Happy New Year! As we hit the ground running into 2023, we're filled with a tremendous sense of excitement and optimism -- and that's because of what a banner year 2022 proved to be. In a year filled with so many incredible memories and accomplishments, we'd like to take a moment to share with you some of this past year’s highlights. 

Everything we do at the Cape Cod Chamber is a true team effort, and our team’s been growing. We're thrilled to have welcomed Paige Goulet and Janae Mendes as our Business Development Manager and Member Engagement Specialist, respectively. Under the leadership of our Director of Investor Relations, Liz DiGirolamo, our restructured membership department is now a well-rounded team working to best support and connect with our business community. In 2022, we had 91 new members join the Chamber and maintained a 92% member retention rate. 

Janae and Paige holding court at our Good Morning Networking event at Percy's in Falmouth last November. You'll be hard pressed to ever find these two not smiling.

We're also thrilled to have brought on Haley Cote as our Special Projects Coordinator -- she wrote and directed our holiday video with Doug

the Quahog -- and Katy Acheson as our Economic Development Director. With Katy's leadership, we now have dedicated efforts toward advancing the Cape's workforce and businesses, including through a revitalized Sustainable Economic Development Pillar and a blue economy focused conference this spring (stay tuned for more details on that). 

Haley (right) joined Liz DiGirolamo (far left) and our CEO, Paul Niedzwiecki, on a wonderful trip to Martha's Vineyard in November to connect with MV Chamber Director Carolina Cooney.

Katy with our Board member Marty Bruemmel, CEO of the Greater Hyannis Area Chamber, at our Good Morning Networking Event at the Gateway Airport in October.

Additionally, we promoted Chanell Jatkola to Communications Director – keep an eye out for her informative “Cape Cod Chamber Collective” newsletters each month to stay up to date on all our latest activities – and Greta Georgieva to Programs & Events Manager. Greta is the force behind our annual Hydrangea Fest, a Cape-wide summer garden celebration featuring tours of the most exquisite gardens around. The 2022 Hydrangea Fest featured 78 private gardens and raised $110,000 for the 27 participating nonprofits. 

We’re so proud of Chanell for being named one of 2022’s 40 Under 40 by Cape & Plymouth Business Media!

Greta (center) with our team at last year’s Hydrangea Fest kickoff party at Cape Cod Beer.

Our events programming in 2022 saw a robust schedule of Good Morning Networking and Good Evening Networking outings across the Cape, shining on a light on a myriad of our member businesses. At the end of May, we gathered for our 100th (that’s right, 100th!) Annual Meeting at the Pelham House & Resort, where we celebrated the Chamber’s accomplishments over the last century and welcomed our new slate of board officers and pillar chairs, including Board Chair David Troutman.  

David Troutman being anointed our Board Chair by Past Chair Janet Feeney at the Chamber’s 2022 Annual Meeting at the Pelham House in Dennis.

And, in November, we helped launch Housing to Protect Cape Cod (HPCC) with an inaugural summit that drew nearly 400 attendees to the Cape Codder to hear about actionable ways we can address our region’s housing crisis. Since the summit, we’ve been working weekly with our HPCC partners, including the Housing Assistance Corporation and Cape and Islands Association of Realtors, to develop a town-by-town approach to housing solutions, and you will see these initiatives begin to materialize this year. 

Our CEO Paul was among the speakers at the HPCC Summit. The event highlighted the findings of a regional housing report done by The Concord Group. Among the report's findings is that nearly 1,000 families earning less than $100K in annual income are leaving the Cape each year due to the lack of attainable year-round housing.

Public policy advocacy is a pillar of the Cape Cod Chamber’s work, with housing being a top priority. Last year, our advocacy work helped ensure that $11.4 million of Barnstable County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds will be allocated across three areas of housing – sheltering and medical respite, affordable housing, and workforce housing.  

Cape legislators and community leaders gathered at the Cape Cod Chamber office on October 17th for a robust discussion on the Cape's housing crisis.

The Chamber also secured a $155,000 earmark toward a housing coordinator position, as well as a $85,000 earmark toward helping Cape businesses offset childcare-related costs for employees. We recently announced the formation of a task force, led by our Chief of Staff, Noelle Pina, that will work to shape early childhood education and childcare policies locally and statewide.

Last year saw our statewide coalitions successfully advocate for increases in childcare provider support. In total, state lawmakers set aside $1.2 billion for early education and childcare in fiscal year 2023, 45% more than in 2022. 

Additionally, our CEO, Paul Niedzwiecki, served on Governor Healey’s transition team in the “Jobs and a Flourishing Economy for All” committee, giving Cape Cod a voice in shaping the economic policies of the Healey administration. 

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.

Along with all of this, we were proudly at the table when MassDOT and the Army Corp of Engineers announced their strategy to jointly apply for funding to replace the Sagamore and Bourne bridges with Senator Ed Markey. After 14-plus years of advocacy for bridge replacement, we continue to watch this project closely through the formation of a Canal Bridges Task Force with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod and the Cape Cod Commission. 

Paul and Noelle, along with our past CEO Wendy Northcross and Cape legislators, were in attendance at MassDOT's April 13th briefing on the bridges replacement project.

On the destination marketing side of our organization, 2022 was a historic year. We recorded our highest website traffic numbers ever, with 3 million unique visitors, and maintained CapeCodChamber.org as #1 in searches for Cape Cod. Our VP of Tourism Marketing, Kristen Mitchell-Hughes, successfully executed our seasonal advertising campaigns – Spring/Summer, Fall (“Second Summer”), and Christmas on Cape Cod – as well as our 2022 Cape Cod Travel Guide, which recorded 243,000 unique users, up 60% over 2021. Kristen also secured $1 million in grant funding through the Travel & Tourism Season Extension program. This funding will help us market

the Cape & Islands’ shoulder seasons through June 2025. 

One of our Second Summer billboards along Route I-93. 

Our Senior VP of Sales, Patti Lloyd, has been as busy as ever, traveling across the country in 2022 and showcasing Cape Cod at several of the top travel industry trade shows. There were even a few firsts – Patti participated in the first-ever Cape Cod National Pro Showcase with 18 teams, as well as the inaugural Financial and Insurance Planners Conference, which included over 45 incentive planners from companies across the U.S. Additionally, Patti successfully organized a New England CVB reps FAM (i.e. familiarization) trip, attended by over 40 planners and reps from all over the country. Patti also represented Cape Cod at the U.S. Travel Association’s IPW, which targets the international market.

Patti attending IPW along with Mass Office of Travel & Tourism reps.

And last, but certainly not least, we would be lost without our incredible finance team, Karen Cummings and Danielle Walsh. Their support made all of our work in 2022 possible, and they continue to keep our ship sailing smoothly.

Karen (right) at her Beddian Birthday Party with Danielle.

For as much as the Cape Cod Chamber accomplished in 2022, we know there is even more ahead of us in 2023. We can’t wait.

Here’s to a wonderful year ahead! 

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