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Catalysts of Progress
Chamber of the Year Winners Shape a Brighter Future
Finalists that qualify for the Chamber of the Year Award, presented by Personify, submit detailed applications focused on chamber operations. They also highlight transformative programs that demonstrate the impactful work being led by chambers of commerce. Here’s a look at some of the programs featured by this year’s winners.
Category One: Pearland Chamber of Commerce
During the workday, Pearland, Texas, experiences a net loss of 15,000 people. The city, located on the southern end of the Houston metropolitan area, needed a way to stem the flow of employees out of the community. Through the Pearland Chamber’s workforce strategy, a collaborative effort between multiple partners to solve this challenge, the idea of a new comprehensive job board and employer resource center was born.
WorkinPearland.com is a virtual, immersive and interactive website. It even boasts live event days where job seekers can interact with hiring companies. This metaverse-style workforce development site has featured over 200 job listings and 1,800 booth interactions since March. “We have a strategic plan that does not live on a shelf that we truly use,” said Jim Johnson, CCE, IOM, president & CEO of the Pearland Chamber. “Programs that are impactful and moving the needle related to workforce have allowed us to truly be a voice for our businesses.”
The platform is free for employers and job seekers. It mirrors a virtual tradeshow and provides for real-time engagement between potential employees and companies. Resources included everything from resume tips to child care options. The chamber’s marketing efforts, including data-focused information on cutting commutes, have pulled in nearly 600 job seekers since its launch. “We are really resonating with the fact that what we do impacts our community,” said Johnson. “If our community is lifted up, our businesses are lifted up and therefore, our organization. But we want to start with community, and not us.”
Category Two: North Central Massachusetts Chamber
Latinos are the largest minority group in Massachusetts and start businesses at three times the rate of the general population. But they weren’t tapping into the business support systems that existed in the area. “We saw in the pandemic that Latino and minority businesses weren’t taking advantage of resources like PPP loans and grants and really weren’t connected,” said Roy Nascimento, CCE, IOM, president & CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce. “They weren’t part of established networks like the chamber, and we needed to change that.”
This observation led to an extension of the chamber’s micro-loan program, which started in the 1990s but took off over the last five years. The Latinx Business Support Initiative provides financial resources, programs and business networks, using data to inform its efforts. Once seed funding was secured, the chamber hired a bilingual business outreach staff member and developed both communications and outreach plans.
Through the initiative, the chamber awarded 44 micro-loans totaling over $950,000, plus an additional $25,000 in micro-grants. Latino businesses received over 300 hours of technical assistance, making up 28% of the total assistance provided. These efforts resulted in the creation or retention of 57 jobs. Plus, the chamber helped another three Latino businesses secure over $150,000 in state grants.
The chamber’s partnership with the Spanish American Center led to another combination of efforts with a local community college. That collaboration earned the chamber a spot in ACCE’s Equitable Credentials Cohort, which helped promote micro-credentialing opportunities to the Latino business community. “We believe we have to be mission-focused,” said Nascimento. “Chambers are just a big network of businesses and leaders that come together to work collaboratively to advance the community.”
Category Three: Gwinnett Chamber
Since the launch of ACCE’s Horizon Initiative, one of the nine influences – political and social fragmentation – continues to intensify at local, state and federal levels. In 2020, the Gwinnett Chamber re-launched its public policy program to become a strong and unified voice for business in the public sector. Since then, the chamber created two 501(c)(4) organizations – Inform Gwinnett and the Gwinnett Fund.
Both entities took action as a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) hit the ballot. Inform Gwinnett is focused on educating chamber members on pro-business policy issues. The Gwinnett Fund better supports pro-business needs in the public sector. Both raised money to support the renewal of a SPLOST in 2022, which passed with 64% of the vote and won all voting precincts in Gwinnett County.
“I have always said we do great work, but it takes someone to be able to tell the story,” said Nick Masino, the chamber’s president & CEO. When it comes to public policy, that story was crafted through the work of Paul Oh, the chamber’s director of public policy and community affairs, and Lisa Sherman, senior vice president of marketing and communications. “I started to dig in with Paul a bit more to understand what had transpired over the last year, plus to help us really become a unified voice for business,” Sherman said.
Inform Gwinnett and the Gwinnett Fund are poised for future use and growth. The county commission is weighing a potential revisit to a county-wide transportation referendum in 2024. “Under Nick’s leadership, public policy started to begin seeing some more attention and opportunity for growth,” Sherman said. “We’re learning as we’re growing to help unify our voice.”
Category Four: Orlando Economic Partnership
Economic developers no longer need a driving tour of Orlando to scope out locations for a new project. A first-of-its-scale regional digital twin sits in the digital marketing center at the Orlando Economic Partnership’s headquarters. This innovative technology showcases the region’s ecosystem, provides an immersive way to engage developers in the city’s story and highlights features that make Orlando a business destination.
“We adopted strategic foresight as a competency and as a process,” said Tim Giuliani, CCE, president & CEO of the partnership. “Out of that process was born our digital twin of Orlando. We’re already using it today for marketing purposes and to help generate investments in the region.” The digital twin covers 800 square miles and highlights five geographic areas - a virtual 3-D copy of the region with different data sets, like talent and infrastructure, layered throughout.
By creating a visual experience strategy, the partnership wanted to change perceptions of Orlando, increase its prospects and engage its stakeholders in economic development by incorporating their data into the twin. The 100 in-person demonstrations helped contribute to business attraction that resulted in over 1,600 new jobs since the digital twin was unveiled in 2022.
Phase two of the digital twin will include an online version and an added layer of operational and sensory data. Additional phases will follow, eventually ending at phase five, in which the twin will be autonomous, learning and acting on behalf of users. “We’ve been able to position ourselves as a very focused and results-oriented organization,” Giuliani said. “We’re still able to do the convening and connecting. We’re just doing it around the issues that are most important in our region.”
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