Janelle Irwin Taylor
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce will be changing its name later this year.
Beginning Dec. 5, the Chamber will rebrand itself as the Tampa Bay Chamber, the business advocacy group announced Thursday.
The chamber has had its current name for its entire 134-year existence. The chamber created a branding caucus about two years ago to evaluate its brand and determine what, if any, changes needed to be made. The caucus consisted of chamber members and staff with expertise in branding and marketing.
The caucus determined the group’s brand should be updated to better reflect the chamber’s mission in the community that emphasizes regional progress through local action on policy and advocacy issues.
The rebrand will not, the group notes, change the way it advocates for current members or affect how it seeks future members.
The chamber will continue to support members in Hillsborough County and surrounding areas throughout the Tampa Bay region.
“It’s important that our name reflect the region when the chamber is advocating for issues of regional impact, for our county and all of Tampa Bay,” the group wrote in a statement.
While the chamber has worked on some Tampa-specific measures, the group has taken a broader role recently in advocating for regional progress and state legislation that supports its members.
The chamber supported Hillsborough County’s All For Transportation sales tax to fund local transit and transportation improvements but also backed regional plans for a 41-mile express bus (some call it bus rapid transit) route along I-275 connecting downtown St. Petersburg to Wesley Chapel, for example.
The move is another in a long line of shifts showing groups, businesses, residents and elected officials are increasingly viewing the Tampa Bay region collectively rather than as a sum of its parts.
The group will continue using its current name until its official unveiling of the new brand at its 134th annual meeting Dec. 5.
