The Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce held its final BAH Networking Mixer for 2023 at the Smith Center for Arts in December. During the Mixer, tours were given of the historic interior, and attendees went behind the scenes with guides to learn more about the iconic property.
The December Business After Hours also served as the Chamber’s Annual Meeting, which included an on-stage presentation from the past year, presented by the Chamber staff with an overview of new members, and a vote for the 2024 Board of Directors with the Slate of Officers. The main highlight was a preview unveiling of the Chamber’s new logo and website, which is part of its regional rebranding project that has been in the works for nearly two years. The Chamber announced the transition to its new name, the Finger Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, or FLX Chamber for short, which will better reflect its commitment to serving members and customers throughout the Finger Lakes region.
The change comes due to being a private, non-geographic Chamber, and from the growing trend of regional customer growth. Because the Chamber is not a tourism or tax-based operation like other county-wide Chambers or TPAs (Tourism Promotion Agency), it does not have a geographic boundary or responsibility to maintain and can therefore expand its operations or name to accommodate any customer or area.
“We have been steadily growing our customer base outside of Geneva for the last few years,” stated Miranda Odell, the Chamber’s President. “To be precise, 55% of our new customers as a whole have come to us from outside of the area since 2018,” she added.
“When we had looked closely at the data and started discussing this idea more seriously with our board in 2021 and received unanimous support to move forward with going regional, we then checked and started talking more with the membership and realized the same support was there. Then over the last year the interest in a Finger Lakes-based Chamber with new member growth continued to expand exponentially,” she added. “We had a large goal of three dozen new customers this year, and to our surprise, we are closing out 2023 with 45 customers from all over the Finger Lakes Region and beyond,” Odell said.
At the Annual Meeting presentation, the Chamber showcased that it was proud to be a “Finger Lakes Friendly Chamber” by representing businesses/organizations within its membership roster in ten of the 14 official Finger Lakes counties.
“Because we focus on Public Relations, networking, and being able to make official connections, many customers chose to join our Chamber instead of others, and not shop around,” noted Tara Sauve, the Chamber’s Director of Marketing and Member Engagement. “They come to us because we’re Finger Lakes-based, yet we’re still centrally located with a home base in Geneva, and we have a solid team of staff that’s able to help them with their basic promotional needs for a much cheaper price tag, rather than hiring a big city-based firm,” she added.
The Chamber’s new logo was designed by Justin Blue, a professional graphic designer who has worked for the Chamber for two years. It features a clean design with an image of the 11 Finger Lakes and a star over Seneca Lake/Geneva to pay homage to its roots of where the Chamber is based. Below the image is the text of both the branded nickname, FLX Chamber, as well as the official name, and a fitting new slogan, “Creating Connections Across the Region.”
The rebranding and additional details for the Chamber’s transition will start in January and continue to take place across various platforms over the next few months. Chamber members will still be able to reach Chamber staff at their former email addresses or the main contact, [email protected], but are being asked to update their contact information to the new emails that they will be redirected to. For additional info and questions, please call the Chamber at 315-789-1776 or visit the new website, www.flxchamber.com which will continue to be updated.
The next Business After Hours Mixer is a VIP Event for Annual Partners and Season Pass Holders. It will be held on Wednesday, January 10 at Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Headquarters in Canandaigua.
