Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce expands its reach under a new name

The former Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce has gone regional, raising its profile and making its help available to businesses in four states.

The renamed Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce, based in Kansas City, Kan., made the switch at the end of April and now can accept members from Nebraska and Iowa to go along with its more than 200 metro area members in Kansas and Missouri, said Christal Watson, the chamber’s president and CEO.

Watson said expanding the chamber’s help made sense because it has strong partnerships with such wider resources as the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; the U.S. Small Business Administration, which has a regional office in Kansas City; and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“Our members appreciate that when they have needs, we can get them directly to the agency or other resources that can help them,” Watson said.

Though the name change and regional status with U.S. Black Chambers Inc. just became official, its seed was planted almost three years ago, Watson said.

Watson, who took the top spot at the Kansas chamber in 2007, said her eyes were opened to “a whole new world of possibilities” when she attended U.S. Black Chambers Inc.’s national convention in July 2012.

“The support and encouragement there meant the world to me,” said Watson, who now is on the national organization’s board. “I realized my chamber and I could step up to a bigger role.”

The timing also was good, she said, because a regional leader from Illinois who had been a big help was about to leave the national board. So she started looking into taking a bigger role herself and making the Kansas chamber a regional organization.

To help provide leadership and advice, the Heartland chamber also has established the Chairman’s Circle, a group of its leading businesses in such areas as technology, engineering, construction and training.

“We want everyone to know we have a strong group of minority enterprises with the capacity to do local, state, national and international business,” Watson said. “And they can show others how to get more business — whether that’s government contracts or private business.”

Watson said the chamber also is planning events with the SBA and other resource groups and hopes to take 10 member businessess to the next national U.S. Black Chambers gathering this summer.

And although the regional chamber hasn’t signed up members from Nebraska and Iowa yet, she said, “I expect that to be different six months from now.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Kansas Black Chamber of Commerce expands its reach under a new name."