Steve Wilson: Chamber Chief

The Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce has around 1,1100 members, another 200 volunteers and a handful of paid staff.

It's involved in events ranging from boat shows to triathlons to marathon, bike rides, parades and auctions.

There are early morning breakfasts, luncheons and dinners. There are fundraisers and rallies and membership drives, too.

Overseeing it all is Steve Wilson, whose work days often begin early and end late. There is no real normal day.

"We try to build our program around nontraditional work hours," he said.

In the year and two months since he came on board, the chamber's executive director has had a ball. And he's just getting started.

"I work with a lot of dedicated people," he said. "It's been a fun year and a couple months."

How do you see your role guiding the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce?

Keep our board of director's initiatives moving forward. Be sure our staff is responsive to the members. Listen to the members out there, carry forward some of the thoughts and concerns and ideas that they have. Being a membership driven organization, that is critically important, that all 1,100 members feel they have some voice in the community. One of the chief rules of the chamber of commerce is to somehow get a collective voice, to maybe have some impact on policy.

There's the opportunity to move the needle, if you have a multitude of people expressing the same thoughts and ideas. My role is keep the organization moving forward and be very responsive to our members.

What did you think of the chamber's 100th birthday party?

It was fun. The Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce concept was first propagated on a boat in July of 1912 and later formulated officially in a function on Sept. 21. So on Sept. 21, we had a culmination of a year-long celebration. We didn't turn 100 until Sept. 21, but we saw fit to have a party the entire year leading up to it, rather than just having a one-day birthday party.

The concept there came out of a meeting earlier with past chairmans of the board that were summoned to give us some thoughts and ideas on where the chamber should be going in the future.

One of the key things they said, it was critically important that we accentuate the positive and focus on the great things Coeur d'Alene has.

A steering committee was formed and they came up with the concept, 'Let's truly celebrate for a year' and we did that and the culmination was that birthday party and an outstanding event.

Why do we need a chamber of commerce?

It's important that the businesses in the community have an opportunity to have a voice in public policy, and I think it's an opportunity to network and market amongst ourselves. Buying local, doing business with local businesses is the quickest way a community can spawn economic growth. If we take our dollars and spend it out of the area, we're doing a disservice to the ones that are here.

A major function of the chamber of commerce is to connect the dots, and to make sure our 1,100 members know each other and know of their products and services and provide events and activities where they can market to each other and encourage that internal consumption.

What kind of summer did we have here for tourism?

The tourism season was just amazing. The feedback I heard from all the major hotels, they're having terrific years. In some cases, not as great as it was in '07, but certainly significantly better than the last couple years. There were quality events in the community all summer long, attracted a lot of folks. We just concluded the Fondo, I talked to some people who came from Hawaii, some came from Madison, Wis., there were numerous people from California. It's just another example of the quality events that brought people to Coeur d'Alene and it was a fantastic summer season.

Why is the chamber involved in so many events like the wooden boat show, Coeur d'Alene triathlon, Ironman, the marathon and parades?

Anytime we see an opportunity to promote the brand Coeur d'Alene and to create activity that can have economic stimulus, we want to be involved with it. Some of the events that occur, we provide some resources for. A lot of the downtown events, the Downtown Association runs them, but the marketing of those falls to the responsibility of our chamber of commerce through our CVB. So we see a major function of ours is creating events that will enhance the brand and provide economic stimulus.

Is Coeur d'Alene an easy place to market?

I'd certainly much rather market Coeur d'Alene than I would Sparks, Nev. The lake and the mountains and everything are amazing. It's been fun and I've had the pleasure of living in this community about 28 years. A lot of us have chosen to live here for the same reason the tourists come to visit here. There are wonderful recreation opportunities with some amazingly friendly folks that take good care of our visitors when they come.

Are we tapped out with events?

I think there are some opportunities, particularly in the fall, the off season, to get involved in some activities. We had some involvement several years ago in a film festival, ran it for two years. It petered out due to lack of funding, but there's some talk of reviving that. There's a musical festival, a songwriter's festival, that got kicked off last year and they want to expand and growth that. We've been asked to pitch in and help there.

Our arts and cultural alliance folks have continued to add product, we have a partnership with them. They have a program where you can get in to see the actual studios, so we'll continue to grow that. On the horizon here is a huge event, if we can get some major sponsors to step forward for our H1 hydroplane racing on Labor Day weekend next year. That could be an amazing impact on the community. Most of the negatives associated with that have been addressed by moving the course and staying away from Tubbs Hill and away from the congested area of the lake and moving it down to that Silver Beach area. It's an amazing course they've outlined.

What have you enjoyed most about being chamber executive director?

The opportunity to meet and be involved with so many great people. My previous background is hospitality, you have an opportunity to be involved with visitors, and there you're involved with folks who are committed and dedicated to enhancing the quality of life here in town. That's just a fun, energetic group of people to be around. If you come to work and might be feeling down or think you're having a two-star day, you get around some of these folks and all of the sudden your spirits jump and you get re-energized. To me, that's been the real silver lining of this job.