Presentation to Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce

1. FUTURE CHAMBER
the
C.A. Webb

2. Making Boston the best place in the world to
grow and to start great companies, and
connect the people who make them great.
Photo: Werner Kunz: flickr.com/photos/werkunz/3918064684
Mission

3. Ask not what your Chamber can do for you, but
what we all can do to build Boston.
Photo: Werner Kunz: flickr.com/photos/werkunz/3918064684
Positional Shift

4. “Boston rated #1 city in the world
for high growth companies.”
– The Economist,
March 8, 2017

5. “Where do women and minorities
thrive?
Survey says, it’s Boston.”
- The New York Times,
November 1, 2017

6. “Boston tops the list of cities with
strongest economic development
strategies.”
- The Boston Globe,
February 4, 2018

7. To make it so, we started creating more
opportunities for dialogue.
Town Halls Task Forces
Roundtables Hackathons
Press Conferences Working Groups
Government Forums
BOSTON
GBCC
Photo: http://trends.corbisimages.com/images-
inc/uk/img/11-3.jpg

8. X FACTOR
the

9. Became known for hosting some of the most creative gatherings in
town, drawing people together to meet one another and celebrate
successes
Olympics victory party Winter garden on
Greenway
Annual street party in
neighborhoods
Photo: nydailynews.com/sports

10. Policy agenda
Expanded our policy agenda to reflect the interests of the whole business
community—and to make it inclusive of the innovation community
Talent + Transportation
Fluid talent market –
reformed noncompete
law
Boston go-to place for
college and graduate
interns
Transportation
innovation
Cloud-based talent
market platform
Photo: Warren Patterson, wsj.com

11. Developed a
coordinated 5
year plan
Then we undertook a major effort to convene the whole
city around a coordinated economic development
strategy…
Convened
government,
nonprofit,
university, and
large to small
businesses
We held working
groups every
month; quarterly
reviews; annual
summit
Photo: Warren Patterson, wsj.com

12. Virtuous circle
Inclusive policy
agenda and
engagement
strategy leads to
rapid growth

13. We collaborated with job creators--fast scaling
companies that would be the city’s next pillar companies
and other mid-sized businesses.
Photo: http://divatmarketing.hu/hello-2015-goodbye-2014/

15. Even while delivering so much locally, we’ve
been proactively connecting
with other innovative cities and running a
targeted effort to attract business and talent

16. 40 companies broke ground on new
HQs or initiated expansions of
secondary offices
We led trade missions to
key innovation hubs
Copenhagen
Mumbai
Hong Kong
Taipei

17. Added daily flights to all reachable ‘alpha+’ or ‘alpha++’
cities:
Shanghai
Mumbai
Hong Kong
Taipei
Seoul
Bangalore
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2012t.html

18. We’ve built an entrepreneurial, creative, and
service oriented team that has powered this growth
Up to 29 staff members
• Chief Connection Officer
• VP of Technology and Innovation
• VP of Recruitment and three
managers
• VP of Economic Development and a
director
• Director of Data Science
• ScaleUp services team

19. The big opportunity over the next two years will be to
go from strength to strength
Photo: suitsandspatulas.wordpress.com

20. Leverage
Olympics to
benefit ongoing
business
prosperity
Expand
engagement with
innovation + life
science
community
Grow Boston
awareness in
other major
business hubs
Coordinate
execution of
economic
development
plan
Photo: suitsandspatulas.wordpress.com

21. To revisit this presentation, please go to
www.futurechamber.com
Photo: suitsandspatulas.wordpress.com