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Brandon Burton (00:01.238)
Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton. And here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. Our guest for this episode is Matt Pivarnik Matt is the CEO of the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative, an organization that brings together the diverse portfolio of community, tourism, economic development initiatives, including the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, Visit Myrtle Beach and the Myrtle Beach Regional
Sports Alliance. With a career dedicated to transforming communities, Matt has led numerous high-impact leadership roles. He’s held numerous high-impact leadership roles across the country. Prior to his current position, he served for a decade as the CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership, where he led a unified model over a dozen organizations focused on economic growth and regional development.
Matt’s leadership extends nationally, having served as chair of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Kansas, chair of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Organization Management, National Board of Trustees, and in multiple advisory board roles supporting chamber excellence and economic strategy. He’s a CCE and currently serves in the ACCE Board of Directors. A graduate of Northeastern State University with a degree in business management, Matt has also completed
executive programs through the Center for Creative Leadership and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Matt is also the founder of MAKO a regional network for economic development leaders and chamber executives, and he remains deeply committed to community impact. He and his wife Wendy recently relocated to Myrtle Beach and are proud parents and grandparents with a strong family legacy rooted in service, leadership, and
contribution. But Matt, I’m excited to have you back on Chamber Chat podcast. This is a treat to have you back on the show. I’d love 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.
Matt Pivarnik (02:12.49)
Yeah. Chamber champions, economic development champions, tourism development champions. That’s my tribe, right? And so hi to everybody. Uh, I always, there’s almost a little bit of an intimidating opportunity with Brandon, uh, because it’s, I know that all, lot of smart people watch this podcast. so Brandon, it’s really good to be with you. I think the last time that we connected like this, I was in Topeka, Kansas in a role that, uh, pretty amazing person, Molly Howey is in that role now.
that couldn’t be more proud of her.
Brandon Burton (02:44.578)
Yeah.
Just for perspective, I was back in episode 102. So if anybody wants to go back and check that out, this is episode 385. So we’ve come a long ways, but go back and see Matt from 2001. Check out that past episode. tell us a little bit about the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative. I know we’ll focus a lot on the formation of the collaborative, but just high level size, staff, scope of work, budget, things like that.
Matt Pivarnik (02:57.215)
Very cool.
Matt Pivarnik (03:13.386)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (03:15.33)
stage for us.
Matt Pivarnik (03:15.818)
Well, the collaborative was was actually officially created in April and it was one of those things that I never imagined that I would move to the Myrtle Beach region in 2025 and then in 2026 be launching really a new structure and a new organization. What I found when I got here is that my board, they were ready to go. And so I’m a bit of a change agent and they were too. And so that was, that was helpful. I would say
Our staff is right around the 50 mark. We have multiple organizations working together here. We have a fairly significant budget. have a good sized budget, bigger than most because I think when people think about Myrtle Beach, they don’t understand that when it comes to room nights and how many hotels we have and just the lodging that we have in this community, I mean it rivals Nashville and Orlando and Los
So it is a very, very, very big tourism market. So I almost hesitate to talk about our budget. I think this year that we’re in right now, it’s probably somewhere in the $80 million, the $90 million mark. But again, those aren’t dollars that we get to use to operate. A lot of those dollars are used to market this destination that ends up with $18 to $20 million.
Brandon Burton (04:22.367)
All right.
Matt Pivarnik (04:39.826)
Visitors a year that come to this destination. So we have a really strong chamber Our chamber has great brand equity in Columbia in Washington DC With a really good working relationship here. So So yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s very similar to what I had in Tulsa very similar to what I had in in Topeka, Kansas and that is multiple Community and economic development organizations all agreeing to be on one team
and doing this community and economic development thing together.
Brandon Burton (05:14.198)
Yeah, that is awesome. That definitely helps to set the stage. I think it makes a whole lot of sense. we’ll dive in deeper on that about how the collaborative form, but to be able to really align all those efforts together under one purpose and one direction. So we’ll dive in much deeper on that as soon as we get back from this quick break.
Brandon Burton (05:36.879)
All right, Matt, we’re back from the break, but I wanted to dive in deeper on the collaborative. So you mentioned it very similar to what you had when you were at the Tulsa Chamber and Greater Topeka Partnership. we covered a similar topic when you were on the show before talking about the arrangement there in Topeka. But tell us there specific to Myrtle Beach, how did the collaborative come to be? I can only imagine it getting everybody
involved and on the same bus, as they say, getting them the right people in the right seats on the bus. How did all that come together?
Matt Pivarnik (06:17.822)
You know, I actually did not realize this when I was going through the process, you know, that courtship, that two-way courtship of maybe coming to a community. And I didn’t realize this, but what I found is, and I found this overall, is that there are a lot of people across the United States that are just fascinated with the model of the Greater Topeka Partnership. So I knew that that model would be a great model in Myrtle Beach. What I didn’t know is that the leadership, the elected leaders, the private sector leaders,
of this community, they were also eyeballing that model. so what I found is I found a community that was hungry, hungry to create more collaboration and create more collaboration between the economic and community development organizations. So I thought that we would be creating something like the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative in 2027 or 2028. And lo and behold, we ended up creating it in April of 2026.
It came together nicely. I pinched myself a little bit because I got to arrive in this community at the exact same time that this community was making a decision that we’re all going to work better together and that a rising tide raises all ships. I mean, we represent a lot of municipalities. It’s a big, big, big MSA. And so the lo and behold, we now have the greater Myrtle beach collaborative and we’ve built this organization that has shared service.
Brandon Burton (07:38.35)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (07:47.596)
so that we can share our resources no matter what vertical we’re working on in the community.
Brandon Burton (07:54.681)
Yeah. So who drives that conversation? Because each of these organizations, many of them have their own boards. They all have their own staff. They all have their own areas of work that they’re involved with. So to get that collaboration and to really drive the conversation forward to be able to have something tangible come out of it, who drives that conversation?
Matt Pivarnik (08:01.844)
Yes. Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (08:13.962)
Yeah.
Yeah, it’s interesting. I actually, I personally, I’m the CEO of the collaborative and then we have presidents of different organizations. I actually worked for the collaborative board. And so the collaborative board is, is, is really kind of that parent company, sort of the young brands, know, of, economic and community development. So, so that’s, so that’s who I work for. Recently, I was in a board meeting and it was the collaborative board meeting. I always like to say,
I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out. I went to a collaborative board meeting and a visit Myrtle Beach board meeting broke out, And so, that’s, they’re well within their rights because they care about all of these organizations. But really who drives it is there’s a collaborative board that I work for. That board is actually made up of board members from the other entity boards that come together and make up that board. We also have a lot of ex officios on our board. So we’re not afraid to have
elected officials in our room and on all of our boards we have ex officio board members. There’s a visit Myrtle Beach board, there’s a chamber board, there’s a partnership grand strand board, which is our economic development foundation that kind of supports our other organizations. And then we have a host of other organizations. So what we find is, that each person stays in their vertical lane. So the visit Myrtle Beach board definitely drives the tourism narrative, right? And the chamber board is definitely driving that.
legislative success program. And so each board has their part that they’re doing and they’re really driving that leadership. They’re not subservient to that collaborative board in any way, or form. They’re really just collaborating with the collaborative board. so it sounds messy, but it actually is very beautiful. And every once in a while, we will have a board meeting and we’ll have to just say, hey, you know what?
Matt Pivarnik (10:15.4)
That’s a great point. Let’s take that up at the next chamber board meeting because that’s really an initiative that the chamber would drive. And you know what? You are actually welcome to come and be a guest at that board meeting so that you can make your voice heard there. it’s a beautiful set of messiness that works for collaboration.
Brandon Burton (10:37.582)
So I picture the collaborative board meetings being more high level. Here’s the big vision for the area, what we would like to see happen. And then kind of those marching orders go back to the individual boards for each organization within the collaborative, is that correct?
Matt Pivarnik (10:44.008)
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (10:55.08)
Yeah, the collaborative board actually, they manage me, right? They manage me. They look at overall community strategy.
Brandon Burton (10:59.298)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (11:04.406)
They also manage the finance and administration portion of this entity that we call the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative. And so I would say that the collaborative board is at 50,000 feet and they’re looking down at 50,000 feet. When you get into those other boards, they’re in the five to 20,000 foot range and they’re really digging in to the details of what each of those verticals are working on. I will say one thing, before we created this,
Brandon Burton (11:16.579)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (11:25.258)
Thanks.
Brandon Burton (11:29.922)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (11:33.756)
If you came to what was referred to as the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, which actually house all of those different organizations, if you came to that board meeting, what you would find is while we were talking about government affairs, legislative success, what you would find is that our tourism leaders were in a way maybe checking their emails on their phones, right?
But our universities and our bankers and you know other you know the the non-tourism people were really tuned in and they were really dialed in our construction companies and then when you when you started talking about tourism related issues What you would find is when you talk about tourism related issues those other folks would be a little bit more checked out Now what you find is because we’re staying so focused
No one’s checked out. Everybody is really they have their sleeves rolled up and they’re really dialed into it whatever we’re talking about
Brandon Burton (12:27.83)
Yeah, so it’s probably good to talk about the different organizations that make up the collaborative in general. So we know the Chamber of Commerce visit Myrtle Beach talked about the, I’m gonna get the name wrong, but the sports group. Tell us what, and the economic development, Grand Strand.
Matt Pivarnik (12:44.052)
Yeah, right.
Matt Pivarnik (12:49.162)
Okay, I would say that the primary organizations as of now, so we’ve actually built this collaborative to where we could bring other organizations in in the future if they so wish. It’s not something that we’re out there seeking. We’ve got a lot on our plate, but we are definitely built for shared services and built for collaboration. And we’re in talks with multiple organizations right now about potentially joining the collaborative. Right now, the collaborative
Brandon Burton (13:07.884)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (13:19.116)
is the 501C6 organization that’s the holding company. We have Visit Myrtle Beach, we have the Chamber of Commerce, we have Partnership Grand Strand, which is a foundation that’s working on community development, economic development, different things. We do have a great county partner in economic development right now that’s not officially part of the collaborative, but is unofficially one of our closest confidence and allies. We have a sports authority.
We’re in the process of actually creating a true sports commission. So that is definitely part of the collaborative. We run leadership grand strand out of the collaborative. So it’s a multi-community leadership program, grand strand young professionals, which is a workforce initiative. And I’m probably forgetting some, but really it’s, and we’re actually right now as a community driving a community strategy called
elaborate 2031 and that’s you know 14 different communities really driving the strategy and we’re actually partnered with AHA advisors Amy Holloway with AHA advisors working on that project.
Brandon Burton (14:20.078)
Okay.
Brandon Burton (14:30.094)
Okay, very good. So you brought up an interesting point with the individual board meetings for the different organizations and certain board members maybe check out, know, and certain topics aren’t aligned with tourism and they, you know, run a hotel or something. So do you see or do you anticipate a change in the makeup of those individual boards, you know, being more focused on that individual organization?
Matt Pivarnik (14:57.276)
Yeah, we’re working on that. know, over time we’re definitely going to work on that. We want our tourism leaders to be part of the Chamber Board. mean, the Chamber, tourism is a huge industry, obviously, in the Grand Strand and in the Myrtle Beach region. So yeah, over time, it will be one of those things that as we curate our boards going forward, over time, I see that those will shift as we’re learning how to live as a true collaborative. but right now, I mean,
Brandon Burton (15:04.961)
Right.
Matt Pivarnik (15:27.18)
just the bylaws alone, that’s, mean, getting a partnership or a collaborative or an alliance set up, that first year bringing together so many administrative things and making sure that your bylaws are right. But my guess is I bet every quarter we will have tweaks to our bylaws while we’re working at making sure that this collaborative is really setting us up for future success.
Brandon Burton (15:56.749)
That it makes sense. It also sounds tough to constantly be looking at the bylaws and making the changes because.
Matt Pivarnik (15:58.314)
Thank
Matt Pivarnik (16:03.422)
Well, the nominating process, like, it’s like draft day around here, right? We, we start, we start our nominating process on tax day. So back in April, you know, we actually literally started our process. And what I find is all the different boards are saying, I want that person on my board. I want that person. And they almost race to have their nominating committee meetings first. And so even the nominating process is really interesting because everybody’s looking for that community talent to be on their boards.
Brandon Burton (16:07.564)
Right.
Matt Pivarnik (16:33.356)
And I think this time I’ve made sure that the collaborative nominating committee comes first just before the rest of those organizations. It worked out that way from a calendar standpoint. I did not force that to happen, but that’s the way it’s gonna happen.
Brandon Burton (16:40.265)
Hehehehe
Brandon Burton (16:47.34)
Yeah, that’s great. So I’ve seen in other communities where maybe a chamber wants to merge with an economic development organization in their community or tourism agency because they’re all separate, but they’re afraid they’re going to step on toes. So they’re going to push somebody out of a job or overstep another board.
So how do you do it in a cohesive way to be able to say, we’re all working towards a very similar purpose. Let’s align our efforts, share resources, make this more cohesive.
Matt Pivarnik (17:21.438)
Yeah, can actually, it’s actually a good exercise to go through because what you want to do is if everybody has, if their North Star is let’s do what’s best for this community.
And if that becomes everybody’s North Star, then egos go away. Egos have to go away, right? And I think that that is the key is that once everybody realizes let’s do what’s absolutely 100 % best for our community, even if it might not be the best thing for maybe me personally or a certain staff member or a board or a certain organization is just use that North Star. And it really does work out if everybody just sets the…
mindset and there have been some attempts in the United States to merge some organizations and that completely makes sense. Brandon, if you knew, you know, some of the ones I was talking about and that they never actually got across the finish line and I’m not going to say who that was. I never would do that, but it was egos that killed it. Egos.
Brandon Burton (18:18.67)
I’m going to share it.
Yeah, yeah. And I’ve seen the successful merge and for some, know, even just two chambers maybe merging together. Like you’re only going to have one chamber executive, right? So in the end, maybe one of them stays on as staff for a while or maybe moves to different community or something. But
Matt Pivarnik (18:30.601)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (18:40.286)
You know, you know I like to celebrate? I think that so many organizations like the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative or One Spartanburg Inc or the Greater Topeka Partnership, people that have done it in the last five to 10 years, get a lot of credit, right? A lot of credit. I think the credit goes to the Tulsa, Oklahoma’s and the Oklahoma cities and you know, the Greater Houston Partnership. The communities that you have out there.
that actually resisted the urge to break up in the first place, right? Because most of you go back to the 70s and 80s, most of these entities were together under one chamber of commerce organization. And a lot of them just, they stayed the course and they didn’t break up. And I think they deserve so much credit, but it’s all these new entities that are being created that are getting all of the love. I think that they’re the ones that deserve the love.
Brandon Burton (19:12.64)
Right.
Brandon Burton (19:34.006)
Yeah, well I love with the format that you guys have set up to be able to be welcoming to other organizations that that makes sense to be part of the collaborative and move things forward and just keeping that that open mind and moving the Myrtle Beach area forward.
Matt Pivarnik (19:50.378)
Well, I think one of the things, one of the things that’s beautiful here, and we didn’t create this in Myrtle Beach, right? It actually other organizations created this is this notion of having these separate boards. We are, we are staying in our verticals and where we’re doing our, we’re doing our job, but at the same time, we roll up into a collaborative. I think that’s beautiful. And quite frankly, I think that the Allegheny conference in Pittsburgh was a, they were the, a great model that, that I know that when I was in.
in Topeka and in Tulsa that we studied that model.
Brandon Burton (20:24.366)
Yeah. So talk to us a little bit about the shared services, because I think that’s huge with the alignment to be able to bring it all together and be able to have that vision. Yeah. What all do you share?
Matt Pivarnik (20:28.65)
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah. It’s not easy.
It’s not easy. Okay. So I will say the entities here, they share me. I’m a shared service. So today I will be doing some things for, I think today on this, on this day specifically, I think I’m doing something for four of our organizations. So I’m shared. Finance is shared. Our CFO is shared and our whole finance team. Obviously we have a fairly large finance team because we are entrusted with so many, so many public dollars. Our marketing and communications.
Brandon Burton (20:55.266)
Okay.
Matt Pivarnik (21:06.89)
This is one where it gets really sticky in organizations, right? But marketing, communications and PR. So almost taking all of the talent from each of these organizations, putting them together and say, you are now the MarCom PR organization. So like an internal agency. Another one that is awesome, that really is great is revenue generation. So resource development, fundraising, making sure that when members join,
Brandon Burton (21:33.102)
you
Matt Pivarnik (21:36.772)
now members join the Greater Myrtle Beach Collaborative, hey it’s really cool because you’re a member of multiple organizations, not just one organization, but if we need to go out and raise money for sponsorships or for investment in a specific initiative, you can centralize that fundraising or that resource development. So there’s even like data in economics and having an economist, most of these entities would not be able to have a really good
Brandon Burton (21:55.279)
and what happens next. That’s the end of my talk.
Matt Pivarnik (22:06.506)
staff, but a research collaborative that will do this for that purpose is really awesome. And then things like space, like a really nice boardroom. We’re in the process of building an incredible boardroom that is bigger than the boardroom that we have right now. And guess what? Multiple boardrooms. Use that boardroom to take it to other places.
Brandon Burton (22:15.726)
Yeah
Brandon Burton (22:28.662)
Yeah, that’s a great synopsis of lot of those shared services. I can imagine, like you said, the marketing PR can get a little sticky. know content creators, have their content calendar, right?
Matt Pivarnik (22:40.819)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (22:47.606)
I imagine they have to kind of still have a little bit of a silo of, this is tourism, this is whatever. So they can’t look at the calendar as a whole and say, well, we already have three things going out. They can look more specific at what’s the purpose.
Matt Pivarnik (22:47.892)
The heath?
Matt Pivarnik (22:52.436)
They do.
Matt Pivarnik (23:00.318)
Yeah. But what’s really cool.
is especially between economic development, chamber of commerce and tourism organizations. A lot of the collateral and usually tourism organizations are the ones that are well funded and they can do some really cool marketing, right? And where’s chambers, they’re not as well funded. And so they’re having to bootstrap their marketing budgets. What’s really cool is a lot of what a visitor’s bureau can create is really good marketing for a chamber of commerce, a leadership.
Brandon Burton (23:18.434)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (23:33.372)
and economic development organization. So actually sharing that collateral, sharing that public relations muscle and that power, it’s pretty cool. And it also gets communities aligned where they don’t have a brand demolition. it literally is consistency and brand.
Brandon Burton (23:51.437)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (23:55.594)
And so I think it works. just takes a little while to make sure that each entity is getting the love that they deserve from that shared MarCom PR group.
Brandon Burton (24:06.55)
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great point between tourism and also I’ve seen in communities where economic development can do some really cool marketing stuff where chambers have to bootstrap and get a little more creative with how they get the messaging out. But when you have it all there together, they can all be supportive of each other. I like that. So I think it’s safe to assume that you’re a fan of this type of a model coming from Tulsa to Peek, I mean, where it fits, where it makes sense, right?
Matt Pivarnik (24:17.662)
Yeah. Right.
Matt Pivarnik (24:33.17)
Yeah, I didn’t know how much of a fan I was until I left Tulsa and went to Topeka and didn’t have it and I realized what I missed. So yes, I’m a fan of it. I’m a fan of things that make sense, common sense, right? And so it just makes sense. So I’m a big fan of being smart and doing things in a smart way. So that makes me a fan of this model.
Brandon Burton (24:46.914)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (24:54.102)
Like that. So for anyone listening who’s like, man, this sounds great. I want to try to do something like this in our community. What kind of pitfalls do you need to watch out for? What do you just need to be aware of before you embark on something like this?
Matt Pivarnik (25:11.558)
that it’s messy at first and that it takes a while. Then even once the organization is actually created, it’s even a little messy for a little while. When you start bringing organizations that are separate organizations, benefits are different, providers are different, CRMs are different. So that’s one thing is it’s just a little messy. Even just going through the bylaws process is a little bit messy. It’s kind of like, to me, it’s like building an F1 car. The engineers and
and all those people are there in the garage. That race is actually one in the garage. It’s not one on the track. And so you’re building this F1 car. Once you have that F1 car built, then you’re gonna be able to win races, right? And then the other thing is the pitfall is just that ego thing. Egos from boards, egos from staff and things like that. I had a dear, dear friend in a community in the northern part of the United States that created a multi-organization alliance. And my dear friend,
Brandon Burton (25:48.236)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (26:10.754)
She thought that she would end up being the CEO of that multi organization community development alliance. And she didn’t end up getting that role. They ended up doing a national search and they brought somebody else in. Two years later, she said that was the best thing that this community could have done for this community. so there are some pitfalls. There are some things to look out for. Make sure staff’s not leading it.
Brandon Burton (26:29.582)
Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s huge. So you brought up an interesting point with like benefits and CRMs being different is the goal to.
Matt Pivarnik (26:35.658)
Make sure it’s the community leaders have to want it. If it’s the staff wanting this, that’s going to be a tough one to work. The community has to really want it.
Matt Pivarnik (26:51.55)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (26:54.056)
eventually align them all to be the same or do you continue operating differently for some period of time for a transition period? Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (27:00.126)
You have to, yeah, you have to continue. there are, there are some CRM companies that are really good. And right now it’d be a weird time to be doing too much, too much work on CRM because AI is probably going to change the way that CRM is going to work in the future. But yeah, the different platforms, the different audiences, things like that. You just, it’s, it’s kind of like, it’s really like getting married and just kind of figuring out like, I like this toothpaste. You like that toothpaste. Eventually where you.
Brandon Burton (27:25.111)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (27:30.06)
gonna have to have separate toothpaste which is okay or maybe we can come together and use the same toothpaste. think CRMs are kind of like that.
Brandon Burton (27:38.347)
Yeah, that makes sense. But it’s all the details that once you get into it, you realize, we’ve got to figure this out. Anything else about having an alliance or collaborative that you think is worth mentioning for those listening, just to be aware of or think about going forward?
Matt Pivarnik (27:47.902)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (27:53.864)
No.
Matt Pivarnik (27:59.368)
I could talk about it all day. I think you would be hard pressed to find anybody that’s either those people that deserve all the credit that stayed together or organizations that have built like one Spartanburg Inc. I think if you called their elected officials, their community leaders, and their staff leaders, they would all say, yeah, this is definitely the way to do business for the betterment of your region and your community and your economy.
Brandon Burton (28:26.69)
Yeah, well, I’ve got a couple of questions. I like asking every guest that I have on the show. So first one is for those listening who are trying to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you share with them as they strive towards that goal?
Matt Pivarnik (28:29.8)
Yeah. Cool.
Matt Pivarnik (28:43.274)
If you’re trying to take your organization or your community to the next goal, there’s a couple things one is Make sure that your core values of your organization are so crystal clear and that you remind yourself on a daily Basis what your core values are
Hire to those core values and be ready to fire to those core values and constantly remind your community the core values you live by. There are a lot of opportunities for you to be able to say no because things don’t align with your core values.
I’d say in our business, one of your core values better be an absolute passion and love for your community. Otherwise, that’s a big miss. And then the other thing too is I would say on a more micro level, personal level, make sure that have your personal core values aligned with your organization’s core values and be working on your staff, your employees, and yourself to try to make sure that you’re the best leader possible for your community.
Brandon Burton (29:25.623)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (29:48.663)
I think that’s a great tip. As we look to the future of Chambers of Commerce, and I you’re an ACC board, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?
Matt Pivarnik (30:01.674)
Actually, I’m past ACC board member. think I’ve been on every board in the industry. And so sometimes they ask me to come back and I’m like, yeah, it’s like you’re retraining a tire. I would say the future, and I’m going to be very specific to chambers, but you know, if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. So when I say chamber, I’m talking chambers, economic development, destination development, community development organizations.
Brandon Burton (30:03.486)
That’s right.
Brandon Burton (30:11.042)
That’s right.
Brandon Burton (30:16.14)
Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (30:25.416)
The future is ACC, and I really like Sherry Ann puts out the Edelman Trust Barometer. Right now, we’re an entity that is still trusted in America. And take that level of trust and take that passion that you have for the community and know this, Chambers cannot take a day off, a week off, or a month off.
What we’re working on is literally setting the prosperity projection for your community for decades and decades and decades. And so if you’re not good, you’re actually, you’re causing harm to the very people that live in your community. If you’re good and if you’re passionate and you take your job very seriously knowing that everybody’s relying on you.
you’re actually creating prosperity for the children in your community, their prosperity in the future, and their children and their children. It is that important. And I think that chambers need to just remember, this is not a career, this is not a job.
This is a mission and it’s as important as public health and public safety because we’re creating that prosperity that drives the success and social determinants of health in community.
Brandon Burton (31:44.716)
Man, I want to record that like we are and share that with every new Chamber Exec who gets hired, right? That’s awesome. Well, Matt, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you, learn more about how you’ve done this, or just dig in a little bit deeper maybe on anything you’ve mentioned today.
Matt Pivarnik (31:48.746)
Sure. Yeah.
Matt Pivarnik (32:04.766)
Yeah, the best way right now, my guess is it’ll change, but they’ll keep this one hot for a while, is matt.pivarnik@visitmyrtlebeach.com. I know that doesn’t represent the entire collaborative, but I want every time someone sees my email address, I want them to think about visiting Myrtle Beach. the other thing is, that I know that probably everybody that’s watching this will probably consider or is considering right now making a trip here. Make sure if you do, just look me up and let’s have
cup of coffee or lunch or something like that. Maybe even play golf. This is the golf capital of the world. 80 golf courses. yeah, find me. The best way right now is email and find me and I’m happy to be connected with you. Learn from you and then if you have something to learn from me then we both benefited there.
Brandon Burton (32:40.226)
Right?
Brandon Burton (32:53.783)
Yeah, Myrtle Beach is a beautiful area and I’ll add to that just to get people there and visit and check it out and look Matt up. But Matt, this has been awesome to have you back on the podcast. Thank you for setting aside some time and sharing your experience with us. It’s so valuable to hear what’s been successful, what’s working for you guys there in Myrtle Beach and thanks for being a part of the show.
Matt Pivarnik (33:03.475)
It’s paradise.
Matt Pivarnik (33:17.47)
Yeah, thanks for remembering me, Brandon. I appreciate it.
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