Southwest Florida's Chambers of Commerce

In Lee and Collier Counties there are more than a dozen chambers of commerce, enough to confuse even the most savvy business owner. But, as chamber directors will advise, each organization offers a unique service to its membership, as specific or broad-based as the areas served.

Chambers must compete by nature for funding either by membership areas and grant money, such as Tourist Development funding, for special projects. And as Southwest Florida continues to grow, the chambers can only continue to rub shoulders with overlapping memberships and projects.

Chamber representatives, however, are quick to point out that belonging to a single chamber in no way excludes a business from joining another. And there are no real geographical walls to a chamber's membership - any business with an interest in the community may sign on.

Regional Leadership

The approximately 500-member Chamber of Southwest Florida serves five different counties: Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades. The type of business that usually joins the chamber, therefore, is interested in looking at the region as a whole economy, explains communications manager Dennis Larson.

Unlike locally focused chambers, the Chamber of Southwest Florida is less involved with localized networking and more involved with activism, either supporting or speaking against projects that may affect the business community. It also researches voter and business owner attitudes about regional trends, issues and events.

Following its motto of "Business Building Leadership," the chamber hosts the annual Leadership Lee County, an educational program that bring together community business people for four months of scheduled sessions on topics such as economic development, the media, the arts, health care, environment, criminal justice, diversity, agriculture and education. The 13-year-old program, which predates the chamber itself, now boasts a yearly enrollment of 40 participants and more than 500 alumni. There are also two spin-off groups, the four-day Leadership Southwest Florida, which focuses specifically on the region, and Youth Connection, a one-week program where Leadership alumni get together with local teen-agers.

On the economic front, the chamber initially formed an alliance with the Business Development Corporation but ended that relationship in 1996. The BDC became Lee County's Horizon Council, and the chamber formed the Regional Business Leadership Coalition, which works to forward regional economic interests.

Some of the chamber's bigger economic events are the annual Business-to Business Trade Fair in May, and the Regional Economic Outlook Conference, a joining of economic and government experts. This year's 12th annual conference, to be held Oct. 20, will feature speaker John Sculley, a dynamic force behind Pepsi and Apple Computer.

The chamber additionally sponsors a coalition of business and government representatives in the Quality Improvement Network of Southwest Florida, which studies how to produce the best customer service. The network will again join forces with the Florida Sterling Council, a service quality organization, for this year's Quality Team Showcase on Sept. 11.

Naples Powerhouse

At approximately 2,000 members, the Naples Area Chamber of Commerce is the largest in Southwest Florida. With a strong influx of tourists and newcomers, it is especially heavy on traffic -- their visitor centers have serviced approximately 154,000 people and fielded 85,000 calls this year.

But, although the walk-in centers are popular, the chamber offers many other important resources, including educational workshops, networking Business After Five gatherings, Internet services, numerous informational publications and government dialogues.

The chamber's Leadership Collier, founded in 1989, brings together business people for a nine-month scheduled series of workshops about county government, education, social services, law enforcement and healthcare. Participants pay a "class tuition" to go on tours, listen to speakers and network among their peers. They also have an opportunity to speak candidly about issues affecting the local business climate - there is a vow to keep discussions confidential.

As a companion to the program for business leaders, there is also the Leadership Collier Master's Program, designed for non-business people. Both programs have become very popular, and those who apply face a competitive selection process from an anonymous committee.

The chamber has also been active in hurricane preparedness as a distributor of re-entry stickers and badges for residents and business owners. It developed a hurricane plan that has received state accolades as a model for others to follow. "We've written the book for the state of Florida," said former President, Judy Keller.

But although the chamber is the biggest in her area, she maintained that she doesn't feel threatened by any of the other chambers that may overlap memberships. "We just don't compete against each other," Keller said. "We all are so different. We do different things."

Keller also points to a local alliance of chambers - Everglades City, Marco, Naples, Golden Gate, Immokalee, Bonita, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, Greater Fort Myers and North Fort Myers - that meet on a monthly basis and plan special projects. One upcoming event is the Aug. 25 Southwest Florida Business Summit, which will address regional issues and look towards future trends.

Chambers Merge, Then Split

In the late 1980s the historic Fort Myers Metropolitan-Lee County Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the Cape Coral Chamber to form the Chamber of Southwest Florida, an organization designed to take a regional focus. But the two chambers split once more in 1989, leaving three different entities: the Chamber of Southwest Florida, which is still geared toward regional issues, the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral.

Since it was reformed in 1989, the 800-member Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce has quickly gained momentum as a tight network of local businesses. Membership isn't limited to downtown Fort Myers businesses, says executive director Marietta Mudgett, but includes businesses throughout Lee County and as far south as Bonita Springs.

Tourism is a big part of the chamber's downtown walk-in center, which handled more than 35,000 people last year. Education is also a major focus - the chamber donates 10 percent of its budget to local educational programs, amounting to about $19,500 last year and $80,000 to date. The funding has gone to Lee County schools, Florida Gulf Coast University, the Florida Foundation and several other specialized requests reviewed by a grants committee.

This year the chamber held its first Emerging Leaders program, drawing 30 participants who met one day each week for 10 weeks to listen to s