Kerry Baker, executive director of Key West Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 06.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about the barbecue battle coming up this weekend.
This is the 5th annual barbecue rib battle and it happens on Sunday.
Baker said, “We’re very pleased to partner with Shots and Giggles, and they’ve been putting in on this event for the last four years. We’ve came on board this year as a co sponsor of the event. It’s going to take place right downtown in between the Chamber and Shots and Giggles on Ann Street. We will have tents, so we will have covered seating, and we have one space available if there’s anyone out there that’s still interested in cooking their ribs specialties. We’re going to be awarding over $2,000 in cash prizes this year for three winners, and then we have a great gift basket that we put together for kind of a fan favorite prize, where people enjoying their ribs will get to decide on their favorite as well. But if anyone is interested in still participating, we do have one spot available. They can contact the Chamber at 305-294-2587, but, true Key West summer weather, we can always count, usually, on a little rain shower here and there to add a little more excitement to the event, but hopefully it’ll come in during the night, and we’ll have clear skies during the day, and it’ll be a great event.”
There are almost 15 different contestants this year.
Baker said, “We’re very excited about the participants that we have. We have some repeats, some new so, who doesn’t like ribs on barbecue, and a barbecue on Labor Day, especially so it should be a good event. We have some great sponsors. So we’ll have a lot of beverages and refreshments as well. We will have beer from Florida Keys Brewing Company, Tampa Bay Brewing Company, of course, Papa Pilar rum is always a fan favorite. We thank our sponsors First State Bank and Ocean Blue Galleries for their support of the event. So we’re really looking forward to it. There’s a lot going on this weekend, so we think that there’s going to be a lot of locals out and about, which is always certainly nice to see with Brew Fest taking place this weekend, and then after our events on Sunday, they’ll have, it’s five o’clock Key West, Jimmy Buffett Memorial second line parade. It’s also local today. So HTA and a lot of the attractions do free entry for locals. So hopefully locals will get out.”
The event is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Baker said, “You can get a full dinner, barbecue ribs, two sides for about $10. We’ll also be selling raffle tickets for another cash prize. We give out the largest scholarship every year at Key West High School. So we’ll have a raffle that’s going on for our education program to help offset our annual scholarship that we do. There’s $1,000 in cash prizes for that raffle. So it’s $500 first place, $300 second place and $200 third place. We will be selling 150 tickets at $20, so even our visitors that are coming down have an opportunity to win some money as well.”
The 35th annual Showcase of Key West businesses trade show is coming up.
Baker said, “That is always our great annual event that we look forward to, certainly from a Chamber standpoint. We encourage our local residents and business community to patronize local businesses. So this is an opportunity for our members to come out and showcase their products and services. The show will take place on Thursday, September the 19th, from 3 to 5. It’s open to the public. Anyone is welcome to attend. Then 5:30 to 7:30 we do it in conjunction with our monthly business after hours. We have 44 exhibitors in the show this year. We are sold out. There’s no more opportunity for anyone to exhibit in the show. But we certainly encourage everyone to come out and learn a little bit more about local businesses. We have everything from nonprofits, health care, professional services. We have retailers. We will have Jersey Mike’s there. It’s always nice. They’re giving away some samplings. Our sponsors of the event, Mount Sinai, the Casa Marina, that’s a sponsor as well as Waste Management’s a great partner. Then we also have Hot Wire Communications as a co sponsor this year. So it really is a great opportunity for people to learn a little bit more about the businesses and services that you can get locally.”
Nominations for the Athena Award is also coming up.
Baker said, “The Athena award is a very prestigious award that’s given to a local business professional that has gone above and beyond in not only her profession, providing mentoring for other business professional women, also a great deal of community service. If you have someone in mind, or someone within your organization, or someone that you see around town that you think would fit that criteria, the application is online on our website and we are certainly looking for as many nominations as we can get. We like to think outside of the box and look at other organizations, especially business organizations, professional organizations. There’s a lot of women in this Key West community that do a lot of wonderful things and we like to give this recognition every year. It’s brought to us each year and made possible through the generous donation from Keys Auto. So we’re very grateful for their continued support of this award.”
The Chamber of Commerce continues to expand its offerings.
Baker said, “We’ve really added in a few different events this year. We do a business before hours. It’s a really small, kind of more of an intimate setting here at the Chamber. We usually have 10 to 12 people that come in. We have breakfast coffee, and it’s an opportunity, not only for us to learn a little bit more about them, but it’s an opportunity for them to learn about other businesses in the community. We provide that smaller setting, so people have a little bit more of an opportunity one on one. We’ve been doing a 12 on 12 lunch, which is kind of a little round table discussion with 12 of our members. Each month, we have them come in, and again, we talk about things that are going on with the Chamber, how they can be involved. But most importantly, it’s an opportunity for us to learn about our members and what they have, and to be able to just offer some guidance. I think we all know, especially anyone that’s in business, it can be a little overwhelming just trying to navigate certain things, and we are able to connect people. We’ve made many relationships. We’ve had people find potential employees or future employees, as well as get new customers just by attending Chamber events. Networking is a great opportunity, whether you choose to come to our monthly lunches, our business after hours, you really can get involved and it’s a great way to not only meet other business professionals, to meet other business owners, but just really to be a part of the business community.”
The Chamber is always a good advocate for the business community.
Baker said, “We do monitor everything that’s going on, not only on a city level with the City Commission meetings, but I also monitor what goes on on the county level. It’s important for not only businesses to be informed, but also for residents to be informed. They usually always ask for public comment. If you’re not comfortable going and speaking at the commission meeting, you can contact your commissioners, you can send emails, but it really is important to have your voice heard, and a lot of times that is what they’re looking for. They’re looking for feedback, not only from the residents, but from business owners as well as people that visit here. It’s how they’re able to make informed decisions by checking in and finding out what the true voice is of the community and what people are looking for. So it is definitely important to stay involved and to give your input when necessary and when you feel there’s an issue that you’re passionate about or something that you want to learn more about. The Chamber tries to do its part to make sure that our members are educated and that they are aware of what’s going on, not only locally on a county level, but also on a state level, and sometimes even on a national level. If there’s issues that could ultimately affect our community, it’s very important. We were lucky to have Kimberly Matthews come in yesterday from Monroe County, and she did her last community presentation on ROGO and the hurricane evacuation plan. It was an interactive presentation, which was great. Our members in attendance got to give their voice, and they got to state their opinion and what they thought on certain topic matters. It’s very important for people to speak up and really say how they feel about things.”
Baker is incredibly busy in the community.
She said, “Key West is my home. As most people know, I grew up in Key West, graduated from high school in Key West. I’m very proud to be from Key West, and certainly in my 32 years of being at the Chamber, I care about our business community. That’s probably been the highlight of my career, is being able to help and watch all of these businesses prosper and grow. I have people that I signed up for membership, 15, 16, 17, years ago that have now expanded and have multiple locations. So that’s really what the Chamber is about. We’re about being a part of the business community, offering resources to not only Chamber members, but really to anyone that needs assistance. It could be someone that’s coming here on vacation, a local that just needs assistance. We try to offer those services and make things a little easier for people in the community. Our office is open seven days a week. Some people do not realize that, but there’s actually someone here on Saturdays and Sundays as well, and we’re always willing and able to offer a helping hand to anyone that needs it.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keywestchamber.org/