By Kathy Young, Director of Operations.
This week, more than 700 community leaders will gather in
Oklahoma City for the annual American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) conference. From Decatur, Alabama
to Rochester, Minnesota, chamber professionals from throughout the country will
invest four days of their time attending workshops, master classes, and a
myriad of other learning opportunities. And yes, there will be opportunities to
see old friends, network, and enjoy all that OKC has to offer. I’m particularly
interested in getting tips on how one comfortably wears jeans and cowboy boots
when it’s in the upper 90s, since we’re encouraged to don our best Annie
Oakley/Roy Rogers attire for the closing party at the National Cowboy and Western
Heritage Museum.
Market Street will be there too – as ACCE’s national
economic development sponsor, presenters, moderators, exhibitors, and conference
participants. This year Market Street workshop topics will range from metrics
to membership to leadership transition planning. We fully expect that Mac
Holladay will have a full house for the metrics workshop, given the interest in
a recent webinar on the same topic. This week Mac will be joined by Duane
O’Neill (President of the Greater
Jackson Partnership) and Jay Byers (CEO of the Greater Des Moines Partnership) and
the workshop explores what it means to measure community success and progress –
and how the most successful organizations go well beyond counting jobs to gauge
return on investment. I should note that we’re feeling a bit like late night
talk show hosts the day after the Oscars on this one, having booked Jay Byers –
whose organization will receive the Alliance for Regional Stewardship
Organizational Champion Award on the eve of this workshop!
And speaking of award-winners, last year’s reigning Chamber
of the Year, the Springfield Area
Chamber of Commerce – will join us for two workshops. First, Market
Street’s Senior Fellow, Jim Vaughan, will explore how membership and economic development teams
work together with the help of Ryan Mooney
and Brent McCoy (Senior VP, Economic
Development and VP, Membership, respectively). Ryan will then partner with Anna
Buckalew, Chief of Staff for the Montgomery
Area Chamber of Commerce for “Talent 2.0: Transition Planning.” Christa
Tinsley Spaht and I will be presenting and moderating this discussion, which
promises to be lively, given the previous two sessions that inspired the
session (“Baby Boomer Economy” in 2011 and “Talent Wars” in 2012).
Whether you will be in attendance or entrusted to keep your
Chamber going back at home – or you occupy the world of community and economic
development that exists in partnership with chambers of commerce – there will
be an abundance of resources available via acce.org
both during the conference and in the weeks to come.
Check back for highlights!
