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Well, I think it's a natural relationship between an entity whose main goal is to bring visitors to Rochester, and of course the chamber advocates for economic vitality in the region. This all plays into what we do as well, so it's really a natural relationship. The main part of it is we host many of the events for the chamber, and we're proud to be partners with them in that. The convention center is just what it sounds like — we host a number of conventions, and we also do a great deal of social business and private business as it relates to corporate meetings. And the chamber — we've been hosting a number of their events for years and years, most notably the Top 100 luncheon, which is actually now a dinner these days, and the Athenaeum — two prominent events that we host and partner with the chamber on. There's the hosting of the events themselves, which involves strict guidelines on how we run the event and coordinate and interact with the chamber. We also have a great opportunity ourselves to do networking with a lot of the attendees that are there. So it is work in terms of hosting the event and our client is the chamber, but at the same time it allows us a good opportunity to network with a lot of the attendees that are there — of course a lot of those are chamber members as well — corporates, not-for-profits, and those types of organizations. We certainly use the chamber for some of its resources, whether that's leadership development, human resource management — there's a number of great programs that the chamber obviously runs that we participate in. It's also just another great benefit of being a member. Obviously, being a long-term relationship, we have built friendships with that organization as well. I'm really struck by the professionalism of the team that we work with, mainly the events team, and that of course includes Susan George, Kevin Donahue, Dan Smith, Michele Heffron — just wonderful people and very professional. For an organization that runs events as our main task, to work with an organization that also runs events extremely well, it's impressive to see. A lot of those events are extremely large and not easy to organize, and they do just a wonderful job with that. We have a deep appreciation for what they do because we understand what it takes to pull off an event like that.
Well, they're giving us great exposure. Yes, we are located right in center city, but when you have an organization like the chamber that's bringing 2,000 people down here in the middle of the day or an evening, that's a terrific impact for Rochester. A lot of people think, you know, five o'clock we roll up the carpets in this town — that is absolutely not true. And it's events like these that the chamber hosts, and we have the privilege of being part of that, that really help expose us to the greater community and the region. They're just great advocates for Rochester.
Well, the Top 100 has become the largest business celebration in Rochester, and we're really proud to be part of that. There's other organizations that do equally, or excuse me, close to that in size — nothing to the scale and the impact that this has. All the major businesses in Rochester participate in this. It's become a huge celebration more than anything else to really recognize the great things that happen here in Rochester, and the chamber spearheads that by holding this event. It's quite amazing to see.
