What the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce means to our community?

By: Noreen Payne

Chairman Elect of the Board of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce

Special to the Delray Newspaper

Delray Beach has won many accolades for being an intimate town with big city sophistication.  How do we maintain the image and growth of our wonderful city? We focus on supporting the local businesses that support the city and the people behind it!

Our Chamber focuses on supporting and enticing many businesses to Delray Beach – it is our Chamber’s mission to ensure that our business owners and visitors alike feel welcome and supported each and every day. The Chamber advocates on behalf of the businesses – works to build relationships and networking opportunities within our city, bringing exposure to the businesses to encourage future growth and development, organizing and delivering beneficial training and education to our small business owners who may not have the resources on their own, delivering programs and events to build excitement and focus for all of our Chamber members.

It is pure joy for me to witness a ribbon cutting of a new business in our city – to be there to watch the big smiles on the faces of the entrepreneurs who have chosen our city, Delray Beach, to plant their roots. To then see those same business owners come to one of the Chamber’s networking or education events and watch as they develop relationships and friendships within our local business community and residents. I am exhilarated when I leave a meeting with our City leadership and accomplish a victory on behalf of our Chamber business members – these wins impact the bottom line of our local business owners and I take pride in being a part of this process.

People often ask me “why” I am so involved in the Delray Chamber of Commerce. I must confess it was not an initial goal to be engaged and certainly would never have thought it possible that in 2020, I would be Chair of the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce- but here I am! I simply went to an event in the hopes of meeting other local business owners and residents and the energy in the room was infectious. I found I understood our city better, was engaged in changing policy and attracting good businesses for us! I moved on to various leadership roles because I saw the value and the impact to our local community.

At the end of the day we are people looking to build relationships with other people – when we help a local business owner grow their fledgling business into a thriving business that impacts not only that business owner but also our entire economy. As a local resident, I want to see businesses thrive, I want to see new residents move into our area and participate in our community, to see our property values continue to rise and to know that our Delray Chamber is making an impact on our community and residents as a whole.

Here’s how you too can get involved:

Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce

www.DelrayBeach.com

561-278-0424