Suzi Youngberg, president of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about upcoming events.
The first luncheon of 2026 was last week.
Youngberg said, “I couldn’t have been more pleased. We had a new venue. Actually, it was the Snook’s Bayside restaurant in Grand Beach Park, which is just a beautiful location right there on the Florida Bay. Thankfully, this weather was a little cooler. I remember saying a week or so ago, when we were having that bad cold snap, that I hope it warmed up a little bit, not too much, because we were going to be outside for our luncheon, and it was perfect. It was a true Chamber of Commerce day. The weather was perfect, the view was perfect. The food was really good. And our speaker, Steve Cooper from Centennial Bank, he’s a financial advisor, gave a really good presentation with some great tips for people on just financial wellness, managing their finances. And Centennial Bank also sponsored the luncheon. So everything turned out really good. We had about 80 people, which I thought for a February luncheon about finances was pretty good. We try to pass the mic, where everyone gets to say hello and introduce themselves. The Key Largo Chamber is growing, and we have gotten where, as a rule, we have 80 to 100 attendees at our luncheons. So it gets to be a little harder to pass the mic around, to give everyone a chance, in addition to having a good speaker, because we like to give plenty of time to our presenters, but we do our best to give everyone an opportunity. And of course, there’s always sponsorship opportunities that give everyone that little bit extra exposure, minutes on the mic.”
Members in Motion is coming up next week.
Youngberg said, “We do try to do two events a month, one is a lunch and one is an after hours, our Members in Motion, where different members around town host us each month. So February is going to be a little special. We will be hosted by Reef Environmental Education Foundation at their new building, their ocean exploration Center, which is a beautiful Visitor Center. It’s a great addition to the Upper Keys. If anyone hasn’t been there, it’s free. It’s a great place to take the children, but they are going to be hosting us, food provided by the Italian Food Company. So it’s going to be great food. The really exciting part is we will have the Florida Keys Art Council. Florida Keys Council of the Arts will be there with the Connections Project, the mosaic of the Florida Keys. It tours around all throughout the Keys. They got a grant so that in addition to bringing the art into the chamber events and things like that, they bring live music. So in addition to the Connections Project, we will have the Mangrove Swamp Band who will be playing for us, which are always so much fun. They’ll have sort of an abbreviated version sometimes I think they have as many as 20 or 30 people in their ensemble, but I think they’re bringing about a dozen people will be playing for us that night. So should be great fun, lots of good networking, friendship, food, drinks and art and music.”
Destination Key Largo Magazine will be published soon.
Youngberg said, “We are right here at mile marker 106, so we’re the first stop as people enter the Florida Keys. We are the official Florida Keys visitor center and we do this publication. It is an annual publication. It comes out in May. So we have started now reaching out to members to advertise in the magazine. This magazine, we’re estimating at this point, it’s up to about an 80,000 distribution. When it is first printed, it goes out in the Upper Keys Weekly. So it does go out to pretty much all the residents of the Upper Keys have a chance to pick that up. So it is a local publication. It also is at a lot of our locations around town, a lot of hotels and restaurants, for visitors and locals alike to pick it up. We have it available here in the visitor center, and every single visitor that walks in our door leaves with a copy of it. We also mail it out nationwide. We get calls every day for people wanting information. They’re either planning their vacation, planning their trip to the Florida Keys, or possibly even planning to relocate to the Florida Keys. So they want information, not just about hotels and restaurants and tourist activities, but businesses and what’s going on here. They might already be looking ahead for their doctor or their attorney or their bank. So it is a great opportunity for our local businesses to get a lot of exposure, not just locally, but nationwide, and it’s also on our website. So great opportunity. We have advertising opportunities from a full two page spread down to an eighth of a page, business card size ad. So we would really love to see every business in the Upper Keys advertised in that in addition to their directory, it is our membership directory. So if you are a member, you’re automatically listed, but you can have an ad for just a little bit more exposure. Bring a little spotlight on your business. This year is our 10th Anniversary. So we’ll have a little bit of a special edition. I think we’re going to maybe talk to a local artist about having a special cover for our 10th edition. So again, it would be a great opportunity for our businesses to get involved. I’d just like to thank all of our members. As I mentioned, the chamber is growing. We’re up to about, I think, 545 members. Last I looked, we did get a couple of new trustee members, which are those members who take a little extra step in their support of the chamber. So it’s a great time to join the Key Largo Chamber. So anyone feel free to reach out to us and we’ll give you information.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keylargochamber.org/