Phillips: Austin chamber effort focuses on helping businesses, people

Alberta Phillips
Austin American-Statesman


Sometimes we think of chambers of commerce as cheerleaders for business and industry with narrowly focused interests that aim to expand the profits and economic vitality of companies they represent.

If that is true for some chambers, it’s certainly not the sum and total of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Like many other chambers, it does promote and lobby for policies and practices aimed at helping businesses in Austin and the region flourish, be that publicly financed incentives or regulatory reform. But the Austin chamber’s reach is broader, touching on such things as reducing Austin’s poverty rate, increasing the number of students going to college and addressing the city’s mobility challenges.

It’s an approach that recognizes the connection between education, jobs and poverty.

One can argue about whether that focus is driven by a social or economic agenda. Either way, the chamber’s initiative, called Opportunity Austin, is doing positive things that benefit businesses as well as families. And while it’s been around for about 12 years, Opportunity Austin is not widely known outside of elite corporate and educational circles.

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City, county economic groups eye merge

Conor Griffith
The Dominion Post

Several Monongalia County business and nonprofit organizations are considering the possibility of forming a common coalition.

The Morgantown Area Chamber of Commerce and Your Community Foundation (YCF) recently received of a $75,000 grant from the Pittsburgh-based Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to study the feasibility of merging the county’s economic development activities under a single umbrella organization.

“It’s something those of us who have been involved in these various organizations for the common goal of economic development have seen a need for,” said Kelly Kimble, chair of the Chamber’s board of directors.

The chamber and its partners have engaged Atlanta-based Market Street Services to conduct the feasibility study using the grant money.

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Spartanburg leaders search for “entrepreneurial ecosystem”

Trevor Anderson
Upstate Business Journal


Spartanburg County’s business landscape is dotted with high-profile projects.

Companies like BMW, Milliken, Michelin, Adidas, Toray, Rite Aid, Amazon and others have pumped billions of dollars of investment into the county and created thousands of jobs.

Spartanburg’s small business sector, however, has not fared so well.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of small ventures, or businesses with one to four employees, decreased almost 10 percent in the county between 2008 and 2013.

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