Tag: Chamber of the Year

Bend Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Katy Brooks

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. Our guest for this episode is Katy Brooks. She is the president and CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce in Oregon. Her vision for the chamber is to catalyze and environment where businesses and employees and the community thrive. The chamber supports a collaborative business environment and leads efforts to resolve tough issues like affordable housing and childcare shortage, assisting businesses with resources and advocating for businesses at the local and state level. Katy’s background and economic development coalition building and government relations enables her to understand public policies and issues in order to advocate for the businesses of band as well as forming partnerships and alliances that support a growing business community. Her career has included over 20 years working in public affairs and economic development for the ports of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. She has been a public affairs and strategic planning consultant for public and private organizations in Oregon, Washington and Alaska and manage Community Relations for the Oregon Department of Tourism. Katy is a member of the Oregon State Early Learning Council and has served on numerous regional, state and city boards and committees. Prior to coming to bend, Katy served on the Public Affairs Committee for the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and the board of directors for the Washington State Business Association. Katy received her BS at Southern Oregon University with and graduate studies at Portland State University. She’s received extensive training and facilitating public issues and resolving conflict her and her family reside in Bend. But Katy, I am excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. And first of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a 2024 chamber, the year finals. That’s a huge accomplishment. But please take a minute to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Katy Brooks 3:25
Well, thanks. I’m really, really honored to be here. It’s just so terrific. Being a finalist. And in this fabulous industry that we’re all in. I have been in the chamber world for about eight years since I moved from the coast and port world working for port authorities for a long, long time. And it’s been a great transition. I live here with my family, we do a lot of mountain biking enjoy a bit of a higher elevation than what I was previously at. And for those of you haven’t been to this part of the world is quite beautiful. And it’s full of great things to do outside, which is what we’re all about.

Brandon Burton 4:09
That’s right. It is a beautiful part of the country for sure. Well, please take a few moments and tell us a little bit about the Bend Chamber of Commerce. What makes you guys so special, what’s your your chamber look like the work you’re involved with? Size staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of give us some perspective as we get into our discussion?

Katy Brooks 4:33
Sure. Well, we’ve had quite a bit of population growth. So the business sector has grown as well. We are population of about 110,000. We are on the east side of the caste range. So we are a little bit removed from where most of the population of the state is. So bend is kind of a it’s a mountain community but it’s really a self sufficient ecosystem here. That’s really unique. And it’s something that we take into consideration. Anytime we put any of our strategies together. We have great networking programs. Here we have a really strong advocacy program because our state capitol is in the valley. And to lift up our voice from Central Oregon, we align with a lot of partners here. We build our leaders, we concentrate quite a bit on how we support a system of of leadership and workforce development that can sustain our growth, not just in population, but our business growth and several industry sectors that have taken off here. And we look for our niche initiatives, we look for ways to take on things that we see and our members see as obstacles and impediments or opportunities. And really try to capitalize those and bring up solutions. And I’ll get into that here in a little bit of what that actually looks like.

Brandon Burton 6:04
Yeah, well that’s the crux of the Chamber’s to solve those problems, right that face the community. So very good. Well, as we focus on these chamber, the year finalist episodes who really like to dive in, in more detail on the programs that were submitted on your chamber that your application, I think those are a really good indicator of the type of work you’re involved with and, and where you’re seeing those levels of importance to be able to make an impact in your community. So I’m excited to dive into what those programs are and all those details as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Katy, we’re back. As we dive into the meat of this episode and talking about the programs that were submitted on your chamber, that your application, please share with us what what the first program was? And we’ll dive into that and save the good stuff on second program for for a few minutes.

Katy Brooks 8:52
Yeah, it’s always hard. I’m sure everybody else who submitted an application feels this way, it was hard to choose in some respect. Because we just do so much. And as with all chambers, we have changed so much over the last several years. So when you look at at our programs, it looks like like today rather than yesterday. And it looks like what the key issues are that we’re struggling with here, rather than some of the more traditional things you think about in chamber world. But I’ll I’ll talk a little bit about Ben 101. So Ben 101 was established in collaboration with a bunch of folks from the community from several industry sectors, who said essentially, you know, we are growing faster than any other city in our state we have the more more jobs per capita than any other city in our state and we’re losing touch with the culture we worked really hard to establish we’re very bootstrap kind of a community here. We were lumber mill industry, which declined dramatically in the 80s, we reinvented ourselves. Now we’re biotech, health care sciences, outdoor industry, product development, high tech, all sorts of things are happening here that frankly, didn’t exist 10 years ago. And what happens when you bring that many new people and new industries together, you kind of lose touch with everyone, you go from a small little town to, you’re actually a small city. And that’s got a different dynamic. So Bend 101 brings in key leaders from our community to tell the story of our history, tell the story of our culture, which is be nice, you’re invent, and we’re collaborative, we’re dolphins, we’re not sharks. And we have a lot of ways for people to plug in. So it’s like getting a turbo charge in everything you would want to know if you move to a new place. And not only do you get the information, but we match you up with people from the community in various industries, from the workforce. So it’s not like insta friend, but it’s close to it. It’s it’s hard introductions of folks that you might find really interesting and want to have coffee with later. And then we work with the human resources, folks to really make sure that we follow up. How do your folks feel about this? Did they meet somebody there that they didn’t get to connect with that they want to and really make those connections meaningful? So you have the background information, you know, where we’ve been where we’re going to, and you have access to the people who made it that way? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:45
So I think it’s interesting to to inform newcomers on the culture of Bend. And I imagine that’s a tough task to try to infuse culture. But what is it? What does it look like this with Bend 101? What’s the format? How do you? How do you structure I love the overall the, you know, the high level view of making those connections and welcoming those newcomers. But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, what what is the structure of it look like? Well,

Katy Brooks 12:15
we use a lot of humor, because we have some idiosyncrasies and little things about them, like every community does that are pretty funny. And one of ours is our claim to fame is roundabouts. They’re everywhere. And anybody who’s new to bend goes what is going on. You can’t get anywhere without going in a circle. So we kind of poke fun at ourselves, we have a really great welcoming video, where we talk about how friendly we are and kind of help people navigate the why of things and kind of laugh at ourselves a little bit. But then we we give the overall here’s how the city operates. And here’s some information for about 1015 minutes. And then every time we hold a one on one, we do it three times a year we fish feature a different part of bend. For example, last time we did this, we featured our healthcare system, educating folks on what that looks like, how do you access it? Who are the leaders there? Who should you know, what should you know, this month, we are, in fact, this week, we’re holding one that features our park system. Our Park system is amazing. It’s very robust, very well funded. There’s mountain bike trails, literally hundreds of miles you can ride and it connects different communities in Central Oregon. So we’ll share all that information. And then talk a little bit about, hey, this is everybody’s chance right now to reach out to somebody you don’t know, unless make those connections happen. So it’s kind of infusing that cultural welcome as much as we can. It changes a little bit every time we hold the event, depending on the information we share, but the outcome is the same. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:57
So does anybody come to multiple sessions have been one on one? How does that like if you want to learn about the parks? And you didn’t get that in your session? How does that work? Oh,

Katy Brooks 14:07
totally. We have repeat offenders. And because it’s really fun. And we are beer town, we have 14 breweries. And so that’s some fun, people just enjoy showing up and interacting folks that have been here for a really long time. They like to show up. In fact, we reach out to them. We want them there. Because how else are newcomers going to meet the establishment? Right? And so you need some of those people to come multiple times. And really mix it up with the old the new the the in between. And if folks are new, and they think hey, that was great. I want to learn about a different sector because I’m thinking about getting involved, then that’s great.

Brandon Burton 14:49
Yeah, that is that’s fantastic. I love that. The idea of it. I love the execution of it and making all the connections and really welcoming people to a community that really sets them up to thrive from the beginning. And I’m sure there’s success stories that you can share with people that have come in and been able to make those connections and, and be able to get their feet on the ground much quicker so to speak. Absolutely. So as we, as we move along, let’s let’s shift gears into what the second program is it was submitted on your chamber the your application. Yeah,

Katy Brooks 15:26
our workforce housing initiative. So I’m co chairing the ACC II horizon initiative that Sheri Ann is, is heading up. And I was so intrigued by this, and I’ll tell you why it matters to the workforce housing issue, asking people about what is the most pressing issue and opportunity in front of you right now? And then saying, Alright, so in 10 years from now, what would that look like? And how do we get from point A to point B, I think is a really useful thing to do. And we’ve essentially been doing this for a few years. And every year, both in the front windshield and 10 years down the line, people are worried about housing, a little bit of background about bend, it’s, it’s quite lovely here, and I’m sure everybody’s community is. But we we experienced something in Cote COVID that a lot of us didn’t see coming. Obviously, nobody saw the pandemic coming. And that is a lot of folks who are professionals who could work from anywhere, say, why not live in Bend, and they came in during COVID, much of the housing stock has been occupied, and it drove prices up 75% In about two or three years, wow, it’s kind of ridiculous. And we looked around and said, Holy smokes, this is not, we knew it was bad. But now we’re 5000 units behind in a community of 100,000 110,000. That’s, that’s significant. So we hear this from our, our business partners and members all the time, we can’t hire biggest thing that’s deterring us is folks can’t afford to live here. So we started out about three years ago with research. And the research was alright, how do we assess how ready Ben dites are to address this population issue in this housing issue, and we ask questions around density. Because this is, everybody has a little yard and your little house and or it’s a cabin or whatever, and started that conversation about so we’re gonna have to go up, we’re gonna have to get more dense, people are going to be living closer together in certain parts of town. And we’ve tested that. We tested what made everybody accept it and feel better about it. And we use that information to form our platform. And one of the things that we ask that I think is really important is who should be leading this effort. And in that public poll, business sector came out at the top, as did the bend Chamber of Commerce, more than government and more than Housing Authority, nonprofits, etc. So we decided to take this on. So we developed several, several, I guess, strategies from they’re all based on research. And one strategy was alright, what we learned from the initial poll is, folks are hesitant to really talk about densification of a community that was an old mill town. But when we talk about what you get in exchange for that, they’re really willing to do it. So we launched a social media program called I Am bent, trying to educate folks on what this is, we’re not talking about everywhere, we’re talking about places in Bend, that are designed for people for community for Makerspace for art, and also here are the people we want to live in this. It’s a full range. And we would feature nurses and firefighters and massage therapists and artists and restaurant managers, the folks who could not afford to get a place here, rent or to own definitely not own. So we started that education process about two or three years ago, and it’s been going really well. So that’s one piece. The other piece was, what is the go fast button? And how In other words, how do you get more inventory out there as quickly as possible? accessory dwelling units. ADUs are one of those ways. If you have extra property, which a lot of people do here in Bend. If you put a small living unit back there, you can create some income for yourself and help solve the workforce housing issue. So we put together a website on how to build an adu. How do you finance it? How do you permit How do you manage it over time? And it’s just an easy step by step process and then we’ve partnered with the city of Bend to have pre approved plans. And we’re going to be starting to populate that here in the next couple of months of choose your style. And you go through a streamlining process streamlined process. So you’re permitted and ready to go much, much faster and much more less expensive. So the adu is another strategy. The other strategy really dovetailed with our advocacy program. How do we raise our voice as a region, the state level and at the federal level, on the need for affordable and attainable housing. So we met with the Tri County leaders in our area, it’s a pretty big area, and came up with one platform that we went to our legislature with, and it was very effective housing was top of mind with Governor Tina Kotek, this session, and a lot of great programs came out of that. And then finally, we brought in expertise from across the country to really take a look at our zoning, and look at our methodology of getting homes on the ground that are affordable and quickly, and use that person and those methods to inform policy at the local level too. So that was pretty successful. And during this time, we also wanted to do the thing, not just talk about it. And so we raised money, we raised a couple 100,000, and just did an initial investment in a nonprofit Land Trust, who was doing an experiment and the experiment was getting some subsidized housing and a cottage style. So for a lot that’s like 6000 feet by 3000 feet, which is typical city a lot you could put in maybe three to four cottage style homes in there. And so they built these, put it on deed restricted property, but lowered the price enough. So folks in in a below area median income could actually afford the downpayment and to purchase that house, and own the house, not the land, but the house. So we bought down that cost, those homes are net zero, they’re worth about, probably about 600,000. Here, we got it under 200,000. Wow. And all of those homes are now occupied by people who work invent. But the real unique thing about this was we decided we wanted to take a risk. And we wanted to demonstrate how employers can actually participate in solving this problem. So what happens is when you donate money for a certain amount per house, you get extra points preferential points in a lottery. And that lottery is alright, if I own Katy’s ice cream shop, and I give X amount of money to one of those houses, I know one of my employees is going to get that house as long as they qualify. And those qualifications included, you have to earn under 80, ami, you have to have had a job and bend for a year, you have preferential points if you’re a minority, and so on, and you have to be pre approved, you’ve got to be able to buy this house and pay pay the mortgage, that

Brandon Burton 23:13
I was gonna ask about that about the qualifications to purchase that house because I could see somebody say, Oh, what a great deal, like get a $600,000 house for 200,000. But the criteria and the application process for that. And I imagine so the the businesses that help pay into that fund, kind of get first dibs, so to speak as far as their employees being able to apply for that routing, is that correct?

Katy Brooks 23:37
That’s absolutely right. And it’s deed restricted for 99 years. So if the house ever sells the same restrictions apply to the next buyer. The great thing is that shit, that preferential chick comes back to you as an employer. So another one of your employees get a shot at qualifying to buy the house. So we bought down four houses. And instead of using it for my employees at the Chamber, we pushed it out to do a demonstration project with any business event. So if you agreed as a business at Brandon’s candy shop, if you said okay, I’m going to pay $2,500 down to help my employee with the closing costs. And here are my five employees that qualify, you would have had a shot and those employees would have had a shot and that’s what we did. And so, folks all throughout the city, radiology technicians, manager, Windows Store, folks who you think of when you think of middle class or or entry, you know, mid level that had access to this home these homes and it was so successful, that they built 50 more this year. They’re in the process of it, and almost all those 50 homes have been subsidized by employers. They built another 100 You In the adjacent neighborhood, to the west, and another 100 plus to the north of us in another community, and they’re doing the same methodology. So in one year, we went from let’s experiment with four houses and just put these these opportunities out as an employer subsidized formula, and proved a concept that is now over 200, or over 100, no 200 homes that will be occupied and subsidized by employers in the area for 99 years. That

Brandon Burton 25:32
is awesome. I can see it being a template, even that some of these bigger employers might might do their own system, right, where they do housing for their own employees, and almost like a military base used to see you know, military housing, but you could you could do something similar with some of these big

Katy Brooks 25:50
kids so that that people earn equity, the whole point to home ownership. Is that generational wealth, yeah. And so that has to be a part of this and doing it with a partner who’s a nonprofit on deed restricted property was the way to go. And we’re just now rolling out our next investment. We raised about a half a million so far, we’re trying to get over the million for a revolving loan to help nonprofits and builders just put more mid market product out there on deed restricted land. So we’re doing our next experiment. Yeah. Which is what chambers should do.

Brandon Burton 26:34
I love these creative solutions. I mean, starting with the the adu website and encouraging people to build the smaller dwellings on their existing land. I mean, that’s, I think any community would rather see that than a big high rise apartment complex or something, you know, it fits in the community a little better. And then, you know, this path with housing and being able to help people own it own a house is amazing. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and really taking ownership of this and finding a solution. I love this. It’s a it’s a great model that can be followed in other areas, as well. So yeah, as we begin to wrap things up here, these chamber the year finalist episodes, I think are special because you guys are top of the game at the moment, right? So for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what can a tip or or action item might you suggest for them to employ to try to accomplish that goal?

Katy Brooks 27:38
Be willing to take risks, have a have a board? That is you bring along, work with your board? And identify, ask the hard questions identify what the issues are, that’s preventing folks from growing or the opportunities that would help businesses grow, and go for the ones that are gnarly and tough to do that require convening. And a lot of work to bring partnerships online. That is what we are made to do. And get people on board, do your research and make it happen. Because I think there aren’t very many organizations like chambers, who are built for this. And that’s how we’ve all changed right over the many of us went through COVID. And that changed a lot. But I think it’s much, much bigger than that, over the last 10 plus 20 years, something like that. I think that as businesses change, we have to be the first ones to we have to see it, identify it, predict it and do it.

Brandon Burton 28:46
Yeah. On those gnarly goals. That’s what people can get behind. Right? If it’s just something that’s barely going to move the needle, it’s hard to get get their interest and getting behind it. But yeah, there’s big hairy audacious goals, right, that that’s what people can get behind and and get some ownership in. I love that. So I like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future. And I understand you’re working on the horizons report as well. So you might have some additional insight. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their future and purpose going forward?

Katy Brooks 29:22
So I think chambers are the leading edge. I think that we have an intrinsic design of who we are, to convene, to go beyond partisanship, to ask the harder deeper questions and take things on that don’t have an apparent immediate answer. There aren’t any other types of organizations who can do that in the private sector is a huge responsibility and it’s super fun, by the way. And so I think that is our Our future is asking that what’s 10 year out? Question? If it’s 10 years out, what are the signs? Read it? If you don’t know, ask somebody. That’s the other thing that we do is ask a lot of folks with great expertise. We don’t have to have the answers. We just need to know who to ask. And we have to have the the fortitude to identify things that make sense for us to take on that really requires collective effort, and foresight, and a little bit of risk. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:32
I love that chambers being the leading edge and taking on those things that don’t have an apparent answer. And that is the the DNA of what a chamber is, though. And especially when you think of AI and advancements in technology, like there’s there needs to be that continuing purpose of a chamber. And that’s it right there. I love it. So Katy, you mentioned asking if you don’t know as somebody so I’d like to see for people listening who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn a little bit more about how you guys are doing things, doing things in band, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Katy Brooks 31:11
Well, anybody can give me a buzz but my email address is katy@bendchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 31:22
Easy, we will get that in our show notes for this episode as well to to make it easy to look up and connect with you. But Katy, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast and again, huge congratulations to you and your team being selected. As a finalist. It really is a indicator of the impact you guys are making in your community as as indicated through our discussion today. So you guys are are moving that needle and big. Congratulations to you guys.

Katy Brooks 31:49
Thanks so much. We’re so thrilled.

Brandon Burton 31:52
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Paducah Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Sandra Wilson

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 chamber of the year final the series and our guests for this episode is Sandra Wilson. Sandra is the president and CEO of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce. She joined the chamber in 2013 and before that she was a community volunteer she was the first woman to serve as Chairman of the Board for the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce in 1996 and later also as the first woman chair of the greater Paducah Economic Development Board. on a statewide level, she served as chairman of the Kentucky Manufacturers Association and on the board of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and leadership, Kentucky. She is a past board member of ACCE and serves on the local chamber advisory board for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and as chair of the board for the Carson center Performing Arts Center in Paducah. She is the ambassador for Kentucky for the Association of leadership programs. She’s a graduate of Murray State University and leadership Kentucky and leadership Paducah and 2017 that Paducah chamber was named as chamber the year and category two from ACC. They’re also a five star accredited chamber by the US Chamber of Commerce. Sandra holds IMF IOM certification from the US Chamber of Commerce that Sandra, it’s great to have you back with us on chamber chat podcast. It’s always good to get past guests back on the show. But first congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalist again, what an accomplishment. wanted to give you a chance to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Oh

Sandra Wilson 2:53
my goodness, Brandon. Well, thank you so much for hosting us and inviting me to be on the show today. I consider it quite an honor. And we are thrilled to be a finalist in 2024 is chamber of the year in Category Two. And we know who the other chambers are. And we look forward to seeing them at the ACC conference and visiting with them we have in the past about sharing ideas. And I think that’s really what chambers are so good at is doing is sharing ideas of what’s working in each other’s community so we can all be the best that we can possibly be for our community.

Brandon Burton 3:29
Absolutely, yes, that category two really all the categories this year, great chambers, great programs, but I’m looking at category two specifically I know them as well. And it’s a good competition all around. So whoever whoever wins, this is going to earn it for sure.

Sandra Wilson 3:48
Not be in the category with with those other chambers. So we’re thrilled about it. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 3:54
Well tell us a little bit about the Paducah chamber Puducherry chamber and give us some perspective of the size of the chamber staff budget scope of work just to kind of prepare us for our discussion today.

Sandra Wilson 4:06
We are located in Paducah, Kentucky, and it’s in the western part of the state of Kentucky. So it’s kind of a rural area. But we’re located in the city of the rural part of Western Kentucky. And we’re the largest chamber in this area. We’re about 950 members always pushing to get to 1000 staying around that area. We have been at five staff members until the first of June, and the first of June we finally had the opportunity to hire a sixth employee. We during the last couple of years we raised money to launch a leadership center within our chamber of commerce. So we’ve hired a full time Executive Director for that will be staffing that portion of our chamber and he started June 1 So it’s been different having six here. You know you are so excited to be able to grow and add more staff. We are truly the chamber. We, our economic development involvement is we own our building we just bought our building within the last year and the greater paddock economic development is here with us are one of our tenants, we work very closely with them and helping to recruit economic development, but we’re the chamber and we work on behalf of our community, we lead the advocacy efforts for our region. We’re a hub for small business development programs. We’re the convener of people, and we love that part. You know, what we really want to do is just continually work to improve this community. So others that come here and visit it love it as much as we do. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 5:45
absolutely. What a great time to join the chamber though for the new staff member I mean, chamber the year year. Yeah. Great timing. So on these chamber, the or finalist episodes, I’d like to spend the majority of our time discussing the two programs of work that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application. I think there’s a lot there that other chambers listening can learn from and be able to scale and adapt and maybe apply something similar into their communities. So we’ll focus the majority of our time on those programs as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sandra, we are back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re going to focus on the two programs that are submitted on your chamber the your application. If you would please introduce the first program that you’d like to address this today on the show and we’ll we’ll dive into the details of that. As

Sandra Wilson 8:34
a chamber, I think it’s really important that you look at what is going on in your community and what is the most important program or something that you need to take on and tackle. And for us, it it’s been the Department of Energy site here in Paducah for many years. But it took a different perspective in the last year and a half that planet that they announced in 2013, that they were ceasing operations and they would go into in what’s called Legacy environmental management. It was for cleanup of the site, which meant that they were still going to be there for probably 30 to 40 years and the cleanup stage. But it’s it’s it’s different than when it was operating. And it was different for us is the way our community needed to embrace the Department of Energy. So we’ve been in that phase for over 10 years now. And it became apparent to us because we got very involved with the national trade association for communities that have a department of energy side that’s in this phase of cleaning up the energy communities Alliance. We started going to their meetings we started meeting you know, we’ve always been the advocacy organization asking for money, but we for the for the cleanup, but we started looking at what needs to be done out there for the future. We really didn’t have a plan for beyond the cleanup phase, where there’s all He’s an opportunity for development, economic development to continue. So we applied for a grant with the Department of Energy to lead the reindustrialization study for that site to really map out the future. Because there there could be a parallel path for this site, you can have it the cleanup going on that we’re working with. Now, again, on our advocacy side, for the chamber, we are fighting for funding, we have fight for long term contracts, those are the things that we’re representing there. On the second side of it, the parallel path would be looking at how we could get the land that has been dedicated and managed, owned by the department of energy transferred back to our community so that we can begin to do economic development project programs, and overall economic development of that site. So we developed a grant request, and we’re very successful to get that, and we’ll be we’re about a year into it now. And we’ll be, you know, continuing throughout the next six months to a year as well on it. So with that, I have grant request had some major pillars in it, of course, that we have to accomplish. And one of those is identifying and infrastructure needs for the land that would be transferred back to the community. And in step one of that also, you had to, we had to do the official formal request from our community, for the very first parcel of land to be transferred back to the community. So that has been accomplished. And so now we’re looking at what the infrastructures would would need water, roads, all of that, to make that successful economic development. And then we will continue with working on prospects for economic development. We’ve been to national conferences to meet with companies that are interested in locating and an economic in a on a Department of Energy site, a joint adjacent to it or nearby. We’re working on the workforce. And really, we’re looking on the workforce for now and for the future. So that’s part of our grant that is really overlapping from what’s happening now, and going into the future for the next few years. And so those were the main things, those were really a little bit unusual for our chamber, because we’re not the economic development organization for our community. But we work with economic development very closely. And we have worked with the Department of Energy for so many years that we know knew that they have a lot of trust in our chamber, that we have built a relationship with them for the year. So they knew that we would take this very seriously, and that we would make sure it’s done correctly.

Brandon Burton 12:50
So what kinds of things were maybe surprising as you went through the study of trying to revitalize this this land? Was there anything that came to light that you didn’t expect? That has kind of course the direction that you’re going going forward?

Sandra Wilson 13:07
I think that identifying the companies that might be interested to come here has been a very interesting prospect. I mean, that we can’t really, you know, we’ve just put in the land transfer request, that had to be step number one, and then we’ll begin to identify who would be interested in coming here. So there’s a lot of opportunity there. The Department of Energy has a lot of funding available for developing new companies. But there’s just a lot of things that will come to light as we begin to work through this process. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:43
All right. Is there any specific industry or type of business you feel like would be an ideal candidate for what’s on a former Department of Energy? Land?

Sandra Wilson 13:56
There are some that are, you know, Newt, mislaid, nuclear clean energy potential for small modular reactor. I mean, right now we’re identifying those and who would consider coming here, there are a lot of fuel fabrication, a lot of things that are really all new to us, as a as a chamber, that we’ve been able to work with the context that we built through the many years that we’ve been involved with the Department of Energy to know who they may be. Right.

Brandon Burton 14:24
Now, as I think of a chamber of the year finalists, we’re really looking at chambers that are making a big impact on their community. And what you guys are focused on here with this Department of Energy land, this can be a huge impact to the economy in the Paducah area and just a change of atmosphere, if you will, depending on how that goes forward. So that I see it being a huge impact in the community.

Sandra Wilson 14:51
Thank you. I would totally agree. The decisions we are making today and that we are identifying for the future really are Setting our community for the futures for the next 50 years and beyond. Because it’s so critical that we diversify our economy here, we’ve had this Department of Energy site for 60, year of 5060 years, it was a great employer of some of the best jobs in our community they employed, you know, way over 1000, they still do that. But it’s sometimes in the peaks, I’ve been up to 1800 to 2000. And so we became really reliant on that, because we had such a good base. But it’s important that we continue to diversify all of that economy, you know, community, our size is not a huge geographical large county. So that is available land that we need to focus on for economic development for the future. We have said before, when we’re meeting with the Department of Energy, we don’t want to be part of just their history, we want to be a part of their future. And they have a lot of programs available for working with companies that are looking at the future of energy projects. Our state, for example, we had in our advocacy efforts for 2024, with the state priorities was all quite a bit about nuclear energy. And our state has a set aside, established a new nuclear Working Group advisory board that will be run out of the University of Kentucky. And you know, there’s identifying criteria for making a community nuclear ready. Prior to that our community had already identified and adopted resolutions by our city government or county government, our chamber economic development, our community reuse organization, stating that we are a community that’s a nuclear ready. And by that we meant we’ve been in this arena for many years. We understand it, we know it, our workforce knows that we’re ready to go for the next step. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:59
that’s great. I love what you said about, you don’t want to just be a part of the their history but a part of the future as well. So I love being forward thinking like that.

Sandra Wilson 17:11
Girl is also I’ll just say what he’s really put me out in the and a national forefront. I was able to speak at a waste management symposium earlier this year, and was on a panel out there where there were I think 3000 People now wasn’t I didn’t speak to that hopeful 3000, I spoke to a panel on a panel specific about cleanup of the Department of Energy side. But it’s put me in a whole new arena, really talking about that. And I also believe that it is putting a chamber chambers of commerce across the country in a new arena where you can show that you adjust to what your community needs are. And we saw this as a really strong need, we embraced it, we were very intentional on how we would move forward with it. And we are going to deliver the best product that we can for the Ark communities path forward, we call it our roadmap for the community. So that whoever picks it up at the end, knows exactly the next steps for land transfer, who the economic development prospects are and has their contacts and knows what they would want for infrastructure needs, and knows what the workforce would need to be. So we’re preparing our future at the community now.

Brandon Burton 18:24
That’s great. I love it. Love it, love it. Let’s shift gears a little bit into the second program that was submitted on your chamber that your application if you introduce that to us and kind of the the origins and how that’s developed?

Sandra Wilson 18:40
Well, when I talk about economic development, let me just say we say it all the time, it happens one job at a time. It’s great when you have a new company come in and they’re announcing three to 400 500. But you have so many small businesses in Riyadh in reality Chamber of Commerce for us. In located where we are about three fourths of our members are considered small businesses. And they’re reliant on the big employers around them for the customers and the you know, the activity that comes in for them. But they are truly what we would call economic development at its finest. And we have a small business cohort that had we’ve graduated 40 from the program, and we see how they are hiring people. They’re expanding. They’re opening new locations, because of the programs that they have seen that can be successful, how they can develop it and make their own business more successful through what they’ve learned in our small business cohort. We have all kinds of seminars, we have a lot of programs that go on, we get calls every day that how do you do a business plan? How do you get this will central to that was our Small Business Development Center, that chamber How does it how’s that but we have a close relationship in partnership with the Small Business Development Center. The way it is structured in our state is that I have to raise it was it was restricted a little bit where they had to raise the funding locally to keep their program open. When you have somebody that’s supposed to be advising small business owners, I didn’t, we didn’t want them to have to spend their time or decided that the chamber. And we went out in the community and the chamber, first of all, and we went to our economic development, our city or county and our local organizations that benefit from having small business development center in our community. And we were able to raise the money that was needed to keep that program open, and that you’re continuing to be a close partner with us and everything that we do for our small businesses.

Brandon Burton 20:42
So I’m curious and how you went about raising the money? Was it about just getting the the awareness out about what the need was and making strategic assets? or was there some kind of event or fundraiser I had, what was the approach to raising those funds?

Sandra Wilson 20:57
First of all, our Small Business Development Center had a great track record, so they could show the businesses that they had helped, and what it involved with jobs and with economic development, so when you go and talk to a mayor, or a county judge, and you can show them the benefits and the success that they’ve been having, it really helps a lot. And we were able to do that. So it was strategic meetings, and some phone calls. But we did go to a lot of meetings in person. Most all of them were our members, primarily, we did work with an adjoining county that had some support as well. But we that adjoining county is a really close partner with our own county and with our chamber, they’ve been very involved with us through the years. So we had built those relationships. I think everyone that we asked knew that they could trust us as well, that we wouldn’t be behind it if we didn’t know that it was going to be a very successful program. And so that that’s what we did, we mostly, I would say, went one on one with meetings. But it wasn’t an impossible sale, where it was more of an education. And let’s face it, everything at the end comes down to making the ask closing the deal. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:11
So you didn’t do like a mass email and say we’re collecting funds, it was more strategic and gave some intention behind that. So

Sandra Wilson 22:22
we knew that their partners were, we knew who the small businesses that they were helping with we’re working with, we knew that overall, no one wanted to lose this resource that we had in our community. I think that was someone the number one thing that we all agreed on. It was just how do we make sure that we’re doing the steps that we need to and somebody has to take the lead on anything that you’re going to do somebody has to take the lead to make sure that it’s being done, it’s being done in a timely way it’s being reported, and that everything that needs to be done, when you’re looking at raising funds, it was going to the University of Kentucky, that everything that needed to be done was was completed the way it should be. So

Brandon Burton 23:09
the raising of the funds, is that something that needs to be done on an annual basis for the Small Business Development Center? Or is it what what kind of interval was that where they need to come up with the funds to justify staying open, we

Sandra Wilson 23:21
set it up on a two year program. So everyone committed for two years, I believe at the end of those two years, we will not have any trouble continuing with that, because he’s already met his goals for the year right now, you know, and halfway through the year, so he’s got the rest of the year to continue. You know, just to build up on that and expand, the one thing that he probably needed to do was be able to expand into other counties. A lot of his work was being done in our immediate area in Paducah and the immediate surrounding area. But there are other counties in our community that did step in our West Kentucky Regional Chamber Alliance stepped in and made a nice contribution to help with them. And they represent 14 counties in West Kentucky. So it was a really opportunity to allow that this service to be expanded as well. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:11
that’s fantastic. Guys came in as heroes.

Sandra Wilson 24:17
So I mean, in regionalism, and how important it is that if our county is successful, it’s overflowing into other counties. And if our county next door has businesses opening, more than likely, you know, we’re going to benefit from that in some way. And so, really show the strength I think of working together to support something in your region that you know, is vital and is very important. What was

Brandon Burton 24:43
key to me is how you mentioned it was it was all built upon the relationships that you guys have built over the years to be able to go make those asked to make those connections build lean upon the county next door and to be able to make this happen and it is it’s what chambers do is convening and building those relationships and That’s, uh, you guys executed well on that. So great job.

Sandra Wilson 25:06
It was really fun, because it actually put us out in the community back meeting with our own members. But you know, the underlying factor too is we knew we really couldn’t continue our own small business development programs that we have, if we didn’t have that resource. It was critical for us to have that. So it was a great investment. Right? And resources.

Brandon Burton 25:29
Yes, yeah. So I like asking, especially as we have you on as a chamber, the year finalist for chambers that are out there listening, what kind of tip or action item might you share for a listener who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level?

Sandra Wilson 25:46
There are a lot of resources out there that are very beneficial. And I think you have to look at your own region to see how what what’s needed the most. And then you can rely on for us, we rely on our State Chamber, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce a lot. I mean, we work very closely with them, we rely on the US Chamber of Commerce and rely on them. And as a chamber executive, we rely on the association of Chamber of Commerce executives, there are great resources available, that if you just will take the time, that and I’m just gonna say that’s probably some of the hardest thing. That’s the hardest that you have to find. Because as a chamber, executive, chamber staff person, you’re managing a lot of different tasks, no day is ever the same. No crisis is ever the same. No, celebration is ever the same. And so you have to really be always looking to see what someone else is doing. And then the chamber rolled, you know, I think we call it r&d, the RIP and duplicate, and you make it your own. And we do that, and we’re honored when another chamber does that from something that we’re doing, if they can, if we can help them to be more successful. That’s awesome. Because that’s helping more communities to be successful, more Chambers of Commerce. So identify what’s needed in your community, look around and see how you what would be the best organization for you to align yourself with on any particular issue. And it’s going to vary from issue to issue.

Brandon Burton 27:21
I love that fact, as I introduce what chamber chat podcast is all about to chamber professionals, I’ll use the tagline that it’s your weekly r&d resource, right? So every week, you get new ideas that you can rip off and duplicate. So I love that learning from others. As we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Sandra Wilson 27:47
I’m gonna go back to the fact that I think you have to identify what’s important in your community, because we’re all different. We all have different challenges and different opportunities, and identify what is going to help your community and I didn’t make a determination if that’s something your chamber should be the lead on, should maybe be the second play the second roll in and pushing, sometimes you just have to push, who maybe it’s a different organization, or maybe it’s the government that should be in the lead, and you’re the one pushing them to help them better understand that there are times that you’re going to need to be in the lead and look to others to help you with that. But you’re going to have to stay relevant in your own community.

Brandon Burton 28:32
I like that trying to figure out what your role should be and what your community needs. I think a lot of chambers just jumped to the conclusion oh, we need to be the lead. And like he said, oftentimes be in that second role and helping to push it along and explain why things are important is very helpful. You’re still leading but you don’t have to take that that main charge and carry that that weight that comes with it as well. So great, great piece of advice with that as well. Well, Sandra, before we let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Paducah, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you. Okay,

Sandra Wilson 29:11
that’s great. I always appreciate sharing information and I can tell you that I call others all the time to ask for their advice. So you can reach us at PaducahChamber.org And my direct email is swilson@paducahchamber.org. And let me spell Paducah, Pa d u c h Paducah. And wire info if you can’t remember as well send info@PaducahChamber.org. We’ll get you through to ours and we’ll answer you.

Brandon Burton 29:41
That’s perfect. And I’ll get it in our show notes for this episode as well. So somebody can pull that up and find your email and website and all that good stuff. But Sandra, this has been great to have you back on chamber chat podcast and again, big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a finalist for the great work you guys are doing. Under the Paducah area, and I wish you and your team Best of luck as chamber the year. Thank

Sandra Wilson 30:05
you, Brandon. Thank you for all you do for the chamber profession. We really do appreciate it. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 30:10
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Michigan West Coast Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Jodi Owczarski

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

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You’re joining us today for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Jodi Owczarski. Jodi is the President and CEO of the West Coast Chamber in Michigan. For the first five years the West Coast Chamber Jodi was accountable to provide leadership and all areas of the organization as well as serving as the integrator within the EOS framework. As a vice president and CEO, Jodi was responsible for all human resources, accounting and finance functions, as well as managing the staff, Facilities and Operations and directing the West Coast leadership program. She was made president and CEO of the West Coast chamber on September 1 2020. To Jodi’s limitless capacity for solving math problems has been essential to creating budgets and balance sheets. And her inviting personality and quick humor combined with our strategic thinking give her the edge when making when managing staff committees, volunteers, Jodi’s contagious energy ripples into our business community, and today will ripple into this podcast episode. But, Jodi, we’re excited to have you back with us here on Chamber Chat Podcast. For those who are regular listeners she was with us almost a year ago, as I look back on it, she’s back in episode 244. But we’re excited to have you back with us and give you an opportunity to say hello to everyone listening. And I like asking for an interest. Interesting tip. Interesting fact about us so we can get to know you a little better.

Jodi Owczarski 2:49
I love that. Brandon, thank you. I’m honored to be back, especially as a finalist for chamber of the year. That’s something we’ve aspired to for a long time. Well, I almost had to ask the staff an interesting fact about me. But I guess as it relates to being part of the chamber world, I actually started at the chamber as an ambassador, and was an ambassador when I was hired on back in 2017. And was in the leadership class. And part of my new role at the Chamber was to be the director for the leadership program. So I started directing the program that I was still a member of the class were so that was an interesting twist on being a part of that program.

Brandon Burton 3:30
Yeah, very meta, right, like, and leading it. You took good notes at the beginning so you can have some idea what you’re doing. Exactly. Well, tell us a little bit about the West Coast chamber, give us an idea of the type of chambers kind of work, you guys are involved with size, staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage for our conversation.

Jodi Owczarski 3:52
Absolutely. The West Coast chamber is on the west shore of Lake Michigan. We are based in Holland, Michigan, a community of about 120,000 people in the greater Holland area. In this space, we have 1233 members, as of today, every member counts. And we’ve recently expanded to a staff of eight team members. interesting for us. We have found that we are a very fertile bunch over here. We’ve had four maternity leaves in six months and a fifth one coming. So our small team has been put to the test. Seems like we take having babies two at a time around here. So we’re growing our chamber membership. One, one baby at a time.

Brandon Burton 4:44
Wow. Yeah, your your team is it’s like doubling right. Is called Workforce Development. You bring them yeah,

Jodi Owczarski 4:53
we’re dedicated right to the workforce development. We’re all growing our own.

Brandon Burton 4:58
That’s right. I love it. Well Yes Congratulations to you guys for being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. It is a huge accomplishment I know even to to be selected and I on these episodes I love diving into the programs that were submitted on your chamber the your application. So we’ll spend the majority of our time today talking about those. And we’ll dive into those programs as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Jodi, we’re back. So why don’t you tell us what the first of the two programs is that you’d like to highlight today? And we’ll dive into the details of it and learn a little bit more.

Jodi Owczarski 7:32
Absolutely. So I mentioned that I was in the West Coast Leadership Program, our community based leadership program. And as I was trying to reimagine what that program could look like, I really worked to reevaluate that last day, the program that we had called graduation, and really thought about trying to discover ways that we could do a better job of tangibly launching those leaders out into our community. And so the first year I had them go around and volunteer around town. And the group of 25 or 30 people in the class at that point, had a great time. And from that, we discovered that we there’s a little something here. And so the next year, we did it again. And we allowed them to invite a friend or colleague along and internet, we had almost 100 people out serving. And that’s when the idea really hit that we could do something bigger. And from that our first initiative was born, which is called Community Impact day. So in 2022, we decided to take the afternoon of the last day of our leadership program, and facilitate volunteer opportunities with people throughout the community that were willing to serve. And so this could be anything from painting to spreading woodchips to helping stuff, mailers for nonprofit. And so we reached out to our nonprofit organizations, we set that up. And in 2022, we had 250 People go out and serve that afternoon. It was awesome. And as we were debriefing at the end of the day, my team was kind of energized and I had that post event high and threw a a b hag out there and said you know what, let’s do it again. And next year, let’s go for 1000 people and and so we did we we went for it. We ended up with 983 which of course is short of our goal, but it felt anything but short of the goal last year when I drove through the town and could see nearly 1000 people out volunteering all wearing our community impact a blue shirts, and and we knew that something great was really underway. This year. We did it again may 15 2024 And we had over 1500 15 122 people serving this year. And next year, we’re shooting for 2025 and 2025. So it’s so much fun. And our hope is that we’re going to get other chambers across our region across the state and even across the country, leaning in and doing this ideally, even on the same day, when that’d be

Brandon Burton 10:24
cool. That would be awesome. So you thought 1000 people out in the community serving was it be hag right? Yeah. And look at your look where you are now, right like that. It almost seems like a small goal, looking back on and seeing the growth and where the vision is going today. I love how you talked about creating something to be able to launch these leaders into the community. So what is their role in this these these leaders that go through the leadership program? Yep. What’s that launch look like?

Jodi Owczarski 10:57
Great question. So I knew that going from 200 to 1000, I had to do some creative things. And the leadership class played a big part in that. So we have a class of typically 25 people, they were each responsible for choosing a site that they were going to volunteer at, and being the leader at that site, which also meant identifying all of the volunteers that were needed for that location. So they had choices of where they could go, but each site needed at least 10 volunteers. So now I knew I was going to have 250 volunteers just with a leadership class. It also gave them a great opportunity to lead at that spot. Undoubtedly, the group of volunteers moved through the volunteer projects quicker than what the organization expected. And so we always need somebody on point to say, what more can we do, and hey, let’s go over here and do this next, and just kind of take charge and continue to make things happen. And so they’re able to serve in that way. Once we saw that model work, we expanded that same thing to our board of directors into our ambassadors, so that you get another, here’s another 150 volunteers coming, here’s another 400 volunteers coming over this way. And so it was it was a quick, repeatable way to gather groups, when you start seeing teams come right from businesses, etc, that it’s the whole IT department from this manufacturer, or, you know, fill in the blank with who that is that they’re coming out as a group to do that together. And in the benefits that they see in that come right along with that. Yeah, I

Brandon Burton 12:44
can see where certain Chamber members is different businesses in the community could see it as a corporate responsibility, kind of a thing to come out and give back to the community so they can create their own teams. And I could see, you know, competition coming out of this at some point for sure, the earning or something. Yeah,

Jodi Owczarski 13:01
there’s some other pieces of this as well, where it’s like, you look at the younger generation, and what we’ve studies are showing is that investing in the community, volunteerism is critical for them. And if they see their employer investing in that way, and allowing them space, to be able to go do that as a part of their work, their retention is so much higher. And we’re hearing that from our employers. We also worked really hard on inclusivity. This year, as we went from 1000, or 983, to 12. To 15 122, we wanted to look at who’s often overlooked in this process. And we went to Senior Centers where we were sending volunteers to go serve these senior citizens. But we also went to them and said, Yes, and we’d love to take your senior citizens out. And we believe that they’ve got great value to contribute, let’s find opportunities that they can serve, maybe it’s not spreading wood chips, but we’ve got some other things that we could create that could be meaningful for them to do. And so we had that happening. Same thing for an organization that serves adults with a challenges and sent the group into serve there, but also brought that group of participants out to come and serve and it was just the coolest thing to see the pride that they had in the work that they did out in our community.

Brandon Burton 14:32
I love it. You’re answering the questions that I have before I asked them about how you grow Yeah, so exponential exponentially like that. But it’s it’s getting you know, those leaders from the leadership class involved and then extending it to the board and the ambassadors and then kind of cross pollinating with those that you’re serving also providing service and I love it. I mean, you guys are just have your eyes wide open to opportunities, and inviting and being inclusive and What What kind of outcomes are you seeing through the community as you guys implement these, these community impact days?

Jodi Owczarski 15:07
You know, there’s there’s these easy, tangible outcomes, right. So if we look at the city of Holland, for example, we went and did two big projects. Last year for the city of Holland in 2023, we built a playground, for them that was replacing an old kind of broken down one and put in a new inclusive playground, that children of all physical and cognitive abilities would be able to utilize. We also went out and painted railing along the seawall and painted miles of painting of railing along the seawall, and for the city of Highland in that three hour time block, we saved them over $120,000. It’s just remarkable right to be able to do that. And it’s, it took us very little effort. But it’s a tangible outcome on on our city. So there’s those kinds of outcomes. Our nonprofits are seeing additional, we’ve tried to coach them up along the way to say, Man, this is an opportunity for you to have all of these people learn about your organization. So as they come there, and they’re ready to get started, take five minutes, give them your elevator pitch, right? Tell them about what you do and why you do it, and what your biggest needs are. And what we’re hearing from those organizations is that the relationships continue beyond this one afternoon. They’re coming in to volunteer on an ongoing basis. They’re becoming donors and, and financial supporters of the organization. They’re becoming advocates and helping to tell the story and grow awareness of these organizations. So it’s cool to see that happen as well. And then we see the impact of the investment of the volunteers themselves. They feel differently about the community when they go to the park where they built the playground, or where they painted the railing. That’s their park, they’re gonna pick up garbage that they see on the ground, right? They’re gonna take their family there with pride, because this is a place that they had an impact on.

Brandon Burton 17:18
I love that skit and people involved. Do you ever see people wearing the T shirts just around the city?

Jodi Owczarski 17:25
I love saw it yesterday, the first time that it happened, I made a fool of myself, I was giddy. I took a picture. Covertly, I’m yelling across the street, I love your teacher. The person looked at me like I completely lost my mind. But we’re intentional and buying a shirt that people are going to want to wear. They’re super comfortable. They’re beautiful blue color. And so we see them all around town. So there’s no charge to participate. That’s the one expense that we have. But the sponsor dollars have come in so readily, that it’s an easy thing for us to do. So you drive through the town, you see the shirts everywhere. And it was fun even to see some of the Facebook groups, you know, if your community has a for us, it’s a Holland informed group, right? It’s where all of the the gossip and things happen. If you want to know what’s happening in the town, this Facebook group, there was a number of questions about, Hey, what’s up with all the blue shirts in town today? And then reading the responses right at the people saying, oh, my gosh, it’s the coolest thing. This happened. And I want to do it next year. And, you know, how do I get involved? It’s it’s going to take on a life of its own. This, this project has legs, and I hope that I’m going to be 80 years old and coming back to participate in community impact day.

Brandon Burton 18:47
That’s great. I love it. Love it. So let’s shift gears a little bit into your second program. I know it’s somewhat connected, but introduce us to it. The second program is you submitted on your application. The

Jodi Owczarski 19:02
two tag team really well, although they were created in separate ways. Our second initiative is called West Coast Connect. It’s an online platform that we’ve created, that has a directory of opportunities for leaders in our community to serve at board elected or skilled committee types of opportunities, as well as a directory of individual leaders who are raising their hand and willing to serve. So our community did a deep dive a couple of years ago to look at what are the top issues facing our community. And at that time, we were going through a pretty big political upheaval and realized that we were going to be late to the game and having adequate candidates for some Local elected positions, and realize that we can’t be late to that, again, we’ve got to be more prepared and identifying and equipping those leaders in advance. At the same time, we’re looking around and seeing generational leaders that are at the same tables over and over, right? You see the same people. And we know from our West Coast leadership program, we have about 1000 people that have been through this program, why do we see the same 20 people serving everywhere, it’s because they’re top of mind, we know that there are far more people willing and capable of serving, we just have to get them more top of mind. As a chamber professional, I regularly would get a phone call saying, Hey, I’m looking for a board member. And here’s what I’m looking for. Right? Ideally, it’d be a female, if that person could be a person of color, that’d be fantastic. We really need somebody who has some financial acumen and, and so you kind of scroll through your brain and you think about the people you see, and you give the same list. This helps us go so much deeper into the list of potential people serving throughout our community. It can be self serve, our organizations can go. And not only post the opportunities they have, but also source their potential volunteers. But they can also come back to us to ask for, like, who do you know, in this directory, and give us the parameters. And we can pull some reports to make sure that we come up with, you know, a list of great people for for them to be able to connect with and explore whether or not they’d be a good fit. So

Brandon Burton 21:45
I know with a platform like this, the one of the struggles at the beginning, it’s like a chicken or the egg and everything, right? If you’re trying to match the two sides together, you need to have, you know, one or both sides populated to be able to make it useful. So how do you get started with creating a platform like this to be able to matchmake? And no, you’ve got kind of that list in your head that maybe you can start with populating that. But then it said that same list that you’re always putting out there, right? So sure, what’s the approach? Yep,

Jodi Owczarski 22:15
great question. We started with our current West Coast leadership class, right there in the class, because they want to serve in the community. And so they were the first 25 people to populate, then we went back to the three most recent classes and had them do it as well. Because we knew, again, they they were looking for those same opportunities. Once we had some of those built out, we could send it out more broadly. And people could see what they looked like what that looked like, and could see themselves in it. And so at this point, we have over 227 individuals that have raised their hand and are currently on this site. So

Brandon Burton 22:55
do they create their own profile, upload a picture and kind of a resume of sorts of you know, what their background is?

Jodi Owczarski 23:02
They do. So we knew for this to be successful, it had to be a couple of things. We were we run lean as a team here. So this couldn’t be something that required a lot of intervention on our on our part. And we needed it to be as self serve as possible. So we built it on our growth zone platform that we already use for our CRM system, they’ve got logins for their accounts already, they could create them right in there. We do allow non members to be a part of this, because it’s really more about the community than just the chamber. And so we’ve set it up so that they non members could could log in and create this as well. So they can update their profile at any time to keep that relevant, if they’ve gotten a few opportunities, and they’re no longer looking for a new opportunity, they could take themselves down, put themselves back up again, when they have fresh opportunity or capacity to grow that. And it’s the same thing for the organization, right? They can log in, they create the whole list of what it is that they’re looking for. And we just approve it, clean it up to make sure it looks good. And get it posted on our website. So it’s it’s very simple.

Brandon Burton 24:16
Are the organizations that are searching, Are they members or is that open to? That’s

Jodi Owczarski 24:22
open as well. Okay. Yep. Yep. Again, we believe that this is bigger than chamber, right? This is this is whole community. And we want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be able to do this. So you know, when elections are coming around, we have more data behind the screen than what you can see visibly, we’re not going to share people’s personal home address in some other personal information, but information that’s helpful for us to be able to look and see, hey, I need someone in ward three for city council, who lives in that area that It has self identified as someone who cares about advocacy, and may be willing to run for run for a seat on city council in this in this geographical area, we can pull that up and and dive into that a little deeper.

Brandon Burton 25:14
Yeah. So right now it sounds like it’s been filled with leadership class participants, right? Is there any application process for anyone else in the community that wants to be involved? Do they need to go through the leadership class or what’s, how’s that structured,

Jodi Owczarski 25:31
they do not need to go through the leadership class. This too is open to anyone. We the third leg of this stool is education. So we will offer educational opportunity. So if they’ve not gone through West Coast leadership, or they’ve not served on a board of directors before you could come to a how to how to serve on a board class, right? So you understand what it is that you’re signing up for. We’ve also run things like how to run for office and had the County Clerk come in, to help equip people for what does that process look like? What are the financial obligations? What are the deadlines? What are the do’s and don’ts. And so we want to make sure that an educational component also comes alongside this so that we can help equip whoever is willing and interested to serve.

Brandon Burton 26:20
Well, that seems like a great solution. And way to think outside the box to play matchmaker there, if you will. As we start to wrap things up, I wanted to ask for those chambers who are out there listening who want to take their chamber up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you offer them? And it might carry a little more weight this time, especially with you guys being a chamber, the year finalist?

Jodi Owczarski 26:50
You know, that’s a great question. And I think, I don’t know what chambers are going to look like in the future and even day to day, they continue to evolve, right the way that we need to serve our community. And it’s very easy to get up on the treadmill of just continuing to churn out what we’re doing. My tip would be to take intentional, we call them clarity breaks, built in time into your schedule, on a regular cadence that takes you outside of the business. So you can think bigger, you can pause to reflect on everything from like, how’s my confidence? What am I procrastinating on? What do I need to? What do I need to get rid of or focus on? What do I need to make sure my board chair knows, I have a whole list of questions that I’ve worked through. But also pausing to think about how can we serve differently in our community? What needs are we seeing that are going unmet? And A is it something that is inside of our lane? And be how can we then approach it? If that answer is yes, it’s it’s something that we need to focus on. It’s one of our lanes, taking that time to pause and build that into a regular schedule is so important.

Brandon Burton 28:07
Yeah, I like that idea and having a name for it. And clarity breaks.

Jodi Owczarski 28:11
That’s right.

Brandon Burton 28:12
It allows you to to think bigger, and work on those bigger goals. I love it exactly. So I know you just said you don’t know what the future of chambers look like. But I always ask the question. How do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jodi Owczarski 28:27
Yeah, I don’t know what it looks like. But it’s not because we’re not thinking about it. So part of our regular processes is always having a 10 year target. The 10 year target for our chamber is that we will be a trailblazing organization that creates a tidal wave of positive impact. Note that it does not say Chamber of Commerce, I don’t know if we’ll still be called a Chamber of Commerce in 10 years. But if we’re doing things that are causing a positive impact in our community, that I think we’re doing the right things. So we’ll continue to adapt and to learn and to grow in ways that our community needs. So that we can show up and meet those needs in whatever way that is. Two years ago, as I as I moved into the CEO seat, we changed one of our core values from Think Big be great to be a trailblazer. We knew that thinking big and being great was not big enough, it wasn’t great enough to be successful. We’re going to have to blaze a trail, we’re gonna have to go places we’ve never gone before. Maybe the other chambers have not gone before, if we really want to be able to make an impact for our community. And so that’s the mindset that will continue to take into the future so that we can make a positive impact.

Brandon Burton 29:45
Yes, it’s all about making those big swings, making a difference. Yeah, that’s right. I love it. Well, Jodi, for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys how you guys are doing things there at the web. East Coast chamber what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you

Jodi Owczarski 30:03
know, our websites a great spot WestCoastChamber.org. All of our contact information is on there. My specific email is there as well. And that is Jodi with an jodi@westcoastchamber.org. We’d love to connect.

Brandon Burton 30:20
Very good. We’ll have that in our show notes for this episode. But this has been great having you back on the podcast and it says for a really good reason. So I’m excited for you guys and wish you and your team best of luck in Dallas.

Jodi Owczarski 30:34
I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 30:38
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Vail Valley Partnership-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Chris Romer

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode and our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Chris Romer. Chris serves as the President and CEO of Vail Valley Partnership or the VVP. Vail Valley Partnership is a Regional Chamber of Commerce, destination sales organization and economic development organization representing Eagle County, Colorado and was named Chamber the Year by ACCE in 2016 and 2020. As CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership, he brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development and partnership building to the organization. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities facing Colorado’s mountain region. Chris is dedicated to driving innovation and collaboration to ensure the continued success and sustainability of local businesses and communities. Chris is a macroscopic thinker who believes in tackling big issues through localized solutions. He is a graduate of the US Chamber Foundation’s IOM program and is CCE certified chamber executive. He’s also been named a top 25 Mind in hospitality sales, marketing and revenue management by hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Chamber Executive of the Year by the Colorado Association Chamber of Commerce and Industry Colorado chamber executives, and was named a PEDDIT award winner by the Western Association of Chamber Executives. Chris is a respected voice in the chamber and economic development fields and is known for his ability to bring stakeholders together to achieve common goals. Chris has a is committed to making positive impact within the Vail Valley and on a broader scale, serving on advisory boards and participating in initiatives aimed at advancing community prosperity and enhancing quality of life. Chris, first of all, congratulations to you and your team on this great accomplishment of being named a ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist again, that’s a huge feat, but uh, welcome to the show, I’ll give you a chance to say hello to all the listeners out there and and I love to have you share something interesting about yourself as well as we kick this off.

Chris Romer 3:32
Yeah, Brandon, thank you so much. And you know, it is such a such an honor to be recognized by ACCE as a finalist for chamber of the year. It’s such a testament to the people and the board and the community that we represent. And it’s something that we never, ever take for for granted. You know, we really try to keep our foot on the proverbial gas pedal, to move things forward and to represent the interests of our business community. So, such a great opportunity to share a little bit of our story with you and to be recognized by ACCE for those community programs and community impact that we that we strive to make so thank you so much. I also certainly realized that an interesting thing about me is probably the fact that I can’t write a short bio, that bio was awfully long and awkward. So I would I would love to have a second crack at that and just keep it a whole lot shorter. So we could talk about the fun stuff because talking about me not so much fun talking about our chamber and our community and our programs. A whole lot more interesting to people.

Brandon Burton 4:49
I could agree with that it talking about the the great work you guys are doing is much more impactful and meaningful anyway but it is fun to get to know the background on yet and you I’ll share a fun fact I think you are the first three Pete chamber chat podcast so there should be I feel like there should be a trophy or something for you for being I’ll take a trophy

Chris Romer 5:14
I would love to take a trophy for being the first three time visitor or three time guests on the on the chamber chat podcast.

Brandon Burton 5:22
Yes, yes, you You deserve it. So well tell us about your great team, their the Vail Valley Partnership, the the work you guys are involved with the size of your staff budget, scope of work all that as we get into our discussion today.

Chris Romer 5:37
Yeah, we have. We’re really fortunate I have a great team. We have a team of eight full time and two part time. Employees We are located in Edwards, Colorado. That’s Eagle County, Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, home to Vail, Beaver Creek ski resorts for those who might not know what Edward’s are or know where Eagle county might be. But we’re right in the heart of, of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We have you had asked about our budget and membership size, we have just under 800 members. And our community is about 55,000 people. And that represents nine nine towns and we’re a countywide regional organization, our annual budget is about $1.3 million per year. You know, and I think the last part of what you had asked for in regards to giving people a perspective, we are a we’re a program driven chamber. We are a program driven chamber we have we have multiple 501 C sixes, we have c threes. And we have these different initiatives and we branch them off. And we’ll talk a little bit about more more about this, I think as we go through the podcast, but very program driven. And it reflects in in how we approach problems. And if that leads to some of our retention and other components that we may or may not touch on but we are we are very program driven group and you know, we’re not afraid to take big swings we take we take some really big swings within our community and in sometimes we strike out and sometimes we hit a double and occasionally we hit a homerun Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:29
I think chamber works should be about those big swings make an impact. If you’re not if you’re not swinging big, what kind of impact are you making right? So I am excited to dive into this. So on these chamber the are finalists series for those who may not be familiar with the format, I’d like to really focus on the two programs and being program driven will focus on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the your application and dive into some detail around those and why they worked for Vail Valley and we’ll dive into this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Alright Chris, we’re back. So let’s let’s dive into these programs you submitted on the chamber the your application, I know. It can be tough sometimes to kind of narrow down the focus and what you want to put on the application and really highlight the work that you guys are doing. But how did you land on these on these two programs? And what are they?

Chris Romer 10:08
Yeah, it’s, you know, how we landed on them is a little bit what I talked about earlier in the podcast, around taking big swings. And recognizing that big ideas require big solutions. Both of our both of our Synopsys, both of our case studies are around that idea that big ideas require big solutions. So our first Synopsys is the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority, where we lead the yes for transit ballot campaign to create a transportation authority, which is something that had been lacking in our community. Our second synopsis is the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. That is a talent pipeline, Workforce Initiative, in partnership with our K to 12 school system to identify and train young people into the jobs that our community needs. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:12
So just from our background, and having on the show a couple times before, I guess I have a little bit of maybe added perspective, I think about your community and and why these, these two programs specifically would be of importance. But let’s dive in a little bit more on the Regional Transit Authority. Why? Why was that a hot topic? Why Why was that a big swing in your community? What was the need? And and how did you guys go about addressing that?

Chris Romer 11:41
Yeah, it’s so it’s so important for us. So we started this process. Actually, before the before the pandemic we had brought together, we recognized our population is growing, our ski resorts need to be world class destinations, our visitors are continuing to come. And yet our community growth, strained our housing and transportation systems, and our ability to move our workforce from one side of our valley to the other. We’re about a 40 mile wide, 40 mile long valley, and about a mile and a half wide, right, you’re surrounded by mountains and national forest on two sides. So we’re along linear Valley, and our housing prices, our median housing price is $1.3 million. So we really needed a transportation system that could effectively and efficiently move our workforce, up and down our valley or housing is a little bit less expensive, on the western end. So our basic premise is that improved transit supports workforce that helps our residents get to work home and school, it allows our visitors to better enjoy their experience. And this is a regional issue that required a regional solution. So we initiated the business community, we brought together our local municipalities and county, some of them run their own transit authorities. But there was nothing collaborative and nothing that was truly Valley wide. So we did focus groups, we did phone surveys of voters, we looked at what different models exist for funding transportation. We looked at 18 different models and governance structures, and landed on the Regional Transportation Authority as our best bet forward. Then we looked at how do you fund this thing. And we could have done property tax or a sales tax. And we made the decision. To move forward, we made the call in June of 2022, to go to the ballot in November. At the time for it’s hard to think about now. At the time, inflation was at 9.2%. So when we talk about having having courage and taking big swings, we said we’re gonna go to the ballot, and we’re going to ask people for a sales tax to fund this. And by the way, knowing inflation was over 9%. And we made that call, unfortunately, inflation dropped a little bit by the time we had the election. But we passed. We passed in November of 2022. Pretty overwhelmingly, I think, because we really helped to tell the story and identify the need and what this would create. As we sit here today. We have a complimentary free bus system that runs the length of our valley. Ridership for this past winter season was up 164% over the previous model, and it’s saving people time and money.

Brandon Burton 14:58
That’s amazing. It just it to be able to see it through to. So a lot of times when we’re talking about these programs and maybe leading a ballot initiative, you haven’t seen it all the way through to this point, but being that you’ve been able to lead that been able to collect the data, you know, have a successful ballot measure, and then to be able to see the results, the fruit of it right now happening throughout your Valley. That’s, that’s amazing. And I’m sure you’re seeing economic tickers, you know, the different indicators that you can measure to see the impact throughout the community as well. We are

Chris Romer 15:36
we’re able to see the increase in ridership, we’re able to see how many routes are are scheduled, how they’re completed. We did include funding for air service development in our ballot initiative. That’s a program that we’ve run for years at the chamber. And we always fundraised for. So we actually baked that into the ballot question to fund that. And we have two new flights this summer that we’re able to use that that funding to support two new Air Service flights. So we’re seeing the benefits on a local level, from a workforce standpoint, from a visitor standpoint. And we have long term enhancements that are baked into this as well, which included affordable workforce housing for transit employees, and included zero admissions, conversion, to help meet our climate goals for our region. So we’re really we’re really excited about not just the bus transportation, which is a big part of it. But the secondary components that were able to be part of that ballot initiative and more part of our storytelling around air service development and increasing opportunities for visitors to get here and locals to go on vacation. And to help achieve our climate goals. So we’re really, this one’s a was a big swing. For all the reasons we talked about, and a really nice success story that is helping make people’s lives easier. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:07
So with the bus system, it’s a it’s a free transit, right? So is there a way to track when people get on how long they’re on? Or is it just kind of hop on hop off as you go. And now there’s

Chris Romer 17:20
bus counters, there’s counters to know what the ridership is and how it increased. You know, in January, for example, of 2024, we had over 218,000 unique riders on the bus. And that’s an increase from 167,000, the year before, in the same timeframe in January. So we’re huge ridership increases. And we’re, we’re paying for it through the sales tax instead of having people pay a fare. And we have new routes because of the new authority and able to bridge a lot of what the individual communities were already doing to provide that connectivity.

Brandon Burton 18:01
Yeah. So as far as bringing workforce into the valley, is that are you able to see that direct tie in where they’re coming from the west side of the valley? Like you’d mentioned?

Chris Romer 18:10
Yeah, we are a route. Again, we saw a 64% increase in in transit ridership from the lower part of our Valley. So we can track that. The new authority tracks it, they share it with us, our work is kind of done on this one. But yes, it’s a it’s a huge success. And the community recognizes the role that the Chamber played in initiating leading and passing this ballot initiative to create the new authority.

Brandon Burton 18:42
That’s great. And it’s always nice when you can hand it off when it’s done. And you don’t have to keep ownership of it ongoing. Right.

Chris Romer 18:47
You know, we we at the chamber at the partnership, we might be experts on our community. And we’re certainly experts on on convening leaders in order to get things done. We’re certainly an expert on being a catalyst for for business growth. We are not an expert on how to run a transportation authority. Right. So we’re happy to have this one off.

Brandon Burton 19:11
Absolutely. Well, let’s switch gears to the second program that was submitted on the application around that building that talent pipeline and kind of again, the the origins of it and how it developed and in the impact that it’s making in the community. Yeah,

Chris Romer 19:27
so the second is synopsis was the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. And that was a program that had had grown and morphed. We’ve been running a youth apprenticeship programs for a number of years. We have a very successful youth apprenticeship model. We’re involved with career exploration, in partnership with another local nonprofit in our school system. And this we really recognize that There are a handful of us doing great work. And there is still an opportunity gap at the end. So we work in sync to create viable, affordable alternative pathways to get people into high quality careers, with the idea that those need to be transparent about the outcomes and the cost, help young people obtain their relevant job skills, and ensure that employers value recognize and hire from the kids that we put through this pathway. So in Eagle County, specifically, Brandon, our businesses show an average 10% gap in securing and retaining young professionals across industry sector, with health care and education, are rising to near 30% levels of that gap. So working with our business community, our school district, youth serving nonprofit agencies, were able to target those key sectors and build the collaborative, we’re very fortunate to receive a million dollar grant by which to do this work with the idea to strengthen the systems that already support the career pathways, increase student readiness to pursue pathways and increase students exploration and experience in career exploration, and exploring those career opportunities. So it’s a really nice partnership. It’s a really meaningful program with very tangible results. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:43
I think that’s a struggle that a lot of chambers have is trying to retain the workforce that you put them through K through 12. And, and for whatever reason, it’s like these students graduate high school, and they want to move on to the bigger and brighter things outside of the community they grew up in, right? And, you know, what can we do to try to keep them local, show them how great this community is, and, and maybe they go away to school somewhere and you’re, you know, get some kind of education, but bring them back is such a key to be able to entice them, show them what there is in the community to bring them back why it’s a place for them. So having a program like this, I think really hits on those points of need. And I could see being something that and I know a lot of chambers have some sort of a workforce development, you know, pipeline or program with the school districts and whatnot. But to be able to draw that attention and keep them, keep them in the community is so key. So I think this is great work that you guys are involved with this program specifically. There’s anything else stand out to you with this program? As far as trying to retain this workforce here? Is there any any kind of secret sauce that you’re seeing that’s really been the AHA kind of moment, or they just with how the partnership has developed that is really made a big, big impact? I

Chris Romer 23:13
think so I think the secret sauce or the the aha moment is that this needs to be a program that is business centric, right? It can’t be a program that is just a feel good or a do good for the kids. It has to benefit the business. And it has to strengthen the systems that support not only the career pathways for students, but solves problems for the businesses. And I think that’s a that’s a big component that sometimes when we think about workforce, even in the chamber business, inherently, to serve the needs of our businesses. When we ask businesses to donate their time, we ask businesses to donate their expertise, instead of flipping that equation and saying, we’re going to do this for the business. And it happens to help the kids. We do it for the business. We do everything we do to build a stronger community and stronger businesses, the kids and the career pathway is a way to build stronger businesses. It’s not asking the businesses to help kids.

Brandon Burton 24:23
Yeah, I think that is that is a key. I’m glad you made that point, that distinction, because I think it’s easy to look at the kids and they Oh, we want to help give them a good career. And that’s noble. That’s

Chris Romer 24:35
Yes. But but that’s a that’s a that’s a secondary outcome. That’s not the primary purpose. Exactly.

Brandon Burton 24:40
Yeah. So you get the businesses on board by letting them know this is about you. This is about strengthening your business and providing good talent, you know, to keep the strong. I’m glad you made that distinction. That’s great. So I like it, especially as a as a chamber the year finalists? I think chambers can can look at you as kind of the top of the game right now, you know, as a chamber, they are finalists, and for a chamber listening who’s trying to elevate their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tips or strategies might you offer for listeners to try to accomplish that goal and to try to give that their organization that boost they’re looking for?

Chris Romer 25:24
Yeah, it’s it’s such a great if thought challenge for for chambers of commerce, to think, how do we what is that? What is that one tip? What’s the one thing you would share? And I’m going to answer that by suggesting and challenging chambers, to move away from thinking that what we do have it fixes technical challenges in our community. We don’t have technical challenges. Technical challenges are things that can be fixed by engineers, they can be fixed by surgeons and people with specific training. There’s not too many of us that came into this business, trained to run a chamber of commerce, right, we’re trained in a more of an adaptive way. So that’s my takeaway. Recognize that you have adaptive challenges, not technical challenges. And let me expand on that a little bit. Because I expect that doesn’t make much sense. Without context. When we think of adaptive challenges, the things that we face in our community, maybe it’s early childhood, transportation or workforce, maybe it’s homelessness, it could be any number of different things. We have the white. So then the question is, so what? Right, so what right that that’s a problem. And then it’s now what? How are we going to do that? So the framework, and the challenge to listeners thinking about adaptive challenges? is learning learning the what? Listening, taking action, I think we collectively do a great job of listening. Every chamber listening to this listens to their businesses listens to their community does surveys, they listen. It’s the question of taking action, how do we take action? How do I identify the steps to take action. The two last parts I’ll add on this is adaptive challenges have long term implications. They’re not transactional, they’re not, we’re going to do this, they have long term, community benefit, long term benefit to the chamber to the, to the community, to the businesses. And we’re really never ever going to fix quote, unquote, fix, and adaptive challenge. All the things I listed early childhood, workforce, housing, workforce development, talent pipeline. It’s homelessness, when we say fix what we mean is make better chambers have a very unique positioning and a position of trust within their communities, to tackle these adaptive challenges that are hard, they’re long term, and fixing the endzone always moves. So fixing these challenges really means making it better. And that that changes year after year, initiative after initiative, it never really goes away. And that creates stability. And that should hopefully create fundraising opportunities and grant funding and membership retention, and all the things. So that’s my one takeaway, and it was a really long answer. But I really want to share that if we can do that. And we can shift our thinking away from technical into adaptive, that chambers are going to fly, we’re going to thrive, because we’re going to be so uniquely positioned that no one can do what we do.

Brandon Burton 29:01
Yeah. So I like the idea that that adaptive challenges have long term implications. And I know you mentioned at the beginning of the episode about retention, and that kind of plays into here. Is there. Is there more you wanted to touch on with the aspect of retention before we wrap things up? Um,

Chris Romer 29:22
no, I don’t think so. I mean, I think that if anything, it’s really just when we talk about retention, there’s so many ways to spin that as retention of employees retention of people in our communities retention of business, retention of membership. I think if we as chambers, have had this mind frame of tackling big problems in our community and approaching it in an adaptive relationship driven manner. Then our work becomes central to the success of the community. And if we become central to the success of the community, we have solved retention at each of those levels that I talked about.

Brandon Burton 30:06
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So the question I asked everyone as they haven’t on the show is about the future of chambers, which I think you kind of touched on with your your tip there. But how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Chris Romer 30:21
Yeah, I did lead into this a little bit or leak into this, if you will. But the I think the future of chambers is really, really bright, with a caveat. And that caveat is if we roll up our sleeves and tackle the big problems, our purpose, our purpose needs to be around that, that problem solving. And again, when I say problem solving, I mean, making things better versus versus traditionally fixing things. But we can make things better. I think all the finalists that you’re going to be talking to throughout this series, probably have one, if not both of their synopsis, focusing on how they made their community better. And I think that’s a lesson for everybody within the chamber of business. And if we can focus on our purpose being problem solving, and how we do that, knowing that it’s really hard, knowing that it’s long term, knowing that it causes some sleepless nights, knowing that it’s probably not going to go over well with everybody in our community. And we’re going to have the courage to do those things. Boy, the future of chambers is so bright.

Brandon Burton 31:31
Yeah. encouraged as important in that, as you mentioned, so absolutely. Swing big and have courage. Chris, this has been fun to have you back on chamber chat podcast. I love the pieces of advice you share the experiences you have, and especially the impact you guys are making. They’re there in the Vail Valley. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what you guys are doing there at the VVP we’re what would be the best way to connect with you. Yeah,

Chris Romer 32:06
you can find all of my contact information on our website at VailValleyPartnership.com. That’s VailValleyPartnership.com. I can be reached at cromer@VailValleyPartnership.com. And you can find me on most of the social channels and my phone numbers on the website as well and all of that, but VailValleyPartnership.com is your best place to go.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Very good. So back from Episode 21, I think was your first appearance and we’re at episode 285 Now, but this has been a blast, Chris. Thanks for being with us. Again. Here. You’re on chamber chat podcast today and wish you and your team the best of luck.

Chris Romer 32:48
Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 32:51
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Newnan-Coweta Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Candace Boothby

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Candace Boothby. Candace is the President and CEO of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber in Georgia. It’s a position she’s held for almost 21 years. She is a certified chamber executive, the top professional certification nationally and only one of two CCEs in Georgia. Candace is known for high energy and innovative approach to organizational management traits which assist her in developing many successful initiatives. Her ongoing commitment to excellence resulted in the Newnan-Coweta Chamber receiving the coveted Five Star accreditation from the US Chamber of Commerce and maintaining it for the past 16 years, placing it in the top 1% of chambers nationwide. In 2015. Through her leadership, the Newnan-Coweta Chamber was named the National Chamber of the Year the first chamber in Georgia to receive this designation. Professionally, Candace received her accreditation and public relations in 2002. Graduated from with her IOM in 2005 received her Georgia certified chamber executive recognition in 2007. And in 2013 obtained her CCE designation. She has served on numerous community and professional boards throughout her career including the chair of the Georgia Association Chamber of Commerce in 2013 to 2014 and two terms on the ACCE Board of Directors where she also has chaired the Chamber of the Year program and currently chairs and currently chairs the Fringe Benefits Inc board. In 2021. She was named the Legacy Award recipient by her Georgia peers.

A Texas native Candace. His career spans 37 years 35 of them in Georgia after graduating from Baylor in Waco, Texas. With her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, she got her start in chamber work at the Greater Killeen Chamber in Texas. She brightened her background by working for a State Technical College at a Baptist Hospital, a large metro Atlantic public school system and community not for profit. Before coming to the Newnan-Coweta Chamber in September 2003, which became the third chamber she served.

Candace, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. Congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of the Year Finalist again, this is very exciting, but wanted to give you a chance to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to have you shared something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Candace Boothby 3:59
Well, it’s great to be here. Thank you and I were sharing earlier, this is my second time to visit with you. And I want to just give a shout out to everybody out there and chamber world. We all know how much we love what we do. And I think that reflection of that is when you do get moments in time opportunities like this. But like you said, I’ve been in my current community 21 years in September. I love what I do as much as I did the very first moment I started in the chamber industry. We all know there are ups and downs that it gets in your blood, and it just doesn’t go away. So we do have an organization we’re about 740 Plus members give or take whatever day of the week. It is our budgets a little over a million dollars. We are located about 25-30 minutes south of Hartsfield Jackson airport. So I like to say I’m, we’re close enough to the gravitational pull of Atlanta to take advantage of all their benefits. But we have a sense of place and a sense of community that’s uniquely ours. So I am proud to be where I am today talking with you. And something interesting. I think you said Brandon about me. Okay, so I’m native Texan San Antonio was my home. I have family in Waco and Macedonia has and variety of places and the only family member to have left. The one day I just happened to be I went down a rabbit hole, following a chamber member who was on a genealogy trip. And I thought, Well, why don’t I just click on My great grandmother whose name was gravestone, Spearman, and I knew that she had connections to Georgia. And she married a man from Louisiana, and they settled in East Texas, Pittsburgh, if anybody knows where that is. And so I did. I googled her. And I recognized my grandmother and all her brothers and sisters on that page was very detailed, was clearly my family. And so I thought, well, let me click on her mother. And I did and I discovered that my great great grandmother was born right here in 1845. And can’t wait Academy. Which What are the odds? Right, so then I clicked on her parents. And I discovered that her father is buried in our historical cemetery across the street from the chamber. That’s like my great, great, great grandfather. So here I am, native Texan, moved to Georgia, when I was 22 ended up in this community and the pleasure of being able to serve here for so many years, discovering that I’m from here, originally. So it’s kind of like one of those moments, I got all excited, because I’m like, what, how many generations is that, and, you know, you have a lot of communities depending on where they are in their lifecycle that might have a lot of history. And you have to be born here, or your grandfather has to be born here, you know, for you to be actually considered from that community. Right? Yeah. And so when I did my math, I called up one of my board members who I knew was one of the older families in town. I think he was eight, eight and a half generations, something like that. And I use 20 generations as my litmus. So I did my math. I called him up. And I said, Hey, Garnett, how many generations are you? And he told me and I said, Well, I told him what store and I said, well, guess what? I win.

Then I told my board chair at the time, and he said, Oh, you’re a homing pigeon. So I feel like that’s why I’ve always felt an affinity for Noonan and Kavita County. It’s been my blood. And they’re no joking, right? Literally.

Brandon Burton 8:01
Yeah, I’m assuming the chamber office as long as you’re there, it can never move because that gravitational pole to that historical cemetery across the street.

Candace Boothby 8:10
Thank you. Yes. There’s a lot of gravitational poles going on.

Brandon Burton 8:13
That’s right. That’s right. Now that’s awesome. How do you guys say, sounds like great chamber, obviously being selected as a chamber, the year finalist again, after winning back in 2015. And that speaks a lot to your chamber and to the the repetitive nature of being able to be selected and to be able to rise to the top of the ranks among chambers again, so great job to you guys. And I’m excited to dive into this episode with you and really spend time talking about the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the year application, and we’ll dive into those as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Candace, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll spend most of our time today talking about the two programs on your chamber, the your application, if you would like to introduce the first program to us, and we will dive into that and kind of the origins and how that became something of interest for you guys to take on. And we’ll explore that topic, but please introduce it.

Candace Boothby 11:05
Okay. So the first program is the Forward Coweta Summit. Originally, we were calling it the growth summit that, you know, that has different connotations, so we just called it the Forward Coweta Summit. The purpose of this program is really just to educate the citizens create civic engagement and conversation around key topics. So we are a very fast growing community. We’re fortunate in the sense that our governments have made really good decisions over the years. So our growth has not outpaced us. But we’re kind of at that tipping point. And so we also have such a younger generation, it’s important that we bring them into the dialogue in the conversation. So we have actually used the forward can we to summit as a platform to really strategically engage a younger audience. We’ve got several tools that we’ve put into place as a result of that. We started big picture the first year, which was last year. And it brought in some really cool speakers throughout the metropolitan Atlanta area, just to talk about what they’re doing in their community, how they managed growth, what they did in certain areas, how do you create the sustain of vision, this year, we’re actually narrowing it just a little bit. And we are going to focus a little bit more on talent retention and recruitment, in addition to quality of life. So we had great participation, we a lot of strategies on the front end, where we went out and did one on one conversations with each of our elected officials in Jena to personally invite them to be there that day, we had great success doing that. Then we sent out a calendar invite, gosh, probably five, six months in advance. And then as we got closer, we we actually had hired a company to do our marketing. And so we did a very aggressive marketing campaign. Leading up to that day, we had about 300 that participated. And it was the right people to be in the room, which was our, our goal, because we wanted all the key stakeholders in the community, you know, and again, when you do something new like this, people are thinking, what are they doing? Why are they doing it? What’s the purpose, but we have done an Inner Inner community visit right before COVID, which was our first and so kind of dipping our toe into putting that conversation table together, if you will, around future issues. So it’s all a part of a bigger strategy, because if you look at our mission, it’s all about championing economic prosperity. And so this, we don’t do anything that’s not aligned with our mission. And we certainly get asked a lot by different people to do a variety of things, as most chambers do. That this one is probably one of my favorite programs, because it does bring all the right people together to the table to hear the information that you want to want them to hear to start the dialogue. And so this year, we did put a group of young next gen leaders to help they introduced the speakers last year and and have been a part of the process just giving feedback. And so now when this year is over, we’re going to start putting some We haven’t decided what we’re going to call a bit probably a little I don’t know conversation groups to break down some of the topics. And probably one of our biggest goals, outcomes that we’re looking for long term is more private investments. So we have a lot of investment by our government. And it’s fantastic. But we know that in order to really, I guess implement a bigger greater vision, it’s going to require more private invest MIT. So that’s, that’s kind of where we’re headed with all the conversation.

Brandon Burton 15:06
I love that I love having those goals to work forward in the picture of what you want next year to look like. And the idea of being able to bake in some other key factors to how a chamber operates. Like you mentioned, how can the next gen leaders introduce speakers and getting them involved and feel like they have a place in the community and with the chamber? In particular, I love that. You mentioned having the marketing company kind of create the campaign and get 300 participants and being the right people and says you’re considering the stakeholders that you wanted to be there? What did that look like? Who all did you want in the room? And then how did the marketing go out? Or is it open to the community? And at at large? Or was it targeted towards certain demographics of some sort? Or how did how was that planned out and thought through. So

Candace Boothby 15:57
it was open to the community at large, although we didn’t target the community at large. It was certainly open. Our number one stakeholder was our county commission and our city council, starting with the mayor and the county commission, Chairperson, because that’s, that’s where the rubber meets the road. And those are our most important community partners. So that’s where we started. And then we sort of backed our way into meeting with several of the county commissioners, the city council members, and we sort of backed our way into less formally, making sure that we had representation from our school board, from some of our smaller municipalities. And then we turned our attention to some of the larger industries. So we have a lot of internal groups within the chamber. So of course, while we’re doing a lot of the personal outreach, all of our target groups within the chamber as well as our members at large, they were the recipient, the target groups received the calendar invite. And then the bigger broader audience received the Save the date postcard, which came out five months in advance, and then the targeted emails. And then I think our social media campaign kicked in the event was the end of August, though it kicked in. Gosh, I can’t remember I want to say it was the mid to latter part of July. So it’s the last Wednesday in October, so you weren’t planning for this year. And in looking at last year’s timing, we’ve readjusted this year schedule just a little bit. So the calendar invites went out earlier, the Save the date cards are actually going out today. And the social media campaign will kick in mid July, and we haven’t heavily started promoting that will kick in the week after July 4. And, and then from that moment forward, we’ll be having conversations with people. And there is another group that I failed to mention, we did a survey during the events and before the event and after the event. And there were 50 people that that indicated they would like to be involved in this process. So while we’ve communicated with them, we haven’t done anything formal. So when this timeframe rolls around two to three weeks prior to that we’re going to connect with that group, and give them an assignment during the conference or during the summit, to listen for certain things. So that afterwards, we can get them together and do a larger debriefing than what we did last year with just our smaller next gen group.

Brandon Burton 18:42
Wow, I really liked that idea of being able to. So how was that question phrased on the survey then to because they can see, you know, do you want to get involved that can mean a whole lot of different things about what involvement might look like in a summit like this,

Candace Boothby 18:57
that haven’t looked at it in a while. But if I remember, I think it was something like this more gauging their interest in the topic and the conversation and desire to be engaged in conversation moving forward about where we’re growing as a community. So it was rather broad. But the fact that we have that many people that actually said, Yes, I was a little surprised, because that’s your built in audience right there.

Brandon Burton 19:24
It is. I imagine if you if you needed somebody you could pull from that group for one of the conversation groups that you’re talking about doing or something that you have a pool of people that are willing and want to be more involved. So I love that idea.

Candace Boothby 19:38
Thank you.

Brandon Burton 19:39
Yeah. Well, let’s shift gears a little bit to the other program on your chamber. The your application was called go digital. That Correct? That’s it. Tell us what that’s about and kind of the origins and how that’s been developed?

Candace Boothby 19:54
said go digital. We were very fortunate. Our county administer Strader approached me, I lose track of time, sometime you’re in a year ago, you’re gonna have to go about the ARPA funds into the American rescue plan funds. And he said that they were going to earmark just shy of a million dollars for the chamber. But we had to submit the traditional grant, which we did. And then we received two grants. One was for a talent development program. And the other one was for good digital. And I think we had about 400,000 applied to the go digital program. So I love this program. Because what it’s done, we were able to identify, during COVID, there were a lot of our small businesses, because they did not have an online e commerce presence, they were not able to, to really be as successful as they could have been otherwise. So we targeted companies who needed help with their digital assets, specifically, but not exclusively, online, e commerce. So we have a fantastic volunteer, he used to be our board chair, he’s retired senior VP of Finance for Yamaha just does a lot of great stuff with us. So he has been the project leader since the beginning. And he put together a group of digital asset providers, so member companies, and actually, I guess they were all members, we get a little loose about that, like, for instance, on the grant side, you did not have to be a chamber member to receive a grant. And we want to help all companies. And if it’s an opportunity for us, then to expose the chamber to somebody maybe and then turn them into a member. That’s, that’s great, that he pulled together a group of probably eight providers that worked on, you know, developing websites, and social media campaigns and all the things video that you would consider part of the digital assets. So they created the criteria. And they created everything, all the requirements. So there were requirements were the company that applied had to go through training. They only got a percentage of the money on the front end. And they had to complete the project before they received the remaining money. And so we were able to help. And the grants ranged from 2500. To just shy of 20,000, I believe, we were able to help a little over 60 companies believe we’ve given up most of the money we saw, we were able to get just a little bit more transferred over from our other grants into digital aid. So we can do a bit more this year. One of our providers, I thought did something quite clever. So we do a total resource campaign in the fall. One of our products is called other chambers do this as well try it Tuesday, and where we Wednesday, where you go out and you film them. And you see you try that you film them with trying something or show us what you’re doing depending on which day you purchased. And then we put those videos out on social media, we have a page on our chamber website, we promote them to our members. So one of these providers used some of her grant money for her clients to purchase them. These videos, which helped us out I didn’t know she was doing it until much later on. I thought this is brilliant. So when you look at our schedule for the trial to see where we Wednesdays throughout the year, probably of the 24 I’m going to say that at least 12 Or her clients. Wow. And so it’s enabled them to be able to get video for their websites at a very, very well. They didn’t pay for it because it came with a grant. And then we partnered with one of our providers. And he does all of our video for us. So it gives it a little bit more of a professional look. That’s been a great program. It’s it’s, we did a cover story on the program in our Thrive publication back in March. And there’s this big photo of all lay they weren’t all there. But most of the grant recipients are sitting on the wall in front of the courthouse and standing and the courthouse is right there in the background. And they’re waving at the camera. And then on the inside was a wonderful story about some of the outcomes. Some of the companies who talked about just having access to this grant and implementing it how much it’s helped their company grow. So that’s the stories that we tell now is the success stories. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:51
I love that. And that gives you a ton of content to tell stories over and over and impact the Chamber’s making it

Candace Boothby 24:59
I have to tell you a sidebar though. Have you seen that cover that magazine?

Brandon Burton 25:03
I have not? No. It’s on our website. Yeah. So that’s me, and I’ll put it in our show notes for this episode too. So people, when

Candace Boothby 25:11
you look at it, it’s the most beautiful blue sky and the most beautiful cherry tree and full bloom. So when we took that photo, it was February. And the tree had no leaves, the grass was ground. And it was it was kind of a gray day. And so I sent it there is a company that we occasionally use in St. Simons called 365 degrees marketing, they do such an amazing work with photos. And they, they’re the ones that created our logo and brand 15 years ago. So I sent him this photo, and I said, this is gonna go on the cover of thrive, and I need it to have your colors featured. So they and I said, I just need a few leaves on the tree and, you know, give the sky you’re pretty blue. Will they sent it back. And the tree was it didn’t just have leaves, it was a cherry tree and full blue. And the sky was this beautiful shade of cobalt blue. And the court has got a lovely new roof. The grass was green, I stare at that cover and pay cash. That’s the prettiest picture ever.

Brandon Burton 26:19
That’s great. That’s a way to sell the community. Right? Your dress? Yeah, that’s awesome. No, it’s so important for businesses to be able to have their online presence to be able to have their ecommerce sites if they’re a retail store, you know, have products that they sell in a brick and mortar, to be able to sell them as out the back door, as we say. And I forget what the stats are. But the percentage of sales that go online versus brick and mortar is it can be, you know, double or triple within store sales are if they’re set up in the right way. And the community is

Candace Boothby 26:57
huge. Yeah, well, here’s one example. So downtown in the square, the Noonan square, there’s this chocolate shop, that it’s it’s let them eat toffee. And they had no website. So when COVID hit, give a love their chocolate, and so they were calling them, you know, and that’s a bit of a challenge. So they were one of the first ones to sign up to be a part of this program. And it has made a world of difference in their ability to expand their customer base.

Brandon Burton 27:28
I bet. So with how the funds from the grant were set up, was there anything that goes into training on how to make that conversion from vo to be able to sell online? Because that’s it’s different right than doing business, just bringing someone up at the cash register versus having the logistics to be able to pull the product and package and ship and assuming that’s the type of business that they are and where they’re shipping material. But how do those that you talked about the eight, the eight providers? Did they provide some of that training and get them up and going with that the grant

Candace Boothby 28:06
there? Yes, there was required training before they applied for the grant. Okay, so as far as drilling down that deeply into onto the E commerce side, I’d have to ask Phil, that question. But I know that there was a needs assessment that was done. And when specifically like the websites were created. So here’s a great example, there’s a travel agency that didn’t have a great online presence. And so when they were done, they had not just the online presence, but the tools to take it to the next level. So I think it was probably a case by case basis, once they went through the first training based on what their needs were.

Brandon Burton 28:53
Yeah, I can see that. That’s such a great idea to be able to, to kind of tag some of those ARPA funds for this type of work to be able to get businesses online and, and like I said before, it makes such a huge impact into the community and for those businesses and they have families and they’re earning a living and all these things just helps perpetuate that throughout your community.

Candace Boothby 29:18
I will tell you this, I think one of the things, least for me, and other people that I talked to, that they’ve enjoyed most about it is for the ones that now have the video that was filmed as a part of either try it Tuesday or Wednesday. That has been eye opening for me because it’s allowed me to be able to go form a different kind of relationship with some of these companies. So there’s a lady that has goats and she makes goat’s milk and she’s got a beautiful storefront in downtown soy. So you know being able to go visit and see her product and when I interviewed her I got to hold the nine day old goat by the name of Daphne A which was kind of cool. And I would never have known about like the dent guy or the junk sweepers. But then to actually be able to sit down with them and drill down, it’s given us another outlet to get to know our members, you know, just a little bit better at a different in a different way.

Brandon Burton 30:18
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think we could go down a whole rabbit rabbit hole of the trade Tuesdays Wednesdays and, and I’m sorry, we don’t have more time, because I know that people listening are like, tell us more about that. Tell us more. But as we start to wrap things up, I do like to ask, especially with you guys being a chamber, the year finalist again, you guys are doing something, right. So for the chambers out there who wants to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them and trying to accomplish that goal.

Candace Boothby 30:50
So I’m gonna have to go back to my roots. So I’m a big believer in systems and processes. And I think back to, I don’t know, when I first came in 2003, and we discussed, accreditation, and the board wasn’t convinced they really wanted to do it. And so what we decided we would do is we would look at those categories. And we would spend our time identifying gaps, and then closing the gaps. So we did that for about six years, until finally we decided, gosh, if we’re going to put this much work into it, and you also have programs, if you don’t do them within two years, you really shouldn’t use them with some great programs, we need to go ahead and just put this together. And if we’re going to do it, then we need to make sure that we have everything in place to create a five star because you want the five stars, right? So we did that. And so everything that we shored up and the the gaps that we closed and the work that we did, later, really strong foundation. So my advice, and I think had we not had that foundation, it would not have positioned us then to have the data and the numbers and the programs in place. That allowed us then to not just qualify through the numbers, but then to actually, you know, be able to submit the application and be then chosen as a finalist. We also have and have been blessed with a lot of great, not just board chairs, but board members. So I remember when we interviewed back in 2013, I took one of my former board chairs with me to do the interview. And he was as knowledgeable about the organization almost as knowledgeable as I was, and had been integrally involved in a lot of our initiatives, that speaks highly when you have volunteers who are that immersed in the culture of the organization, that they understand it at the same level. So I guess my advice would be if you have the the systems and the processes, the foundation and the infrastructure, it will sustain you. And you can have a year where you maybe your results aren’t what you typically would have, or you have a rogue board member or you have a toxic staff member or whatever it may be. All those things will happen throughout a career of you know, many years. But that infrastructure and that stability that you’ve built, and those systems that have seen you through that is what will create the sustainability and allow you to grow to the next level. So I can actually track that to 2007 when I changed our work environment to be a little more entrepreneurial, and less restrictive, more encouraging of working outside, in the outside of the office if you can be more productive, and then our systems and processes and that’s when we started seeing the results. And then from there, you know, like you’ve read with the bio, we’ve been able to achieve the five stars since that first application in 2013, and then be able to qualify and compete, and then win back in 2015. And then be a finalist this year. So that’s my advice. It’s not sexy, but it is foundational, and it’s systems and processes and keep your eye on the ball and alignment would be my other piece of advice. And then use your data to drive your decisions. All of that. You wrap it up in a pretty little ball and put a bow on it. Yeah, like

Brandon Burton 34:41
you say it’s not sexy. But you had also mentioned before you don’t do anything that’s outside of your mission, right so you can have your systems and processes surrounded by your mission. That’s going to put you in the right course.

Candace Boothby 34:53
But we do like the wow factor. So I years ago I had a board member say to me, we have the state ache but where’s the sizzle in the aroma? So we always want to have the sizzle in the room. And the other thing is always be open to change, embrace change, just because you’ve done it, don’t keep doing it. So every year when we start looking at our program of work for the next year, we always push back throughout the year, we’re pushing back, is this still where it needs to be? Do we still need to do it? There have been many programs we’ve sunsetted. And that we have to that we’re reimagining right now to bring back. But I think that keeps it fresh. And that keeps people like me who like a challenge and change and energy that keeps me motivated as well.

Brandon Burton 35:36
Right? Absolutely. Well, Candace, I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.

Candace Boothby 35:49
So if there are chambers out there that have not read the horizon initiative, I would strongly encourage them to do that. ACC is in the midst of revamping them. But I think all nine of those initiatives are important, I think at the root of it, though, is leadership, there’s one called catalytic leadership. And you can have great communications good technology, you can, you know, be very much aware of what’s happening in the community and what the issues are. But if you don’t have a leadership, that’s going to understand how you embrace that, and how you package it, and how you move it forward, then the rest of this stuff doesn’t really matter. So I think, for chambers to be relevant in the future, there just needs to be a constant attention being paid to building leaders, and it’s harder in today’s world, because people don’t have as much time, the role of leaders in the community is shifting a bit. And, you know, so you have to sometimes redefine who the leaders are, that the leader at the Chamber is the one that has to help keep the eye on the ball and keep that out, or in the forefront. And making sure that new leaders are being identified and brought in and put at the table. And, you know, it can be exhausting. But without the catalytic leadership mindset, you’re not really going to be able to, you know, engage the public or, you know, be aware of what’s happening internationally and be able to be successful in aligning your chamber with that. It takes leaders with ideas, and motivation and courage to be able to do those kinds of things. So that’s my little advice for the future. Love

Brandon Burton 37:39
it, and so much wisdom in that. Candace, is there any contact information you’d like to share for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what setting you guys apart as a chamber, the year finalist? Sure, and

Candace Boothby 37:54
I’m always happy to share. I’ll share whatever resources we have happy to talk. So you can reach me at the NewnanCowetaChamber.org and my email is very simple. It’s just candace@newnancowetachamber.org.

Brandon Burton 38:10
That’s perfect. We will get that in our show notes for this episode, as well as a picture of the cover of your beautiful magazine and downtown square and courthouse for everybody to pull up and check out but Candace this has been great having you back on Chamber Chat Podcast. I wish you and your team best of luck in Dallas as chamber the year.

Candace Boothby 38:30
Thank you. It’s always a delight to see you and I guess we’ll see you there. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Well, thanks very much for having me. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 38:39
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Chino Valley Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Zeb Welborn

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

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You’re joining us for a special episode and our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Zeb Welborn. Zeb is the President of the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce and Wellborn Social Media dedicated to promoting local businesses through growth and digital marketing. And award winning executives Zeb is passionate about connecting with driven individuals and fostering community development through initiatives like Upskill Chino Valley, recognized as the 2023, Executive of the Year by WACE, he continues to excel in leadership and service. Zeb, I want to welcome you to Chamber Chat Podcast are excited to have you with us today and say big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalists this year, wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Zeb Welborn 2:09
Well, thank you so much. So we are very excited about that opportunity. Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you here today. Yeah, we’re our team is very excited about it. And then let’s see something interesting about myself. I was a national champion soccer player back in my younger days, and I bowled the 300. So those are the two things that I have on my resume that are not on my resume. Wow.

Brandon Burton 2:35
So you’re not competitive at all right?

Zeb Welborn 2:40
Yeah, there’s definitely a little competitive streak in me for sure. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 2:43
that’s awesome. Those are, those are two really cool facts. So tell us a little bit about the Chino Valley Chamber just to give us an idea of the scope of work size staff budget to kind of preface for our conversation today.

Zeb Welborn 2:57
Sure, so the Chino Valley Chamber represents two cities, we represent Chino and Chino Hills, both of them have a population of I think around 95,000 or so. So it’s almost 200,000 people. It’s a high growth area. So there’s like Chino was named one of the top 10 boom towns in the boom towns in the country, either last year or the year before. I have friends that come out from the military, they’ll be back in town every two or three years in the city looks totally different every time it comes out. So we’re we’re in the suburbs of LA and in Orange County. So all of the people that are working in those areas have kind of shifted out to where we live. Our budget is about $1.1 million. We have about eight staff members. When I started our budget was about $150,000. And we had three part time members including myself, so that was about six years ago. So we’ve grown a lot in the last six years as a as a community but also as the chamber. So that’s something that I am super proud of is kind of helping our chamber turnarounds and challenges they’re facing when I got brought in and now we’re kind of rocking and rolling. And I’m super proud of the work that that that I’ve done but also that our team has accomplished as well. Ya know, that

Brandon Burton 4:12
is something to be proud of for sure. That’s some some great growth. And I will say I I lived in South Orange County for a while and it seemed like everybody was moving out your direction. So I’ve seen the growth you know, almost firsthand I’ll say secondhand, you know, seeing a lot of people we knew moving out your direction. Yeah, lots of growth though. Lots of opportunity. So on these chamber, their finalist episodes we’d like to spend the majority of our conversation most of the time in this interview talking about the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the your application. So we’ll we’ll dive in deep on what those two those two programs are as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Alright, Zeb we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re going to spend some time talking about the two programs that were on your application for chamber the year. So introduce this with the first program is that you’d like to highlight with us today.

Zeb Welborn 7:01
So I’m hoping I can remember that too. We do a lot of different programs. But one of them for sure is our upskill Chino Valley program. So that is one that we initiated two or three years ago, and it was to address the needs of our workforce development shortage in our area. So right after COVID. I mean, when COVID happened, we’re very proactive to making sure that our business had access to resources have access to all of the things that they needed. And so we got a lot of recognition for the work that we did during that time. And a lot of businesses, you know, stayed in business because of the work that we were able to do at that point in time. But then immediately following, as you’re driving around town, you would see just help wanted signs everywhere. So our community had help wanted signs everywhere. Everybody was doing hiring. So you know, that was a big challenge facing our businesses. So then, concurrently, I was taking some classes with the US Chamber, and some other just other professional development learnings. And I came to realize that this workforce development shortage, and this is a stuff that they would teach us to the US Chamber is that this is going to be impacting communities for a while. There’s kind of this forecast of the 10 years of challenges, at least when it comes to workforce and finding good qualified workers. So that’s one of the things that we wanted to try to tackle for our community, how can we make sure that we were being better to better supportive of our businesses to help find their workforce needs. So we looked at it in the short term, but we also looked at in the long term, so trying to create solutions in the short term and long term. So we came up with four things that we thought that if we executed on these things, it would help not only solve the short term issues, but it would help solve the long term issues. So the short term issue is workforce development. So we started doing a lot of job fairs, a lot of one on one placements, we started partnering with our workforce, San Bernardino County Workforce Development, our local Chaffey College, our local school district. So we created these partnerships, we’re trying to build a pipeline of workers for our businesses. And so through that we’ve placed at least 350 job seekers in local jobs in our community, we have helped place at least 100 I want to say about 100 interns from the high school and college level with local businesses to help build the next generation of workforce in our businesses, and and build those connections between business owners and leaders and in the educational institutions that are around us. We did a lot of work with Chaffey College to help make sure that we’re building those strong connections. So that’s a short term solution, I think, or means short term and long term. But then the longer the more longer term. approaches were three things. So it was economic development. These are things that chambers normally do but economic development, leadership development and entrepreneurship development. So economic development, well we started doing was these roundtable discussions. So we’re doing two a month where we’re bringing in businesses from a specific sector or specific industry, or we’re bringing cross industries together, identifying pain points, and then creating action items and our chamber can take action on. So we’ve been doing that extensively for the last two years or so we’re about two years into our program. The next one is leadership development, we did not have a leadership program in our community. So we started one. So leadership developed, we have 25 leaders, we go and tour different business locations and sites around town connecting our businesses with business owners that are running some of the larger businesses in town and making sure that our leadership is strong. If you don’t have strong leaders, you’re gonna have employees that leave. So we want to make sure we develop strong leaders in our community. And then the last thing is entrepreneurship development, which is just enhancing the work that we do and are educating businesses on how to be better in business. So I think one of the gaps is where we’re making sure that we have business owners training, the business leaders that are coming up in our community and making sure that we’re having business owners training our up and coming entrepreneurs in our community.

Brandon Burton 11:03
So with that, the two that really stood out to me is the leadership development. So I know we have a leadership development and entrepreneur development. So with the leadership development, have you guys gotten to gotten through to full classes yet? Or where are you at in that, that process? And what does it look like at this point with the leadership development? Yeah, so

Zeb Welborn 11:26
we’re just about to finish year two, it’s been a great successful opportunity. Oh, and I didn’t mention this in the beginning. But that upskill Chino Valley program, we essentially pitched it to one of our legislators, and so they allocated a million dollars of state funding towards our programming. So that allows us to execute on this work. It’s a lot of work to do that stuff. And so I’m always like, how, how can we get the funding to actually execute on his work? So we pitched that, and that was something that they thought was needed for our community. So we were able to secure those which allowed us to do all this work. So this is our second year, we, our first year was highly successful, one of the things that we commit to doing as a community good project during that leadership program as well. So they do something good for the community. Last year, they bought AED machines to help in case somebody goes into cardiac arrest, we put them in three different businesses around town. So there’s a cost that was incurred that so we helped raise that those funds for that. This year, we’re doing helping our local community theater or children’s community theater. So we’re raising funds so that they can train more kids in the in the theatrical arts. And and it’s been, it’s been great. So yeah, you’re too we’re almost done. We got about two months left. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 12:40
And then with the entrepreneurial development, I’m always curious with entrepreneurs, and how to how chambers get connected with him in the first place to match them up with other business owners. And you know, a lot of times entrepreneurs have that bug of I’m going to do this by myself. Yeah, I can. I’m going to figure this out. And it tends to be the hard path, right? So what what are some of the ways you guys are connecting with entrepreneurs and helping to kind of bring them out and connect them with the right people.

Zeb Welborn 13:09
So I feel like I feel like I’m an entrepreneur, right. So I joined actually joined my chamber as a member back in like 2010, or 2011 or so. And when I joined, what I was looking for was mentors, I was I didn’t want to make those mistakes. I wanted to find people in my community that I could look up to that I could learn from. And there’s a couple of people that I thought of like there was a guy that ran our newspaper, there’s also the guy that ran the local golf course. So these are two guys that I was kind of hoping to connect with. And they were they were loosely connected to the chamber. So I joined the chamber not knowing when the chamber really was good. But I thought like, what I was really looking for was the business organization that I could turn to that I could get mentorship. And there wasn’t really anything in my community except for the Chamber of Commerce. So when I came across the chamber, and I kind of went into the first day, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. But there wasn’t anything else. And so my thought was was well either I could work like a you try to make that happen inside of the chamber community. Or I could try it like you said, do it on my own. So I obviously opted to get involved in my chamber and see if there are ways that I can help make this a system that worked out well for people like me, they get to come into business and get advice and mentorship from successful business owners. So that’s one of the things that I’ve had a passion for since I started and and now we’re, we’re we’re doing that. So we’re trying to there’s lots of different ways to go about doing that. I’ll share that we do a lot of business trainings and business development. So we do a business workshop. It used to be once a week, but we’re doing it once every other week. Right now, because we found that that cadence worked out better for our members, but we are trying to shift some strategies around to offer more. One of the exciting things that has happened for us and this is very new. So this was before I submitted our proposal was we just got accepted. So we submitted an appropriations request for an audit To bring an entrepreneurship center into our community that would be facilitated and managed by the chamber. So that’s something that we submitted for it’s been approved through the first phase of the process, we have no idea if it’s actually going to get funded or not. But at least it’s very exciting because that was a selected project out of, I think, 10, or 15, they’re able to choose every year. So we’re one of those 10 or 15. So we’re excited because we feel like that could be a good opportunity for our business, and business community. So that’s something we are excited about. And so we but we’re making ranking progress to try to develop more entrepreneurial programming, to making sure that we are have a space that we can do that stuff with, and that we’re bringing potential entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs and collaboration and connection with people who have made it happen and Bennett themselves here in the Inland Empire. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 15:47
Oh, that is great. And I’m sure along the way, you’re seeing you know, upticks in those different, you know, measurements to be able to see with with workforce, and hopefully seeing a few less help wanted signs and, and being able to fill some of those voids and needs throughout the community. As we kind of shift gears Do you would you like to introduce what the second program is that you guys submitted on your chamber, the your application?

Zeb Welborn 16:18
So if I had to guess I would say was the entrepreneur, the leadership program that we discussed already. So that was the part of it. So that leadership program is something that we are very proud of? It has, we have, we’re coming up on 50 graduates in the next two months, and I think it was just something that was missing in our community that we really needed. And that we wanted to. Yeah, it was just that there’s been a lot of things that have happened in our community that are kind of ostracized, ostracize people from one another. And when we bring people together, prior to those situations happening, solutions come together much more quickly, their people are able to collaborate much more better. And so building these relationships and connections with these different entities in town just plays a huge role in making sure that our community can stay connected, and looking at opportunities to focus on growth versus opportunities, where we’re looking for division amongst each other. So that’s something that we’re excited about the the collaborative work that we’ve been doing with our businesses, making sure they’re connected with our city and, and legislators and educational institutions, and all those things. When we do that. We feel like we’re doing really good work.

Brandon Burton 17:29
Yeah. So I love leadership programs and the whole purpose behind them. And I know every chamber has a little slightly different approach and how they go about it. But do you guys put a limit on how many, how many participants? How many students are involved with leadership programs? Is there an application process? Who reviews that? What? What’s it like to become part of the leadership class?

Zeb Welborn 17:52
Yeah, so we do, we do have like an interview process. So it’s, the number is 25 that we shoot for. And that’s because, you know, some of our touring locations have a restriction on how many people can go through it. So we found that 25 is a good number, because it’s manageable. And also, we’re able to tour the sites with one visit versus multiple visits. So that’s been a good number for us. They do do an interview. So they have to be interviewed and selected in and we actually went, I went through the corona leadership, the corona Chamber Leadership Program. So I kind of modeled a lot of what we do after them. And my understanding is, is that they model it after the Riverside chamber. So we still in use a lot of stuff from each other. But that’s, that’s what we do. And then we don’t really do any leadership training, we mostly build collaboration and connection and do tour visits. So we go visit different locations, give these business owners an opportunity to talk about their business and the work that they do. And then they provide a tour to our members, they get back behind the scenes look at what other organizations and businesses have to go through on a daily basis to make sure that their operation runs successfully. And so when you do that, there’s a lot of eye opening things that happen you realize how intricate and how much goes into these businesses and organizations. And so it gives gives people a bigger perspective. I mean, the biggest thing though, the biggest advantage is just the collaboration and connection is built because we’ve seen firsthand how many people get connected with each other for bigger projects that help support our community and a high one, which is we had somebody who was going through our program. She’s a leadership coach or professional business coach, and we toured our local so we have the California institution for men is located in our community. So we toured the prison and while we’re touring the prison, she got connected with somebody who was Aristotle I got in the I would love to speak to your your inmates to talk about you know, things that they can do to turn their life around and So she gets she came in and spoke to the I guess it was a large contingent was maybe like 100 200 inmates about leadership and challenges. And so that was a connection that was built through that. And because of that, I feel like it did good things for our community for the inmates that were there for the business owner. That was the business coach that was going through it. And so it’s just kind of like a win win win. That was a result of the work that we helped facilitate.

Brandon Burton 20:25
That’s really cool. So throughout the year, the leadership program, but how many visits site visits do you guys do? Or do you shoot for?

Zeb Welborn 20:34
Yeah, it’s what we go once a month, and it’s three site visits a day, so. So it’s one day, it’s about a full day. So they started around nine, and a three, so not not quite a full day, but nine to three, and we visit three different locations. So we’ll do one or two in the morning, and then we’ll have lunch, and then we’ll do one in the afternoon. And then we call it a day. Sometimes it’s fuck. It’ll move around based on the sites that we’re visiting. But that’s kind of the rough outline.

Brandon Burton 21:05
Yeah. And then just out of curiosity, how are you selecting the sites to go visit? Is it based on the applicants are just trying to figure out needs or what what goes into that thought process?

Zeb Welborn 21:17
So I’ll say it’s industry specific, we look, you know, we want to highlight each of the image industries that are represented in our community. So the first couple of days is with our city. So we go toward the behind the scenes of the cities. And then we have a healthcare day, there’s a Manufacturing Day, there’s a logistics day, there’s a small business day. What else do we do? Well, we visit public safety. So we have kind of a Public Safety Day. So I guess, those are the things that we do try to focus on. And we tried to make them days so that there’s a theme behind them, but sometimes just the way that the visits work out, we’ll move them around. But that’s the main gist. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:56
I like that idea, though, having a theme for for those visits each day. And kind of building the mindset around that about why is public safety important in our community. And as a developing leader, how does that play into my development and being able to make those connections going forward. So I see that across the board with the different themes that you guys tried to target. So I appreciate that. So I’d like asking everyone that I have on the podcast, especially as you guys are a chamber, the year finalist this year, kind of at the top of your game, so to speak. It, I’d like to see if there’s any kind of tip or action item that you might offer for chambers out there who were interested in taking their chamber to the next level.

Zeb Welborn 22:46
Well, when I saw when I joined the chamber that thing, as a as a member, I just remember thinking like this is not the hub of the business community. This is not what I was anticipating being like the business organization that represents business. And I don’t know if that’s the same case, for chambers across the place, I guess what how I would describe it is, when I showed up to different meetings and stuff, it was a lot of people that had retired from their careers. And we’re kind of doing a second career to make income on the side. So I was by like the youngest person by 30 years that was participating in those programs. It didn’t have the people that were running like big successful businesses in town participating in those programs. And so in my mind, I was saying like, like, this doesn’t make any sense to me, like there should be a way that business owners in a community can come together to support one another to grow the business community at large. So that’s kind of like, I guess, just my thought when I was coming into it. And so I’ve just worked really hard on trying to build that. So I think the thing that surprises me sometimes is the approach some of my colleagues make is, like, I looked at us as leaders of our business community. And so when I say leaders, one, we should not be operating the best business in our community. So we should have be running the most successful business in town, we shouldn’t be modeling that business behavior to our business owners, and then we should be compensated like successful business owners. And so when I started my role, like there was no way I could live in my community with the salary that they were offering. And so, but it’s not just like given to us, like we have to work for it. We have to be those leaders in business, we have to run a successful business. And then if we do run a successful business, we have to seek compensation for the work that we do in that regard. So I think that’s my one piece of advice is treat it like a business, be proactive and growing that business. And then if you focus on doing those two things, I think you’re gonna be putting yourself in a great position to lead your business community because you’re modeling what it is to be a successful business and your businesses will will learn from that more than they would if you’re just trying to help them and suffering at the expense of supporting your local businesses. I think it’s important to model successful business behavior to the members of the chamber. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 25:06
And I think yeah, at our heart, I think most people know that and believe that, but to hear it said, and to kind of reinvigorate that, yes, we do need to be that model that template to be able to show how to run a good business. So then businesses can look to you and trust what you have to say, if it builds trust in the within the business community. If you’re just a hot mess of a chamber, it’s really hard to, to get buy in as a business to think that this chamber knows what to do you know what to offer me any kind of advice or anything like that. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Zeb Welborn 25:55
So that’s a good question. I, I mean, I see it, and I’ll just speak for my community, right, I saw a lot of opportunity when I came in, like, I feel like I’m an entrepreneur, and then I kind of moved towards where the opportunities are most prevalent. I feel like there is a great opportunity for Chambers of Commerce right now. I think that everybody is trying to get connected with business owners. And there’s a lot of light, and I’ll just say like federal funding, but it’s not just federal funding, it’s even like, when you’re running your business getting connected with business owners, it’s not an easy thing to do. Businesses are more strapped than ever for time. And I’ll say that attribute that to the internet, social media, digital marketing, you’re on 24/7. Whereas in prior to the internet, you did not have to be on 24/7, you could work the normal workdays, and then you have the evenings and weekends off. And and now if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re you’re grinding it out 24/7. And that’s how I’ve been doing it for the last 10 years. So I just know how busy chambers have. I know how busy businesses are, but they do need people to speak up for them in these roles and capacities. And so we’ve been participating in these collaboratives, where there’s like this, this federal funding that is coming or the state funding that is coming for programs that are designed to help support businesses, yet there are zero businesses at the table in these conversations. So that’s where everybody is trying to talk to business owners, but business owners don’t have time to sit around and waste time in these meetings that seem really unproductive and don’t get anything accomplished. Even though there is going to be a strong outcome at the end, they don’t have the time to invest in that type of work. So they need a representative, those organizations that are looking to support business community, they need a representative. And so chambers are uniquely positioned in a way where we have immediate access to the businesses that are represented through our membership. And we can turn and talk to them. And we can pick up the phone and they will answer and they will respond to our emails, and they will get in touch with us. And that’s what is needed by a lot of these entities trying to get in touch with businesses. So I think I see a lot of opportunity, I still see a lot of opportunity for our chamber and the work that we’re doing. And I feel like other chambers have that same opportunity as well. Yeah, I like that.

Brandon Burton 28:07
I like that response was that I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners out there who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the Chino Valley Chamber, what would be the best ways for them to reach out and connect with you.

Zeb Welborn 28:25
So my business got me involved in chamber was social media marketing. So I was fairly early on the social media marketing train, so you can find me very easily. My dad was a reporter for the Orange County Register. So I think he named me with the intention of that my name would make a great byline in a news story, you know, like the the article by Warren. So nobody has my name, Zeb Welborn, you can find me anywhere @zebwelborn, I am on all the socials. And I’d be happy to connect with you if anybody wants to chat or ask any questions. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 29:02
that was very kind of your father do give you a name that nobody else says. Well, it’s

Zeb Welborn 29:08
it’s good and bad. So if I if I if there’s something that comes up bad about me, it’s very easy to find. But if if I’m doing good work, then that’s also easy to find as well. So it’s a is that?

Brandon Burton 29:20
The right path? Right? Yeah, exactly. I

Zeb Welborn 29:22
don’t think it was thinking about the digital marketing age where you can search up, you do Google searches. That wasn’t a thing back then. But yeah, for sure.

Brandon Burton 29:30
That’s right. That was it. I appreciate it. It’s been fun having you on the podcast today and learning where you guys are doing there it’s Chino Valley Chamber and make an impact in your community. And I wish you and your team the best of luck is chamber the year.

Zeb Welborn 29:43
Awesome. Thank you very much.

Brandon Burton 29:46
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.

Opelika Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Ali Rauch

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series. And our guests for this episode is Ali Rauch. Ali is the President and CEO of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. And she was a recent guest back in episode 266. So not too long ago. So if you wanted to go back and listen to what we talked about back then she’s kind of a firecracker and has a lot of energy coming into the chamber. So she’s been in a Opelika for I guess about three and a half going on four years now. Yeah, four years, four years and in that time of have earned a five star accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce and really making a big impact there in Opelika. Prior to her role at the Chamber, she served in a wide array of industry including software manufacturing, higher education, and most notably, franchising and food services where she served eight years as director of marketing for Chicken Salad Chick. I remember stumbling on that last time as well. But Allie, we’re excited to have you back with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. I want to start by saying congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalists what an accomplishment. But good and saying hello to everyone listening. And if you’ve got another interesting tidbit about yourself to share, we’d love to hear it.

Ali Rauch 2:39
Thank you. I don’t remember what I shared last time, which was funny. I should have listened back to remember but thank you for having us. We are so thrilled I remember setting like watching the West Alabama chamber who was you know, a major leader in our state and in the country, watching them win and I had this little inkling like, I’m a competitive person, but I was like, Man, I really want I want to do that Sunday, and I thought it was going to take like a really long time. Like and honestly, it just, you know, I went on a walk with one of my board members last night and he told me he’s like Alec No, you have just gotten into hyperdrive it’s not that it doesn’t take that long to do great things you’ve just somehow you know gotten your the right people around you and have been able to make a major impact very quickly so we’re thrilled we’re excited we’re grateful can’t wait for Dallas but yeah, I guess let’s see. Little known fact about me is I am also I’m a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers wait I heard that was

Brandon Burton 3:39
my last I was

Ali Rauch 3:40
discussing okay different one. I used to drag race cars I drag race to 1973 Camaro nice all throughout high school I’ve won a Wally which is a the official trophy of the National Hot Rod Association.

Brandon Burton 3:57
Awesome. I’ve got a six random string. Yeah, so we do the cruise together someday.

Ali Rauch 4:06
Okay, that sound that sounded just love

Brandon Burton 4:09
it. Love it. Yeah. Awesome. Good deal. Well tell us a little bit about the the Opa Locka chamber your team your wonderful team that with you to to make this achievement and just give us an idea of size staff Scope of Work budget just to set the stage. I’m

Ali Rauch 4:28
so open like it is a smaller, I would consider to be a rural community in Alabama. We’re in East Central Alabama and we are the sister city to Auburn, which is home of Auburn University. So we have that like super cool college town adjacency but up like it is a tip older sister that has a really special and unique downtown area. We have a massive number of entrepreneurs and businesses in the area. It’s a very prosperous area that tends to be Knock on wood be a little bit recession proof, because between the university and the hospital, and we’re very much on a transportation kind of hub that we tend to still continue to do well, and we’ve got a lot of growth happening in our community. We’re the third fastest growing city in the state of Alabama. So very, very proud of kind of our growth. But our chamber is, you know, we are the Opalite chamber. So we represent the city of Oberliga. However, because we are in a larger MSA area of about 170,000 people, through Alberto Blanca and the county, we have a lot of businesses who fall outside of that actual city of OPA Leica. And so we’re kind of, we’re kind of in this in between where yes, we have, we have a town of 33,000. But we’re serving a larger region as well. So we have about 1000 Members, we’re 13 shy of 1000 members right now. And we are very excited to break 1000 and stay broken, stay over that 1000 home. In 2024, we’re almost there. We’ve got a budget of under a million dollars, we have a team of currently a team of seven. And then of course, we utilize some interns for help as well. But we have a really great partnership with our city where we have a contract for services where we’re responsible for entrepreneurship, we’re responsible for kind of business development, we do not do economic development, we do not do tourism, we have great partners for that. So we really stay hyper focused on making sure our business community has what it needs. And we do that and stay focused on our mission of strengthen our community as the champion for business. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 6:42
Awesome. Yeah. So you guys are kind of in a weird, not weird, but it’s a interesting situation. I mean, you’re not just the typical, you know, hometown chamber, right. It’s kind of a quasi Regional Chamber as well. So and

Ali Rauch 6:57
we have a fellow chamber right across the street, across the street, but you know, seven miles up the road in our other sister city who’s just as large and doing the right thing. So it’s really interesting.

Brandon Burton 7:08
Yeah, that is cool. Well, on these chamber the year finalist episodes, I like to spend the majority of our time really diving into the the two programs that you submitted on your synopsis and the application for chamber the year and we’ll get much deeper into those details and what those programs are as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Ali we are back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re going to be diving into the two programs synopsis that were included on your chamber that your application I understand the first one has to do with food trucks or something like that. Yeah, dive into that and tell us what that program is about and the impact it’s made in the community.

Ali Rauch 10:09
Yeah, absolutely. A few years ago, it was actually in response to COVID. We had numerous restaurants closed in our historic downtown and our historic downtown. It’s beautiful. It’s, it’s very cool. We have a courthouse square, we’ve got a railroad tracks, and then we’ve got downtown merchants. And, you know, we had some businesses, specifically restaurants closed during COVID. And we are also home of the very first legal distillery for bourbon and vodka and everything in the state of Alabama, since prohibition is made right there in our downtown. And so we’ve got a distillery, we have two breweries, we’ve got a brew shop. So it’s a very eclectic, cool space. And people weren’t coming downtown, because they there were such few restaurants that they couldn’t get into them. They’re great, but they’re busy. And so they couldn’t get into those restaurants. And those brew shops and such were like, how can we get people downtown, we’re struggling. And so the idea came to maybe bring one food truck down. And then I thought, well, instead of just one want to, I don’t do anything small. So why don’t we do more and make it kind of like an event. And it started by almost by force, because our city ordinances do not allow food trucks in our downtown, that were a special event. So I had, I had to create a special event for the food trucks to get approved. But then on top of that, I had to go to our city council, there was a lot of advocacy efforts put into this because we had to convince the city council to allow us to create this event and bring these food trucks in. And it didn’t just stop with Okay, let us do it once we had to prove ourselves. So we came back every three months and reported on results and said, This is good for business, this is bringing people down. And so what we do is we bring about 20 to 25 food trucks to our downtown, we do not close all of the streets, because we’ve got a lot of street parking. And so it’s important that people can get down and be convenient. So we block off some parking spots, and we put the food trucks in place. And they’re right up against the sidewalk. So all that pedestrian traffic stays right there on the sidewalks next to the businesses. And it’s on the third Friday, every month from five to 9pm. We’ve got about 30 trucks down there. And we’re seeing an average of 3600 people every Friday night that come down for this, which is amazing. We have grown from having I think 11 Food Trucks registered to do business in OPA Leica to nearly 60. And so that’s sales tax revenue for our businesses. That’s, you know, permits for our city government. But then, of course, that also has driven membership for us. So we have a good number of food trucks who choose to be a member, you actually don’t have to be a member to be a part of food truck Friday. But you know, we charge a fee to every truck that participates. They’re required to be licensed and health department and pay their taxes and all of those things. And so it’s a really great partnership for us that has just built so much community for our for our citizens, we have, we have a very good community that’s about 5050 When it comes to African Americans and white people and and then we’ve got a growing Hispanic population. And I was always told that, you know, a lot of African Americans didn’t feel comfortable coming downtown, and it just didn’t feel like their place. And it could not be more different now, because of food truck Friday, it has been just life changing. Because again, a lot of the food trucks that we’re bringing, these are businesses, you aren’t ready, they maybe they don’t have their finances in order to have a brick and mortar store. But they can get themselves together for a food truck. And they’re traveling around. And so we also have, we have a ton of African American food truck owners, which then bring the African American citizens to come down and get that food. And it has just created this true melting pot that our community on future Fridays looks like our community in downtown and it’s just really special. That’s

Brandon Burton 14:27
awesome. I think it was just this past week, I had seen a meme if I remember right, I think it was put out by the 13 ways organization, you know, 13 ways. And it said something to the effect of show me a vital downtown and I’ll show you a vital community, right. So essentially, downtown is going to be a reflection of your community as a whole. So being able to put that focus on it, I see a huge value and I love being able to see that representation of your community in the downtown. You mentioned it started Did through the pandemic? And I’m sure restaurants shut downs and things like that. Are any of those restaurants? Did they go from a brick and mortar to a food truck? Do they still operate that way? Or how? What’s that dynamic look like today?

Ali Rauch 15:15
It has been so cool on to watch the growth. So we had, one of the ways that we really made this work was a few in the early days, we didn’t have that many food trucks. So we had some caterers that really wanted to grow. So we would let the caterers prepare their food in their Commissary Kitchen and then set up in the brewery. And then they would serve their plates from the brewery. And so we have had, let’s see, I think one caterer that became a food truck, we’ve had another caterer who now has one brick and mortar restaurant, she was just nominated for Business of the Year for our annual awards. She’s working on her second location. We’ve had trucks, we’ve had another truck that was just so popular, called last Latinas. They have now opened up their own Commissary Kitchen, for catering services and for takeout but are still operating their truck as well. So there’s been a lot of growth and success as a result of open like a having a hub for food trucks. And now it’s turned into brick and mortar and just expanded service in the area. That’s

Brandon Burton 16:21
awesome. So you had also mentioned you had to go back to city council, like every three months to state your case, and really show the evidence of why this works. What are some of those more compelling pieces that made them decide? Yeah, this is a good thing to have on a regular basis?

Ali Rauch 16:38
Well, you know, what we showed them is that when you’re when food trucks are parked, closest, like close to a restaurant, you might think, oh, that’s bad. We can’t do that, because it’s going to take business away from the restaurant. But what we were doing is that we were driving such an influx of people, the food trucks couldn’t handle the demand. So what we saw was that people would be hungry and decide, oh, I’m not waiting in that line. And they’d go into the restaurants. And so we provided photos of our restaurants being packed to the brim at seven o’clock on a Friday night. While there are still 1000s of people out and about downtown. So we proved that. I think there just was such a high number of people downtown, like the mayor would come out and get his Friday Night Dinner every Friday night. We had asked restaurants if they could provide reports if they were up or down. And the vast majority of them were up. Interestingly enough, the the restaurants who refused to have a truck anywhere near their restaurant, did not see success. They didn’t, they decided I don’t want to be a part of it. So we respected their wishes and kept the trucks farther away from them. And they’re the ones that aren’t experiencing that influx. My one of my biggest wins is there’s a brewery that was pretty against it. They didn’t like the idea. And so we respected them for the first couple of months. And then I went to them and I said, Will you just trust me? Will you let me try this for two months, let me close this street right in front of you. Let me put a truck right in front of your doors. And if you don’t see an increase, then we’ll go back. And now they’re our biggest advocate because their restaurants back or their breweries back doesn’t

Brandon Burton 18:29
say that, that seems like such a perfect match, you know, at the food truck so

Ali Rauch 18:34
well, they serve food. And so they serve pizza and pretzels. So they were like kind of standoffish about it. But again, now they’ve seen such an influx. And now we put this really great milkshake shake shop right in front of them. That’s beautiful. That’s, you know, got great LED lights on top. So it draws a crowd. It’s just like a, you know, a beacon of light to send them over.

Brandon Burton 18:56
I love it. That’s awesome. So our time goes quick in these chamber, the your interviews. So let’s let’s shift gears into the second program, if you want to introduce it. The second program was submitted on your application.

Ali Rauch 19:09
Yes, our second public. Our second program was the public policy program that we have put in place. And, you know, the world today has a lot of political fragmentation that we have to overcome. And it was really important for us to be that unified champion for public policy. And so we started by creating an issue focused public policy agenda to engage our public sector. We host candidate forums. We supported our school system by being the main voice and advocate for the five miltax referendum renewal. And then we also started distributing regular public policy newsletters to ensure our members understood that big picture impact of federal and state legislation on their actual business.

Brandon Burton 19:56
Awesome. I’m taking notes as you’re going you guys covered a lot of things lot of issues there from the candidate forums, the school district and the newsletters. Are you able to see like engagement with the newsletters as far as informing the community and any feedback you’re receiving as providing that information? You

Ali Rauch 20:13
know, funny enough, it’s quiet, always quiet and quiet is okay. Because

Brandon Burton 20:18
there’s something of buzzworthy right, then then everybody’s

Ali Rauch 20:23
quiet is okay, we’ve really taken that stance of trying to make sure that informing is the goal, we’re not taking opinion. And we’re not, you know, advocating one way or the other, we are simply informing and so our public policy emails, I think, have at least a 45%, open rates. And we do send them on a regular basis just throughout the year, we will send them no more often than once a month. But when our state is in session, for those two and a half months, we try and do it every other week, so that we’re updating people on Friday afternoons for what’s happened in the past week and or so. And so, it is, it’s a segment of our membership that’s interested, but they’re not really loud and vocal, but that’s okay. Our goal isn’t to create this movement, we’re simply trying to inform people and make them better educated. Right?

Brandon Burton 21:14
Yeah, I think in in so many communities across the country, there’s local newspapers or local radio that used to cover these things that now maybe they don’t have the bandwidth, they don’t have the reporters, some of them don’t exist anymore. And chambers perfect to fill that void to be able to keep the citizens informed of policies and things going on in the community and from the public policy arena. And it’s a it’s a perfect alignment. And I’m actually kind of surprised more chambers weren’t involved with it before there was that kind of need, where there was those local news outlets.

Ali Rauch 21:47
It’s kind of scary, you know, like, you don’t want to get involved. But at the end of the day, I think Sherry Ann has shared this in the past, there’s that I think it’s the Edelman barometer of trust. The community trust the business community more than they trust the government more than they trust the media. So why not us to be that communicating force. And so, you know, we do, we do a lot of intentional efforts. So we connect with our legislators through our leadership programs, we do a 20 under 40 leadership program where we bring our legislators into connect with them. We do our Lee County Young Leaders program for high school juniors, where we go to see them at the state capitol and visit with the governor and lieutenant governor. And so we’re doing all these little things that are getting just informational, just trying to create those relationships and connections. We also host our annual State of the City event, which is kind of like an inaugural address, but for our mayor, and that is a great way for him to celebrate what’s been happening at the city. It’s a way for us to really establish our foothold as the voice for business and our community on all things advocacy. And it’s really been, it’s been exciting to see us take that elevated approach. And there was nothing more prominent in that elevation than us leading the charge for the tax mill increase, or the tax mill renewal for our schools. We you know, we put out yard signs, and we did text messages and email reminders to people to vote, and we had a 92% voting approval rate for the tax bill. So like, Hey, it works.

Brandon Burton 23:24
That’s awesome. And I think I’ve shared it before but our, in our community, we had a recent bond being proposed for the school district and my wife works for the school district. So she had a little bit of insider knowledge as far as the conversations going on about the number of participants voters coming out to vote on this bond. And we’re talking obviously, millions of dollars for this bond. And there was such a tiny percentage of the community that is making big decisions for the entire community and, and committing the community and the school district to huge debt. I mean, it’s a it can be a good thing and good purpose and everything but when it’s such a small percentage of the overall community that participates, it’s so important for a chamber to take ownership of that to drive voter turnout and to just get the general public involved with sharing their voice and, and their values in the community. So kudos to you.

Ali Rauch 24:24
Thank you. And I will say I’m just going to pull out a little brag because I realized that 45% open rate was actually 57% which i Hey, wow.

Brandon Burton 24:35
That’s awesome. Yeah, and as far as email open rates go, that’s a that’s huge. Wow. That is awesome. So, as you know, recently being on the show, I like having my guests on the show talk about any tips or action items for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level. especially as a chamber, the year finalist, you guys are kind of top of the game right now. So for those listening who would like to elevate their chamber, what kind of tip or advice would you offer for them?

Ali Rauch 25:12
I would say start small. You, you eat the elephant, one bite at a time. You know, it is not something where, you know, you go to sleep one day, you wake up the next day, and all of a sudden, you are this, you know, legendary public policy person on behalf of your community. It’s those little steps what our first step was to build a public policy agenda. We’ve never done that before we leaned on each other to do that. We connected with other communities that have done it before, to get a good baseline. We surveyed our membership, we built a partnership with other chambers in the area and said, Let’s do this together. So start small, what does that what’s that top priority and start there? And then we realized, okay, we need to do more. How do we update that our members on what’s happening every week in the legislation later, so then we started our newsletter. And then before we know it, we get asked to be the leading voice for the tax mail. And so it just kind of snowballs but start small, don’t be afraid to start small and it will grow and grow and grow as as you’re ready for it to grow.

Brandon Burton 26:16
I think great advice. I think the especially the point about partnering, partnering with other chambers, especially when a when you’re talking about public policy and advocacy efforts, work with other chambers work with your State Chamber, they provide so many great resources, that they’re doing a lot of the legwork and you’re able to pass along the information and and share it locally, right? Yes.

Ali Rauch 26:38
Well, that’s the important thing to note about our public policy newsletter, we are not writing anything from scratch in that newsletter, every single thing that we are sharing. It is it’s a press release from the governor’s office, it’s articles from the US chambers email or from ACCE easy now that it’s talking about specific policy that’s happening. We are simply copying, pasting it sort of shortening it for our format, from an informational prospective, and that’s it. And so you can absolutely do that. And they actually encourage it, which is really nice.

Brandon Burton 27:13
Yeah, yeah, it’s great having partnerships with these organizations that say, We’re doing this for you, please take this uses, your communities. They want you to do it. So. So the other question I like asking is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ali Rauch 27:35
I think you know, what I said last time still applies. I think we’re going to have an even bigger role and space to be those catalytic leaders for the future. How do we be I think, Sherry and says it, how do we continue to be the same center that makes sure that we are helping our business community in ways that matter? Let’s I think the future means that we’re not just going to do what we’ve always done. The the chambers that are going to be successful, that are going to make waves and do great work for many, many years to come. are the ones that are adapting and trying to do bigger things versus sticking to what has been traditionally considered what a chamber does.

Brandon Burton 28:16
Yeah, absolutely the same senators that it resonates very well. So especially in this crazy world,

Unknown Speaker 28:23
crazy world.

Brandon Burton 28:27
Well, Ali, I wanted to give you a chance again, to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn a little bit more about these programs that you guys are highlighting that are definitely making an impact in the open like a community what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you. You

Ali Rauch 28:43
can find us at OpelikaChamber.com or on any of the social channels at Opelika Chamber and we are of course you can find me as well my email addresses listed on the website and you can find me on LinkedIn and Ali Vice Rouch but I’m really excited, grateful and appreciative and looking forward to July

Brandon Burton 29:06
Yes, and I can I can say your your social media, your LinkedIn stuff you like eat, eat, drink, breathe everything chamber so great, great person to find you

Unknown Speaker 29:21
nothing halfway Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:24
That’s right. We’ll get all of that in the show notes to make it easy for people to reach out and connect with you. But again, congratulations to you and your team. What an honor to be selected as a finalist and I wish you guys the best of luck in Dallas.

Ali Rauch 29:37
Thank you so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:40
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.

Orlando Economic Partnership-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Tim Giuliani

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

Becki Womble 1:03
I’ve been using Community Matters for probably six or seven years now. And in a previous life, I sold commercial printing so I can highly recommend Community Matters because it’s a complete turnkey job for any busy chamber exec and it’s a wonderful, beautiful printed product whenever you’re finished. And I just I’m very sold on Community Matters. And with a printing background I just big endorsement from me.

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Tim Giuliani. Tim is advancing the pace of change and altering the perceptions of a place best known for tourism by reconceptualizing. The Orlando region’s economic future as the President and CEO of the Orlando Economic Partnership, Tim is leading the multi year pursuit to create a new model for economic and community development that changes the status quo and establishes a new path forward towards broad based prosperity for all. Before joining the partnership, Tim was the president and CEO at the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. He also led the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce and Council for Economic outreach. He lives in Orlando with his wife and three children. It Tim, we’re excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. First of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as chamber the year finalist. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Tim Giuliani 3:06
Sure, appreciate you having me on. Certainly appreciate the recognition from ACCE for our organization. And as far as something interesting to start with, I guess, in the ways we use our free time, if you want to call it that. I coach a softball team, a travel softball team made up of 11 11 year old girls, and that’s a nice fun activity and development activity I get to do, you know, a few times a week.

Brandon Burton 3:43
Yeah, so any free time you might have had is the slug dried up with that. I know how those travel teams go. Yeah, it can be all inclusive, for sure. Yeah,

Tim Giuliani 3:51
these girls are serious. And I think I learned a lot growing up about leadership through baseball. And I think it’s a wonderful way to learn a lot about drive and determination and consistency. coachability teamwork, all of the things that are required in the workplace are things that you can learn on the softball field.

Brandon Burton 4:10
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Well, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about the Orlando economic partnership just to give us a maybe a better idea of the type of chamber you are the size staff Scope of Work budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Tim Giuliani 4:27
Yeah, our organization is only about seven years old. It was the result of a merger between the EDC of Metro Orlando and the Central Florida partnership which included the Orlando Chamber of Commerce. So we’re, we’re essentially a consolidated if you will, you know, economic development and Regional Chamber. We were given kind of white canvas as to what sort of chambers need to be doing in the 21st century without so much attachment to the to the legacy ways of do Doing business. And so we’re loving million dollar organization, we have a staff of about 45. And we’re just, you know, all focused on advancing broad based prosperity in Central Florida.

Brandon Burton 5:14
I love it. I love the name to Orlando economic partnership. So it’s not just focused on economic development, but it’s really is the partnership with the businesses. And in general, AMC can adopt set convener ability of chambers of commerce by encapsulating

Tim Giuliani 5:28
focuses on it focuses on that we don’t offer a lot of things that I’ve done earlier in my career as it relates to networking, or, or marketing and advertising. It’s much more, you know, a smaller group of companies that are interested in making change and improving the economy here. And they choose to do that by partnering with us.

Brandon Burton 5:50
Right? That’s great. So the way that we like to structure these chamber the year interviews is, I’d like to have you tell us what the two programs are that you guys submitted on your chamber, that your application just at a high level, and then we’ll circle back and dive into each of them in much more detail.

Tim Giuliani 6:10
Here, the first project is that we created the first of its kind, regional, digital twin. And so you have several 100 square miles of Central Florida. And when we host companies, or market executives or executives from, you know, corporate that’s looking at expansion, or asset allocation within central Florida, we’re able, instead of having to worry about driving them around all of Central Florida, you know, from the Space Coast, to UCF, to the airport, to our summer to conduct our cluster, etc. You know, we’re able to immerse them in a in a digital twin of our entire region. And then we overlay, like 80 data sources on top of that. So almost any question that anyone has, can be answered in a very engaging way with a digital twin that was largely made in Orlando. So it is an authentic representation of our tech community, which something that we have in spades. However, that’s not part of the brand that people know Orlando for, in most cases. So it allows us to put that technology forward, and then use it in very practical ways.

Brandon Burton 7:23
So yeah, I want to learn a lot more about that. I’ve got a lot of questions for you on it. But what’s the other program you guys submitted on your application?

Tim Giuliani 7:31
Yeah, the other program is part of part of an ongoing 10 year effort to build a semiconductor cluster here in Central Florida. There’s only about 17 states that really have semiconductor activity. You know, now, it’s a lot more popular than it was six, seven years ago, when we were in the throes of moving the ball forward. But in this in this last year, we were successful at attracting a $50 million federal grant that’s locally matched. So it’s a total of $75 million investment in all things to build that industry cluster here. So it’s a big shot in the arm a big step forward. And so we focused on the benefits and the work that we put into attracting and winning that federal grant out of there was like 570 Something applications nationwide, we won the only award in Florida. So that’s pretty remarkable. That speaks

Brandon Burton 8:34
volumes for sure. So I’m excited to dive into both of these programs in much more detail right after this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 11:01
Hey everybody, Donna from Yiftee here today, just like Brandon, we’re bringing you a guest speaker. First up is Gina from Durham, North Carolina. We’ve sold more than 3300 community cards in Durham, that are being spent at 51 different merchants. There’s something for everyone.

Gina Rozier 11:19
I’m Gina Rozier, Director of Marketing, Communication and Peacekeeping for Downtown Durham Incorporated. And I’m a very happy Yiftee customer. We’re the Bull City, and we created our spendable community card with Yiftee years ago. Our participating businesses love it and we had our best ever sales figures last year. Yiftee is great to work with. They help with marketing the program and it is truly turnkey for us in our businesses. Choosing Yiftee has been a great decision for downtown Durham.

Donna Novitsky 11:48
Thanks, Gina. Wondering how you can have your own community card for free. Check out yiftee.com for next steps. Now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 12:00
All right, Tim, we’re back. So let’s let’s circle back and tell us more about this digital twin, I want to figure out how you guys did this. What sort of platform are you using? Is this? You know, to use it on your phone? Do you need a headset? Like how does this work?

Tim Giuliani 12:17
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing, it’d be easier if you were an older listeners, we’re just kind of sitting in the same room in front of our display. But essentially, what we’ve created is a digital reconstruction of the region. And so you’ve, you’ve seen something similar on Google Maps to give you a frame of reference, okay. However, the magic is really, in bringing that to life in more three dimensional ways. And also overlaying all of the data. On top of sort of that that terrain or that map, we partnered with Unity Technologies and unity. You know, if there’s any 10 to 13 year olds listening, they’ve just got excited because they know unity, because they play their games all the time. And unity is a gaming platform. So essentially, we created a video game of Orlando. And it allows, you know, the use of a tablet, and standing in front of a full 180 degree LED wall, LEDs coming out of the floor into translucent panels. So you get a three dimensional perspective, you’re able to tour the entire region, dive into it, go down to more street level, and then see all the data on top of it. Whether you’re wondering about home prices, you’re wondering about income, educational attainment levels, prices and availability of commercial real estate buildings, classes of commercial real estate buildings, almost anything that you can look up in an Excel spreadsheet we have for our audiences live. And so currently, we’re we’ve executed phase one, which means it’s available in our office in our Marketing Center. It’s also available on a headset. So you put on an Oculus, and you get to enter the digital twin. It’s made on a platform that’s viewable almost anywhere. So tablet computer, Oculus, the Apple vision pro unities development, you know is the platform you can develop for that new product. So as essentially, as we get into phase two, and it comes off essentially our servers and goes into the cloud, it’ll then be accessible from anywhere.

Brandon Burton 14:35
Wow. That’s a that answers my next question. I was gonna ask if there’s a link that we can share in this episode where people can check it out and see what it looks like. That sounds like that’s part of Phase Two as I think

Tim Giuliani 14:48
but we put together a site orlando.org/digitaltwin, where you can really understand the capabilities and what it looks like and how we use it. You So there’s, it’s surprisingly, I mean, it’s got a lot of press, it’s very leading edge, we partnered with unity. Obviously, this is very applicable across the country across the world as cities, think about, you know, all the sensors that are out there all the data that’s out there. How do you visualize that and use that in in ways that help your current business and this for us really check that box.

Brandon Burton 15:27
So you had mentioned, basically anything you can find on the spreadsheet you can find on this digital twin as you kind of explore and dive in a little deeper throughout the whole platform. I imagine a lot of that is plugins on the back end. So as data is inputted and it gets updated live within the platform, I would assume. What about other updates along the way, when there’s new businesses or new development? How does that get implemented into the platform?

Tim Giuliani 15:56
Yeah, so the interesting thing about this project was it, you know, as we talked about it, as we were seeking to enable, you know, over the last six years, we built up reserves, and we ran, sort of net positive on our revenue. And so we had to make an investment. And we had to convince our, our board our finance committee, this was a smart investment for us to make. And so the challenge, though, was describing something that doesn’t exist, right. And so what we realized, you know, there’s gonna, there’s almost unlimited use cases for our members, community leaders to you to utilize this technology. But it was so hard for them to conceptualize without seeing it. So we move forward with phase one. And essentially, now you can see it, understand it, see its capabilities, understand how it can work for your business. And now we’re at a phase, where we’re talking to all sorts of partners, from transportation agencies, to utilities to developers, about taking this digital twin to the next level. So it’s really, you got to see it to really appreciate what it can do.

Brandon Burton 17:07
Yeah. Just my background has been in chamber publishing. So like, one of the things that we would do was maps, right for cities. So this kind of strikes a chord with me, because we would do digital versions of the maps. And there’s different plugins, like you’re saying, like, as it evolves, you can go to transportation kind of plugins, and you can see, you know, kind of live traffic updates and things like that, which is, it’s super intriguing to me. And I’m sure it’ll continue to evolve, too. But I can see this as a great tool as far as attracting, you know, economic development and showing available space and just that tour of the city. Do you? I don’t know exactly how to ask this question. I know some things you can definitely portray in that digital format. Some things you just have to be there. Right. So what percentage maybe do you think covers the check those boxes? As far as? Yeah, maybe you don’t need to be here in person or it gets a person so far, to where they say, yeah, now we need to plan a trip to come to Orlando and actually be there and see things in person? Or do they need to? I don’t know.

Tim Giuliani 18:18
Yeah, no, it’s changing, right. We landed a lot of projects during COVID, where they made like one quick visit. Yeah. So I think I think that’s changed a little bit. There’s two real answers I can give you. One is when we put it in the headset, and we’re in New York, and we’re talking to executives or site selection consultants, they could put on the headphones, the headset without ever visiting Orlando, and they could really get an immersive perspective on available sites and buildings, and their their relative connectedness to the rest of the community and what we have to offer so yeah, so that’s an example where someone doesn’t have to visit, they can get an initial look. And it’s much better than a brochure. Right, right. Second case is so pretend you’re visiting Orlando, and you’ve got, say, 24 to 36 hours here, which is typical. You know, we’re able to give them a great geographic orientation, because one thing I can assure you is that most people listening this podcast that don’t live in Florida, I really view it as a blob with Miami at the southern tip. And what we’re able to do is geographically orient people to the connectivity because, you know, Central Florida is really founded on its connectivity, not only from Disney’s perspective as sort of the crossroads of Florida, but over to the Space Coast, and our our particular longitude, latitude, and its ability to get to space. So we’ve benefited from that. So that continues to drive decisions and we want to show that connectivity which we can do, and then we can show them the have the sort of communities and areas which they’re considering. And then we get in the car and we can go to, you know, two or three places. So it just creates an opportunity to give someone a much better picture of Central Florida without putting them in the car and boring them with hours and hours of driving around to see things, we can just do that in our marketing center.

Brandon Burton 20:24
So when you say you get in the car in this virtual sense, what does that look like? I imagine you can just really shortcut a lot of the traffic and the distance and everything and say, Okay, now you go, here we head south. And here’s this place.

Tim Giuliani 20:37
Yeah, it’s just a flyover. And it’s really, you know, if we were standing in the studio, I’d be holding a tablet. And you’d be standing, you know, 1015 feet away from the monitors. And, and we would be pinching and zooming just like you do on your phone. Right? When you look at a map, and we’ll be showing you and, you know, taking you to UCF and showing you the second largest university in America, and then sort of driving along i Four into downtown Orlando and giving you that perspective. So then when we get out in the car, you know, we can only maybe we visit two or three sites, as opposed to having to make 10 or 11 visits around the region. So it just narrowed down. Yeah, I think when companies are looking at cities, they’re not just looking at one, they’re looking at multiple and so you’re trying to create a competitive advantage and a better experience. And we think this creates a better experience when someone’s considering an investment here in Orlando.

Brandon Burton 21:34
Right? Yeah. And I can see, as you, you know, do a presentation like this, obviously, you want to show the highlights, right, those things that are going to attract the business. And I know Orlando has no downsides to it, right. But I mean, some cities out there, they might have some spots that they might want to cover up and not show. So just to be able to kind of narrow things down and say, here’s the highlights and pique the interest of bring a visit, I think is a huge key in the selling factor.

Tim Giuliani 21:59
Yeah, and actually, for some of the areas, you know, that you kind of casually mentioned, that haven’t gotten a lot of investment over time, we’re actually partnering with some of them as well, so that they have the ability to make the same type of presentation to investors. Because some of those areas are very well connected to the the infrastructure of Central Florida, they’re very close to higher education institutions. And so they’re, you know, overlaid with opportunity zones and other special tax districts and that provide benefits to companies. So it actually not only enables us to show the highlights of Central Florida, but it allows us to showcase the opportunities that may have been overlooked, because maybe they weren’t part of that brochure, or that website in the past. So you know, it’s still early, but it’s an interesting way to think about showcasing the entire community,

Brandon Burton 22:51
right. So we’ll get the link to the digital twin in our show notes for this episode for listeners that want to go and check it out and kind of play around and see what it looks like. I think that would be good to get some visuals on it. But let’s let’s shift gears over into the second program focused on the semiconductor industry and creating that cluster there. Before we got on the podcast and started recording, I’d actually kind of poked around your guys’s website, and I noticed you have a good number of staff that are dedicated to the semiconductor industry. So this is definitely something that’s an area of focus and of importance to you. But tell us more about that. And the focus you guys have with semiconductors.

Tim Giuliani 23:36
Yeah, actually, this, this win that we featured in our application allowed us to build a team focused on semiconductors, because I can assure you, I cannot go through the supply chain dynamics, the parts, the tools, it’s a very specific knowledge base of which you need to be able to communicate with these companies. Because what they do is so highly technical. And, you know, over the last 10 years, we’ve there’s this piece of property, it’s 500 acres, just south of Orlando, in Osceola County, and the EDC at the time, and the county decided to come together, they kind of had two options, they could invest in a new spring training site for Major League Baseball team. Or they could go a different direction and do something to try to diversify their economy in the technology space. And so that’s the path that they went down. And over time, you know, now if I drove you over to what’s called Neo city, you’ve got 500 acres that the county owns. There’s all the infrastructures laid roads, utilities, water, stormwater, etc. There’s a fab. So that $160 million facility that currently is leased by sky water technologies. They’re a semiconductor, global foundry that their US owned. So they have an important niche in this whole semiconductor conversation and DOD. Many people don’t know that Orlando is actually heavily invested in by Department of Defense. And we have a long history of military instalments and investment. In fact, they’re all the branches of the government have offices here, some rather large, all around the areas of modeling and simulation. And all of that uses technology nowadays. And so we have a big defense base here. So the semiconductor you kind of think space, you think defense, and now you begin to understand sort of a niche that’s available here in semiconductors. And over time, we’ve worked to build that cluster. And then we were awarded a $50 million grant, through the regional build back better challenge, there was over 500 applications, I think there was about 25 announced winners, we were one of those 25. And so that combined local match and federal dollars, it means a $75 million enhancement, to those cluster building activities here. So we’re really excited about the path we’re on to provide a niche to the semiconductor industry that’s looking to restore, particularly as it relates to space, and defense. And as it relates to if you want to get technical into advanced packaging, which is a an area of product that’s provided by that industry.

Brandon Burton 26:36
So I guess that leads into the question I was gonna ask as to why you got you guys wanted to get into the niche of semiconductors. And that makes sense that the space aspect with the Department of Defense and looking into the future, are there other opportunities, you are kind of targeting in the semiconductor spaces, in addition to what’s already there? Yeah, I

Tim Giuliani 27:00
think that, you know, those are some industry verticals that they’re interested in. But I think as it relates to the technology and the product offering, you know, I don’t see us landing the next $10 billion Intel plant. That’s not, I don’t think that’s in the cards for us. What I do think is in the cards is, you know, advanced packaging. So think about when you were younger, you took apart a radio, and you found a really solid green board with the chips and transistors and connections on it. Well, that hard piece is the packaging. And so now the advanced packaging is when you’re putting multiple chips together. And that board has now become bendable. So it’s they can go into a lot more devices and helmets and different different things. That even though, you know as we seek to onshore or restore more chip manufacturing, you know, China still has about a 98% market share of this advanced packaging process. So we think that this important niche, so you need specific tools that are multimillion dollar tools that are in our fab here. We think that this advanced packaging component of the supply chain is a niche that we could do well in here in Central Florida.

Brandon Burton 28:24
Yeah. Oh, yeah. China’s got 98% of the market, if you can get most of the market share in the in the States, then you’d be winning in our country, so that’s great. So these are two great programs, obviously making a big impact in driving Orlando forward and making an impact in the community, especially as a chamber the year finalists, I like asking this question as far as chambers that are out there looking to take their chamber up to the next level. What tips or, or advice or action items might you have for for someone trying to accomplish that goal?

Tim Giuliani 29:06
My suggestion, I think, coming up in the industry, and I’ve been in this line of work myself for about 18 years. What we’re taught is a lot of what’s called strategic planning. And I think that there, you know, that’s a part of the strategy, but to really get a forward looking strategy, I really believe you need to adopt a strategic foresight process. And the planning can certainly come later. But I think you’ve got to really understand from the outside in, you know what, what’s going on in the marketplace. The world is quickly changing, and what are those variety of trends that are out there, and then pare that down to a set of drivers of what’s really going to impact our work. In our region, and understanding what what’s driving change, and then be able to think about what what you do to achieve your goals in the face of that change. So I just think it’s a different perspective and mindset that strategic foresight brings that enables, you know, the idea of coming up with a digital twin came directly out of that process. And it’s, it’s really digitally transforming our work as we speak. And we’re only in phase one. I mean, there’s unlimited ability. Now, as it relates to you know, transportation is one of our big priorities as it is for a lot of chambers. And as it relates to making future investments, you know, we’re now able to put in to the digital twin scenarios of what a new train line would bring, and what that would do to traffic and how to communicate that to elected officials in the larger media and public. So I think it just, you know, it came out of that strategic foresight process of understanding what was coming online from a technology perspective, and then being able to see how that relates to us. And then we were able to build a plan off of that.

Brandon Burton 31:13
That’s awesome. Yeah, I’d love you know, hearing the the other uses for the digital twin to that’ll, that’ll help with advocacy and those things that are important in the region. So that in the terminology is Strategic Foresight process, is there a formal process that you go through that kind of a structure that you follow? I don’t know if you’re prepared to speak to that, but that it is very intriguing to me.

Tim Giuliani 31:38
Yes, absolutely. There’s, you know, if you if you’re interested, there’s some online courses, the Institute, the future has a great online course kind of Crash Course and understanding strategic foresight. You know, it’s, it’s also, you know, what futurists use. And I know, some people may have preconceived notions of what that might be, and how many eight balls that entails. Right. But I can assure you it’s a it’s a business process. A lot of leading companies are leveraging this technique or this mindset in their companies to really think of whether it’s consumer insights, strategic foresight, so there’s definitely a process. I went through a program at the University of Houston. So University of Houston, University of Hawaii are the two universities in the US that have for decades had programs focused on strategic foresight. So there’s, there’s obviously books, websites, courses, higher education, certifications, etc. To help anybody become more familiar with that process.

Brandon Burton 32:41
Yeah, that’s great. Great, I love it. So speaking of futurists, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Tim Giuliani 32:53
Well, I’ve, I’ve always maybe had a slightly different take on things. And I really feel that the sort of things we’ve we did 15 years ago, and I did them too, you know, I’ve created directories I’ve edited. I’ve gotten the calls when we, you know, put the wrong phone number address, you know, I understand sort of those things that have been consistent in our industry. But I think, you know, over time, some of them have gotten commoditized and easily available online, through LinkedIn, through meetup through a variety of sources. And I think we’ve got to keep innovating in a way that’s just focused on impact, you know, what is going to drive the future of the region? What needs to be undertaken? You know, how do we set priorities for the community, that’s to the benefit of everybody. And I think we play an important role as chambers in setting those community priorities, by convening, and by, you know, kind of being the same center or the one that is able to be focused on progress and a longer time horizon than most elected officials have. And so I think we have that niche of we bring the community together, we help to set priorities or longer term, in our perspective, and then building programming and advocacy and work that’s tied to that mission, in my opinion, is a better and more sustainable technique than trying to be all things to all size companies and all parts of the community. I don’t I don’t think that’s actually attainable.

Brandon Burton 34:38
Yeah, I think you’re I think you’re right, figuring out what that impact is and setting those priorities, convening and be in the same center I think is spot on. Well, Tim, as we, before we let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and maybe learn more about the digital twin and Have you got that going or anything that we’ve talked about today? What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Tim Giuliani 35:05
Yeah, absolutely. I think LinkedIn is really the best way. I’m happy to connect on LinkedIn or communicate, at least initially that way. But LinkedIn, I think the easiest way to get in touch with me

Brandon Burton 35:20
good deal, and I’ll have your, your profile linked on the well, so yeah, that’ll work.

Tim Giuliani 35:28
It’s not many of us. So under that name, so should be easy to find.

Brandon Burton 35:31
That’s right. Now well, we’ll get that in there. But I really appreciate you setting aside some time to spend with us today. You’re on Chamber Chat Podcasts and wish you and your team Best of luck is chamber the year and congratulations on the great impact you guys are making.

Tim Giuliani 35:46
Thank you really appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 35:48
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Portland Metro Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Andrew Hoan

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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Our guest for this episode is Andrew Hoan. Andrew is the President and CEO of the Portland Metro Chamber, which was also a Chamber the Year Finalist last year. Andrew joined the organization in 2018 with years of successful business association executive leadership experience. Previously, Andrew served as the President and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, which was a word of the 2017 New York State Chamber of Commerce of the year. He’s a resident of Rose City with his wife Karina and children, Theo Rocky and area. For those of you who listen to the podcast for a while may remember Andrew from last year’s chamber, the year finalist series if you want to go back and check that out was episode 185. But Andrew, I’m excited to have you back with us on Chamber Chat Podcast, congratulations to you and your team for being selected again as chamber in the year finalists. Love for you to say hello to the audience and share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little bit better. Sure,

Andrew Hoan 3:12
thanks, Brandon. And hello, everybody. And just thrilled to be back here for several reasons to be on the podcast, of course, but then also to be a finalist for chamber of the year. And it really is it’s a super honor. Because you realize that chambers everywhere, especially in big cities are facing so many challenges, and working so hard to bring our communities back and to be positive in a post pandemic world. And it is not easy. And so to be in consideration is an honor. And we’re up against Boston Orlando, which are incredible cities and awesome Chambers of Commerce. So we’re excited to go to Salt Lake City and compete but also just to be in that mentioned is exciting to be on this show to talk about is even better. So you know, for those that don’t know me, I feel really special because I’ve gotten to see and live in different parts of the world. I was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which we call the fresh coast. And then I moved out to Brooklyn, New York for nearly two decades. So I lived on the East Coast. And then my wife was recruited to come out here to Portland, Oregon. She’s a incredible physician and surgeon and so we’ve made our home here on the Left Coast. For almost five years. I started my job precisely five years and four days ago. So it’s been a wild ride. And that’s a little bit about myself. Well, happy

Brandon Burton 4:38
chamber anniversary there. Portland. will tell us a little bit more about the Portland Metro Chamber just to give us an idea of the scope of work size staff budget just to kind of prepare us for our conversation today.

Andrew Hoan 4:55
Sure. So the Portland Metro Chamber was founded in 1870. So we’re 153 years old, and it’s had an a storied history throughout throughout the years. And the modern iteration came about in 2002, where the downtown business group and the Regional Chamber of Commerce decided to form an affiliation and legal binding agreement between the two. And ever since then we’ve been known as the alliance. And so our modern chamber was established in 2002. And today, between the three affiliates that make up our alliance, the chamber, downtown Portland’s Business Improvement District, and partners in diversity, which is a diversity, equity and inclusion workspace effort. We have nearly 30 staffers, we have 2200 members, and we serve the 213 blocks of downtown Portland, with Fishel downtown business improvement district services like security and cleaning and retail promotion and marketing and things that you want downtown’s to be. So that’s who we are. And we just launched our sort of newest name and brand identity, we brought forward the the chamber name again, because it was sort of hiding in the background. And we also launched the three year strategic plan as well, simultaneously. So we get to the sort of be in the position now, to be proactive and looking into the future. But that’s a little bit about ourselves and about where we’re going.

Brandon Burton 6:32
Awesome. Yeah, I remember last year, the downtown Yeah, portion of the work that you guys do really caught me by a little bit of surprise, it says a chamber that that’s not something you normally hear chambers doing, but something you guys take on and then are in our managing well. So that’s, that’s definitely unique. So the way that I like to structure these chamber, the year finalist interviews is to really focus our attention on the two programs that you guys submitted on your chamber, the year finalist application. So maybe just at a high level, mentioned what the two programs are, and then we can circle back and a little more depth on each of those.

Andrew Hoan 7:15
Sure. So I’ll start with the first one. And it’s it’s unusual to hear good tax news for businesses, especially out here on the West Coast. And so I’ll start with our successes, on something that took a whole lot of time and effort. And that is completely reforming the business tax codes here in the city, county and our metro region, which is a government body as well. And the result, the headlines are this, because of our actions. The year that began here, 2023, every locally headquartered company will see their business taxes go down. And before this year, we had the unfair condition where businesses that that were from other places could operate in our community and not pay local taxes. And so clearly, that was unfair. And so we reached an incredible, call collaborative opportunity with our local governments, local elected officials to synchronize and change all three levels of governments tax codes simultaneously. And it took two years to do this, it took a lawsuit, and it took a lot of elbow grease. But we got to where we wanted to where all government side in their best interest to support their local business community, noting that it was not going to impact their revenues, and that it was going to strengthen our economy. And so this happened at the very tail end of 2022. And we were able to share the good news with our members and the region. And beyond that Portland, Oregon, and our region can work together on tax reform to the benefit of our local employer community, and that it wasn’t us versus them conversation. Again, though, it did involve a lawsuit. So there was a little bit of angst there at the same time, not gonna lie. And it created what I think to be the conditions to further improving the tax conditions for our business community here. And it’s no secret that we pay very high taxes in this region. Voters have elected to do that time and again, but it was it was too much in our community, our business community, our economy were hurting. And so this was a collaboration and then I think, a shared victory by all three governments that we were very proud of. And we built on that success ever since then. And I’d mentioned before we started talking that just this last May, we were able to, for the first time in over a decade, as the Chamber of Commerce, defeat a local citizen. tax initiative that was just really, really wacky. And we not only defeated it, but the victory margin was 80% opposed to the new tax and 20% in favor. And so I would just ask anybody to think about whether or not anyone’s agreed at 80% on anything in any community of late. And to note that Portland, Oregon, where, you know, socialist registration is out numbers, Republicans in our community was able to defeat a tax measure that that squares with your perception. And so I’d say not only did we reformed taxes, we prevented new ones from happening. And now we’re having really honest and open conversations about what’s the right thing to invest in as a community, whether we’re overburdened, and that doing it in a way that’s super antagonistic, but more collaborative, and focused on what our core issues are. So that’s, that’s number one that may need

Brandon Burton 10:51
to file in amendments with your chamber your application to be able to include that part, right. But eating? Yeah, it’s true.

Andrew Hoan 10:59
We thought about it, you know, and it was the success to was shared by a lot of people it was, you know, we have citizens initiative, like a lot of communities do. And people endorse or, you know, either side, yes or no. And what was a point of pride for us in this effort was that almost every single elected official in our region joined us. And usually, we would be in these opposing sides on tax issues. But I think we proved from last year when you work together to reform taxes, that it can be a win win. And so I think we built trust. And then we built on that trust so that they were able to join our side openly, and then involved community groups, specifically culturally oriented organizations that don’t traditionally take sides on taxes, but that we had also build trust and relationships with so that they were our chief spokesperson. And it wasn’t the business community saying no new taxes. It was our Asian Pacific Islander community, our Hispanic and Latino communities. And you know, our Congress member was one of our chief spokesperson, Earl Blumenauer, who’s not exactly a conservative anti tax leader. So we had great success there. And we’re gonna keep working on it and keep building trust and collaboration on these issues that impact our businesses.

Brandon Burton 12:16
So I’m curious with that initiative, what, what really no, we’re kind of going out of format here. I wanted high level and then details we’re getting into the details. So yeah, what was that driver that made you guys society needed to focus on tax reform in your city, the county and the Metro

Andrew Hoan 12:33
is so unfair on the surface, and we had a complete disconnect. So the business taxes that were created locally, we’re not aligned with our state business taxes. So it started off as sort of basic, this is just bad policies, you just looked at the surface of it. And you know, you’re a company that’s that’s headquartered in Portland, and you’re paying one kind of tax to Portland, and you’re paying another kind of tax to Oregon, and just was creating a sort of administrative mess. So you had a good problem statement. And then secondly, you looked at a company that might be safe from, you know, not to pick on Arizona, but let’s just call it a law firm from Arizona. Could be sir, you know, serving a client here in Portland. And a Portland law firm serving a client here in Portland, and the Portland law firm was paying an Arizona one wasn’t. So there was just fundamental unfairness there. And so by capturing out of state activity here locally, by doing what’s called market based sourcing for our taxes, we were able to capture that out of state activity, which again, it just was principally unfair, and most other locations had moved to that type of taxes. And we were the only organization that could do that sort of really heavy, frankly, boring work. But that was really important to our members absolutely no, resulted in the net savings, because that same Portland firm now is paying less in taxes versus the Arizona which is just getting to parity with a local companies. So there was there were that problem statement that just we couldn’t get away from, and we’re the only entity that could could drive it. And then it was for our members, they are going to see significant financial benefit from this. It’s not a lowering of the rates. It’s just fairness that allows their burden to be decreased. And it was just a matter of convincing the governments that it was a win for them to because when Oregon did this the state, it resulted in a net increase in revenue to the state. And so we were able to demonstrate that hate past can predict the future. You win, we win our companies win this is this is a win win. So it was just a matter of getting through the hard work of opening people’s minds to doing tax reform work and not thinking about it like it’s it’s an antagonistic experience, but a collaborative and positive one where everyone can win.

Brandon Burton 14:52
Yeah. Now that that program that tax reform definitely makes a big impact throughout the entire metro Oh yeah, like you explained the city, county and Metro. And so I’m thinking we need to kind of shift gears into your your other topic and let’s dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 18:25
All right, Andrew, we’re back. So what is the second program that you guys submitted on your application for chamber the year?

Andrew Hoan 18:33
Sure. www.OregonStateofSport.com. And as someone who moved here from the outside, you know, there’s a big difference in culture between Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Oregon, it lasts similarities, but one of the big cultural differences is that Portlanders are very demure, you know, they don’t want to talk about their successes, they want to be humble. And that’s that, to me is a positive value. And in Brooklyn, you know, you go to Brooklyn, and people are like, Hey, I’m from Brooklyn, and you know, this is the greatest city on earth and don’t mess with us. And so I think it’s interesting, because when I came here, you know, you realize that the region had completely failed to capitalize on the thing that it is truly better than anybody else had, which is what we design the world wears. And whether you’re in outdoor, you know, high adventure activities, or you’re in fitness, you know, you are either climbing on Metolius gear, or you’re running in Nike sneakers and and what we make and wear and design here, everyone is wearing and yet nobody knows about that. So there’s a fundamental disconnect between our economic strategy and the way we market our region, and our own sort of cultural desire to be humble and not talk about our successes. Have, we decided coming out of the pandemic that we needed to focus on a new economic strategy that was predicated on our strengths. And it is one thing, but it was going to be a Portland, and valus are collaborating along with our state partners, and so we formed a quick analysis of proved what we all know that we have more companies, we have more employees. And we produce more economic outcomes in the athletic outdoor team and recreation, business ecosystem than any other place in the country. And that we wanted the world to know. So we launched this brand, this name, this website that’s focused on all the things you want, business attraction, growth work workforce development partner with academic centers, and cross regional collaboration, in part inspired by the work of our peers over in North Carolina, that has been branding themselves in a way the Research Triangle for a long time. So there’s this sense of focusing in on cluster based economic stress assaults and good outcomes for your business community and grows local businesses. And so after we launched this analysis, and this branding exercise, we’ve gotten to work on the policy front. And this has been adopted by our city’s economic development corporation, our region’s economic development corporation, we have a task force bill that’s nearly out of the state legislature right now to establish this as direction for our economic focus for the state. And we’ve had huge wins locally, where it’s pivoted the entire way that our local governments have thought about economic development, where they are pairing their objectives with supporting the state of sport ecosystem. And that’s resulted in simple things like huge wins on events like Formula E, which is going to be happening this weekend, specifically, because we’ve focused on attracting these major athletic and team based conferences and competitions to an entire expo center that is now going to be repositioned, and repurposed as an indoor athletic competition facility, one that will be unrivaled in the entire west coast, because we’re capable of hosting these types of large scale events. And we proved it last year, with the world Track and Field games, they came here for the first time to America. And right here in Oregon, where the first Nike was produced over in Hayward field in Eugene. So we’re building on our strengths. We’re converting that into a real economic development synergies and major investments by our local governments. And we see this as a huge potential to build on the economic engine that’s already driving growth, and to catalyze cross regional collaborations between places like bend and Eugene and Portland that didn’t always work together before, even though that’s we’re the flagship city. But they’re the places that have the major academic centers and the research campuses. So this is about borrowing from other people’s playbooks building on our successes and being a chamber that leading an economic development strategy, because the private sector knows how to get this done. And so we’re putting our voices first. And we’re bringing our governments along with us,

Brandon Burton 23:25
right. Now, to me, it makes a lot of sense. And you’ve got those other models that you can look at, like you mentioned the Research Triangle, North Carolina. And it makes a lot of sense to bring those synergies together. How has it been received throughout the community as a, I guess, community at large, right, because it’s a large area that you’re talking about. But from you know, those those natives to Oregon who may be a little hesitant to be boastful or to showcase you know, the good positive wins, things that are happening, how’s that been adopted and kind of changing that mindset of, you know, we’ve got something special here to show off to the world.

Andrew Hoan 24:06
I think that it’s now become a marker, because and I’ll give examples of this. Portland is in line right now, to attract a WNBA franchise, and our United States senator who’s the Chair of the Finance Committee, US Senate, Ron Wyden is working with us and our coalition to do the attraction of a WNBA franchise to Portland, and it fits all the things that we care about. So it’s about aligning our values and our culture, along with economic strategy and doing in a collaborative way. And we’re making that hard pitch right now to attract a franchise. Secondly, we’re also in line for a Major League Baseball franchise and so we have an MLB initiative here. It’s really going to be us on the West Coast and maybe a couple other cities that are vying for an expansion team but we are laying the groundwork now with our partners in government. To build a new stadium here in the city to acquire the land that makes that happen, and to make that hard pitch to the commissioner’s office about why Portland is the right place. So what it’s done is it’s just sort of the light bulb went off, you know, everybody’s like, Oh, right, yeah, we are the center of athletic and outdoor activity. And, yes, these big franchises are exciting. But who wouldn’t want to be a WNBA team in the place where Air Jordans were great. You know, come on, it’s just an incredible opportunity. And, you know, we really are in the Pacific Northwest, we don’t have that sort of galvanizing team base right now. Because you know, if it’s not in Seattle, or in Portland, it doesn’t exist. And there’s a lot of space between us and the rest of the country. But we’ve seen that the community embraces this type of economic development strategy already, because they’re just ravenous fans. And I’ll give an example, Major League Soccer opened up here, you know, over a decade ago, and the Portland Timbers and thorns are unrivaled successes, the thorns is, I think, arguably the most successful women’s soccer franchise on earth. And the brand and imagery in the fan base, loves and embraces the team. And it’s just to us the revelation, that community is already there. We in the business community just needed to sync up with the way that people in Portland felt about themselves for so long. And to give it a name and a brand and identity. So now all these efforts are finally working together in a way that is super collaborative and is going to move the needle if we land these two franchises, they’ll be game changers for

Brandon Burton 26:46
quite literally game. So that is super exciting. And I guess you need that balance after working on all the tech stuff, right? The super boring, the super exciting, you got to get out of that contrast. No these things they don’t happen overnight, right like to be able to be in position for Major League Baseball franchise or WNBA franchise, like if you guys weren’t already doing things well in that in your community to be able to attract the attention and be be a major player in that the running for these teams. It doesn’t happen overnight. So this is exciting stuff. I’m going to be, you know, keeping my eye on on Portland and seeing what happens here the next, you know, short future. But as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share maybe any tips or action items for listener who is really wanting to take their organization up to the next level what what kind of tips or advice might you offer to them?

Andrew Hoan 27:52
You know, I think reflecting now, five years into this job and the conditions of the city, our policy and our effectiveness five years ago versus where they are today. It was a really hard transition for me personally to come to Portland, where it felt like the business community was reviled that the job was impossible. And we couldn’t get anything done today feeling like there’s nothing we can’t do, we just have to be selective about what we engage in. I think what has borne the most fruit, which I believe is the thing that no chamber person should ignore, is to understand that you are inheriting an instance that will live beyond you. And that you have to focus on the fundamentals to be able to do the stuff that we’re talking about today. And when I mean fundamentals, I really mean inwardly looking staff and board development. And I look at our board now versus where it was five years ago. And this is not about somebody did something bad five years ago, it’s just we didn’t have strategic direction, we didn’t have goals in terms of behaviors and outcomes on our board. People didn’t understand how we’re making decisions. And it took a lot of time, effort and energy to build a strategic thinking on our board. That right now I can say looking at it five years on is what actually allows us to do the things that we do and it gives us the authority and influence that we need to be able to do our work externally. Because we have the weight of a highly functionally functioning collaborative board. And then secondly, on the staff side, you know, I think this gets right now everyone’s talking about building corporate culture. And you know, I think it’s almost become a cliche now but we have all gone through this unbelievably impactful experience last three years and staffs across every organization chain numbers are part of that have really gone through their own emotional journeys, physical ones tragedy, you know, political upheaval, you know, everybody’s feeling that impact about where we are as a society. And so as a chamber leader, and executive, you got to take care of your teams, because I look now at our staff, they work together, they support each other so that they know if if, if, for whatever reason, they’re dropping balls, or they’re just maybe lagging, or something’s impacting their work, or they’re stressed out and challenged, that people have their back. And that’s really a good thing. So staff and board, don’t ignore it, focus on it, and every investment you make into those two buckets will pay dividends in the long run.

Brandon Burton 30:50
I love that, that, uh, that response seems well, so well thought out. And the things that really stand out to me is, like you said, when coming in there and looking at some of these tasks as being impossible to now kind of be an unstoppable, right. Collective, but also looking at at the institution, you know, living beyond you, I think that’s huge to give that perspective, and, and we’re all making that that impact right now. And in your moment of time, but what you’re building and the community around you is going to live on well beyond you. That’s powerful. So maybe along those lines, how do you see the future of chambers going forward and their their purpose going forward?

Andrew Hoan 31:36
Well, you know, I think about chambers, I think about, you know, I’m biased towards the fact that we tend to represent, you know, large urban centers, you know, I think that’s probably most people know that every single city, big and small, has a chamber of commerce, and states do as well. But I think most people really connect with their local Chamber of Commerce, because it’s like, Who can I trust to tell me about what’s happening in my city and in my town, and chambers tend to be that unassailable voice of reason. And I think of it now more importantly, because cities and downtown’s we’re looking at very differently. You know, the, what happened with the pandemic and hybrid work will completely up and what happens with urban centers in the future. And I think that’s the Chamber’s of the future. Where we are today has never been more critical and understanding our downtown’s and downtown’s matter, because they’re where everybody comes together. They’re welcoming places. And right now they are hurting. I don’t know one city anywhere in this country that isn’t feeling that there’s something that’s really challenging the fundamentals there. And I believe in cities, I believe in urban centers, and chambers play a huge role in thinking about what comes next. And so the chamber the future, is focused on how do we future proof? How do we adapt, learn and create a more vibrant center city for all and I think that’s what we all need to be focused on talking about as we move our organizations into the future.

Brandon Burton 33:18
Yeah, I think that’s a that’s a good vision, looking forward. And hopefully, we’ll prove out well, his chambers have that focus on on the downtown’s and the city centers. And I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to learn more about how you guys are doing things, they’re in Portland, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you? Sure,

Andrew Hoan 33:44
you can reach out to me at andrew@portlandmetrochamber.com brand new email, but serves the same purpose. And I love to hear from people across the country. We love to work with other chambers. And so I would love to hear from you and reach out and happy to grab a virtual cup of coffee or if you ever in Portland, we welcome you in our home. And we have a beautiful office that overlooks this resplendent environment. City and say you’re always walking with us.

Brandon Burton 34:16
Awesome. I appreciate that. We’ll we’ll get your email in the show notes as well. But everybody got to take Andrew up on that offer of that virtual cup of coffee or, or just learning more about how they’re they’re doing things. They’re in Portland. But Andrew, it’s been a pleasure having you back on the podcast and talking all good things Portland. Wish you and your team Best of luck as chamber the year and I look forward to chatting with you next time.

Andrew Hoan 34:46
Thanks so much, Brandon. Take care.

Brandon Burton 34:49
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