Editor's Note: Liz Simpers, president of the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, delivered the State of the Chamber address at The Sutherland on Thursday, June 16.

Good evening. My name is Liz Simpers, and I am the President of the Wake Forest Area Chamber. Our former President, Ann Welton retired in May, and it is my honor to be with you tonight. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge Ann and thank her for leading our Chamber community through the challenges in the last few years.

Last Monday, I was honored to meet Nyle Wadford at the 40th Wake Forest Memorial Flag-Raising Ceremony celebrating US Army veterans William & Albert Wadford. Albert’s son Nyle and I have never officially met, but his family has shaped our great town, and our great Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce.

Albert, Nyle’s dad, was one of our Chamber presidents in the 1970s and in his speech honoring his father, Nyle said that his dad’s mission as Chamber president was to “make Raleigh a suburb of Wake Forest.” I appreciate that sentiment, sir!

I would love to dive deeper into the incredible history that is the Wake Forest Chamber leadership. But if I do that tonight, I’ll have nothing to say at our 75th anniversary party next year! Tell Alexa and Siri to save the date in your calendars for June 15, 2023. Can you believe we will be 75 years old next year? Maybe by then I will have an answer to the question that has been perplexing us for generations: 

Which came first? The Chamber or James Warren?

I asked James, but he keeps dodging the question at hand and refuses to tell me his real age. Classic attorney.

No - tonight, tonight we should talk about our more recent history! The last year in our community has been an astonishing one. We haven’t been together in a room like this for a few years! Tonight is truly a reunion. And it’s a celebration. Some of you have been with us for too many State of the Chambers that you’ve lost count! And some of you, we are officially welcoming you to the Chamber family for the first time.

Our mission is three-fold, but singularly minded: Represent business. Serve community. Enhance the quality of life. If we as the Chamber represent our businesses well, we will naturally serve our community and, in turn, enhance the quality of life in the Wake Forest area. Each one depends on the other. And if you need further proof of how a growing business community keeps towns healthy, drive to the eastern part of the state where downtowns are struggling. Windows of their main street corridors are boarded up, and the communities are struggling to keep talent, provide adequate housing, and keep their schools safe.

When the business community succeeds, the community succeeds. So, what is the state of our business community? Well I can tell you, from the Chamber’s perspective: Wake Forest is open for business.

Twelve months ago, the Chamber had 591 member businesses. As of today, we have 675 member businesses. That’s a growth of 14% in our last fiscal year.

Last week came the news that Blue Force Technologies is investing $3 million in Wake Forest, creating 125 engineering and manufacturing jobs in the facility once occupied by 3 Phoenix. Larger employers are seeing the draw to our community. We have more school choices in the Wake Forest area than any other local municipality. Our town’s amenities are second to none, and our cost of living remains attractive, thus the influx of people moving here from places like New York and California!

When we look at our 675 member businesses, what strikes me is the tenacity of the entrepreneur. Of those 675, over 50% of them are at our entrepreneur level. This membership level brings people into the Chamber and is designed for businesses that are less than 5 years old. Small business matters, and the entrepreneur needs the Chamber and the people in this room more than ever.

In 2020, Elon Musk tweeted a novel idea: “Instead of baby showers, let’s host business showers. When a friend starts a business, we all come together, celebrate them and bring resources for their business to start.”

Thank you for that, sir! We at the Chamber call those Ribbon Cuttings, and we’ve been doing that for YEARS! This past year, we celebrated 24 new businesses with ribbon cuttings around town. In fact, we held 136 events in the past twelve months, and even brought back some old favorites like the Economic Development Forum, The Reverse Raffle, and the 40th anniversary of Meet in the Street.

Of course we had to get creative with ways to bring people together when it was recommended we stay apart. We had to get creative with fundraising and events. Did anyone here buy a Wakeforest Monopoly game or a Welcome Home Wake Forest T-shirt from B & W Hardware? And yes, Joe, I already own a Traeger grill, but thanks for asking.

Our integrated membership model has proven to be an economic driver for our Chamber, and a support for our Foundation’s leadership development programs. Chamber members now have the opportunity to give back to our future leaders with part of their membership dues. I am sure the godfather of the Foundation, Corey Hutcherson, will talk more about that in just a moment. But for those of you that give to our Foundation as an integrated member, I have to personally thank you. You are making a difference in the life of a student leader and we could never do what we do without your partnership.

Partnership. Now THAT is a word that describes what we do best here at the Chamber. We rely on key partnerships to do all the work for us while we sit back and take all the credit!

Just kidding!

In February we brought back the Economic Development Forum in partnership with the Town of Wake Forest and the Wake Forest Business and Industry Partnership. Ted Abernathy was our speaker and he predicted that we were in for an extended housing boom like nothing we’ve seen before and interest rates, food costs, and gas prices were about to rise. 

Somebody needs to invite Ted Abernathy on a trip to Las Vegas!

I have seen first hand how our town leadership is accessible, caring, and passionate about you. To our mayor Vivian Jones, thank you for coming to every event ever held in Wake Forest ever. I won’t be surprised one day to find out that you have an identical twin sister out there, because there is no other explanation for how you do all that you do. You have created a culture of support for our Chamber. When I ran for town commissioner in 2017, you reached out to ME, and asked me to go to coffee with you, and made me feel so welcomed. I can only imagine how many people in this room that have had that same experience with you. Thank you for instilling that into me, and into the current Board of Commissioners. Those of us that have served with you have learned from you.

To our Town staff - Meet in the Street would never have been successful without you. On the Friday before Meet in the Street, Corey and I were out spray chalking 10’ booth divider lines for our 175 vendors. Several hours later, we finally rested. And then it rained. HEAVILY. And our chalk lines were washed down White Street. So we put on head lamps and chalked those lines again that Saturday at 3 am. On that day - May 7th, we welcomed the largest crowd I have ever seen downtown, but the day was safe, profitable for our vendors, and by that evening, it looked like nothing had even happened. I rode bikes down White Street that Sunday with my family and did not see one piece of trash.

THAT is the heart of our Town of Wake Forest staff. To our town manager Kip Padgett - you are my absolute favorite. Just don’t tell the others. 

Our partnership with Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary helped us facilitate job fairs last year. As long as there is a workforce challenge, we will rise to it and help as much as we can to connect employers to the right employees. We could not do that without Southeastern and the leadership of Ryan Hutchinson and his team.

When I was a town commissioner, Jason Cannon and the Town had an idea to bring a co-working and entrepreneurship hub to Wake Forest. As a board, we traveled to downtown Raleigh in 2018 to visit several branded incubator businesses like WeWork, HQ Raleigh, and a smaller start-up business led by Philip Freeman called The Loading Dock. We immediately connected to the culture and commitment of Philip and his team. The Loading Dock’s mantra of “Better Together” has been adopted by all of us as we saw their doors at 525 South White Street open up in December of last year. We knew in 2018 that the Loading Dock would be a game changer for the entrepreneurial footprint of downtown Wake Forest. 
Selfishly, I pushed for the Chamber to have permanent office space there because they had unlimited coffee and beer on tap. Our partnership with The Loading Dock has turned out to be one of the most exciting adventures of the last year. Just ask Blanche where she sets all of her new member appointments and how MANY Chamber members we have gained from being there.

As the Loading Dock membership grows, so does our Chamber membership! We are seeing entrepreneurs join the Loading Dock and immediately being encouraged by other members to join the Chamber. Hand in hand, better together.

To our ambassadors and our board members: thank you. We are a Chamber staff of seven. Only two of us are full-time. With 675 member businesses to help and 132 events to run in the last year, our Chamber would not exist without dedicated and passionate volunteers like you. 

What does the next year hold for us? Well, the Chamber is open for business! And if Meet in the Street was any indication, people are ready to be out and about again! So check your email for the 132 plus events we will host in the next year! Carol, please don’t quit.

We believe in helping our members not just make connections, but make the RIGHT connections, so we will continue to thoughtfully plan our peer group meetings like the Women’s Business Alliance, Black Business Alliance, Young Professionals Group, Veterans Business Alliance, and New Member Socials. 

We have just hired another part time office administrator, Nancy Skelly, and a full-time membership director, Kristen Barrick, that you will all get to know and love if you haven’t already. 

We are rebooting our Government Affairs Committee. Two weeks ago, our town leadership hosted Governor Roy Cooper and White House Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu to announce a $58 million grant in federal money to complete the Raleigh to Richmond railroad corridor. As a business community, we need to have a collective voice with our local, regional, and national leadership to keep Wake Forest top of mind. We believe our Chamber is positioned to lead that charge.

Just like you, smart growth is our goal. We exist to serve our membership, and we will continue to adapt our strategy to match our mission as your needs dictate: Represent business. Serve community. Enhance the quality of life.

Before you leave tonight, meet someone new. Make a connection, start a new friendship, because that is what our wonderful Chamber is all about!

I want to thank you for being a part of our Chamber community. I am unbelievably humbled to stand in front of you and have the chance to share the passion for Wake Forest that you have. This is my second month as President, and I have to warn you: buckle up. In the next few months, you should ignore my phone call, because chances are, I will be asking you to do something crazy and, chances are, you’re going to say yes!