The Florida Chamber Foundation Team is on the Road Uniting the Business Community Around Destination 2030 – September 2022
By: Susan Towler, Florida Blue Executive Director, CSR/Florida Blue Foundation; Chair of the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees
The Florida Chamber Foundation team continues to build momentum behind the Florida 2030 Blueprint’s mission and its 39 goals. This month, I’m proud to share with you the following recent highlights of our Foundation team helping to propel Florida into a top 10 global economy by 2030.
Earlier this month, the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Executive Vice President David Gillespie attended the Florida Regional Councils Association (FRCA) Partners Meeting and provided a brief overview of the Florida Chamber Foundation and its mission. David had the opportunity to formally express gratitude to Florida’s 10 regional planning councils for aligning each of their respective Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) with the Chamber Foundation’s Florida 2030 Blueprint and Six Pillars Framework – namely the Blueprint goal of ensuring “100% of Florida residents (are) covered by (a) regional visioning process,” for which FRCA is the official goal leader. David also had the opportunity to moderate a workforce panel this month at the Tampa Bay Chamber’s State of Workforce Development event, featuring Nadia Combs, Board Chair of Hillsborough County Public Schools, Michelle Dennard, President & CEO of CareerSource Florida (Community Development Partner), and Henry Mack, Senior Chancellor of the Florida Department of Education.
In other news this month, John Kaliski, Principal of our Florida Trade & Logistics 2030 (TL2030) research supporting company, Cambridge Systematics, had the opportunity to speak at the American Planning Association’s Florida Planning Conference, presenting the TL2030 research findings and recommendations. The Florida Chamber Foundation’s Director of Research, Dave Sobush, CEcD, also had the opportunity to provide an overview of TL2030 research this month at the Florida Natural Gas Association Annual Meeting. Additional presentations by Dave included the Florida Planning Association’s Annual Conference, FAIRWINDS Credit Union Economic Outlook Summit, Lake County Housing for All, and four local chamber planning sessions and meetings across Florida at which he presented on workforce needs, the Blueprint, and the Florida economy.
Lastly, Florida Chamber Foundation President Mark Wilson visited the Lake Wales Area Chamber of Commerce & EDC to share how they can prepare for Florida’s continued growth towards becoming the 10th largest global economy. He also visited the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce to provide an update on the Florida 2030 Blueprint’s Six Pillars, diving into factors and issues related to Florida’s business competitiveness, talent and education, and looking ahead at what needs to be done legislatively to continue growing Florida.
I would like to wrap up this update by giving a warm welcome to the Board Trustees and Community Development Partner (CDP) that have recently joined our Board:
Trustees:
- Andy Gonzalez, Florida Realtors
- Sarah Owen, Collaboratory
- Paul Sohl, Florida High Tech Corridor
- Jim Weiss, Fifth Third Bank
- Casey Welch, University of South Florida
Community Development Partner:
Jim Weiss, Fifth Third Bank
On behalf of the entire Board, we look forward to engaging with you on the solutions to grow and propel our great state!
Stay tuned for more updates next month on the momentum-building efforts of the Foundation team to secure Florida’s future.
Interested in requesting a Florida Chamber speaker at your next event? Visit the Speaker Bureau’s page to view available speakers and to make a request.