Hope Kennedy, President & CEO, North Tampa Bay Chamber
At the North Tampa Bay Chamber, the most important issue is to plan for and look forward to the future. “In my board meetings, we don’t talk about last month. We don’t talk about next month. We talk about two years from now, three years from now, and what that looks like,” President and CEO Hope Kennedy told Invest:.
What are the key sectors driving the business landscape in North Tampa?
We have a thriving medical sector. In fact, Wesley Chapel is building its third hospital, which will also attract all the ancillary services, so medical is quickly becoming our top employer for the region. In addition, the Moffitt Cancer Center is building a huge research and development campus. There’s a lot of housing coming out of that. We’re now in the construction phase, and with that growth, an area of focus is the workforce and making sure that the workforce is here and ready to go to work at those places.
We’re very much in tune with what the ecosystem needs to look like. Whether that’s different legislation at the state level or ordinances at the local level. We’re advocating for those to be pro-business.
What programs are helping to develop the local workforce?
We’ve worked on a few different items. We’ve connected more with our higher education this past year, partnering with our local universities as well as some of the partners who might do the technical side of the labor force, such as construction and welding, or what would typically be called blue-collar positions.
It’s about accessibility and making sure that those who might not have the skills to change careers can acquire them. We want to make sure they have access and can get those skills affordably. We have a very strong connection with our school system, and with higher education. For instance, we hosted a unique job fair that was mostly entrepreneurs who are growing their businesses and need to add people. It was a different event in which people could come in with a resume and try to find a job. This is more of a matchmaking opportunity. We know that there are a lot of people looking for jobs, and there are a lot of jobs. It’s how we connect that and bridge that gap. Some of the jobs are in skills that people might not have. We help find access for them to obtain those skills.
How do you encourage networking and matchmaking for the business community?
We are a three-Cs chamber. We’re a connector, a convener, and a catalyst. Those are the things that we do extraordinarily well. Everything that we do as an organization when we’re setting our roadmap and our plan for the year involves our members. We will interview, we will survey our members, we’ll ask them, what is it that’s affecting your business and how can we help?
We’re very fluid and adaptable to changing needs, but it’s all about connecting people. We offer different types of events throughout the month. They’re in different locations, there are different times, there are different places. That’s by design because we want to be where our members are, and they’re geographically spread apart. But it also gives people an opportunity; if they want a small, intimate group, we provide a small, intimate group. If you want a bigger presentation by the hospital CEO who spoke to us yesterday, here’s an opportunity. It’s us listening to and focusing on the changing needs of our business community, and then making those connections.
What are some of the initiatives being implemented to create a more favorable business environment?
A unique thing is happening here in Tampa Bay. It’s a Memorandum of Understanding. I believe there are 12 chambers involved. We all come together when issues or different things are affecting the business community. For example, there was a referendum on the Hillsborough County City Improvement Tax or Community Improvement Tax, CIT. It’s a tax, but it has been there for 28 years. We all joined together and came out in support of reinstating that tax and not letting it lapse so that it can fund the infrastructure that we need. That’s an example of us working together as a region. There was also a school board referendum. Both of those passed and it’s because of the work that the chamber did.
Pasco also has a lot of challenges and changes with, for example, our permitting department. It’s antiquated. They’re not able to keep up with the changing technology for light switches. I know that sounds stupid, but if you walk into a room and there’s no light switch, you fail your inspection. It’s about keeping up with the very rapid change and growth. The more that we can work together and have mutual respect, the better we can address the changes that are needed. Having a strong relationship with our local elected officials is imperative. We do not always see eye to eye, and we will stand up and say so, and hope that it at least gives them a little bit of pause to think about it. But collaboration is the key, we don’t do what we do in a silo. We can’t. We need to work with others. We need to identify those key partners. Tampa is probably the best I’ve ever seen at doing this. I’ve been in other communities, but I’ve never seen collaboration and support at the level that exists in this region ever before. I truly believe that is what sets us apart from other metro areas.
What is your outlook and what would you say are your top priorities for the chamber over the next few years or so?
Our priorities remain somewhat the same. Those are going to be transportation and infrastructure. They’re going to be education and economic development. Those have tended to be our focus, although each year, our priorities shift a little bit.
Infrastructure is vital, given the fact that the growth is there. We need to make sure that we have the resources to grow responsibly, whether that’s in public safety, or in making sure that we have enough medical. It’s about putting all the pieces together.
It’s wonderful to watch projects that started years and years ago coming to fruition and happening. I think the Cancer Center’s research and development truly is going to change the landscape here in Pasco County.
We want to make sure that we’re being responsible for the future. In my board meetings, we don’t talk about last month. We don’t talk about next month. We talk about two years from now, three years from now, and what that looks like. I think our mission will somewhat remain the same, it’s just the mode in which we deliver that.
It’s going to be exciting to watch the new hospitals open. It’s going to be exciting to watch how major traffic problems are being resolved. It’s an exciting time.
