Chamber seen as ‘essential ingredient’ to selling Chattanooga
Chrisy Gillenwater says the “Literally Perfect” video campaign that humorously championed Chattanooga’s Gig and its technology sector helped woo her as head of the city’s top business group.
“It was very much one of the reasons I’m here,” said Gillenwater, who about two months ago came from Indiana to become the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive.
Gillenwater said Chattanooga’s ultra-fast internet, dubbed the Gig, is critical as the city focuses on technology and other companies which want to be in the area.
The Chamber is looking at another video campaign, depending on funding. The “Literally Perfect” effort was used to recruit tech companies and entrepreneurs to the city by the use of off-beat short films.
Sybil Topel, the Chamber’s vice president of marketing and communications, said a new initiative is expected to zero in on another key Chattanooga sector — manufacturing.
“It will look a little bit different,” she said, adding that the video will need to play to an international audience and that makes humor hard to do. “It will be a little more traditional, but it won’t be boring.”
Gillenwater said there may be opportunities down the road in other sectors as they tell “a Chattanooga story.”
The Chamber’s new CEO was hired away from an award-winning chamber in Evansville, Ind., where she was its president. In an interview, she said she’s surprised by the level of collaboration she has seen in the Scenic City since she started her job in December.
She said that factor is “a significant reason why Chattanooga is on a national and international map.”
The 43-year-old Chamber chief also said that the level of philanthropic dollars leveraged in Chattanooga stands out.
“The philanthropic community working in tandem to accomplish big significant initiatives, goals, outcomes is clear and evident,” she said.
Gillenwater said she’s in the early stages of setting goals and agendas for the Chattanooga Chamber, but the business group has reached out for input by use of focus groups and a membership survey.
“In order for us to be successful, we must understand our members,” she said about the entity that has a membership of nearly 2,000.
One issue that has risen to the top is what she termed “talent development” to help existing and new businesses grow, the CEO said.
“I see us continuing to focus in on this effort and the partnerships to look at talent pipeline development,” Gillenwater said.
A sector that has attracted interest is health care, she said.
“There’s a lot of interest in this sector and our ability to take it to another level,” Gillenwater said. “How do we increase the size of our talent pool? How are we attracting people to that sector externally and how are we developing people locally for that sector?”
In terms of a legislative agenda, the Chamber is hiring a new senior director of public policy to help engage with the local delegation and public officials in general, she said.
Gillenwater said she’s aiming to create more frequent touch points for Chamber members with public officials.
Education policy, creating talent pathways and infrastructure are a few legislative areas important to the Chamber, she said.
Gillenwater said she wants the Chamber to be viewed as “an essential ingredient to the vibrancy of Chattanooga and the region.”
She replaced Bill Kilbride, a former Mohawk Industries executive who held the job for three years and retired last year. The past three Chamber CEOs had come to the group after serving as executives with local companies.
Gillenwater served eight years as CEO of the Greater Bloomington Chamber and, in all, she has 21 years working for chambers of commerce in Indiana. Last year, Gillenwater was named Chamber Executive for 2017 in Indiana.