neighboring chambers that might be struggling to amplify our brand and communicate our value that it is stronger now more than ever, as our business industry is going to have major hurdles to overcome.
Also, our industry's ability to quickly pivot and adapt from routine businesses to becoming the experts on everything from federal policy, accounting and financial experts on loans and grant relief programming to a sounding board for elected officials as they're considering putting orders in place or providing resources to the community. We've had to do that all overnight.
45:36.51 Brandon Burton
It is a different time. That's for sure.
45:39.508 Beth Bowman
Chamber and chambers are and have always been the voice of business. And we'll continue to be that moving forward as we find new ways of delivering value and aligning with our colleagues nationally to amplify that value.
46:00.392 Brandon Burton
Speaking of value, I Beth, I think you brought a lot of it to this our discussion today and the example and leadership that you display there at the Irving Las Colinas Chamber. And I thank you for for sharing your time with us and and your insights that you shared. If somebody listening wanted to reach out and connect with you or maybe further this discussion offline, what would be the best way for them to to reach out and connect and connect?
46:28.386 Beth Bowman
Yes, I'd be happy to share our number at the chamber. We've remained open during this pandemic and will continue to remain open to create, advance, and promote our member investors and community today and beyond. I can be reached via phone at 214-217-8484 or via email at bbowman@irvingchamber.com
47:01.43 Brandon Burton
That's perfect. And I will get that updated in our show notes for this episode, which will be found at Chamberchatpodcast dot com slash episode eighty three. And again, Beth, thank you for taking time to be with us today. And I wish you and the Irving Las Colinas chamber the best of luck with Chamber of the Year.
47:20.014 Beth Bowman
Brandon, thank you so much.
47:23.382 Brandon Burton
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