+ YOUR Local
The Refreshed Brand Looking forward to the next 50 years.
(L to R) Paul McNamara of Reed Nissan – Director of HR, John McReynolds of Universal Orlando Resort – Chairman 2023, J.T. McWalters of the Orlando Magic and WOCC 2022 Chairman, Dr. Kim Hardy of UCF and Treasurer and Camille Evans of Virtus Law, Immediate Past Chairwoman of the WOCC.
By Stina D’Uva
B
ack in 2010, the chamber Board of Directors gathered to determine a clear path for our chamber to advance us through the next decade. The result was a 10-year vision statement focused on the chamber being recognized as an advocate for business and created a simple, yet powerful purpose statement for the chamber. That purpose has been known as facilitating opportunity and has been wildly successful. Yet, we realized as we reached 2020 and with the pandemic lingering into 2021, that we needed to re-evaluate our purpose and vision to stay relevant for the future; our next 50 years as we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2022. What we do know is that for the past 50 years, we have been a voice of and for business. While we recognize that we have no authority over any one entity, municipality, governing body, or business, when we learn of issues needing resolutions, we can bring leaders together to develop resolutions to improve the economic climate in our community. We can do this because our Chamber is made up of leaders representing every industry sector from education to manufacturing to theme parks to commercial construction and more. We have the determination and might because of our size and we have the knowledge because of our industry leaders. So, we are moving on from simply facilitating opportunities to “Advancing. Community. Collaboration. Leadership.” This refined purpose will enable us to be recognized as the collective voice for business leadership and community partnerships that advances a positive ecosystem for the West Orange community.
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Central Florida Lifestyle | January 2022
We are retiring a logo that has served us well for over 20 years and retiring the facilitating opportunity logo of the past 10 years. Our new logo features the cross-sectioned orange talk word bubble. The wedges of the orange preserve our past and demonstrate that they are pointed inward and together in a sense of community. The wedges can represent our cities, towns, and county. They can represent major industry sectors or much more, as our imaginations allow. Overall, they represent people working collaboratively to be the collective voice and to advance our community, West Orange County. Our 50th anniversary year will also be commemorated with a special logo demonstrating our birth in 1972 to 2022. This was made possible by our community Engagement Partners; AdventHealth, Orlando Health and Valencia College. To see more, join us at our Big Orange Awards celebration in February at Walt Disney World® where we will be honoring distinguished members of our Chamber who have advanced our community through collaboration and leadership. At that time, you will be able to meet the 2022 Executive Committee of our Chamber, as well as other board and community leaders.
