MARYSVILLE – What do Munich, Germany, and Marysville, Washington, have in common?
Well, next year, it will be an OktoberFest celebration.
Jesica Stickles, chamber president/CEO, made that announcement at her State of the Chamber address Jan. 29 at the Tulalip Resort Casino.
“We will have breweries, wineries and distilleries featured from all over the Pacific Northwest,” Stickles said. ”There will be festive music, décor and food that will pull your senses so you feel you have transported to Munich, Germany.”
The entrance fee will give you five drinks, a mug, promotional materials and entries into the drawings.
The Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce also will return its carnival after July 4 and the Christmas Party in December.
The carnival will move to a new location and will be adding performances and entertainment pieces.
The Christmas Party sold out in its first year and featured auction items such as Seahawks gear, jewelry and resort packages.
Last year the chamber brought in $63,000 of revenue from new events. The funding helps support the Visitors Information Center, since the funding is no longer available from the city or county.
“We are hoping to increase that bottom line so we can add technology to the VIC,” Stickles said. “We would like to have more of an appeal to the millennial guests.”
She would like to add phone charging stations, free wi-fi, self-service computers/kiosks.
The chamber has 192 businesses, serving over 10,000 people. About 68 percent are in Marysville, 18 percent in Everett, 10 percent in Tulalip and 4 percent in Arlington.
Over the next several months, the chamber will be doing studies of the business community, including priority reviews, relevant standards and models, and surveys, polls and interviews.
It also will be doing one-on-one interviews with business owners, looking for incubator buildings for commercial sites and offering entrepreneur programs for innovative new businesses.
Stickles said the chamber does a lot more than economic development, although it does help the city and tribes with that.
She said the chamber celebrates businesses once they are here, with things like ribbon cuttings or grand opening events. The chamber works on retaining businesses to make sure they succeed in all they do.
Stickles said the chamber is a support organization, for when your business is growing and doesn’t know what the next steps are, for when your business is being regulated by laws that make no sense and you need help fighting them, when you are out of resources and don’t have time to research a quality option or learn how to do everything yourself.
“Let us help promote you, engage you and add positive exposure to your business,” she said.
