FLX Chamber Heads to Cayuga Lake for July Mixer, Cuts Membership Rate

Jared Pierce — FLX Chamber
Paul Szmal 7:38
A woman speaks at a podium on a stage in front of a large screen displaying the FLX Chamber logo and text.
A representative from the Finger Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce presents the new FLX Chamber branding on stage.

The FLX Chamber of Commerce is bringing its next Business After Hours mixer to one of the most scenic spots in the region, with a July 8th event planned at the Hampton Inn and Seasons on Cayuga Lake in Penn Yan.

Chamber representative Jared Pierce joined the FLX Morning Podcast on Thursday to recap recent events and preview what’s coming up for members this summer. The July mixer runs from 4 to 6 p.m. at 110 Mace Street, Penn Yan, offering attendees a chance to tour the lakefront property, network, and hear a presentation from the hotel’s general manager about the hospitality industry.

The Chamber recently wrapped up a well-attended mixer at Wadham’s Enterprises, where members toured the company’s main headquarters and learned about its history — including its roots in milk hauling and its significant growth over the years.

Pierce also highlighted two new members who recently joined the Chamber. Finger Lakes Vine to Glass is a concierge service that organizes winery trips for visitors, while Glibra Inc. is an AI-powered concierge startup focused on the Finger Lakes tourism market. The company’s founder conducted research into why travelers cancel or avoid vacations, finding that fear of unexpected disruptions is a key factor. Glibra aims to address that by building backup plans and contingencies directly into trip itineraries.

On the real estate side, the Chamber has advertising window space available at its 1 Franklin Square location in downtown Geneva, with a summer discount for listeners who mention the radio program. Office space in the building is also available for rent, including a recently renovated former BID office. The Chamber’s conference room — freshly refinished by Church’s Creative Flooring, which recently opened a new Canandaigua location — can also be rented by the day or half day.

In a membership push, the Chamber is running a sales blitz and has temporarily reduced its new member base rate from $495 to $450, with access to remaining 2026 mixers included. For more information, visit flxchamber.com or call the Chamber at 315-789-1776.

Read Full Transcript

Paul Szmal: And we continue on our Chamber Thursday with Jared Pierce from the FLX Chamber joining us now. Morning.

Guest: Morning. How are we doing, Paul?

Paul Szmal: Good. But we were just talking before we got on the air, yeah, it's not going to be great golf weather later today, so fortunately, now, you guys already, did you already do your golf training?

Guest: We did. Yeah.

Paul Szmal: So you already did yours, so you're good. Huge success.

Guest: Yep. We're good. Yeah. And you actually, if I remember right, you actually had good weather.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. We had good weather all day. I know. How did that happen?

Guest: I know. Seriously, after last year's rain.

Paul Szmal: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So let's talk some Chamber stuff here. The FLX Chamber just finished a mixer at Wadham's Enterprises.

Guest: Yeah. That was, I think, two weeks ago now. Really great turnout. We got to learn about the rich history of Wadham's, got to tour the main headquarters, which was really cool. Met some of the staff. So thank you to everybody that came out to that, and thank you for Wadham's for hosting it.

Paul Szmal: Did they give you any milk?

Guest: They did not give us milk, but they did give us branded glasses.

Paul Szmal: Oh, nice.

Guest: Yeah. Like wine glasses.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. I know they do a lot of milk hauling.

Guest: Yeah. Yeah. It's like one of their big things at Wadham's. And that's how they started, too.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And they've branched out, obviously, since then. That company has grown by leaps and bounds over the years.

Guest: Yeah. Exponentially over the years. Yeah. So it's been a really good time for everyone.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. So now we look forward to the next Business After Hours event for the month of July. And a pretty cool spot to have this one.

Guest: Yeah. So this one is going to be at the Hampton Inn and Seasons on Cayuga Lake. Really beautiful property overlooking the lake.

Paul Szmal: Oh, yeah. If you've never been there, this would be a great opportunity to check it out. That's going to be July 8th from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. And their address is 110 Mace Street in Pen Yant.

Guest: Yeah. If you've never been down there, if you go out to the... And I don't remember if this is where Seasons is, because the last time I was there, I don't think Seasons was even open yet. But if you go out back, in the back of the ground floor, and you just... It's like... You're right on the shore of Cayuga Lake. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. You get the sunset going over there, man. It's great.

Guest: Yep. So what's some of the activities and stuff that's going to be happening for that one?

Paul Szmal: So that one's going to be a lot of networking. We'll tour the grounds. We'll hopefully get to see that sunset you were talking about. And we'll probably hear a presentation by the general manager.

Guest: Yeah. There you go. There you go. Get a little background on what the hospitality and hotel industry is all about.

Paul Szmal: 100%. Absolutely. Also want to mention that there's still some advertising space available in a prime spot in downtown Geneva.

Guest: Yep. So for anybody that's unaware, we rent out our windows as advertising space for our chamber members. We're currently doing a summer deal, if you mentioned this radio program. So just give us a call if you're looking to get some extra advertising in a prime spot downtown.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. And those are available. You can do like three months, six months. You can even do a full year if you want.

Guest: Yep. And also there's office space available in that building too.

Paul Szmal: Yep. So 1 Franklin Square, beautiful historic building. We have the former bid office is available for rent. Just finished some work on that. So anybody looking to rent an office, we are your people. And I think we need to give a shout out to our friends at Church's Creative Flooring.

Guest: Yep. So they actually, getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, they just refinished the flooring for our conference room. So if you're looking to rent conference room space, we also do that by the day or half day. All of these things can be inquired about by calling the chamber at 315-789-1776.

Paul Szmal: If I remember correctly, the slogan for them is where we put the world at your feet. Is that a slogan?

Guest: Yeah. And he actually, he just opened a new location, Canadaigua.

Paul Szmal: Oh, nice. Very nice. So again, you can contact the chamber for details on that. We'll give you the phone number again if you missed it at the end of the conversation. New members joining in. It seems like every month we're picking up another two or three members. So we got some momentum going.

Guest: Yeah. And we're currently in a sales blitz. So we're hoping for more than two or three next month. But yeah, the two that we have this month, Finger Lakes Vine to Glass concierge service, kind of putting together winery trips for people. And then we have Glibra Inc. This is a startup, an AI concierge service that's focusing on the Finger Lakes to try and kind of launch his platform. This is the first application I've heard of AI in this particular discipline.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. We just had a conversation with him last week. It was very interesting. He's done a study that basically what he was trying to prove is why people cancel vacations or don't take the plunge to go on a vacation. And what he found was that people are afraid of something going wrong and having to pivot. That's his whole business model, is trying to find a way to pivot for you. So it was very interesting. We're excited to see where that goes. It's almost like, okay, I need to build redundancies into my vacation if something's closed, if an event is canceled, if my transportation schedule doesn't work the way it's supposed to, all that kind of stuff. So basically he's scheduling those redundancies for you?

Guest: Yeah. It's very interesting.

Paul Szmal: That's nice. That's interesting. I like that. All right. Let's give a shout out to the annual partners too.

Guest: Yes. We have 2026 annual partners who help to sponsor everything that we do. Canadaigua National Bank, Casella Waste Services, Community Broadband Networks, Emerson Commercial Cleaning, ESL Federal Credit Union, Fairfield by Marriott, Finger Lakes Partners Insurance, Four Winds Chimney, Guardian Glass, Halco Home Solutions, Hepsales in North Main Lumber, Lakeside Roofing and Siding Materials, Massa Construction, Enhance the Finger Lakes, Reliant Credit Union, and Waterloo Container.

Paul Szmal: Now you just mentioned a moment ago that you're on a sales blitz. So why don't we go ahead and give that a plug too?

Guest: Yeah. So normally our new member base rate is $4.95 and that includes the mixers for the year that you join. Right. We are lowering it to $4.50 just to kind of increase engagement. You'll still have access to the remaining mixers for the rest of the year. So we wanted to give that discount to kind of reflect that we're halfway through the year. So check that out. And by the way, if you want to find out more information, flxchamber.com is the web address or you can call the chamber direct. It's 315-789-1776.

Paul Szmal: Well, that's an appropriate number for America 250, isn't it? Yeah. How did you plan that one out?

Guest: Miranda's a whiz with that type of stuff, you know her.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. 315-789-1776 for the chamber office. As always, Jared, a pleasure to have you on board, sir, and we'll talk to you next month.

Guest: Thank you so much, Paul. Have a great day.