Whats up 2021! Right here we’re simply over a month into the brand new 12 months and the Higher Sarasota Chamber is poised and able to work for our member companies and the neighborhood. It is a very particular time for our chamber as we begin the celebration of our a hundredth 12 months. We’re so proud to have served the neighborhood and supported the expansion of companies in our area for the final century.
Once we look again during the last 100 years, our chamber has been on the epicenter of neighborhood involvement, lending to the event and strengthening of native companies. If we return to the Nineteen Twenties, the chamber was instrumental in main the cost for the formation of a brand new county to be known as Sarasota. Within the Nineteen Thirties and Nineteen Forties, the chamber labored to advertise tourism to our space, supported the constructing of roads/bridges and labored with leaders to carry the primary industrial air service to Sarasota. By the Fifties and Nineteen Sixties, the Chamber’s Sports activities Committee enticed the Chicago White Sox to Payne Park and supported the concept for town to develop a marina on the foot of Predominant Road.
All through the Seventies and Eighties, our focus was on the expedited development of Interstate 75; the chamber’s Committee of 100 was created to draw new companies to our area; and we launched the Management Sarasota program. Once we have a look at the Nineteen Nineties to 2000s, the chamber created applications like our Younger Professionals Group and labored with regional leaders to carry the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves to Sarasota County.
Quick ahead to 2020 during which the chamber supported the Selby Gardens grasp plan, a neighborhood jewel and asset to our metropolis. The chamber will proceed to work to deal with workforce and expertise points by our workforce initiative of CareerEdge. Within the coming 12 months, we can even roll out a brand new program funded by the Barancik Basis that may assist small and minority-owned companies with sources and internships. There’ll proceed to be initiatives like ones talked about above, as we embark on the long run.
Your chamber will likely be on the forefront of collaborating with neighborhood leaders and stakeholders to proceed to make Sarasota an amazing place to stay and work. The fruits of this labor will proceed to be the creation of jobs and sources to our neighborhood. Considered one of our foundational strengths is being a convener – of data, of sources and of alternatives.
All through our historical past, the chamber has at all times been devoted to figuring out and addressing the wants of our neighborhood. As these wants proceed to evolve, the important thing areas that guided our work 100 years in the past will proceed to information our work, and they’re: workforce growth, training, water high quality, transportation and financial growth.
To kick off our centennial 12 months, we launched our contemporary and trendy new model. All through the remainder of 2021, we will likely be rolling out thrilling alternatives for our members and our neighborhood in celebration of our centennial anniversary. Most lately, we unveiled two 30-foot murals on the perimeters of our constructing that spotlight key enterprise leaders and industries all through Sarasota’s historical past. The mural honors and illustrates the long-standing relationship between enterprise and the humanities in Sarasota and was made doable because of our companions on the Arts & Tradition Alliance and Ringling Faculty of Artwork and Design.
Along with a spread of interactive actions, programming and occasions that will likely be held all year long, we’re additionally publishing a commemorative centennial e book, that includes tales from our members’ and the chamber’s historical past.
Seeking to the following 100 years, our mission continues to be to domesticate Sarasota’s prosperity and high quality of life by our member companies, by creating daring alternatives and options for our neighborhood. Over the course of 100 years, we’ve been on the slicing fringe of innovation – a continuing adjusting of the sails to greatest serve our members and the neighborhood at giant. It has been our honor to serve this neighborhood for the previous 100 years, and we look ahead to working exhausting for one more 100 years. For extra data on our Centennial occasions or how one can be a part of Chamber, please go to SarasotaChamber.com.
Heather Kasten is the President/CEO of the Higher Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and has been with the group since March of 2019. She has a bachelor’s diploma from the College of Iowa in enterprise administration and a MBA from Webster College. Contact her at hkasten@sarasotachamber.com.
