Kerry Baker, executive director of the greater Key West Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
We’re gearing up for Fantasy Fest and the boat races.
Baker said, “Our businesses, especially in the downtown area, look forward to Fantasy Fest. Right after Fantasy Fest, you have the boat races. We are back to a normal tourism trend for the business community, on spending and that sort of pattern. So they definitely rely on Fantasy Fest and the boat races to carry them and get them through to when season officially kicks off around the New Year’s timeframe.”
How is the economy and tourism doing in the Keys?
Baker said, “The visitors are here. So the bed tax shows that the visitors are coming, the reports that we’re getting back from our business members in the downtown area is that it has been a slow year. So I think it depends on who you ask. Some businesses have been very fortunate, and they’ve had record breaking years, but from an overall standpoint and feedback that we’re getting from our merchants within the downtown area, most of them are a little slower than they historically would be during this time of the year, which is always concerning. As I said, the bed tax collection shows the visitors are here, but they’re not necessarily making their way down to the downtown area and patronizing our retail entities and our restaurants and bars, so they are seeing a little bit of a pinch.”
The trade show is coming up and it’s a great opportunity for networking among the business community and also the public.
Baker said, “We are very excited to be hosting our annual showcase of Key West businesses on Thursday, September 25. It’ll be held at the Beachside Resorts and Residence this year. Our presenting sponsor is Pasion Project, a great local dance studio. So we highly recommend everyone coming out. We also have some new sponsors this year. We have a lot of new businesses that are in the show this year. So it’s open from 3 to 5 to the public and then 5:30 to 7:30, the show continues, and it continues as a business after hours trade show, which is sponsored by Beachside. We’re grateful for that contribution that they give to our annual event and their sponsorship each year, and that’s an excellent opportunity for our members to network and meet other business professionals and other members.”
Being a member of the Chamber is a real benefit for new businesses.
Baker said, “We actively recruit and go out and meet new businesses and when businesses have changed hands, sometimes it’s not the fact that it’s a new business, but it’s sold and there’s new ownership. So we do actively engage with the business community and try to welcome all businesses into the community. We really always have a big push of shopping local and doing as much business transactions that you can locally. So the chamber does afford that opportunity for us to network, meet other members. I probably, two or three times a week, get an email or a phone call from an existing member that’s looking to see if we have a member that offers another service. So we’re certainly always looking for that member to member business connection and networking.”
The Chamber also supports education and has major connections with the school district.
Baker said, “We are very pleased to have a really strong education component with our Chamber. One of the things to consider and remember, is that not every student that comes out of our local high school system is going to go off to a four year degree or a two year college program. Some of them go right out into the workforce. So it is extremely important for us to stay on top of what the needs are with the local school system. It is truly our honor to be able to recognize our local teachers each school year. We are very pleased this year we’re actually bumping it up from 22 teachers to 25 teachers that will be recognizing through our teacher recognition program. We made that little bump because we know we do have charter schools now, and so we just wanted to make sure that we wanted to be able to recognize a teacher from each one of our entities throughout the school year. Then we also are making some modifications. There are some programs that we’ve had in place for quite some time that we are kind of making some adjustments to and making them work for, kind of where our times are now. So we do have a new program that will be coming out soon. It’s going to be a little twist to our education enrichment. We’ll have funding available for teachers within the STREAM community for education, and we should be finalizing that in the next couple of weeks, and we’ll be sending out information. Then I’m also pleased to say that we will be recognizing, through a sponsor, a teacher classroom, 25 of our local classrooms this school year. The one thing that we changed on that is we will be recognizing and contributing to first year teachers. So we think that’s extremely important, that teachers that are coming out of college and going right into the classroom and taking on their first teaching role, we’re going to be able to recognize those teachers this year with a sponsor a classroom of $250. So I do have that list of all of our new teachers, and I will be coordinating that with the schools over the next couple of weeks to start delivering their checks. We could not do that without the support of our education committee. The Chamber, I do have a staff here. They work very hard, but we have a lot of volunteers. Our board is a volunteer board. Our committees are all volunteers. So it’s all people within the business community and members of the Chamber that care about our community. I certainly want to say thank you to everyone that volunteers their time to help us with accomplishing our goals each year.”
The Chamber also recognizes businesses in the community.
Baker said, “Every December we have a community awards luncheon. You do not have to be a member of the chamber to nominate someone, and you do not have to be a member of the Chamber in order to win one of our awards. So that’s one thing I always like to clarify. But we do our annual Key West Stars awards. That’s for anybody in the community. It could be someone that goes above and beyond in one of our little league fields, someone that goes above and beyond with assisting one of our nonprofits, just that individual that truly cares about Key West and goes above and beyond. We call that our annual Key West Stars award. I think we gave one to you last year, if memory serves.”
Michael Stapleford of Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM admitted, “I wasn’t going to boast, but honestly that was one of my proudest moments when I was surprised to be named a Key West Star, and really humbling and honored.”
Baker said, “Then another award that I’m very happy to give out every year is the Danny Toppino Business for Beauty award. Anybody that knew and had the pleasure of interacting with Danny knew how much the beautification of this island meant. We have continued that award in his honor and memory. That’s for a business that’s done substantial, renovations and enhancements to their buildings. We call that our Business for Beauty award. We have a venture award for anyone that’s opening up a new, bold investment in the community with a new business. We do a historic preservation award. There’s a lot of awards that we give out. The Piece of the Rock award is an award given to people that go above and beyond for the Chamber and the community. There are a lot of fantastic people in our community that do a lot of great things, and that’s just really our way of giving some recognition. A lot of people are like you, Michael, that stay under the radar and don’t really want any public praise, but I think it’s important to be able to say thank you and to recognize all the people that shine and make our community really what it is. We have a fantastic community. It is a wonderful place to live. I grew up here. I don’t think I could ever envision myself living somewhere else. I just think that most people can attest to that. I think everyone has a story, whether they were born and raised here, or they happened upon Key West on vacation, or landed up here through the military. Everyone has a connection on why they call Key West home, but I would like to think that we could all agree it really, truly is a fantastic place to live.”
The general membership meeting will be held on September 24.
Baker said, “Reservations to make your lunch this month, are on Friday, September the 19th. So if you want to attend that, we’re looking forward to having an update on what’s going on in their operations at the Naval Air Station. They definitely play a huge role, as well as the Coast Guard. You have the Special Forces Underwater dive school. There are a lot of military personnel here in the community, and we certainly like to always say thank you to them, especially unless you’ve lived that life or familiar with it, it is a huge hardship, not only for themselves, but as well as their families. A lot of them are deployed. So we definitely want to say thank you, but our military members are a huge part of our community. Their spouses provide a workforce for us. They also volunteer. A lot of them coach our little leagues. Their kids go to school with our kids. So we definitely always want to make sure that they feel welcome and know that they’re part of the Key West community.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestchamber.org/