W.A.C.E.'s Chamber Leadership Podcast

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., provides follow up to episode 74 with 7 more tips to help Chamber CEOs not only survive but thrive in the chamber industry. Listen now!

This week Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., debuts a new format and answers questions submitted by some of our members. Topics covered include membership drives, having a chair-elect and who “owns” funds generated by committees. Have a question you want answered? Submit your question for a future “Ask Dave” segment to [email protected].  

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Diane Schwenke, President/CEO of the Grand Junction Area (CO) Chamber and long time chamber executive. Diane shares the secrets to her career longevity at one chamber while reflecting on the biggest changes and challenges to the chamber industry during her tenure.

In this week's episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., dispels 6 chamber myths that can pop up unexpectedly at any board meeting and offers best practices to combat them.

In this episode Dave Kilby is joined by Mark Turner, President/CEO of the Gilroy (CA) Chamber and longtime W.A.C.E. member as he discusses the 4 potential disruptive forces that can wreak havoc on a business community and your community at large. He also shares valuable insight into what is most important for a chamber when managing a community crisis based on his own experience.  

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., offers ten data points which are useful to have in order to help your chamber grow and provide a higher quality service to your members.

If your board or staff were approached by someone in your community with the question “What Does the Chamber Do?” what would their response be? Would it solely focus on events? Would it reflect the chamber’s mission? Would they only include those tasks that they personally handle? Dave Kilby discusses the importance of an agreed upon elevator speech and consistent messaging and offers ideas of content to include as well as a sample elevator speech.

Being a chamber CEO has never been easy, but now it seems it’s harder than ever before. This week Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., discusses the need for risk in leadership and how to protect yourself and your chamber amidst the current cutthroat cancel culture mentality.  

In this week’s episode Dave Kilby is joined by Lorraine Clarno, ACE, President/CEO of the Kalispell (MT) Chamber and W.A.C.E. Chair-Elect. Lorraine shares lessons learned from her twenty-seven years of experience in the chamber industry and offers advice to both professionals new to the industry and executives moving from one chamber to another. Listen to the end for a sneak peek of our new CEO Peer Group Program which will be coming soon!

The Chamber industry has not been immune to the great resignation. Each week we hear of a new executive job opening. In this episode Dave Kilby, President of W.A.C.E., offers his thoughts for new executives and any existing executives considering a move.