Join us to hear from two influential leaders as they discuss how the Commonwealth can lead the AI Revolution.
01/21/2025
9:30am - 11:00am
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Hear from James E. Rooney about the state of the economy, and how it all matters to businesses, residents, and policymakers.
01/22/2025
2:00pm - 2:30pm
Virtual
Join on us on Friday, January 31, as we host our highly anticipated 2025 Pinnacle Awards Luncheon.
01/31/2025
11:00am - 1:30pm
Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport
Go deeper than basic DEI training to achieve higher productivity, satisfaction, and revenue growth with our new corporate workshop.
Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations, and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
09/14/2024 -
09/17/2024
Suffolk University - Sargent Hall
Small businesses are the backbone of the Boston economy. Learn more about the resources available through the Chamber.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For 30 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
On April 25 we hosted a Government Affairs Forum with Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka. Her debut address to the Chamber focused on recent successes in the Legislature, calls to the business community for collaborative action with government, and the announcement of new budget funding for mental health.
Introduced as a collaborative leader by Ed Shea of our Government Affairs Sponsor, Bank of America, Senate President Spilka’s remarks underscored this epithet, with a call to bring all parties to the table and negotiate in good faith to uphold what she considers to be a partnership with the business community.
In addition to her focus on collaboration, an overall theme of economic vibrancy ran throughout her address, particularly on the public policy issues of transportation and health care.
I believe it is important to emphasize that EVERY POLICY ISSUE we face this session is also an ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ISSUE. – Senate President Karen Spilka
President Spilka outlined a set of seven Senate principles for public transportation reform, including:
1. Regional Equity. “Simply put, if tolls are a good idea for (the Middlesex and Norfolk) region, I believe we should explore the possible use of expanded tolling, including at our borders.”
2. Access and Affordability. “We must ensure access for currently underserved communities, including rural areas. We must also ensure that our options are fully accessible to those with disabilities, and we must make sure that public transportation is affordable.”
3. Sustainability. We must look at our transportation systems from the perspective of environmental sustainability and climate change impacts.”
It is TOO LATE to take small steps – the threat to our economic vibrancy from climate change is REAL. – President Spilka
4. Connectivity. Our transportation infrastructure should thread our communities together in an interconnected web. We must find a way for public transportation to provide the connectivity that is now being provided by cars.”
5. Innovation. “We must call on innovative tech and policy ideas to create the transportation system we need.”
6. Responsiveness. We must learn from the successes of the ride sharing companies and find ways to make public transportation more responsive to people’s needs through increased reliability, areas served, and more competitive pricing.
7. Achievability. “Our best ideas won’t matter if we can’t find a way to make a 21st century transportation infrastructure a reality – and find a way to pay for it.
President Spilka announced a Revenue Working Group that she charged Chairman of the Joint Committee on Revenue, Adam Hinds to lead, with the purpose of convening leaders from government and business (including Chamber CEO Jim Rooney) to take a close and comprehensive look at Massachusetts tax policies.
President Spilka stressed the importance of both physical and mental health in the workplace and illustrated the steps the Senate planned to take to improve the lives of Massachusetts residents. She called on the state of Massachusetts and the business community to work together to reduce the stigma of mental illness and work together as the state known for innovation in technology and healthcare. Her three themes included:
1. Prescription Drugs. “The Senate plans to address the high cost of health care by slowing the rise of prescription drug prices and increasing transparency for the consumer.”
2. Health Care Affordability. President Spilka informed the Chamber of efforts currently being made under the guidance of Senator Cindy Friedman, the Senate Chair of Health Care Financing, to analyze telemedicine and mobile integrated health to lower costs and increase quality access for all.
3. Transformative Mental Health Care. Highlighting the need for both treatment and awareness in the workplace, schools, universities, prisons, and communities, President Spilka campaigned to reduce the stigma associated with, and increase access to, mental health treatment. This included an important announcement to the Chamber:
I am pleased to announce today that the Senate budget will include $10 million in new funding to support our efforts to reduce the stigma of and increase access to mental health treatment. – President Spilka
President Spilka concluded her remarks sharing that her door is always open to the business community, and that she hoped the Senate and the Chamber would continue in their productive working relationship in the years to come.
If you did not have the chance to come to the first address of President Spilka, make sure you are subscribed to our news and events alerts and be the first to know when tickets come available to our Government Affairs Forums.
You can view photos of the event here , or watch the full address below thanks to our Partners at Comcast/Xfinity.
Join us for our next event, Our Annual Meeting on May 15th – the top business event of the year, bringing together more than 1,800 of our region’s leaders for a celebration of the Greater Boston business community and our thriving economy
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