The Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce has a shorter name, redesigned logo, and a new leader. Kathy Waters has taken the reins as President and CEO after Alex Geisler left the job to work at Western Illinois University. Until recently, the group went by the name Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Development Corporation. But it's in the process of transitioning downtown development efforts back over to the city.
The group is also operating with a new logo. “We thought we needed something to bring us a bit more into the 21st century and also kind of indicate a little more of what we do. We’re here, we have our pulse on the state of Illinois as a whole,” Waters said.
Waters said the chamber still posseses an enthusiasm and interest in the success of the downtown. But the change will allow the chamber to better serve all 403 of its members.
“We were finding a couple conflicts there as we would try to do things with downtown sometimes we had felt like maybe we had isolated or shut off some of our members on the outskirts more, east and west sides and things like that,” Waters said.
Waters says the group’s members are a diverse group, spanning from small one-man operations to major corporations in the area. The chamber provides marketing and networking opportunities to its members. It also advocates for area businesses before the Illinois legislature.
Waters said she doesn’t plan to ignore the downtown, and the chamber will still represent several businesses on the square. Waters said she hopes to assist the city’s new Downtown Development Director Andrea Keene with business recruitment.
“I think we are going to have a really nice partnership in recruiting and that could be perhaps it could be a national chain or franchise or it might be smaller, maybe someone owns a business in a nearby town and they’d like to expand or open another location,” Waters said.
