Please join me in celebrating our 2025 accomplishments together. It’s YOU – our members – and your investment of membership dues, volunteer time and involvement that help us continuously elevate our offerings to serve you better and accelerate your prosperity. Here’s a recap of what our small but mighty staff – along with the hard work of our Board of Directors, Ambassadors, and Program Committee volunteers – achieved:
More Networking Events Than Past Years
150 total events hosted, with nearly 8.4K in total attendance across events.
43 networking events (about 4 per month) for bountiful connection opportunities.
48 ribbon cutting events, to celebrate members’ grand openings and anniversaries.
50+ educational and other types of events.
Improved Membership Benefits to Give You Better Visibility
Membership benefit upgrades: we added new benefits at all membership levels, giving you more opportunities to promote your organization.
Sponsorship opportunities: we created new opportunities to sponsor more events and programs and now offer an annual sponsorship credit you can use to lower the cost of a sponsorship.
PR opportunities: top members have opportunities to promote their organizations or through media outlets provided by our broadcast, digital and print media sponsors.
New leads group: we launched the Collab-orado Leads Group – our sixth group – giving more members the opportunity to apply and get into a group.
Promoted Economic Development to Strengthen Our Region Thanks to Arapahoe County, our Chairman’s Circle Sponsor: Economic Development Partner
Economic Forecast Breakfast 2025: Keynote speaker, Tim Wolfe, Director of the Colorado Tourism Office, educated members on destination marketing and tourism trends that impact our region.
Workforce Innovation Summit 2025: we delivered workforce data, advice and training to support employers, in collaboration with A/D Works!
Nonprofit support: we hosted the Non-Profit Expo to present our nonprofits to the region, and we hosted The TANK, which raised over $40K in member contributions that were allocated to featured nonprofits.
Education and skilled trades support: we collaborate with public school district and higher education members and support skilled trades through our EN.A.C.T. program to educate the community about educational and apprenticeship opportunities that build our regional talent pipeline.
Destination marketing: partnerships with Denver South, the Colorado Chamber, the Denver Metro Chamber, Visit Denver, and the Colorado Association of Destination Marketing Organization support tourism and improve our region’s economy.
Advocated for Pro-Business Legislative Policy
Policy advocacy: we invest in a top lobbying firm and publish SMDC’s position on commerce-related bills to ensure our voice is heard, helping to shape future regional, state and federal policy.
Member access to legislators and mayors: We hosted the Legislative Kick-off Breakfast and the Mayors’ Panel, giving members access to direct viewpoints from legislators and city officials on state and local policy agendas.
Legislative Action Committee: our bi-partisan committee engaged with our lobbyist to develop and publish our position on selected pieces of legislation; we take a stance on roughly 50 relevant bills per year.
Advocacy partnerships: we partner with the Colorado Chamber and C3 (Colorado Competitive Council) at the Denver Metro Chamber to advocate for statewide pro-business policies.
All achievements were a team effort – and YOU are part of that team. THANK YOU. It’s your participation, service and feedback that directly contribute to our ability to serve you. Together, we continue to build the South Metro Denver Chamber into an influential powerhouse that connects us all to greater prosperity. We look forward to reporting on our 2026 accomplishments next year!
Sincerely,
Jeff Keener, CEO & President South Metro Denver Chamber
