Click here for Part I & Part II

Connecting local businesses with the Frederick County community for mutual benefit, advocacy, and growth

Elizabeth Cromwell is the president and CEO of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1912, the Chamber has acted as liaison between the Frederick County community and the region’s businesses. It was the first chartered Chamber of Commerce in the United States and, over a hundred years later, continues to be a vital contributor to Frederick County’s evolving economic climate. The Chamber’s mission is to advocate for local businesses and create public–private connections that improve both sectors’ economic welfare. Elizabeth has served as Chamber president and CEO since July 2014. Prior to her current position, she served as Corporate and Community Partnerships Director for the Frederick County Public Libraries for 12 years.

EDWIN WARFIELD: The Chamber offers a class annually for local leaders. Can you tell us more about that?

ELIZABETH CROMWELL: Leadership Frederick was started, I believe, 28 years ago. There are almost a thousand graduates of that program. It runs from September through May, and it’s a pretty big time commitment. It’s one solid, busy day every month during that time. Each day [the participants] will take a different focus on the community, whether it’s agriculture, legislation—we have a day in Annapolis—so there are different focuses for each one of those days. The thing I have found amazing about it is that it’s the alumni group of almost 1000 people. If you look at that group of people, these are folks who have really gone on to become leaders in the community. If they weren’t already leaders, they currently are. It’s a really strong program. Our upcoming class, I believe, is the largest we’ve ever had, and so we find that there is still a lot of momentum for the program.

We’ve tried to freshen it each year. This year includes a bit more leadership skills training, because what we’ve found is that some people come to it if they’re already leaders, but they might be new to Frederick and they want to learn more about this community and make connections; but other people are emerging leaders, and really need an opportunity to grow in that skill set. So, we provide both of those avenues for people.

What other Chamber programs are you excited about?

In 2008, we started the New Media and Technology Conference, which has taken place annually. The Chamber has hosted this in different locations around the county. It’s an opportunity for people who are either interested in learning more about how to use new media and technology to improve their businesses or, if they’re deeply involved in that field, how to network with each other.

We are looking at broadening that somewhat. We’re looking at turning that next year into an innovation conference, because what we’ve found is that it has been a great event. There are kind of two different tracks that we’re trying to accomplish there: one track is really for beginners and the other track is for people who are already deeply involved in new media and technology. I think as all of us become more saturated in that world, it’s harder to balance those two. People think the beginner’s side’s too rudimentary and vice versa. What we want to do is broaden it out into more of an innovation conference that will include new media and technology track but potentially also venture capital track and also provide some tools that will help innovators really grow.

Can you tell us about the Chamber’s work with the Entrepreneur Council?

The Entrepreneur Council of Frederick County has been a 501(c)(3) operating independently for many years. Just in the last several months the Chamber, we’ve signed a merger agreement and the Entrepreneur Council of Frederick County is now under the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. It’s a new committee of the Chamber.

The thinking behind that is, well, a couple of different things: I strongly believe in it. I think it’s a great group and there’s a lot of opportunity there. They’ve been mostly focused on the Entrepreneur of the Year dinner and awards, and I think there is a great deal more that we can do. Through the strength of the Chamber, we want to bring more programming in, more business resources and tools. By bringing together the Entrepreneur Council, and Leadership Frederick, and Generation Connect— which is our young professionals group—by bringing them all together and trying to have a little bit more of a cohesive focus, I am hoping that we can operate less in silos and that we can leverage all of them together to be more powerful.

Looking ahead, what are some of your major goals for the Chamber?

A. Really, one of my big goals is that we do have all these committees that are working—have been working for the most part—in silos, I mean they’ve been working on what’s important to their group. I don’t have any intention of telling them what they should be working on but what I do want to do is create a framework for all of these committees to have a better understanding of where we as an organization are going. And that’s why I highlighted those three key issues of the rebranding effort, infrastructure, and creating a workforce-ready population, because I want all of our committees to find some common ground in those areas so that we can start to show small successes that are hopefully going to add up to some big successes. Right now there’s so much of that work happening in the community, but I’m not sure there’s really one central group that’s documenting that or convening those people together to have a better understanding of who’s doing what, so that’s really a big part of my goal.

Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn

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