For more than a century, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber has been the voice of business and the visionary organization in Oklahoma City. We represent thousands of businesses of all sizes and all industries in Oklahoma City’s 10-county region. The Chamber’s activities are overseen by our executive committee, board of directors and board of advisors, which are made up of Oklahoma City’s top business leaders.
With a staff of more than 65 employees, we support our members and the business community through economic and community development, government relations, education and workforce development initiatives, and tourism growth.
Economic Development
In the Economic Development division, our team works to attract new business and high-quality jobs to Oklahoma City. The team is particularly focused on the areas of Aviation and Aerospace, Biotechnology, Energy and Logistics, all of which have a strong presence in the Oklahoma City area and are growing at a rapid pace. In recent years, the division brought hundreds of high-level jobs to the area by recruiting companies such as Boeing, AAA, Continental Resources and Paycom, to name a few.
In addition, our Community Redevelopment division works to promote retail development within Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City has a healthy commercial real estate market, with some of the lowest office vacancy numbers in the nation. OKC ranked as a top 15 real estate market for 2010 in a Marcus and Milichap survey, with projected vacancies of 9.5 percent.
Government Relations
The Government Relations team represents the Chamber and its members’ business interests in local government activities. The team's recent successes include the enactment of comprehensive tort reform legislation which made significant changes to the manner in which lawsuits are filed and litigated in Oklahoma. They also had success in the areas of workers’ compensation and education reform. The team also worked with the state’s medical and research communities to protect Oklahoma’s bioscience industry from legislation that would impede its progress.
The Greater OKC Chamber PAC was organized to better fulfill the Chamber's mission of creating a business-friendly environment in Oklahoma. The PAC allows the Chamber to support candidates at a state level who favor a strong business climate and job growth.
Education and Workforce Development
The Education and Workforce Development team promotes higher education and a high-quality workforce in Oklahoma City through a variety of programs. Their Greater Grads program works to build Oklahoma City’s talent base by connecting Oklahoma graduates – a vital component of the City’s future workforce – with employers in the Oklahoma City region. In 2010, Oklahoma City was named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People.
Tourism
The Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors’ Bureau (CVB) is a division of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. Its goal is to support the interests of the city’s visitor industry. The CVB promotes the economic well-being of Oklahoma City through the solicitation and servicing of conventions and other related group business, to promote the city as a first-class visitor destination and enhance Oklahoma City’s name and image.
The Greater Oklahoma City area currently sees an impact of approximately $2.1 billion in direct spending from more than 7.5 million tourists who visit each year.
