Entrepreneurship & Innovation with Jay Chesshir

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

Episode 89 — Entrepreneurship & Innovation with Jay Chesshir
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Jay Chesshir
Editorial QA: Source transcript incomplete; closing segment requires recovery.

00:00.842 Brandon Burton
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. And now your host, he enjoys helping chambers start their own podcasts. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is your host, Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to help introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. And as my daughter Addy just said. introduced me on this episode. She mentioned how I enjoy helping chambers get started with their own podcast. And I have some exciting news coming soon in that front. But in the meantime, if you've ever considered creating a podcast for your chamber, be sure to check out my free chamber podcasting guide that you can find find at chamberchatpodcast.com slash podcasting. To check that out and get that free download. But today you're joining us for episode 89. And I'm excited today to have Jay Chesshir with us from the Little Rock Regional Chamber in Arkansas. A lot of you will be familiar with Jay, but Jay has served as the president and CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber since May of 2006. Under his leadership, the chamber has directly worked on projects accounting for over two point six billion dollars in new and expanded capital investment, more than seventeen thousand five hundred jobs, and six hundred thirty six million dollars in new annual payroll for the Metro Little Rock Region. In twenty sixteen, Jay was elected national chair of the ACCE Board of Directors.
02:01.064 Brandon Burton
in 2017, he became the only person in ACCE's hundred and three year history to be elected to serve a second term as their board chair. In addition, Jay currently serves on the University of Arkansas Little Rock College of Business Advisory Board, University of Arkansas Little Rock College of Engineering and Information Technology Leadership Council, Little Rock Technology Park Authority Board. Venture Center Board and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. He is also a Ford Foundation Fellow of the ACCE Regionalism and Sustainable Development Program. Jay was also selected as the Arkansas Economic Developer of the Year by the Arkansas Economic Developers Association. Jay received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas. And he has been designated as a certified chamber executive by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives and is a graduate of both the Institute of Organization Management and the Economic Development Institute. I'm excited to have Jay with us today. In our discussion, he's going to be talking to us about some partnerships that their chamber has made to really help. Bring entrepreneurship and technology and innovation to the forefront there in Little Rock. So I'm excited to get into this discussion with Jay as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor. Every chamber is looking for new ways to increase their non-dues revenue. Has your chamber found a good affinity program? I have a great affinity program to offer your chamber that will continue to increase in revenue year after year. I want to introduce you. To Swypit for all of your credit card processing needs. Swypit has a unique affinity program that one lowers your credit card processing fees at the chamber, two helps your chamber members be more profitable, and three provides recurring non-dues revenue to your chamber. To learn more, please visit ChamberChatPodcast.com slash C C for credit card.
04:23.808 Brandon Burton
Again, Chamber Chat Podcast.com slash C C and get swiping with Swypit. All right, Jay, welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. We're happy to have you with us today and to be able to share your thoughts with all the chamber champions out here in the audience. But if you would take a minute to say hello to all those chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.
04:51.756 Jay Chesshir
Well, first of all, Brandon, thank you for the opportunity to join you today and to all of my chamber colleagues out across the country and the world. first of all, thank you for the work that you're doing in your communities and your regions and your states, because even in the midst of one of the craziest economies that that we've ever witnessed and may ever witness, our chamber champions continue to to hold strong and keep their communities in the game and keep people employed and and moving forward. So it's it's a it's an honor and a blessing to be a part of this business. and I am so thankful to to share that with so many others across the country. Secondly want to talk to you a little bit about Little Rock and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. We're approximately 2,000 members strong. and we have three primary focuses here at the chamber. I've often said that we're an economic development organization that happens to be called a chamber because it came up on the economic development side of the world. But we obviously have a strong economic development program that we'll talk a little bit about from today's topic. secondly, we obviously are an advocacy organization. Most of our advocacy Actually centers around economic development. We don't do a whole lot of specific issue work unless it has some sort of tie-in with economic development. And then the third is what I call the traditional chamber model, and that is programming and opportunities and for our members to first of all network with each other to have the opportunity to learn about things that that are of importance to them and to have us help them find ways to grow their business. Our annual budget is approximately three point two, three point three million dollars. we s we simply are a chamber and economic development organization. I know lots of folks out there also run convention and visitors bureau bureaus I should say in in their communities, but here in Little Rock that's separate from the chamber. So we're all about trying to
07:11.51 Jay Chesshir
create a better economy and a better opportunity for everyone in this in this market in this region to have a better life. because in the end, I think that's our reason for being here. Thanks for having me.
07:25.442 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. Happy to have you here. just maybe as a an idea for perspective for the the listeners, you you talked a lot about the chamber. But how many staff do you have there at the chamber between the economic development side and the chamber side? Just to give us some perspective.
07:45.08 Jay Chesshir
So I've I've often been called Brandon tighter than Dick's hat band. And that's a good Southern phrase to say that that that sometimes I can be a little bit too tight with with funding. I've I've always believed in a very flat and agile and flexible staff. because of that, we're not a huge staff. We will be nineteen. we're currently hiring a couple of positions where folks have had better opportunities come along and and have moved up in their career. And so we'll be 19 strong once we get back to full strength. so when you look at our staffing level, it's probably on the on this on the lower side of organizations our size. And sometimes I take that too far, but I'm blessed to have 18 other folks that that love this work, that love this business and And and all are doing a fantastic job. I'm I'm blessed to have a great team.
08:45.634 Brandon Burton
Well, they have to be. To be able to run lean and mean, you gotta you gotta have the great people. So I'm sure you're you're surrounded with greatness there. but let's we'll dive into the topic for our discussion today. so just to kind of bring everybody up to speed, the topic of our our focus of our conversation today is gonna be around entrepreneurship and innovation. And that may not be a a typical topic when it comes to chambers of commerce. I know innovations, you know, always trying to stay relevant, but bringing in that entrepreneurship side as well, I think, is important in this discussion. But Jay, why don't you kind of take us in down the road as to what led I know obviously you guys have the economic development side, that's a real strong side of the the chamber there. what kind of brought about your entrepreneurship and innovation side of the chamber kind of going the direction of our our discussion today.
09:49.8 Jay Chesshir
first of all, you know, thank you for the opportunity to talk about this because as a leader within the ACCE national organization, one of the things that I often talked about w was the the topic of every chambers in economic development. And it may not be the traditional economic development work done by some in this business, but also by other economic development organizations. But entrepreneurship and innovation, especially from the standpoint of chambers, regardless of how big or small you are, is important to your community. A little background on Little Rock, we're obviously the capital city of Arkansas. We're the largest city of Arkansas. We have a significantly stable economy based upon the fact that we are the seat for state government. So there's a significant amount of local, state, and even federal government. employment here in this in this market. We have over 20 colleges and universities in our region. So between higher ed and and and then from a postsecondary education standpoint two-year colleges as well as the secondary school districts in our area we have a significant amount of of folks employed in in that particular area and then the third area is the medical industry we are a medical hub not only for Arkansas and and and the the mid south region of America, but even in some cases from the standpoint of of cancer treatment, we're a destination treatment center for specific cancers worldwide. So we we have folks flying in here from all over the world on a weekly basis to be treated for specific issues. So all that to say, that's a that's like a big battleship from an economic perspective. perspective and and those are all good solid industries but they're not all industries that that typically have significant growth potential from an employment standpoint and so because of that and it represents about a third of our economy because of that in in good times our economy may not be growing quite as fast as as others who have more elastic economies based upon
12:12.684 Jay Chesshir
their industry and and and economic makeup. But in in in the times that aren't so good, we're typically lauded as being one of the best economies in the country simply because of the stability that exists here. And so as in 2005 when I was offered the the opportunity to to come to Little Rock from Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is only about an hour down the road, It one of the reasons why I was hired was to try to to to grow economic development and the the velocity of growth in our economy. And so knowing we needed to look at doing something in the entrepreneurship and the innovation sector, one of the things that I had done while in Hot Springs was to create a a small technology park where for those of you that are having your passports either approved and or reissued. the Stanley Company is a company that the s the Department of State has used since the inception of the passport company. And it it has a huge operation over in that tech park in Hot Springs. And so I had worked on trying to create this type of activity in in hot springs and upon coming to Little Rock recognized that that it it didn't exist here either. And so literally In February of 2005, when I when I came to the Little Rock area, we had a biotechnology association committee. And the reason why we had that was because of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Bio Venture Center, which was their research commercialization center coming out of the medical sciences portion research of UAMS and its and its campus. And and so they were looking at ways to commercialize research here in the Little Rock area as opposed to that research being commercialized in other parts of the country, which was happening. And so that spawned the idea in that committee of of creating our own research and technology park with the intent of being able to take that research coming out of UAMS and commercializing it here.
14:34.29 Jay Chesshir
so that was the the the basis of even starting the conversation back in February of 2005. And it took several years to go through the process of of looking at what a technology and research park might look like. And of course, back then what you saw in the Carolinas, especially in the Raleigh Durham area with the Research Triangle Park. It was kind of the the the the hub or or the the model that that others across the country had used in in creating that type of asset. And so we we started down the process of of attracting grant money to be able to to work some research, to bring in some experts to look at this market to see if in fact it might work here. and so the end result of that was in 2007, then Governor Mike Huckabee added to his legislative package the the authorization from the state legislative process to authorize research park authorities to be established in communities across Arkansas. but those those places had to have research universities attached to. the actual creation of the research park authority itself. And so the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville had had already started creating their research park there on their campus. And so we kind of became the second and the first from a from an urban perspective to look at doing so off of a of a college campus or a college operated facility. And so in 2011, after working through all of this research and and determining that it would work, in the height of the recession, which is really hard to believe looking back, we went to the people of Little Rock and the city needed some things, it needed some additional revenue for services, and we in in the process of looking at helping run that campaign in at the height of the recession.
16:52.248 Jay Chesshir
For a one cent city sales tax increase, used three-eighths of that one cent for specific projects, one of which included $22 million for the establishment of what we now call the Little Rock Technology Park. And so the citizens in 2011, in the midst of that recession, felt like that was part of what they wanted Little Rock. to to be known for and to have that type of activity and economy operating here. And so they overwhelmingly passed that tax and we started the process of actually finding a site and citing a technology park that eventually found its way into downtown Little Rock, literally on Main Street, in an area that needed to be redeveloped and so we we started in some leased space across the street here from the chamber of commerce a few blocks away from where the the where the permanent park is we were in that leased space for approximately 15 months as we went through the process of purchasing some buildings and doing some renovation and that literally launched a a technology park and and Brandon is as many of my counterparts or our counterparts know across the country in this business, you always have those who say it's not going to work. And what was interesting about that is the people had had had told us in opinion research that they wanted it. We had some folks in the the media that that didn't think it was such a great idea. And and so It it's been interesting to watch that evolution of what is a technology park because we were defining it literally as we went and then what we've been able to do with it since its inception, which we can talk a little bit about the fintech stuff in a little bit.
19:02.322 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. So I think that's huge, first of all, just having the vision for this technology park, but then to be able to execute it, to be able to attract those grants and to be able to to get a tax passed. I mean that we could talk about that for an hour about what that was about how that what was all involved there. But
19:21.526 Jay Chesshir
And I want to give some I want to give some credit to a a counterpart. Casey Steinbacher at the time was running the Durham, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce. And for those that have been to Durham, or Durham as they call it there, you you you can go and see what were all old tobacco warehouse type buildings that have been transformed into an urb a vibrant urban. research and innovation area. And and that literally was af after having an opportunity to spend a day with Casey over there, that was was the I I guess the push to go away from a you know a 30, 40, 50 acre park out away from the the the community center, so to speak. And look at it more from an urban redevelopment standpoint that was walkable, both obviously from residential opportunities as well as retail and restaurant and other amenities, so that it was a walkable concept as opposed to everyone had to get in their car and drive somewhere to get there. And so I really credit Casey and the work that she did in in Durham as as the the impetus for us to move away from looking at outside areas and begin to look within, which has really been an amazing anchor for the redevelopment of downtown Little Rock.
21:03.422 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. And everybody benefits from that as well. Now at the at the beginning of this interview, you had talked about how Little Rock is has a very stable economy between the education, government, the kind of being that medical hub. So I I understand that with the technology park that you've been able to take advantage of maybe leveraging that a little bit to be able to expand what the economy looks like there in Little Rock and and i developing the you know economic part there to kind of venture into some new areas. You wanna kinda take us down that road?
21:44.588 Jay Chesshir
Yes, and that's it's a great segue to you know it it was it was almost like we caught the car. Now what do we do with it? and and the reality was we knew we needed to develop something, but we'd also seen in other parts of the state space, buildings or space within buildings designated as as as innovation and entrepreneurial hubs, so to speak. that really weren't working. And it wasn't that that everyone didn't want it to work. It was simply that there was no one driving that work. And so when we were doing our research across the country, obviously went to Dur Durham, went to Raleigh, went to St. Louis, and several other places to look at successful and vibrant research and and technology centers. And in each and every case, those were being driven by an entity that was driving the entrepreneurial process. And that really is what had been missing in the early spaces that had been created in other places across or a few other places across the state. And so we knew we needed to create an entity that could could first of all help entrepreneurs through the the entrepreneurial process because it's it it is a process. You know, creating a business, going from I ideation to the creation of a of a profitable profitable business is a process. And you know sometimes we we we go back to the everyone's you know folks in a basement or folks in a in a garage that you know that create this amazing thing and and that's how entrepreneurship happens. Well even those folks will tell you that somebody had to had to help them, take them by the hand and walk them through the process of creating a viable and ongoing business. And so in in the midst of all this, that didn't exist not only in in Little Rock, didn't exist in Arkansas. And so through I'm
24:07.734 Jay Chesshir
I think it was Providence, had the opportunity to be introduced to some young folks that were looking at mirroring what Nashville, Tennessee had done. the Nashville Entrepreneur Center in in Nashville, Tennessee, Michael Burcham at the time was was running it, and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce had had helped create, in fact, had led in the creation of it. and and it was a a really viable successful entity that was focused a lot on healthcare because of of the presence of HCA and others in in Nashville. And so this this group of young folks and and I asked an older mentor who had been a successful entrepreneur himself to work with them came together with us and and we created what's called the Venture Center. And the Venture Center was was literally an entrepreneurship bootstrap program because between housing them here at the chamber of commerce in some excess space that we had for the first year of of its origins and funding a lot of the activities, sharing or or or providing staff to get the thing up and operating while we were also looking for some other grant fund opportunities to get going. literally created the entity that now manages the process of entrepreneurship here in in in little rock and works with others now across the state but is the primary entity here in the little rock area and in the midst of creating that i've always been the type of economic developer that it's it's not it it's it's not a cornfield Iowa Cornfield, you know, the baseball movie scenario, right? It's it's not you build it and they will come, because we'd seen examples of that not occurring. so we began to look at what differentiated us from the standpoint of of other like communities, not only in the state but across the country, that we could focus on to
26:10.232 Brandon Burton
Feel the dream.
26:35.566 Jay Chesshir
to to to try to to really get this venture center entity up and and moving. And so I had seen and and with again I I want to credit Michael Burcham and and the folks over in Nashville with helping us do this because literally we were doing simulcast events, entrepreneurship educational events with the Nashville Center the first year of our operations, because we didn't have the ability to to staff and and and to create the expertise needed. At that moment in time, we had some of our own. Obviously they had theirs in Nashville and and they agreed with us and we had a a written agreement to where we would simulcast and do some pre-accelerator work together for those folks who had great ideas but still had day jobs to kind of take them Into the beginning of the funnel and start that process and so.
27:40.504 Brandon Burton
That's a great idea. I I love that idea of being able to partner with another chamber like that.
27:46.75 Jay Chesshir
And it is it is something that I would highly recommend because you know they didn't necessarily invent the wheel. They're they they had help from others. We obviously didn't either. And that's one of the amazing things about this industry. you know, even in from an economic development standpoint, and Nashville obviously has been a juggernaut, they were willing to help us move this along here in Little Rock and and and be part of that. physically part of that. So it it was it was a wonderful help. In the midst of that, watching what they had done with some accelerators that were that were focused on healthcare in Nashville, one of the things that that we had, one of the companies that we had here was a a large information technology related company at the time that I felt like well we could go to them and and look at doing the same type of work because it's really more we you know we're differentiated by what they were doing. Well now congressman French Hill at the time he was the the the chairman of the chamber congressman French Hill arranged for a meeting with me and the CEO of that company to make the pitch. And I did, and and at the time the leadership of the company had moved out to the Silicon Valley area. and and so they were already doing this type of activity there. They were all already doing it on the east coast as well. And so it it was it just really didn't gain a whole lot of early traction with them. Well, I'm in the very first venture center board meeting. where I'm giving a report on trying to to get this this thing moving forward with this company and and all the reasons why it would work here and so forth and so on. And we took a break and a gentleman by the name of Chris Klein with FIS Global, he was the executive in charge of this campus here in Little Rock. I didn't know Chris. In fact, that was the first day I'd ever met him.
30:09.486 Jay Chesshir
And at the break, he he asked me if it didn't work with the company that I was working with at the time. Would would I be interested in trying to do this work with with FIS? And and I I laughingly turned and said, you have me. And he he said, Well, I thought you were still working it with it. And I said, It's not gonna work there. And I said, So if you're interested, I would love to talk to you about. How I think this would work with FIS. And that led to Chris setting up a call between Gary Norcross, the CEO of FIS. And for those of you in the audience that know FIS, they're the world's largest fintech company across the world, 56,000 plus employees, 20,000 plus bank clients. i mean they are they are the king of the fintech industry and so interestingly Gary is from arkansas and what what tied all this together was in 1968 a little company called systematics was created that we reference as the the the birth of the financial technology industry here in little rock and Systematics grew significantly, was was acquired by Alltel for those that remember the phone company, wireless company Alltel. It became Alltel Information Systems, and then FIS came in several several years ago and purchased it from Alltel and and made this one of their primary campuses for FIS. I tell you that story to say that Gary Norcross actually started at FIS, I mean, excuse me, at Systematics and worked his way up to now obviously he's the CEO of the company. Well, when I had the opportunity to to to have a call with him, I was pitching the idea and I was using the Nashville experience as as kind of the basis for
32:29.26 Jay Chesshir
Why I thought it would work here. And then I added that the differentiating factor was there were still FIS, former Alltel information systems and systematics employees that live here that grew up in creating this industry and would be wonderful mentors to young fintech companies looking at trying to find better ways, faster ways, so forth and so on, to do business in the financial industry. And that they they alone would set us apart from anyone else because there were several fintech accelerators happening at the time. And again, this literally is in 2015, so this isn't that long ago. and in in the conversation with Gary, he relayed to me his experience. in in in working for FIS and coming up through the ranks and and and actually mentoring some of these kinds of companies and helping them pivot to something that would be more relevant and and sustainable and obviously become successful companies. And and in the at the end of the conversation he goes, you know, Jay, he said I I think this is a good idea. And he said I don't know I don't know for how long we'll do it. He said but yes I'll agree To partner with with you guys in the Venture Center and we'll do this for for one time and see what happens from there. And so literally in in November of 2015, he then came to our chamber annual meeting as our featured speaker and announced that we would be the sixth technology accelerator. facility in the world for FIS, which, you know, when you're looking at a map of the world and you see yourself with places like Bangalore and and obviously New York and and San Francisco and London and and Ireland and all these places where they were already doing this type of work, it really was
34:54.28 Jay Chesshir
one of the most amazing moments in my career because what's had started with an idea that we were trying to find something that would make us different from others so that we wouldn't be doing the the the cornfield scenario of just building something and hoping that it would come now all of a sudden was was was was coming to fruition, was coming into real being and so it was it was interesting to see that evolve and FIS and and its leadership, obviously under Gary's management leadership of the entire company, to see them begin to over the last five years engage and further engage in in in in helping literally take Little Rock, Arkansas from the fintech. industry's perspective and put it back on the map. Because the first year, as we were interviewing companies, and the venture center team does a fantastic job of all this work. I I obviously am on the board and and not involved with the day-to-day operations of it. But in the first year was part of the the conversations with with some of these companies and and 10 companies are selected each year. to come and be a part of this 12-week program from around the world. And and the first year, every single company that we were that we had chosen and and were giving the opportunity to come be a part of this, that one of their first questions was, why Little Rock? And I would with a smile, I would tell the Systematics story. And you know, this is where it all began and and wouldn't you like to come back to the mothership, so to speak, of where it all began and and and launched from here what it is you're trying to do from the standpoint of your business and your innovation. and and so that first year it was it was truly a sales pitch to these small companies who are who are obviously getting paid to come through the our partnership and and the way we we put that together. And and would also have the
37:17.258 Jay Chesshir
opportunity for additional investment based upon our assessment at the end of the at the end of the program. But we truly had to sell them on, you know, I can go, I can go to San Francisco, I can go to London, I can go to New York, or I can go to Little Rock. And and what was what was amazing about that is we had 10 companies who said, you know, Because of the opportunity to engage with FIS, I'm going to Little Rock instead. So in some ways they took a chance on us. Well, fast forward to five years and now we don't have to talk about why Little Rock anymore. And you know, the the the two to three hundred companies that apply every year to be a part of this process understand. that FIS has has placed a huge significance on coming through here if they're wanting to to to do business with with FIS or or or gain investment from FIS. And so what's even more exciting is as as we've gone through each year's iteration, we've we've had banks from across the country and the world come through and and be part of this process. And we had folks from the ICBA, the Independent Community Bankers of America, come and see what what it was that we were doing and and why were these companies coming to Little Rock. And they were so engaged with what they with what we were doing at the Venture Center through the FIS FinTech Accelerator that they then Two years into our work with FIS, asked if the Venture Center would also run a fintech accelerator focused on community banks for the ICBA. And so we're getting ready to kick off the third year of that. And so here it is, a technology park that we're trying to create to grow the to add velocity of growth to our economy.
39:29.134 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
39:34.414 Jay Chesshir
And with the origins in February of 2005 trying to walk the pathway of of getting something like this accomplished and and facing obstacle after obstacle and opportunity after opportunity. And here we are 15 years later, and it's truly something that is now of of national and world renown. In fact, Finovate, which is is one of the the the the primary Entities in the fintech world that's ignite that's awarding not only programs but companies as well in this industry. for the second year in a row, a couple of weeks ago, the venture center was named one of the the top six accelerators in the world. last year we didn't win, and and so we're hoping that the second time around. we are going to win, but we're up against MasterCard and American Express and I mean all these behemoth companies that are also trying, you know, out there doing this work. And that just goes to show you that good ideas with passionate people behind them. and and and obviously guidance from above, because if it weren't for that, we certainly wouldn't be where we are today. can all culminate in in something that's really, really, really cool. that six years ago the people of Little Rock would have scratched their head and thought, huh, I don't know if that will work. And yet here we are today and it is working.
41:16.238 Brandon Burton
Well, that is a huge accomplishment, everything that you guys have have established in the last fifteen years and really to recognize the needs and the opportunity that was available and then to be able to utilize your resources and see that there's, you know, all these you know, financial people that are in your community that you can leverage and really position yourself well in the marketplace is obviously paying off well there in Little Rock. But
41:43.922 Jay Chesshir
And Brandon to that Brandon to that point, I want to make one because I I I should give credit where credit's due. the second year of this work, the first year, as I said, we just bootstrapped it between us and and FIS. the second year of this work, the governor and his economic development team came on board and they have been partners with us in this program for the last four years. And so Governor Hutchinson and and Secretary Mike Preston, the Department of Commerce here in Arkansas have been great partners with us through this this process as well. So I want to give them credit also.
42:25.294 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. So Jay, I know we need to start wrapping things up here. You've told a great experience, great story of how you guys, you know, went from from the beginning stages of you know these these ideas and and setting up this innovation and and really making Little Rock a hub for for more than just the medical and and education and everything, but really for the fintech and and technology in general. So kudos to you guys for that. If I could ask you to share maybe one action item that a chamber professional listening could do to help take their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest?
43:07.766 Jay Chesshir
You know, I go back to what led to this, and and we we get so wrapped up in the day-to-day operations of of our work that we don't often take a step back and and and really look around us to see what is it in our community, what is it in our region that separates us or differentiates us from the crowd, so to speak. And Then in doing so, find ways to use that to not only grow the the the chamber, but obviously grow the community and the community's opportunities going forward. And we all have them. You know, in Hot Springs, it was a primarily a tourist-related area. and and and so I can talk, I can tell you stories about what we did there. To separate us from the other like tourism places in the Mid South. And so having an opportunity for a chamber professional, and I will say the entire chamber team to come together and spend some time thinking about, looking at what is different in our community that not everyone has, and how can we take that and and and use it. To grow our economy and create even more opportunities for our people. Because in the end, you know, as I tell our folks, we're we're we're in the soul feeding business. And and and I'm what I mean by that is we do things every single day for people who will never know who we are that gives them opportunity, whether it's a better educational opportunity, whether it's a better job, whether it's a better place to live.
We do work every day that that goes unacknowledged, which is perfectly fine by those people that we're trying to positively impact, which means every night when we lay our head on the pillows, then that means we in my in my vernacular, in the way I look at this, it's truly feeding the soul of why we're here, why we exist, and why it matters. Because if we're not trying to help.
45:29.972 Jay Chesshir
others, if we're not trying to help our communities and our regions and our state become better places to live, work and play and learn, then we're not doing the job I think that we're here to do. So that would be my answer.
45:46.036 Brandon Burton
I love that answer. That's awesome. So this other question I ask everybody that I have on the podcast and and with your work with ACCE, I'm I'm curious to hear your answer. But as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going forward?
46:04.034 Jay Chesshir
You know, it's it's interesting. We we've got we've done a lot of work at the national level, and Sheree Anne Kelly and and her team are are doing phenomenal job with this in looking at what is, but also focusing on what's next and and trying to help chambers of commerce across the country adapt and navigate a new way of of living. I I had this conversation with
With one of my sons a few weeks ago. You know, 25, 30 years ago, this was a whole different business. And and our role in the community was a whole different role. Fast forward to today, and no longer are we the managers of events and and just getting things done for others. In many cases, we're expected to be the leaders in finding that what's next.
And helping create collaboration in in decision making to move to what can be what's next, which is a whole different activity. It's a whole different level of professionalism and expertise than maybe was needed 30 years ago. And so in that regard, what I would really recommend from especially the younger folks and even us old folks.
in this business is if you ever lose that passion, if you ever lose that vision of how can we make this better, then we're not doing ourselves or the teams that we work with or the boards that we work for any favors. So we we have to continue to evolve into being what businesses need us to be to serve them.
But in doing so, looking at the bigger picture from the perspective of how can we educate our children better so that we have the talent necessary to be successful in the new economy? How can we have better infrastructure? How can we have better quality of place so that we are attracting people to come to our communities who want to stay there?
48:30.4 Jay Chesshir
as opposed to growing talent for someone else somewhere else, that unfortunately is a self fulfilling prophecy.
48:38.838 Brandon Burton
Right. I'd love that to find what's what's next. And I think that should be the role of chambers is find what that next is and in that context to to build up your community to be able to support what that next is.
48:55.252 Jay Chesshir
And I've you know, I've mentioned a I've mentioned a few of those places, Brandon, in in in our podcast today, you know, Durham, Raleigh, and others. But one place that that I would really point folks' attention to, who I think is the best example in the country of doing this because it's amazing what they've done, and and their CEO has been a mentor of mine for many, many years. But if you look at what Roy Williams
And the Oklahoma City Chamber has done in transforming not only the economy of Oklahoma City, but Oklahoma City as a place. It is truly astounding. And in fact, it can be overwhelming when you look at all of the things that they've done, but it all started with one idea, and let's see if we can get this done, and has literally snowballed from that into.
creating a community that looks far different today than it did twenty years ago. And so another example for folks to go look at, Roy Williams and his team at Oklahoma City, and they're so generous with their time and and and mentorship, I would highly recommend folks take a look at them as well.
50:10.122 Brandon Burton
In fact, anybody who wants to learn more about what they're doing in Oklahoma City, I had Roy Williams on the podcast back on episode forty six. So I'd encourage everyone to check it out 'cause they really are doing amazing things that I never would imagine that a chamber would even even approach. So that's you could find that at Chamberchatpodcast dot com slash episode forty six to to hear that interview with Roy Williams.
50:36.406 Jay Chesshir
dude and an amazing professional.
50:38.664 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. Well, Jay, as we wrap things up here, I did want to give you an opportunity to to put your contact information out there. If there's anybody who would like to follow up with you on what we've talked about today or about how you're doing things there in Little Rock, what would be the best way for for a chamber champion to reach out and connect with you?
50:59.04 Jay Chesshir
Absolutely. And anybody that would like to visit about this or or anything else that we're doing, please don't hesitate to either email me, and my email address is jcheshir@littlerockchamber.com. Or my direct line here at the office is area code 501-377-6002. And please, if
If you reach out to me and you don't hear back from me pretty quickly, don't hesitate to try it again because I may be on the road and just haven't received it yet. So would love to visit with anybody that would like to talk more about either entrepreneurship and innovation and how we've done that here or want to bounce off an idea that you're looking at for your community, be happy to visit.
51:52.066 Brandon Burton
Very good. I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, which will be found at Chamberchat Podcast.com slash episode eighty nine. And Jay, just wanted to thank you so much for spending time with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, for sharing your experiences and and really the vision that you've had with with all the chamber champions out there. I think you provided a lot of value that other chambers can take and
and start growing the what's next in their own community. So thank you for that.
52:26.232 Jay Chesshir
Thanks for the opportunity, Brandon.
52:30.038 Brandon Burton
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