- May 6, 2024
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BY WAYNE GRANT | STAFF WRITER
Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, described his organization in simple terms Thursday night, at the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet.
“We’re a nonprofit that’s fighting to make sure your business doesn't become one too,” he told the members and guests who filled the banquet room at the Daytona Beach Resort and Conference Center, 2700 N. Atlantic Ave.
Wilson, the night's guest speaker, said if Florida were a stock, he’d buy all he could afford, because financially, the state is strong compared to New York and California.
He also said education is much better than people realize.
“Ten years ago, we were at the bottom in education,” he said. “Today, we are in the top 10 in every area.”
One of the most important issues facing Florida, he said, is job-creation. Because of population growth, Florida will need 32,000 new jobs by 2030 to get back to a 6% unemployment rate.
Wilson called small businesses the main job-creators, but they don't usually qualify for financial incentives, he said. What they need to grow, he said, are predictability and consistency. If government were to promise no changes for the next four years, he said, it would reduce fear and encourage businesses to invest money that is currently “sitting on the table.”
He said people should think of Florida as a building with tourism, agriculture and construction as its foundation.
“We need to make the foundation stronger, so we can build on it,” he said.
Wilson said the Florida Chamber is going to focus on three main areas this year: getting everyone going in the same direction, lobbying the legislature and working to “elect and unelect” government officials.
Other speakers at the banquet included new Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce President Chris Butera, who said that the chamber is currently working with the city to publish the fourth edition of Doing Business in Ormond Beach, as well as a tourism brochure.
He said the chamber will also focus on the "blighted" North U.S. 1 corridor.
“It’s not just the gateway to the city, it’s the gateway to the county,” Butera said. “It’s the future area of growth for Ormond Beach.”
He said a task force, dormant for several years, has been reactivated to focus on the corridor.
The officers of the 2014 board of directors, sworn in at the meeting by Mayor Ed Kelley, are Chris Butera, NAI Realvest, president; Dan Warren, Council on Aging, past president and treasurer; Bill Navarra, Realty Pros Assured, president-elect and vice president of community events; John Walsh, Ormond Beach Observer, vice president of economic development; Trace Pendry, Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center, vice president of community programs; Angela Payne-Jelenic, Hampton Inn, vice president of membership services; and Rick Fraser, executive director.
