Voice of Business Blog

2024 was a big year for Greater Rochester Chamber. We moved offices to the heart of downtown Rochester, we were awarded the 2024 Chuck Steiner Memorial Chamber of the Year Award by the Business Council of New York State, and of course, we worked tirelessly on behalf of our members.

Our members are the driving force behind everything we do. Throughout 2024, we worked with our members, community partners, and elected officials to find new ways to support the Greater Rochester region and its business community. And, we identified new ways to reinforce and improve what we have offered for years.

Reflecting on the last year, we are proud of the impact we created in Greater Rochester. Keep reading to learn more about the difference we've made in our community:

We connected.

In 2024 Greater Rochester Chamber welcomed 175 new members into our organization, strengthening the collective Voice of Business in our nine-county region to over 1,300 members strong. Our network further expanded to over 34,000 followers on social media, where our posts were collectively viewed over 1,233,204 times. We are proud to use our platform to connect business and community leaders and keep our audience informed about the region and what’s happening within it. Our website, a hub for business information, connectivity, and resources in Greater Rochester, was visited over 196,120 times.

We hosted.

Throughout 2024, we hosted 83 events, including 37 in-person events and 46 webinars. 5,958 guests joined us for our events to learn, network, explore the region, and recognize its greatness. Our largest event of the year was our 38th annual Top 100 Awards celebration in November, with over 1,500 individuals joining us to celebrate the successes of our Top 100 fastest-growing companies. In 2024, we also hosted our first annual MWBE Awards in May to celebrate the achievements of our region's fastest-growing minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs) through growth rankings based on the Top 100 formats.

We advocated.

Much like our region, our members are primarily small businesses and we continued in 2024 to represent these vital economic drivers at the local, State, and Federal levels. We played a key role in blocking at least seven bills that would have cost billions of dollars for businesses and residents in Greater Rochester and throughout New York State. We championed key topics and hosted roundtable meetings with key players about the cost of healthcare, childcare, the benefits cliff, energy access, public banking, federal tech hub designation, and more. Throughout the year, we submitted over 120 direct, formal advocacy submissions to agencies at all levels of government, from village zoning boards to federal agencies in Washington, D.C. In addition to our advocacy for systemic change, we helped dozens of members navigate and overcome various obstacles impacting their business with personal, individualized constituent support services.

We supported.

Our region’s most valuable asset is its people. Our Human Resources Services department helps our 1,300 members representing over 145,000 employees with their human resources needs to stay competitive, connected, and compliant. In 2024, they fielded over 1,200 HR Helpline calls on a myriad of topics. We also hosted Friday HR Briefings on 14 unique topics, drawing over 789 attendees to learn and connect. Our eleven benchmarking surveys gathered data from 273 unique member companies to guide policies and practices for companies based on regional and national standards. Our five HR Forums brought in 153 attendees from 105 unique companies.

We celebrated.

2024 was a great year throughout the region. We are proud of our role in celebrating and recognizing the businesses and individuals who are growing and driving Greater Rochester forward. Throughout 2024, we hosted 20 ribbon-cutting ceremonies for businesses opening or expanding in our community. We also shared 290 member news stories with exciting announcements from our members.

We recruited.

Greater Rochester Chamber can help members throughout the entire hiring process. We are proactively working to strengthen the workforce pipeline and recruit and retain key talent pools into our region. To date, our CampusROC program has facilitated 50,675 interactions with students at Greater Rochester’s eighteen colleges and universities, deepening their connections to our region and connecting them to employers. In 2024, our Veterans Connect program engaged with 1,304 veterans or service members, up from 585 engagements in 2023. The program additionally has a 100% retention rate of veterans who have relocated to the region in previous years. Further, our Greater ROC Careers job board hosted 10,776 new career postings on the site in 2024, which were viewed 342,748 times.

Additionally, Beyond TalentEdge, our full-service recruitment and hiring agency, placed 883 individuals in meaningful careers and worked with 30 new clients. Our comprehensive background screening agency, Authentica, completed 133,939 searches this year and processed 25,994 reports, helping clients in Greater Rochester and around the country hire with confidence.

As we kick off a new year in 2025, we encourage you to identify new ways to engage with Greater Rochester Chamber to make the most of your membership and identify strategic opportunities to use our organization to capitalize on your goals.

• Join us at Events: View our Upcoming Events calendar to find events that will help you connect with other business leaders, build your skills, and contribute to our initiatives.
• Spread the Word: Help raise awareness about Greater Rochester Chamber, our services, and our collective mission. Tell your friends about how membership has helped you connect to success and share our content on social media to encourage others to engage with our organization.
• Advocate for Change: Use your voice to make a difference in the causes that are important to you. Engage with Greater Rochester Chamber’s advocacy efforts to connect to policymakers and community leaders and amplify our voice.