The Greater Gainesville Chamber is a five-star accredited membership organization, with 1,300 member businesses that employ more than 80,000 people across our region. Though many view Chambers of Commerce as primarily networking organizations — a role the Greater Gainesville Chamber does enthusiastically embrace with high-quality events and conferences, whether virtual, in-person or hybrid — our local Chamber does much more.
The Chamber’s lines of business — Economic Development, Talent and Education, Public Policy and Membership — allow it to educate and advocate for every member of our community. As a community dedicated to identifying and solving problems — with world-class institutes of higher education, national and home-grown nonprofit organizations and an entrepreneurial and research culture—we work together in big and small ways to make our world a better place. Last year’s challenges certainly provided an opportunity to solve problems and highlighted the importance of community and partnerships. The Chamber’s strong partnerships with the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, our municipalities and our counties, our businesses and our nonprofits were invaluable as our region worked to not only survive, but thrive.
“We at the Chamber were fortunate in that we started this challenging period in the mindset of collaboration, and that foundation really paid off for us,” said Eric Godet, Chamber president/CEO. “Though we could never have predicted how the world would change last March, we had already laid the foundation for the work that would keep us going in 2020.”
Quality of life is rooted in economic opportunity and mobility. The goals within the Chamber’s Collaborate 2025 five-year strategic plan are designed to work together to strengthen the Greater Gainesville community. Equalizing opportunity is the unifying theme, as reflected by the plan’s three goals:
OPPORTUNITY: Promote economic growth and diversification to create quality jobs for residents of all skill levels.
TALENT: Develop, retain and attract educated and skilled individuals to build and sustain a world-class workforce.
PLACE: Create a more vibrant, attractive and livable community for all current and future residents.
Presciently launched in January 2020, the Chamber’s five-year strategic plan, Collaborate 2025, documents the organization’s focus on strengthening Greater Gainesville by fostering diverse, well-paying and upwardly mobile opportunities for every member of our community at all levels of education. Innovative programming and partnerships will drive this work. Economic Development has formed Action Teams, one for each of the three plan pillars: Opportunity, Talent and Place.
These teams, comprised of a diverse group of business and community leaders, have one goal — to turn plans into actions. For example, for Place, the plan is to build a thriving live-work-play core. The Place Action Team is currently working to identify what makes Greater Gainesville great. What are the unique features of our community that we can communicate as we work to attract targeted industries and talent here? Community issues like affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure, arts and culture all play a key role in establishing that thriving live-work-play identity. Ensuring that all voices are heard is another key to a diverse, thriving community, and Public Policy works to keep all members of our region informed by providing access and insight to the policies and policy makers shaping our community.
The Election Center and Session Central, easily accessible on the Chamber’s website, house candidate interviews, legislative agendas and legislative session e-newsletters. Action alerts also provide an efficient way to communicate with legislators on issues of important to us all. Talent and Education is laser focused on ensuring that all students in our region have access to the education foundation they need to be successful, as well as assisting workers who have been traditionally left behind to participate in a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Ongoing initiatives include Career Discoveries and the Career Technical Education Feasibility Study, along with partnering on the Florida Chamber’s Prosperity Initiative. Of course, there can be no collaboration without participation.
The challenges faced by us all in 2020 highlighted as never before the need to work together, and bringing people together is what the Chamber does best. Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, Chamber members continued the business of business. The Membership team successfully transitioned valuable education and networking events like Business Before Hours, Lunch & Learns and Distinguished Speaker Lunch Hours online, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
A PIVOT video series for member businesses to discuss strategies and a weekly e-newsletter, available to members and the community at large, allow people to stay in touch and efficiently access much-needed information and resources. The flexibility of virtual and hybrid events allowed more members — and future members — to participate, a happy outgrowth from a very challenging time. By bringing together not only small and large businesses, but also educators, entrepreneurs, social-service providers and policy makers, all with one vision, the Chamber is devoted to creating a stronger region and a better life, together. To learn more about the Greater Gainesville Chamber, visit gainesvillechamber.com.