Walking away from last month’s board meeting in Portland, one chamber CEO shared with me, “We have a lot of great stuff on our horizon.”
Among the projects coming up for the Association in 2020 are:
3Cs Landing Page
To help more of our members embrace our brand research, be a 3C (Catalyst, Convener and Champion) Chamber and utilize the ad wizard. Plans are underway to pull all of our related information together on the W.A.C.E. website on one easy-to-find landing page.
BRE Boot Camp
With more chambers of commerce looking to get involved in economic and job development, engaging in business retention and expansion (BRE) is becoming more common around the West. To help stimulate chamber involvement in BRE, our third boot camp will be offered on Thursday, May 14 in Tacoma, WA.
Political Action Boot Camp
Our Chamber Performance Survey results continue to reveal that 71% of businesspeople believe it is very important for their chamber of commerce to help elect business-friendly candidates to office. Armed with that data, the Association will once again be sponsoring a Political Action Boot Camp in Phoenix, AZ on Friday, June 12.
Academy-Plus
Yes, there IS life after Academy. To promote continued connections, additional professional development training and mentoring opportunities, an Academy-Plus program is being developed to attract program alumni to Sacramento at the same time as the regular Academy program is being offered this August.
Webinar Series
A four-part webinar series is being planned for September‒December. Plans are to have topics announced to Association members in June.
Workforce Development
If chambers are going to be problem solvers, engaging in workforce development issues is a must. While we’ve periodically done conference breakout sessions or webinars on the topic, a day-long workshop is being planned for Wednesday, October 14 at the Greater Irvine (CA) Chamber.
In addition to those items listed above, Academy will be held in Sacramento on August 2–5.
Plans are underway for the 2021 Conference with the first conference committee meeting taking place on March 27.
There’s no resting on our laurels at W.A.C.E. As you can see, we have many exciting projects on the horizon, and we continue to be focused on doing whatever it takes to help our members succeed.
Dave Kilby is president and CEO of W.A.C.E. and executive vice president of corporate affairs at the California Chamber.